Personality measure
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A personality test aims to describe aspects of a person's character that remain stable across situations.
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[edit] History
Greek philosopher/physician Hippocrates recorded the first known personality model basing his four “types” on the amount of body fluids, or humors, an individual possessed. Greek physician Galen expounded upon Hippocrates' theory by tying the type of body fluid (blood, mucus, or bile) to the type of temperament.
German philosopher Immanuel Kant popularized these ideas by organizing the constructs along the two axes of feelings and activity. Wilhelm Wundt proposed that the four temperaments fall along the axes of changeability and emotionality.
The advent of the field of psychology led to more formalized categories and tests. Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung categorized mental functioning into sensing, intuition, thinking, and feeling.
The first modern personality test was the Woodworth Personal Data Sheet first used in 1919. It was designed to help the United States Army screen out recruits who might be susceptible to shell shock.
The Rorschach inkblot test was introduced in 1921 as a way to determine a person's personality by their interpretation of abstract inkblots.
The Thematic Apperception Test was commissioned by the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) in the 1930s to identify personalities that might be susceptible to being turned by enemy intelligence.
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was published in 1942 as a way to aid in assessing psychopathology in a clinical setting.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a 16-type indicator of Jung's Psychological Types developed during World War II.
Other tests include Oxford Capacity Analysis, Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and the Abika Test.
More recently, cognitive psychologists have dismissed the idea of personality, because most behavior is context specific. Theorists developed the concept of cognitive styles or Meta programs to deal with this, which in turn lead to metaprogram tests such as iWAM.
[edit] Criticism and controversy
Critics have raised issues about the ethics of administering personality tests, especially for non-clinical uses. By the 1960s, tests like the MMPI was being given by companies to employees and applicants as often as to psychiatric patients. Sociologist William H. Whyte was among many who saw the tests as helping to create and perpetuate the oppressive groupthink of the "organization man" mid-century corporate capitalism In 1966
[edit] Benefits of Personality Testing
Research published by David Dunning of Cornell University, Chip Heath of Stanford University and Jerry M. Suls of the University of Iowa reveal that other people who are not involved in any type of relationship with an individual are better judges of an individual's relationships and abilities. These researchers have been studying a large body of research into self-evaluation, and much of it reveals that most of us have flawed views about us and our relationships. That can have very serious consequences, because if we don't know about our relationships and who we are, we could be endangering others as well as ourselves. People deceive themselves because they lack the necessary information to make an accurate assessment; and they often ignore or undervalue the information they do have.
Psychology also has a great influence on the Stock Market. Investors are people and like most people react emotionally to news and other facts. And a person's perception of fundamental and technical factors can be influenced by many things including money. Markets are all about perceptions of the future. If investors expect things to get better, stocks go up and if investors think things will get worse, stocks go down. And these expectations are constantly being adjusted, as investors digest every possible detail -- such as economic news, earnings reports, economic data, political events and news and any other factor that might give them a clue about what the future holds. More important than the details themselves is how investors perceive those details and react to them. Facts do matter, but the only thing that really counts is how investors react to the facts. This perception of the details and facts depends a great deal on the individual psychological profile of investors and the total market is the collective psychological profile of all the investors.
Donald trump's how-to-get-rich strategies also include comments on the importance of Personality in making deals. He discusses how knowing the personality of people involved in his deals has contributed to his success as a dealmaker. His interest in psychology came late, after dismissing it in college. Now Trump says Jung the renowned Psychologist's work is "important to financial success." Jung has been a big "help in my business as well as in my personal life ... Reading Jung will give you insights into yourself and the ways in which you and other people operate." And when he says that he's talking to all of us.
A study by American Management Association (AMA) reveals that 39 percent of companies surveyed use personality testing as part of their hiring process. More and more people are also using personality testing to evaluate their business partners, dates and spouses. Salespeople use personality testing to better understand the needs of their customers and gain a competitive edge in closing sales. Even college students have started using personality testing to evaluate their roommates. Lawyers use personality testing for Criminal behavior analysis, Litigation profiling, Witness examination and Jury selection
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (in German, with a focus on the German version)
- Personality testing through data mining
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