Personality is the embodiment of an individual’s inner behavioral tendencies. It is unique, holistic, structural and stable, and provides a unified internal explanation for external behavioral patterns. Since Hippocrates proposed the ‘Four Liquids Theory’ two thousand years ago, human research on ‘personality psychology’ has never stopped. To this day, various schools of thought are competing for excellence and each has its own merits.
The view that ‘character determines destiny’ has gone through many demonstrations, criticisms and discussions, but the statement that ‘character affects behavior’ has been generally recognized today.
Years of work experience and training have given me a deep understanding of the profound impact personality has on a person, whether at work or in life. Personality not only affects an individual’s career development, work style, leadership behavior and work performance, but also plays a decisive role in career development path. The personality of managers is particularly important. It directly affects employee satisfaction, which in turn affects work output and even affects employee turnover to a large extent.
Because of this, many companies have introduced personality assessment as an important tool for employee recruitment and talent development assessment in recent years. Nowadays, ‘personality assessment’ has become one of the important basis for employee selection and recruitment. Companies use this method to optimize team configuration to maximize team strengths and reduce internal conflicts and interference.
When companies recruit, they tend to select individuals who match the ‘personality’ of the organization, or try their best to screen people with personality traits that meet the job requirements. For example, sales positions tend to favor extroverted candidates, while financial positions tend to favor meticulous and rigorous candidates. In the selection process, the ‘personality assessment’ tool provides great help to human resources workers.
Personality research shows that each individual has its own unique pursuits, thoughts, and distractions, but they can be classified into certain basic personality types. Individuals with the same personality type usually have relatively consistent values and thinking patterns.
Whether you are a manager or an employee, having a certain knowledge of personality psychology will help your career development and make your life more enjoyable and easier.
Let’s share the currently widely used personality tools. (Note: There are many personality psychology tools. This article only shares a few types that are mainly used by companies. A free evaluation website is attached after each introduction. Interested friends can evaluate by themselves.)
MBTI Career Personality Test
MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) is one of the earliest personality assessment tools widely used by companies. It was mainly introduced by foreign-funded companies in the 1990s. Once upon a time, entering a foreign company was the dream of many working people because foreign companies offer good salaries and benefits, a simple and relatively fair environment, and have many training and learning opportunities. Foreign companies in China’s first-tier cities applied the MBTI assessment to talent development, and later expanded to many local companies.
MBTI is one of the most widely used assessment tools in the world over the past 20 years and is known as the ‘mother of personality assessment’. It is used to examine individual characteristics and potential such as the individual’s contribution to the organization, leadership style, preferred work environment and potential flaws. MBTI was developed based on Swiss psychologist Carl Jung’s ‘Personality Type Theory’ and was further improved by psychologist Catherine Bis and her daughter.
MBTI includes four dimensions and 16 types:
- Extraversion and Introversion - (EI) Dimension: Extraverts’ attention and energy are mainly directed towards external people and things, while introverts focus on the inner world. Extraverts tend to be active with the outside world and like to socialize; introverts are more quiet and reticent and like to be alone or have one-on-one interpersonal interactions.
- Sensing and Intuition - (SN) Dimension: Sensing people acquire facts and reality through the five senses and focus on practicality; intuitive people are accustomed to acquiring information through imagination and unconsciousness and focus on things. Symbolism and underlying meaning.
- Thinking and Feeling - (TF) Dimension: Thinking people make decisions through analysis and logic; Feeling people make decisions based on value judgments. The thinking type is more rational, while the emotional type relies more on personal values.
- Judging and Perceiving - (JP) Dimension: Judging people like a planned and organized lifestyle; Perceiving people tend to deal with problems flexibly and openly.
The MBTI score illustrates an individual’s preference for a certain attitude or function. A high score means that the preference is obvious, while a low score means that the preference is not obvious for some reason. But a score does not indicate how well an individual can use or develop a preference. Dominant preference only describes the individual’s most accustomed behavior, but it does not mean that other preferences do not exist. For example, extroverts sometimes like to be alone, and introverts sometimes like to be social.
Summary: The advantage of MBTI lies in the depth of its theory. It not only explores personality characteristics, but also deeply analyzes the dynamic theory of personality development and reveals the theory of personality development. MBTI appears to be very complete on this theoretical framework. However, MBTI assessment and calculation are more complicated. The editor has used MBTI for assessment in training and found that statistics are time-consuming and it is difficult for ordinary working people to learn and remember the 16 types of personality traits. Therefore, the use of MBTI has gradually faded out of public view in recent years.
Free assessment entrance: MBTI professional personality free online test
DISC Personality Assessment
The DISC personality test is composed of 24 groups of adjectives that describe personality traits, with each group containing 4 adjectives. These adjectives were selected based on the four dimensions of D (dominance), I (influence), S (stability), and C (caution), as well as the interference dimension. Test takers need to choose the adjectives that best fit them and those that least fit them from each set of four adjectives based on their first instinct. By summarizing these choices, the tester’s basic personality type can be derived to understand his or her management, leadership qualities, and emotional stability characteristics.
The theoretical basis of DISC stems from the research results of American psychologist Dr. William Moulton Marston in the 1920s. Dr. Marston is a well-known scholar of human behavior. Unlike scholars such as Freud and Jung who focused on ‘abnormal’ behavior, DISC studies identifiable ’normal’ human behavior.
4 categories of DISC
- Dominant (D): People with a dominant personality tend to be adventurous, highly competitive, and like to solve problems directly. They are often bold, decisive, innovative, self-motivated and persistent.
- Influence type (I): People with influence personality are usually charming, confident and optimistic, and good at persuading others. They are enthusiastic, able to motivate and inspire others, and enjoy being around people and being popular.
- Stable (S): People with a stable personality are usually friendly, patient, and good at listening. They are relaxed, stable, team players, considerate, and like a peaceful environment.
- Cautious (C): People with a cautious personality pay attention to details and have analytical skills. They are usually accurate, courteous, pursue high standards, act rigorously, and have a mature and stable character.
DISC assessment is widely used in organizational talent assessment because of its simplicity, ease of understanding and high validity. Since there is no designated copyright agency for the DISC theory, many institutions have developed assessment systems based on the DISC theory. This assessment tool has fewer questions and is easy to learn and operate, so it has been widely used in talent recruitment.
Summary: The DISC assessment tool makes it relatively easy to learn and apply due to its simple and easy-to-understand four-dimensional analysis method, and the statistics of test results are also relatively simple. Currently, many companies use DISC assessment tools in talent recruitment and management training. Many training courses on the market cover personality psychology, and DISC is often used as an introductory tool.
Free assessment entrance: DISC personality free online test
PDP Personality Assessment
PDP (Professional Dynametric Programs) is a system for analyzing thinking patterns and behavior patterns. It was developed by the University of Southern California and the University of Colorado based on statistical science and behavioral science. It has more than 37 years of research history. PDP currently has 8 language versions and is widely used in corporate human resource management in 34 countries around the world, especially among the world’s top 500 companies.
PDP is mainly used to measure an individual’s behavioral traits, vitality, momentum, stress, energy and energy changes. According to people’s natural characteristics, PDP divides people into five types: dominant, extroverted, patient, precise, and integrated. The five types are visualized as ’tiger’, ‘peacock’, ‘koala’, ‘owl’ and ‘chameleon’ respectively. As a professional talent management system, PDP not only helps people better understand and manage themselves, but also helps organizations fully realize the potential of talents.
Five types of PDP analysis
- 🐯 Tiger - Dominant: Focus on authority, substantial rewards and goal orientation. People with a dominant personality are usually brave, efficient, good at grasping the general direction, and value actions and results.
- 🦚 Peacock - Communication type: Has strong empathy, is good at verbal expression, optimistic and positive, and likes to interact with others. People with a communicative personality are good at motivating others and value teamwork.
- 🐨Koala——Patient: pursues peace, is patient and persistent, and likes to make long-term plans. People with a patient personality are usually friendly, good at teamwork, and avoid conflicts.
- 🦉 Owl - Precision: pursue precision and professionalism, pay attention to planning and details. People with a precise personality tend to follow rules and have strong principles and perfectionistic tendencies.
- 🦎 Chameleon - Integrated: Good at coordinating and integrating resources, and highly adaptable. People with an integrated personality are usually the lubricant of the team, able to be inclusive and not go to extremes.
Summary: PDP assessment has high reliability and validity, and the assessment accuracy rate can reach 96%. The PDP test contains 60 questions, usually only takes 5-10 minutes to complete, and can quickly provide accurate data to help users make quick decisions.
There are certain similarities between PDP and DISC in assessing and analyzing behavioral styles, but PDP uses animal codes to make it more lively and interesting, which helps students remember and apply. Currently, many consulting and training companies are providing PDP assessment and training services.
Free assessment entrance: PDP professional personality free online test
Enneagram personality test
The 2,500-year-old Enneagram is a revolutionary theory of personality types that provides people with profound insights into themselves and others. The Enneagram originated in ancient times, and the specific origin time is unknown, but researchers generally believe that it has a very long history, possibly dating back to 2500 BC or earlier.
The modern development of the Enneagram is due to the research of Oscar Itsaso, founder of Erica Institute. He learned the basics of the Enneagram from the Sufi order during a trip to Afghanistan in the 1950s. Itsaso incorporated the nine human desires into the Enneagram theory and used it as a teaching material for human psychological training. This is the prototype of the Enneagram.
The Enneagram is not only a sophisticated personality analysis tool, but its more important role is to provide in-depth insights into personal cultivation, self-improvement and experience. Unlike other personality taxonomies, the Enneagram reveals people’s inner values and concerns, unaffected by changes in external behavior.
Basic types of Enneagram personality
- Perfect Type: Pay attention to principles, distinguish between black and white, not easy to compromise, have strict requirements on yourself and others, and pursue perfection.
- Giver: eager to establish intimate relationships, people-oriented, emotional, and loving.
- Doer: Strong sense of competition, pursuing efficiency, and measuring self-worth by achievements.
- Romantic: Emotional, pursue unique feelings, and like self-expression.
- Observer: Likes to think and analyze, has strong thirst for knowledge, weak mobility, and low material needs.
- Skeptic: Act cautiously, do not trust others easily, like group life, loyal, and have team cohesion.
- Hedonist: Optimistic, likes novelty, pursues trends, hates pressure, and is a born optimist.
- Protector: pursues power, focuses on strength, is independent, and protects the weak.
- Mediator: Fear of disputes, difficulty rejecting others, pursuit of harmony, slow decision-making process.
Summary: Although some units use the Enneagram to assess new employees, not many can actually apply it in depth. The Enneagram theory focuses on people’s inner world and value orientation. Because it is not easily affected by the external environment, culture, education or family background, it is easy to master and apply.
Compared with the 16 categories of MBTI, the Enneagram is easier to master, and compared with the four-point classification of DISC and PDP, the Enneagram appears more rigorous. However, to deeply master and flexibly use the Enneagram, you need to have strong logic and learning abilities.
Free assessment entrance: Enneagram (90 question version) free online test
Personality Color Test
Personality color science is a branch of psychology. The China Personality Color Research Center founded by Le Jia summarizes human personality into four types: red, blue, yellow and green. This classification method is called ‘FPA® (Four-colors Personality Analysis)’, and its theoretical basis is derived from Hippocrates’ four-fluid theory. As early as the ancient Greek period, Hippocrates proposed the theory that ‘although no two people are exactly the same, many people have similar characteristics.’ Through observation, people have found that people who belong to the same personality type often display consistent behavior patterns, while other types exhibit completely different behavioral characteristics.
Different from other classification systems, ‘FPA® Personality Color’ is based on ‘motivation theory’ rather than ‘behavior theory’ or ’type theory’. It solves the problem by accurately interpreting the relationship between ‘motivation and behavior’ and ‘character and personality’. People are confused about the ‘coexistence and confusion of the four personalities’, and provides a set of feasible personality cultivation methods. The core of personality color theory includes the four professional areas of ‘insight’, ‘insight’, ‘cultivation’ and ‘influence’.
Basic analysis of personality colors
- 💡 Red: “Energy Tribe”: Happy, outgoing team promoter. Their motivations mainly stem from the pursuit of happiness, they are positive and optimistic, have extraordinary charm, and are good at sociability.
- 💡 Blue: ‘Scheming Snake’: Best performer. They are serious and meticulous, pay attention to deep interpersonal relationships, are loyal and sincere, and have deep thoughts.
- 💡 Yellow: ‘King of the Forest’: A powerful commander. This type of person is driven by achieving goals, has forward-looking and leadership skills, has a strong sense of responsibility, makes decisive decisions, and is full of self-confidence.
- 💡 Green: ‘Peacemaker’: Promoter of peace. They pursue harmony and stability, are tolerant and friendly, adaptable, and are excellent listeners.
The core functions of character colors include ‘Insight’, ‘Insight’, ‘Cultivation’ and ‘Influence’. The so-called ‘insight’ refers to discovering the true self and understanding the question ‘who am I’; ‘insight’ refers to identifying the complex personality characteristics of others and distinguishing the true character from superficial illusions; ‘cultivation’ refers to improving one’s own shortcomings. Develop the abilities you lack to achieve the balance of the four colors; and ‘influence’ refers to living in harmony with others in a way that suits them and achieving a common goal.
In recent years, as Lejia’s influence among the public has continued to increase, the concept of ‘character color’ has gradually become known to more people. Especially in the program ‘If You Are the One’, Le Jia used personality psychology to comment on the guests, and his sharp and unique language style left a deep impression on the audience. Although the classification of ‘character color’ has certain similarities with the DISC model, it pays more attention to the analysis of motivation and forms a unique theoretical system by accurately interpreting ‘motivation and behavior’ and ‘character and personality’.
In terms of learning and application, ‘Character Color’ is widely welcomed by the public because of its simple, vivid and easy-to-operate characteristics. Just as the editor won the championship of the best lecturer competition within the group through ‘Character Color’, and successfully used it in the induction training of new employees, winning unanimous praise.
Free assessment entrance: FPA personality color free online test
Summarize
Overall, ‘personality psychology’ is widely recognized in society and the workplace. Improved self-awareness not only helps us manage ourselves better, but also helps us interact with others more effectively and become social masters.
In addition to the several tests introduced above, there are many other personality psychology tools, such as CPI, 16PF, EPQ, etc. Each company and individual can choose the appropriate one according to their own needs and preferences. tools.
The key to learning and using the tools of ‘personality psychology’ is to first understand yourself and then understand others. People with different personalities have their own strengths and weaknesses. What is a ‘motivating factor’ for one personality type may be a ‘distraction’ for another type of person. As the ancients said: ‘Man’s wine is my honey.’ When you can move from ’tolerating’ to ’enjoying’ being with people of different personalities, you have achieved victory in life.
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