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Perosnality Tests Uses & Limitations

Types of personality tests and their uses and limitations

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Trupti Talekar
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34 views1 page

Perosnality Tests Uses & Limitations

Types of personality tests and their uses and limitations

Uploaded by

Trupti Talekar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Uses of personality tests;

There are a number of reasons why a person might take a personality test. Personality tests
are administered for a number of different purposes, including:

 Assessing theories
 Evaluating the effectiveness of therapy
 Diagnosing psychological problems
 Looking at changes in personality
 Screening job candidates3

Personality tests are also sometimes used in forensic settings to conduct risk assessments,
establish competence, and in child custody disputes.4 Other settings where personality testing
may be used are school psychology, career and occupational counseling, relationship
counseling, clinical psychology, and employment testing.

Limitations of personality tests;


While personality tests may be useful at times, this does not mean that they are not without
drawbacks and possible pitfalls
Deception Is Possible
One of the biggest disadvantages of self-report inventories is that it is possible for people to
engage in deception when answering questions. Even though techniques can be used to detect
deception, people can still successfully provide false answers often in an effort to "fake good"
or appear more socially acceptable and desirable.
Introspection Is Needed
Another potential problem is that people are not always good at accurately describing their
own behavior. People tend to overestimate certain tendencies (especially ones that are viewed
as socially desirable) while underestimating other characteristics. This can have a serious
impact on the accuracy of a personality test.
Tests Can Be Long
Self-report personality tests can also be quite long, in some cases taking several hours to
complete. Not surprisingly, respondents can quickly become bored and frustrated. When this
happens, test-takers will often answer questions as quickly as possible, often without even
reading the test items.
Scoring Can Be Subjective
Projective tests also have a number of disadvantages and limitations. The first problem lies in
the interpretation of the responses. Scoring test items are highly subjective and different
raters might provide entirely different viewpoints of the responses.
Results May Be Inconsistent
Not all personality tests are reliable or valid. Reliability refers to the consistency of a test
while validity involves whether the test is really measuring what it claims to measure.

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