Can Personality Tests Like Thompson Profiling Truly Capture Human Behavior? Let's Discuss

Dear all,

Do you agree that personality assessment tools like Thompson Profiling, Drake P3, etc., work on humans? Human behavior is the most uncertain thing that people would come across. Do you think such tools can really find what we really are? I feel that human personality cannot be judged by some 50 questions. If humans were so predictable, then the world would have become a much better place to live with no attrition at all. It's their personality that makes them what they are. Many companies, in fact, have stopped this practice as human brains have found loopholes to overcome this tool.

What do you think on the subject?

Regards,
Vishal

These tools try to predict how the person might behave under certain situations and tries to find the person's personality traits.

Now, the word "might" itself tells that it is not accurate. Furthermore, the persons whom we have known for years also sometimes behave in such a way that we could not have predicted, so how can a questionnaire of 50 questions say anything about the candidate?

But what I believe is that it does give some indication about the personality if the answers are not prepared ahead and/or tampered with.

However, I am against the use of these tests to make any kind of recruitment or promotion decision for a candidate, as an inaccurate tool should not be used as it may affect the entire career of a candidate. It would be better to have a senior individual conduct an in-depth interview and provide an opinion on whether the person would be suitable for the job.

Hello Vishal,

Profiling works, but we need to assess for more than just personality. Moreover, ipsative assessments are not too useful for selection. Please see "Ipsative versus type of question" at http://tinyurl.com for more information.

We assess for thinking styles, occupational interests, and job-related behaviors. Here is an example from the software industry:

Sonja is one of our 35,000+ clients and the HR manager of a software development company. She hired talent for over two years, but then stopped for two years because the two owners believed they could do a better job of selecting successful Technical Support Analysts (TSAs) than Sonja. TSAs visit customers' workplaces, identify programming errors, and reprogram the software. The two owners felt too restricted by the talent selection process we provided to Sonja.

After two years of handling the hiring themselves, they visited Sonja's office and told her, "Start using your talent identification process again since you are much more successful at hiring good TSAs than we are." The owners could not replicate her success. Sonja took a risk when she first tried the talent identification process.

Bob

I don't necessarily like the idea of personality testing being a component in recruitment, though I accept it might be necessary in some roles.

However, I have used various assessment tools as part of training programs and think they are invaluable in helping me to work more effectively with others.

For example, I know that I tend to be a very reflective thinker and an effective communicator/influencer. These tools highlighted for me the reasons I sometimes find highly directive, controlling personalities so hard to work with and why I drive them crazy.

Shortly after my introduction to one of these assessment tools (many years ago), I had an "aha!" moment regarding my highly motivated and driven boss (I would have said "pushy" or "bullying" previously).

I had tended to come to her wanting to discuss a situation and work together to a conclusion. She hated that, and I hated that she didn't listen properly.

After going through the assessment process, I changed my strategy. I would come to the boss and say "I think we need to do A or B." She would ask why, and I'd give my reasons. Because she didn't feel I was asking her to solve the problem, she didn't mind listening and talking about it, and if she disagreed with my assessment, she would give a clear indication of what she thought should be done.

This met my needs well, and I suspect met hers much better too. The working relationship certainly became much more productive.

There have been many other examples where I have used insights into my personality and the personalities of others to guide how I have interacted with them more effectively. I have come to realize that no one approach is better than another, but it's how these approaches are accommodated that makes the difference.

Progress Enterprise

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Dear friends,

Namaskar.

Your arguments remind me of two stock frequent excuses of doctors:

1. The patient is not responding.
2. The complaint is psychological.

In the first excuse, he/she does not want to admit that he/she or his/her drug can be wrong. In the second excuse, he/she denies the suffering as real.

By this, I want to say whether any particular test is usable in a particular situation. Second, what is the competency level of the user.

These are two important questions that determine the utility of personality tests.

Regards,
Jogeshwar

Just finished a meeting with a recruitment manager of a large organization in Cambridge a few days back. Their problem was the selection process in recruitment. For 3 vacancies, they had more than 20,000 job requests through media partners, their website, and internally. There is only one recruitment manager. They wanted software that would allow candidates to do psychometric tests online and sieve the results as a decision-making factor. However, they did state that they only looked at this as a validator rather than a decision-making device.

Personality tests are designed to group individuals into sets of types with common traits. Though it is often used to identify the trait of an individual - it is where it is misused and not effective.

Dear friends,

Namaskar.

I am wondering why Mr. Surjeet Kumar has been silent so far.

The utility of personality profiling depends on competency, situation, and purpose. To illustrate, let me share some of my experiences.

1. A colleague of mine, an anthropologist, made a casual remark - "I was thinking that psychologists can tell one's personality."

I instantly replied, "Then who said no?"

He reacted, "Can you tell my personality?"

I replied, "Why not?"

He became curious, "Tell me then."

I suggested, "Not that way. I am bringing a personality questionnaire. Fill it out for you. Then after scoring, I am putting it under a paperweight on my table. After that, I will give you another copy. Fill it out, and I shall give you the scoring key to score yourself."

It was done. He found his score to be 23 out of 30. Then I told him, "Go to my table and see the score that I have given to you." He went to my table and found that it was exactly 23. He was amazed. This was a questionnaire on Machiavellianism.

2. A couple had come for matrimonial counseling. The husband was a gum specialist, and the wife was M.A., M.Ed. They filled out the E.P.Q. separately.

After preparing their profiles, I started counseling. During counseling, I observed that the behavior of one of them was inconsistent with the profile. Without letting them know my feelings, I asked them to repeat the test, and this time in front of me. They did it, and as expected, the suspected partner showed discrepancies, not the other.

Then I shared my intention of retesting with them and told them that my doubt was not unfounded. I asked, "Who made the error? Can you guess?" The husband said, "It must be her." Then I asked the wife, "What do you think?" She also said, "It may be mine." I explained that it was not her but their personalities that were indicating so. The husband was in error.

I can recount many such experiences. Experience will guide you on where to rely on the tests and to what extent.

Regards,

Jogeshwar

Hi people, can anyone tell me where and when the MBTI certification course is conducted? And is it related to something with personalities.

Cheers! :icon1: