Know yourself and your employer better

Once you understand the personality of another person as well as your own it helps you motivate the others in a better way.

Types of Personality tests: Personality tests can be divided into two types. These are:
a) Tests which are actually regarded as personality assessment instruments
b) Tests which try to explain the behaviour, motivation and thinking styles of people.

The examples of the first one are DISC and Myers Briggs and the examples of the second one are Maslow, McGregor, Adams Benziger and many others.

There are some projective tests like TAT and Ink Blots which also try to assess the personalities of people but indirectly.

How to score in personality tests? The scorings in personality tests are done using either the dimensional approach or the typological approach. In the dimensional approach, Big 5 is measured. This approach believes that the personality of person is a dimension which continuously differs. The typological approach divides individuals into categories and scores individuals according to the scores assigned to various categories. In the eyes of the critics, the dimensional approach is more accurate.

It is not very easy to interpret the personality test scores. Thus some norms have been set by the makers of the personality tests. The common formats that are used for these norms are z scores, percentile ranks and sten scores.

In which fields are the personality tests applied? The personality tests are applied in the following fields. These are:

Psychological Research: The personality tests are often used in psychological research as testing devices for various personalities. An important outcome of personality tests is that it has been found out that individuals often have flawed views about society and themselves. This may lead to negative impact on the life of an individual.

Stock markets and business: The psychology of an investor can go a long way in determining his or her position in the stock market. Economic news, political events, economic data and earnings report play a major role in decision making of an investor. Personality tests can help a great deal to acquire knowledge about the personality of the individuals.

Other applications: Other fields in which the personality tests are applied are in the corporate world where many companies use these tests while hiring people. The sales personnel are the people who often take the help of these tests to understand the needs of the customers. The college students also use these tests to know the behaviour of their roommates. It is also used by the lawyers for the examination of the witnesses, analysis of the behaviour of the criminals and litigation profiling.