Personality Tests

Do you agree with the following statements? Just answer yes or no – and do it as quickly as possible.

I looked up to my father as the ideal man.

Sometimes I feel like smashing things.

Women should not be allowed to drink alone in bars.

I prefer having a bath to a shower.

All these statements appear on a personality test currently being used by employers in Britain. And since your next job or promotion could depend on your answers you had better take this test very seriously.

At a time when employing the wrong person could cost company money, employers are understandably careful about accepting information from candidates at face value. In most cases, employers simply want to know basically what type of person you are. They need to know whether you are sociable or shy, the type that enjoys a challenge or runs away from change. If you’re always outgoing, you could be the perfect sales assistant – but might not be suitable for another position.

Personality testing is not new. In Old Testament, Gideon the war leader used a simple psychological test to select an army that was about to go into battle. The ancient Chinese also used personality tests to select high-ranking clerks and civil servants. In modern times, however, personality testing only dates back to World War I, when the American army tested two million men in order to place them in the most suitable jobs.

Despite their popularity, not everyone thinks personality tests work. Do we know ourselves well enough to be able to give correct and honest answers? Psychologists believe that there is a huge gap between what people say about themselves and their true personalities. Applicants are usually aware of the types of people an employer wants. As a result, there is a tendency for applicants to lie or cheat by giving the answers he or she knows the employer wants to hear. Another thing these tests assume is that people who are organized in their private lives, will be organized in the workplace. Clearly this may not be the case, but the person whose test results say that they are hardworking and honest will appear very attractive to an employer.

But nowadays, with so many applicants for each job employers are not all that interested in whether there is real evidence that personality tests work. They just want a quick, cheap method of cutting down on the number of applicants they have to interview for each job. And a refusal to complete one of these tests when you apply for a job is unlikely to be seen as a positive sign by the employer. If one applicant refuses, while all the others agree, the employer will often just throw the application away.

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