PERSONALITYPRO ASSESSMENT SCIENCE

PersonalityPro offers two types of personality tests: DISC-based and non-DISC-based.

DISC-Based Personality Assessments

PersonalityPro’s DISC-based personality assessment is a self-administered behavioral assessment. Individuals must choose which adjective or phrase describes them most and which adjective or phrase describes them least in a given environment or situation.

DISC-based personality assessments are considered forced-choice instruments. Forced-choice methods of evaluation are designed to eliminate the bias inherent in individual responses. In free-response methods of evaluation, social desirability may cause individuals to differ significantly in their responses (consistently rating their choices in either higher or lower ranges, for example). Requiring respondents to answer only most or least, eliminates this variance.

DISC is an acronym for:

DISC-based personality assessment and related personality reports are derived from the work of Dr. William Moulton Marston. Dr. Marston received three degrees from Harvard University (BA in 1915, LLB in 1918, PhD - Psychology in 1921). Most of Dr. Marston's adult life was spent as a teaching and consulting psychologist. Some of his assignments included lecturing at the American University, Tufts, Columbia, and New York Universities. A prolific writer, Dr. Marston was a contributor to the American Journal of Psychology, The Encyclopedia Britannica, and the Encyclopedia of Psychology.

Dr. Marston’s most well-known contribution was his success in lie detection. His work was done at Harvard University and, in 1938 his book, "The Lie Detector," was published. Lie detectors, including Dr. Marston's, have been used by law enforcement and crime detection officials in various countries of the world for many years.

Although still a consulting psychologist, Dr. Marston was most active in the last five years of his life as the writer of the "Wonder Woman," comic book series based on the character he created with his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston. In this endeavor, Dr. Marston used the pen name Charles Moulton. He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.

Dr. Marston’s DISC Theory of Human Behavior

In 1928 Dr. Marston published a book, "The Emotions of Normal People," in which he described the theory of behavioral (personality) assessment still in use today. He viewed people as behaving along two axes with their actions tending to be active or passive depending upon the individual's perception of the environment as either single antagonistic or favorable.

By placing these axes at right angles, four quadrants were formed with each circumscribing a behavioral pattern or personality type.

The four DISC dimensions can be grouped in a grid with D and I sharing the top row and representing extroverted aspects of the personality, and C and S below representing introverted aspects. D and C then share the left column and represent task-focused aspects, and I and S share the right column and represent social aspects.

• Dominance produces activity in an antagonistic environment.
• Influence (originally called inducement) produces activity in a favorable environment.
• Steadiness produces passivity in a favorable environment.
• Compliance produces passivity in an antagonistic environment.

Dr. Marston believed that people tend to learn a self-concept which is basically in accord with one of the four factors. It is possible, therefore, using Dr. Marston's theory, to apply the powers of scientific observation to behavior and to be Objective and Descriptive rather than Subjective and Judgmental.

It is widely believed that Walter Clarke was the first person to build a psychological device around the Dr. Marston theory. This form is called "Activity Vector Analysis" (AVA). Some of Clarke's original associates subsequently left his company, further refining the format as they created their own "adjective checklist forms." There are at least fifty companies today using the Dr. Marston theory as the basis for examining personality and behavior preferences via a descriptive behavioral device.

PersonalityPro’ personality assessment and its ancillary forms enable us to identify "patterns of behavior," or personality, in such a way as to make practical application of the Dr. Marston theory.

PersonalityPro’s DISC-based personality assessment, while based primarily on Dr. William Marston's theories, also draws on the contribution of Carl Gustav Jung. Jung's work starts from the assumption that there are three pairs of functions that are expressed differently in each person: extroversion-introversion; perception-intuition; thinking-feeling. In each case a person shows a preference of one of the two possibilities; this results in eight possible combinations or types. Dr. Marston's system is in complete mathematical harmony with the works of Jung.

Isabel Briggs Meyer added a further pair of functions (judging-perceiving) and developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a test that places people into sixteen types.

Depth of PersonalityPro’s DISC-based personality assessment

Based on the individual's responses to the 24 "most" words, 19,630 different graphs can be plotted and 19,680 different graphs can be plotted for the "least" responses.

Marston-based instruments similar to PersonalityPro’s DISC-based personality assessment have been administered to over 30 million people worldwide and have earned the respect of individuals and professionals alike based on their accuracy and validity.

Non-DISC-Based Personality Assessments

PersonalityProf employs a number of non-DISC-based assessment methodologies to create customized personality tests and reporting. These are predominantly used by clients in online dating industry.