Human Content © Personal traits - v.01.00

Personality traits

We have learned – what happened?

What was What is Types, dimensions Factors with nuancing facets Forced choice (ipsative) Simple questions, response on

scale Personality test Personality inventory «You are» . . . Indicates you are more likely to . . . Labels «extrovert» Descriptions High is good It depends on the situation

Human Content © Personal traits - v.01.00

Personality traits

There is no such thing as a generally good or bad personality. It depends on the situation.

Personality is complex, and must be described to be sufficiently well understood. When simplified to labels such as «extraversion» important and necessary depth of understanding is lost.

Personality is normally distributed. Most of us are placed in the middle, indicating that it depends on the situation which behaviour we are more likely to choose.

Human Content © Personal traits - v.01.00

«Big Five» personality factors

I. Quantity and intensity of social contact: Quiet, listen, hold back versus seeks contact and attention, talks more. (Extraversion)

II. Quality of social contact: Focus on tasks, facts, objectivity, and conflict tolerance versus engaged in other people, preference for cooperation and harmony. (Agreeableness)

III. Flexible, tolerates uncertainty, informal versus prefer more control, order, punctuality, systematic, rules and regulations. (Conscientiousness)

IV. How much emotional energy, temperament, worry, moody, intense, impulsive versus more relaxed, calm, content, impulse control. (Neuro.)

V. Down to earth, traditional, uncomplicated versus open for new ideas, creative, likes complexity, information processing, reflection (Openness)

General cognitive ability

From Hunter and Schmidt (2004)"GMA predicts both occupational level attained and performance within one’s chosen occupation and does so better than any other ability, trait, or disposition and better than job experience. The sizes of these relationships with GMA are also larger than most found in psychological research."

The more strategic and visionary responsibility a leader has, the more general congitive ability matters

Human Content © Personal traits - v.01.00

Weakness of the meta-studies

Meta studies identify general effects – and fail to identify even strong effects that vary with situations in such a way that they are not recognized in the meta-study

The effect of personality depends strongly on the situation, and so cannot be identified with meta-studies.

Need to understand the effect of combining the full set of personality traits and general cognitive ability «Big Five + gca».

When combining a well defined situation and the «Big Five + gca» for a person is sufficient to develop strong hypotheses about what is more likely to happen.

Human Content © Personal traits - v.01.00

Personality and ability

«Other-rated personality and academic performance: Evidence and implications» Poropat, Learning & Individual Differences;Aug2014, Vol. 34, p24

Unverified source on personality and ability;

Human Content © Personal traits - v.01.00

Personality – one whole person

Factor descriptions are fragments of the whole, they ignore the impact of other factors.

Need to understand the effect of combining the full set of personality traits and general cognitive ability «Big Five + gca».

When combining a well defined situation and the «Big Five + gca» for a person is sufficient to develop strong hypotheses about what is more likely to happen.

Explains why so many MENSA members don't seem to succeed.

Human Content © Personal traits - v.01.00

Factor I – most likely behaviour

«significantly to the left»: Prefer to work alone, less contact with fewer others, holds back and listens. Can talk when very necessary.«to the left»: Prefers to work alone or in smaller groups. Prefers to listen, and will talk when the need is apparent. «middle - it depends»: Prefers variety, work some alone, some with people in varying numbers. Listen or talk depending on situation.«to the right»: Prefers to work with other people, more social contact, Prefers to talk, and will listen when the need is apparent. «significantly to the right»: Prefer to work with others most of the time, more contact with more people,

Human Content © Personal traits - v.01.00

Factor I – combination effects

«to the right on factor II»: more engagement in others can make it easier to seek out more social contact in spite of factor I to the left«engaged in knowledge – left on IV, right on V, more general cognitive ability»: the engagement in knowledge fueled with emotional energy can look very similar to factor I to the right – even when it is in fact to the left.Example: Put the abdicating leader to sleep, wake up the strategic animal. Shift focus from III to the left and IV to the right II to the left, V and gca to the right

Human Content © Personal traits - v.01.00

Skrekkeksempel 1: Slik sparer Elkjøp millioner på strukturert rekruttering

Første nåløye er en evnetest. De som skårer under en viss poengsum på denne testen siles bort. De andre går videre til neste fase, som er en personlighetstest.De som havner på rødt eller oransje i personlighetstesten er ikke de vi ser etter, sier Evensen. — Resten går videre, og innkalles til intervju.

Kilde: http://www.hrnorge.no/blog/slik-sparer-elkjop-flere-titalls-millioner-pa-en-strukturert-rekrutteringsprosess/

Human Content © Personal traits - v.01.00

Human Content tests

F60

Human Content tests

- Difficult tests, norm population are mostly applicants to leadership and specialist positions with higher education

- In order to differentiate well at different levels:

– Tests are time limited, it is normal not to have time to answer every question

– It is normal to have many wrong answers– This is to avoid ceiling- and floor effects

- No negative points for wrong answers

- Exercises become progressively more difficult

Test report, F60, general cognitive ability

Basic job analysis

Register very specific activities the employee does How much of the time is spent on each activity Priority: Which cannot be postponed, which can be moved What competences, traits, skills, abilities will lead to success? Organizational context, success criteria, work environment etc