McCrae &Costa’s Five-Factor model of personality has become the dominant conception of personality structure (1985, 1987, and 1997). The Big Five Personality traits are said to be predictive of some kinds of behaviour such as honesty, job performance, and procrastination. Critically discuss the relevance of this understanding of personality to Occupational Testing.
McCrae and Costa’s Five-Factor model of personality is said to be predictive in certain behaviours such as honesty, job performance and procrastination. This Five-Factor model applies to organisational testing because personality is a crucial part in understanding the interests and abilities of an applicant within a business. There have An example of how psychological assessments are beneficial and important can be seen in the use of a personality test. A personality test “measure various aspects of personality, including motives, interests and attitudes” (Weiten, 2007). Personality tests can be helpful because they assist in personnel selection within business and industry (Weiten, 2007). A sub-division of personality tests is ‘interest inventories’ which determine the interest of an individual in relation to the interests needed to do the job. An example of ‘interest inventories’ can be seen in the need for a sales person to have a personality type that is an extrovert. The example of the sales person can also explain the importance of psychological assessments within the work environment because without this form of testing perspective employers would be unable to employ people that are specifically suited to the position on offer, e.g. an extrovert. The use of psychological assessment in business begins when the candidate is still in the selection process. The applicant for a perspective job will first consider the job analysis. A job analysis is the process of obtaining information about a job by determining what duties, tasks or activities it entails in order to perform the job successfully (Sibaya & Malcolm, 2003). Following a job analysis the applicant would then submit an application and begin the selection process. A
