PROFILE EVALUATION SYSTEM ASSESSMENT

Introduction

The Profile represents a successful effort to produce an instrument useful to business, industry, government, and educational services that characterizes individuals on a number of psychological traits that are important for job performance.  The Profile, is an effective instrument that allows companies and individuals to maximize the fit between employment demands and the abilities, aptitudes and personality constellations of employees or potential employees.  When this fit is optimized there will be greater comfort and productivity on the part of employees. While all managers acknowledge the importance of the hiring function most also recognize the importance of developing management and leadership skills in their present employees.  Information about individuals and their tendencies is also extraordinarily valuable in these contexts as well.  The profile was developed with the goal of helping companies make sound employment, retention, assignment, training, and promotion decisions. 

Scale Descriptions

Based on the conceptual scheme just described the Profile is divided into two major sections labeled Aptitudes and Personality Dimensions.  The Aptitudes section contains six dimensions and the Personality section contains ten.

Descriptions of the Six Mental Aptitudes

The Aptitudes section of the profile consists of six sections, or dimensions, each of which was designed to measure an aptitude important for job performance.  For five of these dimensions administration is timed but for the sixth it is not.  There are two hundred twenty-seven items in this section.

         A1 - Mental Alertness (forty items).  Mental Alertness refers to an individual's capacity to solve problems quickly and accurately.  As measured by the Profile, problem solving capacity includes reasoning with numbers, letters, and other symbols as well as reasoning by analogy where a relationship between a given pair of words must be generalized to a pairing of a stimulus word and one of five choices.  Therefore, Mental Alertness subsumes both judgment and reasoning ability using a variety of symbol systems.  It is similar to, but not synonymous with, intelligence as measured by most paper and pencil intelligence tests.  Respondents are timed on this section.

         A2 - Business Terms (twelve items).  This section is included to measure the respondent's command of the vocabulary of business.  Vocabulary size is often used as one of a group of primary measures of intelligence.  In this case the vocabulary is a specialized one related to business.  This section is timed.

         A3 - Memory Recall (twelve items).  The Memory Recall section tests the ability to recollect proper names, events, places, and abbreviations.  This section is very similar to another component often tested by standardized intelligence tests that measures how much information individuals pick up and retain from their environment.  This section is timed.

         A4 - Vocabulary (fifty items).  Vocabulary or Verbal Fluency is measured by a vocabulary task in which the respondent is presented with a stimulus word and is asked to choose the best synonym from a set of four alternatives.  The difficulty of the items is graduated and this is a more general test of vocabulary skills than the Business Terms section.  This section is timed.

         A5 – Scanning Accuracy (ninety-five items). Scanning Accuracy or  Perception refers to the ability to handle symbols quickly and accurately.  Perceptual processing speed is related to general mental ability.  In this section, pairs of digit series, some of which are identical and some of which are not, are presented to the respondent who then must make a judgment as to which series are identical in the fastest possible time.  A time is recorded for this section.

         A6 - Mechanical Interest (eighteen items).  Mechanical Interest is measured by asking the respondent about their interest about, knowledge of, and attitudes toward mechanical devices.  Completion of this section is not timed.

While important, and perhaps most important in many settings, mental aptitude is only one personality characteristic.  Often, given sufficient intelligence, success more directly depends on other personality characteristics.  The Profile measures a set of these important characteristics as well.

Personality Dimensions

The Personality section of the Profile contains seventy-six items on ten scales designed to measure the differences among people with regard to the way their personalities interact with their work experience.  Some scales use overlapping items.  The respondent is asked to read each item in the booklet and to mark a response in the booklet avoiding middle, or "b" responses, whenever possible.  The time to complete this section is usually not greater than twenty minutes.

To the degree that persons score at the high or low end of any of these dimensions the more likely the descriptor for that scale's pole will apply to the respondent and that trait will be apparent in the respondent's behavior.  Persons are regarded as high or low scores if they fall into the upper or lower three stanines of possible scores on that dimension.

         D1 - Nervous Tension (eight items).  This dimension measures a person's tendency towards being stressed by the general environment.  Persons scoring low on this dimension are characterized by a condition of chronic stress across situations.  They tend to be described as restless, nervous, tense, and irritable.  These individuals move around a great deal and tend to keep "on the go,"  change positions often while sitting, and keep their hands busy with any accessible object.  Persons scoring on the other pole of the dimension appear calm and relaxed and do not otherwise exhibit external indicators of internal tension.

         D2 - Character Strength (eight items).  This dimension measures the personal integrity of individuals, or the impact of their conscience.  Lower scores are reflective of people who tend to be changeable, inconsistent, flexible, and expedient.  These people often seek to get things done in the easiest way, tend to cut corners, and are more likely to try to escape from facing the consequences for their actions.  People who score high on this dimension are persevering, tenacious, and are often seen as more responsible and dependable.  Those with extremely high scores are often seen as moralistic by others.

         D3 - Work Habits (eight items).  This scale measures a respondent's attitude towards work and how work is best performed.  Persons who score low on this dimension feel that planning tasks is most often a waste of time.  Rather, they regard themselves as good temporizers who can perform well given the circumstances as they arise.  People who score high on this dimension are conscious of the necessity to have alternatives planned out well in advance and are distrustful of spontaneity.

         D4 - Sociability (eight items).  This dimension reflects a person's desire for associating with other people.  People who score low are more reserved and might be best characterized as introverted.  They tend to be cool, aloof, prefer working alone, and feel more self-confident when they are dealing with things rather than people.  Respondents scoring high on this dimension are outgoing and seek out situations with social contact where they can participate in warm, friendly interactions with others.

         D5 - Emotional Maturity (eight items).  This dimension measures emotional tolerance and patience.  People who score low tend to look childish and they appear attention-seeking and demanding.  Environmental stresses upset people who score low on this scale more than most other adults.  These characteristics tend to make people who score low on this scale more difficult to be around both at home and at work.  People who score high on this scale show more tolerance and are more often composed.  These same people do not quickly show emotional fatigue and they appear to be happy people in general.

         D6 - Dominance (eight items).  This characteristic is very similar to assertiveness.  Those who score low on dominance tend to be passive, even meek.  These people try to get along, sometimes at great personal cost, and they seem afraid of conflict.  People who score high on this scale are often opinionated, forceful, and authoritative.  They are not afraid of conflict and those at the highest extreme are sometimes characterized as stubborn.

         D7 - Competitiveness (eight items).  This dimension measures the degree to which people see life events as either opportunities to experience the moment or to compete with others.  Those that score low on this scale see life as a series of opportunities to enjoy life as it comes along for what each moment offers.  For them, winning is less important than simply enjoying the company of others and playing the game.  Those who score high on competitiveness view each episode of life as an instance where they will be compared with others and therefore they are very competitive.  These individuals often even choose to spend their recreational time in such a way as to participate in activities where "winners" and "losers" are determined.

         D8 - Stamina (eight items).  This characteristic measures both physical and mental stamina.  Those low in stamina are most often gentle and sensitive.  A high score is indicative of people who can endure mild discomfort as a matter of course.  Many of the people who score high on this dimension are tough-minded individuals who might be considered "thick-skinned" and who do not feel that all of their associates have to become friends.

         D9 - Naivete (eight items).  This dimension measures the extent to which persons are knowledgeable and realistic in their assessment of the world.  People who score low on this dimension have an almost foolish lack of realism in their assessments of human motivation.  Persons who score high tend to be shrewd and straightforward in estimating the motives behind the behavior of themselves and others.  Those with the extreme high scores tend to be cynical and to take very little at face value.

         D10 - Motivation (six items).  This dimension measures the nature of the incentives which motivate individuals in the work environment.  People who score low are most often motivated by security.  The rewards that have the greatest appeal to them include job protection through tenure, periodic salary increases, employee benefits, generous retirement benefits, and lengthy vacations.  Those who score high are motivated more by recognition for accomplishments.  The rewards that mean the most to them include titles, status, incentive bonuses, and achievements that are recognized publicly.

Moderator Scales

The Profile includes two additional scales.  Each of these scales reflects an attitude about test taking that influences the interpretation of the previous personality scales.

         Distortion.  The distortion scale reflects the frankness of the respondent in reporting information about him or herself.

         Equivocation.  The equivocation scale measures the tendency of individuals to pick intermediate answers to scale items therefore avoiding the extremes that are, in most instances, polar opposites.  This is an indication that a respondent has refused to accept the task of choosing between the clear alternatives offered by the scale items.

Summary

As you can see the Profile is a measurement instrument designed to assess the mental alertness and personality characteristics of respondents.  In addition, the Profile includes two scales that give an index of test validity.  Additionally, the Profile is given in a format that is easy and quick to administer, score and interpret.  Information in these domains has proven extremely valuable to people interested in personal development, employers seeking new employees, managers seeking to place individuals in optimal work situations, and to leadership trainers seeking to develop human potential.