Personality inventories are designed to assess the relatively stable and enduring characteristics of a person that may affect job performance and work place behaviour. A number of global personality scales exist and these rest upon the idea that personality is made up of a number of different facets (or factors), each of which may affect the way a person responds to situations.

Some conjecture exists as to exactly how many factors are preferable, hence a number of different tests have been developed to tap into a variety of factors. The most common tests target 5 and 16 factors respectively, although one commonly used test is designed to separate 32 personality characteristics along 3 dimensions.

Typical dimensions of a test developed from the "the Big Five" theory (Costa & McCrae, 1988) incorporating five basic personality factors include:

• Extroversion (warmth, social skills and how well the person relates to others, social confidence, empathy, assertiveness)
• Conscientiousness (attitudes towards responsibility, self-discipline, competence, how they approach their work, i.e. cautiously or spontaneously)
• Agreeableness (attitude towards authority, trust, compliance, how they approach relationships and get along with others, desire to please others)
• Openness to Experience (your degree of flexibility - preference for structure and stability -vs- desire for change, attachment to the familiar, willingness to "go with the flow")
• Neuroticism (not what it sounds like... This factor taps into the degree to which you are relaxed -vs- anxious, self critical -vs- self accepting, self pitying -vs- self satisfied. Ability to cope with pressure, emotional resilience)

Dimensions targeted by other personality instruments may include but are not limited to Social Boldness, Dominance, Rule consciousness, Anxiety, Thinking style, Emotional stability, Relationship style and Creativity.

Typical Characteristics of Personality Inventories

• They are usually quite long (expect to complete in approx. 30 - 90 minutes)
• They are usually un-timed
• They are usually paper and pencil tests but are increasingly offered in computer based format
• There are no right or wrong answers
• They typically contain questions in a "forced choice" format rather than free response
• They usually contain an inconsistency and/or a good impression scale
• Questions are often quite vague, (i.e. could be answered differently depending on the situation) and subsequently a person's first or gut response is the best indication of how they would generally respond in the situation.
• Answering honestly about yourself, rather than how you would like to be or how you think the employer wants you to respond, will help you get the truest picture of your personality characteristics and help the employer make an appropriate choice.

Personality Inventories - Sample Questions

Please chose the option that is most representative of you:
1. I feel most comfortable being around people who are...
(a) hard-working (b) focussed (c) driven

2. I prefer to take my time when making important decisions?
(a) always (b) often (c) never

3. I prefer things...
(a) confirmed (b) pencilled in (c) flexible

4. Procrastination is never a problem for me.
(a)True (b) False

5. I enjoy experimenting with new ways of doing things
(1) Strongly Agree (2) Agree (3) Neither Agree nor Disagree (4) Disagree (5) Strongly Disagree

6. I enjoy outperforming others
(1) Strongly Agree (2) Agree (3) Neither Agree nor Disagree (4) Disagree (5) Strongly Disagree

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