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INTRODUCTIONSome (mostly larger) employers have resorted to using personality tests (or “psychological tests”) as a means of excluding potentially bad or difficult employees. This trend started in the USA where it was once common practice to give prospective employees lie detector tests, and after this practice was outlawed, those companies turned to psychological studies to replace them. Soon a lucrative industry sprang up based on creating, selling, administering and interpreting these tests.This trend has crossed the Atlantic, and is now sometimes used by UK and European employers, particularly for the better jobs. The most widely used are the Myers Briggs Test and the 16PF Test. (The descriptions below are from advertising material.)MYERS BRIGGS“You are a unique individual. You also share some characteristics with other people. The?Myers-Briggs?model of personality tells you about some of those similarities and differences. It can help you deepen your self-awareness, find a career you will enjoy, become a better leader/manager or improve your relationships. You can learn more by completing the?MMDI? personality test, our free alternative to the (expensive to buy) Myers Briggs Type Indicator?. The MMDI? produces the same 4-letter type code as the MBTI?. In addition, it produces your unique personality profile.The Myers Briggs model of personality was developed by Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, and is based on four preferences:E or I (Extraversion or Introversion)S or N (Sensing or iNtuition)T or F (Thinking or Feeling)J or P (Judgment or Perception)You combine the preferences to give your Myers Briggs personality type. For example, having preferences for E and S and T and J gives a personality type of ESTJ. There are sixteen Myers Briggs personality types.A frequently used analogy is handedness - where you have a preference for one hand but use them both. Similarly, you have all eight facets in your Myers Briggs personality profile. Whilst your personality type indicates that you have a preference for some of them, you nevertheless use all of them.”Now take the MMDI? test: 16 PERSONALITY FACTORS (16PF) TEST“The 16PF assessment gives a complete picture by measuring personality in both the professional and personal spheres. Its accurate predictions of behaviour and potential provide businesses with an enlightened confidence that steers staff selection and individual development. This unique depth and breadth of insight, along with more than 60 years of research and application, has earned the 16PF international renown and respect.16PF key featuresHelps reduce risk when recruiting, developing key players or making major development investmentsReveals 16 personality characteristics structured around the ‘Big Five’ widely accepted global factors of personalityInspires confidence: over 2,700 published research articles support the 16PF’s validityDelivers objective, empirical measurement of personality traits that are known to accurately predict behavior.”Now take the 16PF Based Test: (and Health Warning...!)The free tests accessed via the above URLs are necessarily both more simplistic and shorter than the real tests bought by employers from their suppliers, and the results given are (probably) less accurate and thus less helpful than the paid-for tests. However, they serve to give you a flavour of personality tests and psychological testing.In both tests, there are no right or wrong answers, and neither result should be taken as a definitive summary of your personality. In both, very similar questions and choices are given multiple times, and some of the questions are deliberately designed to be difficult to answer, particularly the “choose between This or That” type. This is probably to help reduce mistakes, and of course to reduce possible “gaming” by the candidate.In many cases, individuals taking these tests more than once at different times can produce sometimes strikingly different results. I have been an ENTJ and an ISTP...!The best advice is to approach personality tests in a calm, relaxed and confident state of mind, and do them slowly, taking time over the answers and not worrying too much about their “rightness” or their “wrongness”. There really are no absolutes here. ................
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