Personality test – Methods, Scores and Developments

It is very difficult to understand human personality due to its distinctness. However, it is possible to assess and gauge it. In order to assess human personalities, various tests are available. These tests are known as personality assessment tests or personality tests.

These tests are available as a set of questions that are supposed to yield a description of a person’s personality traits. It describes those aspects of a person's character that remain steady throughout his or her lifetime. Various types of tests can be performed to attempt to identify specific characteristics or to attempt to identify the personality as a whole.

Some of these tests are:


- Woodworth Personal data sheet, which was first used in 1919. It was helpful in screening the recruits at the United States Army who might be susceptible to shell shock.


- The Rorschach inkblot test was introduced in 1921 as a way to determine personality by the explanation of conceptual inkblots.


- The Thematic Apperception Test was specially made by the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) in the 1930s to identify personalities that might be susceptible to being turned by enemy intelligence.


- The DiSC assessment is based on the research of William Moulton Marston and later work by John Grier, which identifies four personality types: Dominance; Influence; Steadiness and Conscientiousness. Most of the Fortune 500 companies use this test for profit and non-profit organizations.

After having these tests conducted, we need to score them as well. Common personality tests have a great deal of substance, and respondents must rate the applicability of each item to themselves. There are several methods for scoring a personality test. Fundamentally, a personality test is expected to demonstrate reliability and validity. Projective tests, such as the Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT) and Rorschach inkblot test (Ink Blots) are other forms of personality test. You will also find an Online Assessment Test on many websites to help understand the behavior of an individual.

There are 2 methods of scoring; a dimensional approach and a typological approach.


- Dimensional approach scoring describes personality as a set of continuous dimensions on which individuals differ.


- Typological approach scoring describes opposing categories of functioning where individuals differ. This category helps to analyze the aspects of a person which are better than others.

With the increase in the use of these personality assessment tests, developing them becomes very important. Their development completely depends on how they are refined. There are 2 major strategies used for developing these tests; theoretical and statistical. Theoretical strategies can involve psychology or other theories to define the content domain and developing test items. This can then be accompanied by assessment by experts of the developed items to the defined construct. Statistical strategies are variable strategies used for development of these tests. The exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis are used to know if the proposed items really group together. A reliability analysis and an Item Response Theory are additional complimentary approaches.