RESPONSE 1 (Denise): With the help of past classes as well as this class, I often asked myself questions surrounding the future of psychology. With all of the changes in world, the study of psychology is no different: evolving. We can look back on how much it has currently change until now; where psychologist use to have their clients sit on a couch behind closed doors, often now some type of electronic device does most of then work. This will only go even farther from there. I personally believe that personality testing will become one of the largest online industries that more companies will begin to use as a hiring process.

I also believe that as assessments become more common in our workforce, candidates will begin to learn and share test taking strategies. As the word gets out, candidates will be able to ‘fake’ their way through pre-employment assessments in ways that will hinder testing to predict future behaviors. As with any other process, competency in the workplace is important, therefore employers should consider measuring it through as many modes of measurement as are everyday in your selection process. For example, attention to detail is important for many jobs today, therefore, measuring competency through personality tests as well as interview questions can help the hiring manager better understand a person’s true level on their job related abilities. As for future studies, I can imagine the use of simulators with interactive devices. This may include voice interaction, stress/emotion detection, etc.

RESPONSE 2 (Taylor): I believe the number one thing that is going to change when it comes to personality assessment procedures is the training of psychologists/professionals and the way the tests are administered. I believe the psychologists/professionals need to receive better training so they can properly administer the tests and explain how important it is for the individuals to answer the questions truthfully. To obtain accurate results from personality tests the individual must be completely honest and subjective with their responses. I believe for the assessor to accurately convey the severity of this topic they must be comfortable and an expert on the topic.

I believed technology and social media will alter the way we use personality tests. People are becoming more familiar and knowledgeable on topics due to the internet. This may hurt/help personality tests. Due to the internet, we are far more aware of what the society values, therefore, we may answer these questions to meet societal agendas. I personally have only taken personality tests when it comes to job applications/interviews and I will be the first to admit it is very hard to not alter my answers to fit the personality of someone the employer would want to fill the position.  The assessors simply told me “answer the questions best you can”. Now after taking this course and understanding how individuals may unintentionally alter their questions to fit social constructs, I feel that I could have received better guidance from the employer. Then again they were using a test they found on the internet and they probably did not receive very good training either. I am sure the test results would not have disqualified me from the position they said they were using it to “better understand my personality type” but, in the back of my mind I was still a little nervous.

I hope we use technology to better our understanding of things and improve life. I have seen a LOT of Black Mirror and technology truly does scare me sometimes.

RESPONSE 3 (Marie):

Personality assessment:

Personality assessment is a broad concept in psychology that reflects the measurement of personal characteristics. Human nature is widely based on diversity and environment in the world. People will adopt different traits and habits that make them unique from others. It is upon such practices that the field of psychology can associate one with a specific identity or affiliation.

To assess one’s personality, it may be necessary to come up with a result of gathering a wide range of information that is intended to advance psychological theory research (Parkash & Kumar, 2016). For this reason, there are specific measuring constructs that are manifested as the efforts to measure personality by the use of particular methods and styles.

Future changes in personality assessment:

The various methods of personality assessment in the current world include the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Disc assessment method, Process communication Model, Revised Neo Personality Inventory, the Personality Assessment System, and many others. In this case, all the methods are based on a clear system of assessment that makes use of a self-report questionnaire that is applied with a series of questions. In this case, the questions are a converter, in other words, reading questions that may not reveal what it actually measures. In addition, the questions are also designed to relate to specific aspects of an individual’s life such as different environments including school, work, and many other background settings that are of influence (Visser & Campbell, 2016).  Most importantly, personality tests may not be timed due to the fact that diversity calls for different abilities and speeds of individual participants to respond to the questions that are asked.

Many factors and questions may influence the future of personality assessment in the field of psychology such as:

  • Do personalities of individuals      change?
  • What is the connection between      personality and regime or generations?
  • What is the influence of      technology on the personality of an individual?

If the personality of individuals changes based on a number of factors including regime and generations of the world, then the field of psychology may have to be adaptive and innovative enough to keep up with the changes that take place. One of the most influential factors of change around human existence is technology. As technology changes to improve systems and to automate services, there would be certain effects that may manifest in the form of personalities of human beings (Visser & Campbell, 2016). Also, different types of technologies that are applied in the various methods of personality assessment as mentioned above would also change as a result on innovation, improving efficiency, and accuracy of the results that are obtained from the assessment process.

Changes foreseen in the functions and applications:

There are specific changes that are obvious and automatic. First, there are particular methods that are designed to use specific forms of technology in order to generate the best result when conducting the assessment process. For instance, a lie detector is one of the functions and systems of technology that may detect how true an individual is in their sentiments (Weiner, 2017). In this case, development and innovation of different forms of technology to match new generations and regimes are one of the changes that are expected to manifest in the field of psychology as far as personality assessment is concerned.

References

Parkash, V., & Kumar, U. (2016). Personality Assessment Paradigms. The Wiley Handbook of Personality Assessment, 302-322. doi:10.1002/9781119173489.ch22

Visser, B. A., & Campbell, S. (2016). Measuring the Dark Side of Personality. The SAGE Handbook of Personality and Individual Differences: Volume I: The Science of Personality and Individual Differences, 573-591. doi:10.4135/9781526451163.n27

Weiner, I. B. (2017). Society for Personality Assessment/Journal of Personality Assessment: A History. Journal of Personality Assessment, 100(1), 2-15. doi:10.1080/00223891.2017.1394869

 
<