Personality refers to characteristics and behaviors that uniquely distinguish one individual from another, while emotional intelligence is the ability to control, express, and influence others’ emotions. Character plays an outstanding role in our interactions with others, decision-making, and performance. Understanding our personality will help us identify our strengths and weaknesses and how they control our behavior in various circumstances.
A Brief Explanation on the Basis of Personality Skill Tests and Why They Work
Personality skill tests are a scientifically proven and popular tool for emotional intelligence assessments that decode our character. They emerged in the 1900s to help recruit personnel for the armed forces and assess psychological trauma among soldiers after the war. Since then, more personality assessments have come into being, each with different motives.
Typically, personality skill tests measure a person’s personality traits. They include an assessment of behavior and emotional intelligence, which are crucial elements of an individual’s social life. Many types of personality skill tests have developed over the years, but scientists recognize those with a higher validity and reliability percentage as the legit ones. Let’s discuss a few of them.
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Many job seekers have encountered the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which constitutes several questions. The recruiter can divide potential candidates into four categories based on their responses to these questions:
- Judging versus perceiving
- Introversion versus extraversion
- Thinking versus feeling
- Intuition versus sensing
- The Big Five Personality Test
Students and scholars in school primarily use the big five personality traits for academic purposes, especially in a psychology course. The test uses the Big-Five Factor Markers from the International Personality Item Pool developed by Goldberg in 1992. The five traits of interest here are extraversion (or extroversion), agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism.
- Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence Assessment
Daniel Goleman developed a tool in 1998 to test people’s emotional intelligence. It encompasses four main domains: social awareness, self-awareness, relationship management, and self-management. The test gauges an individual’s reaction and responses to different scenarios and gives results that explain their strengths and areas requiring improvement.
- SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire
The SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire determines how one’s behavior will influence their performance. It entails 104 questions that quantify 32 characteristics. Quizzes include multiple choice questions in which the examinee chooses one that suits them best. Eventually, the results uniquely define each person’s personality.
- 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire
As the name suggests, the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire helps derive 16 personality traits that describe an employee’s potential career progression and development. It assesses emotional intelligence, perfectionism, sensitivity, openness to change, and dominance. This personality skill test has been through a few iterations, so aim for the latest version for higher accuracy.
Why Use Personality Skill Tests?
Many people think they know themselves best and do not need a personality skill test. The truth is that using one will help you understand yourself better as long as you are honest with it. Please note that emotional intelligence assessments depend on the data fed into them, so truthfulness is vital here.
We use personality skill tests for a couple of reasons, including entertainment. People using dating sites and apps can testify that this tool greatly assists them. However, it is only showing effectiveness when honesty is in the picture. Another everyday use of the tool is for job placement. Apart from helping hiring managers fill vacancies with suitable candidates, job seekers find these tests helpful in predicting long-term employment.
The exciting bit about personality skill tests is the emotional intelligence assessments. One of the tools used to measure emotional intelligence is Daniel Goleman’s dynamic intelligence framework, as mentioned earlier. The four main components of emotional intelligence significantly affect our personality and social lives. Looking at self-awareness, by being conscious of our abilities, feelings, and reactions, we have the power to cope with either positive or negative situations in our lives. Self-awareness is essential to our personal happiness.
Self-management is a necessary skill for everyone. It means having the aptitude to regulate one’s actions flexibly to get satisfying results. One can get emotional and feel frustrated, but possessing this skill can greatly assist in overcoming that. If you have self-awareness and self-management skills, you will likely thrive in relationship management because understanding ourselves helps us understand our social environment. One quickly becomes socially aware and uses emotions and others to interact successfully.
Conclusion
It is vital to know our personality in order to navigate through life. One can understand why some people are the way they are and how to cope. We can conclude that personality skill tests, especially those focusing on emotional intelligence assessments, are among the best tools for hiring managers and those seeking to understand themselves better. Experts in the field have invented them, giving us no excuse not to understand and take advantage of our personalities. If you’re interested in knowing more about yourself, take a test today.
