Personality Evaluation – What Is It About?

When we go to job interviews,  human resources often ask a number of questions that have a common goal: personality evaluation. Thanks to this, they can further decide if we are suitable for the job.

This type of interview takes place not only in the workplace, but also in other areas. For example,  a clinician may do a personality evaluation to make a diagnosis and determine if someone is suffering from a personality disorder. In the military or legal field, a personality evaluation assesses people involved in the legal process.

In the same way  , interviews represent only one of the many ways to assess one’s personality. There are many more, such as questionnaires or objective tests.

Requirements for the evaluator

To perform a rigorous personality assessment, you must have the right theoretical training and experience. In addition, the theoretical models behind these evaluations support academic evaluations. Knowing them is important.

When it comes to interpretation, evaluation tests give us a personality profile. However, there is  no linear relationship between this profile and a specific behavior pattern. In other words, not all people who score high on extroversion behave this way. In the same way, the same profile can suggest different personality types. Therefore, be careful.

Personality evaluation questionnaires

Personality Assessment Questionnaires ask a series of questions or affirmations that you need to answer. Thus, their main personality and character traits are taken through their answers. There are no correct or incorrect answers. The answers only reflect the candidate, how they behave, think or encounter different situations.

The items in a questionnaire must not be corrected or graded. Instead, each element can be interpreted independently. There are two types:

• General:  Trying to define a person’s characteristics outside of clinical setting. In other words, they are designed for personality profiles. Numerous fields can use the results.
• Clinical : Targeted to determine pathological features in a clinical setting. They are designed to identify the factors that cause someone to be at levels higher or lower than what is considered normal, and therefore cause them harm.

Objective tests

Objective tests are usually the tools most commonly used to assess personalities, along with projective tests. They allow different aspects to be considered: knowledge, abilities, attitudes, intelligence, etc.  They usually do not have a time limit. They ask questions or explain different scenarios so that the person answers personally and honestly. In this type of test, there are no right or wrong answers.

Objective tests are widely used for diagnostic evaluations and are often used in school settings. There are two types:

• Question banks: these sheets contain many questions that measure personality variables. They show whether a person agrees or disagrees with the statements. Professionals can manage them to a large number of people. Some of the most representative are MMPI, 16PF and NEO-PI-R.
• Other tests, such as personality indicators,  tend to be complementary to the question banks. They are, for example, measurements of expressive behavior (how to walk, talk, write…), physiological variables (heart rate, reaction times…) or performance tests (problem solving, definitions…)

These tests avoid a tendency response  (such as always answering “B”) or social desirability (answering in a socially acceptable way).

Projecting tests

These types of tests must be supervised by the therapist because they require a lot of training and learning. Normally  , they help the person evaluating to understand how the interviewee sees, focuses on and controls reality. As the name suggests, these tests allow the person to project their personality traits. Therefore, they decide what is within each person.

This is an open, unstructured and very reliable personality evaluation. They consist of giving a few and brief instructions to the person. Thus, almost without realizing it, the tests reveal properties. The person’s responses are manifestations of their internal personality dynamics.

Types of subjective tests

• Complete the sentence:  The person must complete the specified sentences. In this way, they provide information about the temperament in a particular situation.
• Rorschach method:  The most well-known ink tests include those developed by Hermann Rorschach. There are 10 sheets: 5 in black ink and 5 colors. The professional takes an interpretation based on the idea that the way the subject perceives the ink stain will reflect their personality.

• Draw pictures:  The person evaluating asks the person to draw something. The formal characteristics of the drawing help to determine the individual’s personality. These may include the propensity of the paper, the intensity of the line, or the size, texture, color, or position. The most famous test is the Buck format (with house, wood and person ). Professionals usually use Elizabeth Koppitz human figure tests with children.

• Elaborate stories:  This consists of writing or telling a story. Professionals often use TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) designed by Murray, where a person has to tell a story in 31 sheets.

As we can see, there are several ways to assess personalities and all the different factors, characteristics and variables. Professionals must know the most appropriate technique to be used in each case and take into account individual differences within each subject.