For nearly a century, organizations have used psychometric tests to support their recruitment decisions, helping to select and develop suitable candidates for various roles. Although the content of these tests has remained relatively stable, the methods for measuring, analyzing, and reporting personality traits have evolved significantly, primarily thanks to digitalization. This change has enabled the assessment process to directly address business-critical issues and enhance the candidate’s experience by making it more personalized, efficient, and user-friendly.
This shift has also improved the ability to continually develop staff and identify what the organization can do for the individual to ensure employees succeed and thrive. Modern psychometric assessments often require a customized approach that is tailored to the specific needs of clients. Companies seek a solution that is not only reliable and cost-effective but also relevant to their organizational context. This involves identifying key performance indicators and designing assessments that include questions reflecting success in specific roles
It’s time for us to dive into the psychometrics behind personality and behavior. Can behavior be measured? The short answer is yes. Through our assessment tools, we can get a very good picture of what someone’s behavior actually looks like.
The type of personality we focus on is called typical behavior, which means how someone is likely to act in their daily life. We can measure this with the help of our assessment TQ Personality. Behavior is also influenced by our beliefs, values, and motivations, which we can measure through our assessment tool, TQ Motivation. We will cover this later in the course. It is also possible to measure capacity and cognitive ability, which we assess with our tool TQ Cognitive. We will also cover this later in the course.
In adults, personality is relatively stable and does not undergo major changes except during significant life events such as becoming a parent, moving far away, experiencing a death, or going through a divorce. But generally, personality remains unchanged. Of course, we can learn new behaviors, but our fundamental personality is largely stable. Therefore, it is recommended to take personality assessments about every other year.
Measuring personality and behavior is thus entirely possible. But now the question is, how do you measure personality?
This is the iceberg analogy. This is an illustration to make it easier to understand the concept we are going to talk about. What we can see above the waterline corresponds to behaviors. This is what one says and does, which can be measured through TQ Personality. What we do not necessarily see are all the traits of personality that affect behavior. This is measurable through TQ Motivation. But it’s not quite that simple. We can all behave in ways that go against our natural preferences. So how do you predict how someone will behave over a longer period of time and in different situations? The answer is: with scientifically validated personality tests that measure all psychological traits. In the next chapter, we will go through these methods, known as the Big 5 model and the Hexaco model.