Personality Testing, Research Paper Example

Personality tests are utilized for a variety of purposes: hiring, coaching, and team-building in the workplace (Dattner, 2008.) In the Internet age, many individuals as well as organizations are turning to online personality tests for many purposes including self-awareness. Personality testing has a long history, and yet there is a great deal of data that suggests that the tests should be viewed with skepticism regarding how they are used or misused. This paper will discuss the issue of personality testing as presented on the Internet and some of the concerns raised by them.

A significant objection to personality testing in the workplace is that the tests do not necessarily have reliability or validity, yet they can be used to completely determine a career or lack thereof. Too often, the tests are simplistic, non-evaluative, and present a way to avoid underlying conflicts at work by focusing on individual issues. The ease with which personality tests are offered on the Internet is striking; allow individuals to take online psychology tests sometimes provides data for research experiments while others provide tests in skills that provide personal insights (Parker-Pope, 2008.)

Many websites offer the top most popular or supposedly revealing personality tests, provide researchers with information and are simply fun for the respondent. Some of the more popular tests are: You Just Get Me, a social psychology experiment about personality impressions; Bad Vibes, a test that determines what sounds or unpleasant to the listener; and the Stroop test, which determine how flexible and quick your thinking is and is used in situations from assessing the effect of oxygen depletion on mountain climbers to research about addictions (Kiume, 2012.) The ease with which personality tests are offered are both the asset and liability; as described, they can be misused, but they can also provide personal insight as well as being fun and easy to take.

References:

Dattner, B. (2008, June 18). The Use and Misuse of Personality Tests for Coaching and Development. Retrieved September 18, 2012, from Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/minds-work/200806/the-use-and-misuse-personality-tests-coaching-and-development

Kiume, S. (2012). Top 10 Online Psychology Experiments. Retrieved September 18, 2012, from Psych Central: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/08/18/top-ten-online-psychology-experiments/

Parker-Pope, T. (2008, August 20). Best Online Psychology Test. Retrieved September 18, 2012, from The New York Times: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/best-online-psychology-tests/