Measuring Personality

Personality is the sum of someone's characteristics, how they think, behave, and feel. Assessing personality can be difficult, as many different people might agree on similar basic self-truths. These self-truths might look like statements such as, "I have the tendency to be self-critical". While many people might agree with this statement, a statement like this would not be an accurate way to measure someone's personality.

In order to assess someone's personality, psychologists can use various standardized testing methods. These tests are designed to be reliable and valid, unlike the self-truth statement mentioned earlier. Reliability has to do with the consistency of the test's measurements. This means that the more times you take the test, the result will be the same.

An example of a reliable test is a weight scale. It will give you the same result each time. Validity refers to the test actually measuring what it is designed to measure. An example of validity is how the same scale is meant to measure weight, and is only able to measure weight. It would not be valid to use a weight scale to measure height.

Personality assessments are helpful for many things. These assessments can help us learn about ourselves, help us understand our differences with others, figure out the kind of work we might enjoy, and reach a better understanding of human behavior. Taking a personality test is often something that is done for personal understanding, but it can also be something that employers use to make hiring decisions.

Measuring Personality in Organizational Behavior

Lots of major companies use personality tests to make hiring decisions. It is important to use a personality test that is reliable and valid for a purpose like this. Some companies are known to use vague or non-reliable and non-valid questions. Appropriate personality tests will be able to measure something specific. This helps direct the test to be more reliable and valid, as well as help direct an organization towards finding a candidate with a specific trait they are looking for. Even if they use a reliable and valid test, organizations should not make any hiring decisions based entirely on the results of a personality test.

Fg. 1 Applicant personality profiles, pixabay.com

Humans are a lot more complex than a single test can reflect, so reviewing an applicant's tests as well as application materials is the best way to get a more accurate idea of the candidate. This is partially due to the fact that personality tests can be reflective of our environment. The results can also be impacted by a bad mood or a poor testing environment. For example, if you take an assessment right after a breakup, you might score differently than if you were not breaking up, or happily single.

Psychometric Measures of Personality

There are several different psychometric measurements of personality. Psychometrics refers to the measurement of psychological characteristics and different traits in a person.

Direct Observation

Direct Observation is a form of personality measurement involving the observation of people by a psychologist who looks for patterns in behavior. This is the type of measurement often used in behavioral assessments. A psychologist may observe a child and assess how many times the child misbehaves in class.

Projective Test

Projective tests focus on using ambiguous stimuli to help uncover and understand a person's unconscious thoughts and feelings. A good example of a projective test is called the Rorschach test, where a client is asked to describe what he or she is seeing based on an inkblot. The Rorschach test includes 10 white cards with individual inkblots, some in black and grey, and some in color. The way the individual processes the image and thinks of an answer is used to help identify parts of their personality.

Fg. 2 Rorschach inkblot, pixabay.com

Self-reported Tests

Self-reported personality tests are the most common form of psychometric measurement. They involve taking a personal inventory and answering a series of questions about your own experiences and behaviors. Popular self-report tests are the Myers-Briggs type indicator test, the internal-external locus of control scale, and the MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2).

Personality Traits, Their Classification, and Measurement

So we know that psychologists and individuals can use psychometric assessments to measure personality traits, but what are the traits that psychologists want to measure?

The Big Five are the top traits in personality testing, and they provide a lot of information about our personalities. These traits are conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion.

While these traits are somewhat stable over a person's life, they can also change as a person ages. For example, conscientiousness often increases as a person gets older and learns to balance more responsibilities.

The "Big Five" can also be used to predict behaviors. Those who score high on extroversion will likely prefer to talk on the phone, while someone who scores high on introversion might prefer text or email over the phone. Additionally, those who are higher in conscientiousness often get better grades and wake up earlier. Those who score lower on agreeableness might struggle with marital issues.

Issues in Personality Measurement

Finally, issues in personality measurement involve the consideration of racial, ethnic, and cultural differences. Someone's culture can impact the way their personality is measured, and it can impact a person's unconscious personality. People often relate a project test, like the Rorschach test, to their own culture. For example, someone might see an image from cultural mythology, like the bigfoot or the mythological monster Medusa.

Culture can also change direct observation results because it can deeply impact customary behavior. For example, it is not uncommon to sit on the ground on a cushion in Japan to eat dinner, but the same action of sitting on the floor in America would be considered strange. Additionally, culture can impact self-perception or how someone might self-report their own traits on a personality test.

There are several important questions to ask about the validity and reliability of personality measurement. One issue is that our personalities can be influenced by other people or circumstances. This is highlighted in the Person-Situation controversy. This highlights how various behaviors might genuinely change based on our setting. When you are hanging out with a certain person that you really like, you might display a higher level of agreeableness. You might act differently around that person than you would at work around your boss or coworker that you find annoying.

Another issue in personality measurement is the Hawthorne Effect. The Hawthorne effect is sometimes an issue in direct observational testing. It is when people change their behavior because they know they are being observed. The Hawthorne effect can cause a big issue in the validity of direct observation if those being observed are aware they are being observed and why. If a baby stops playing with toys and stares at the observer as soon as they enter the room, that would be an example of the Hawthorne effect.

Overall, personality measurements can be useful tools to better understand human behavior and ourselves, but it is important to remember that there are limitations to measuring personality as well.