Measuring the Individual’s Personality

In the last blog, we looked at the positive and negative affects that an individual’s personality characteristics could have on its work experience. In today’s blog, we take the next step in understanding personality – that is to understand how we can measure personality. We would discuss briefly about the following of the various methods that are used – Projective Tests, Behavioral Measures and Self-Report Questionnaire are the ones we discuss today.

Projective Tests are ones in which, individuals are shown a picture, abstract images, or photos and are asked to describe what they see or to tell a story about what they see. This is based on the rationale that individual responds to the stimulus in a way that reflects his or her unique personality.

Behavioral measures are assessments of personality that involves observing an individual’s behavior in a controlled situation. This however is not without some problems; the observer’s ability to stay focused and the way observer interprets the behavior! The very fact that one is being observed also creates a distortion in the way an individual behaves.

The most common method used to measure personality is the self-report questionnaire. Individuals generally respond to a series of questions usually in agree/disagree or true/false format. There are numerous such tests that are available out of which – MBTI is commonly followed in the industry.