The Use of Personality Assessment in Team Decisions

[D.Allred]

Originally Posted by MysterE

I don't think that I would use it as a primary form of choice but rather as another tool to help inform decisions. Really, I'm more interested to see how the students react to their own scores in terms of themselves as drivers.

Could you provide some examples of how you would use these tests to make an informed decision?

Originally Posted by josephus

Personality tests, even ones published by psychologists and widely used in business, are notorious for being at worst scams and at best generic and unreliable. Especially if you are using it for drive team selection and your team knows this, the test will simply turn into a competition for who can best mimic the answers of your desired candidates. If you use the test results for general assessment you may find unnecessary grouping that may contribute to the division along test results of your team. Personality test results are often no more than fortune cookies handed to you by someone in a lab coat. I would recommend a look at Forer's Fallacy of Personal Validation. I would recommend against the use of personality tests on your team.

I think these tests have some validity but agree with you conclusion. Personality tests may provide some insight but should not be used for decision making, especially for team roles. To me, motivation, drive, and maturity are much more important selection criteria.

Furthermore, personality traits may help you determine what you like, but that doesn't mean you would be bad at a job that's not a direct "match" to your a personality.

David

[abigailthefox]

I did a research project on the reliability and validity of the MBTI for a science symposium in my community. My results indicate that the MBTI was not very reliable, and should not be used for anything other than a fun self-assessment. Please, do your team members a favor and don't use this to make any kind of decision. Maybe don't use it en masse at all, because once you associate a trait with a person, those preconceptions can be hard to shake. I understand that it's fun and all, but people are complex human beings who deserve to be treated as such.

Addendum: I can share my research if anyone is interested, as well as research by others in psychology (mine may be of limited usefulness due to sample size limitations)

[smitikshah]

Originally Posted by abigailthefox

My results indicate that the MBTI was not very reliable, and should not be used for anything other than a fun self-assessment. Please, do your team members a favor and don't use this to make any kind of decision.

Addendum: I can share my research if anyone is interested, as well as research by others in psychology (mine may be of limited usefulness due to sample size limitations)

I would love to see the data and research. My question is how did you analyze the data and what significance value did you use?