Results of Individual Assessment Instruments: Joshua's Personality Traits and Behaviors
Part of a series in getting to know the Founder of Minerva Films, Joshua Caraballo...
Photo credit: Danielle Sanchez
In an effort to achieve a well-rounded outlook of workplace behaviors now and in the future, organizations integrate multiple sources of information, which includes both mechanically collected objective measures and clinically collected subjective ones (Prien, Schippmann, & Prien, 2003).
When analyzing individual assessment feedback reports that are mechanically collected, the assessor must find the most optimal way of distilling complex data into manageable responses that fully address job competency alignment, while being astute to the research contexts associated with each quantitative measure.
The following analysis first offers a summary of findings for three separate quantitative tests, (1) the Conflict Dynamics Profile (CDP), (2) the 16 Primary Factors (16PF), and (3) the DiSC Classic 2.0 Plus (DiSC) as it pertains to responses from Joshua Caraballo, a current doctoral student at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Additional analyses are offered after each individual test result to extrapolate findings, offer interpretations across tests, and capture new insights, as it applies primarily to behavior in the workplace.
Individual Tests
Conflict Dynamics Profile (CDP)
The CDP is a behaviorally focused test that helps to determine how someone acts both actively and passively through seven constructive and eight destructive responses, and nine underlying “hot button” behaviors that may provoke conflict, with a dedicated profile for each (Eckerd College, 2008).
Davis, Kraus, and Capobianco’s (2004) developmental worksheets were completed to gauge areas of strength and opportunities for development with Joshua. In terms of active-constructive responses, Joshua has very high strengths in creating solutions and expressing emotions, with no scores indicating a need for development.
For passive-constructive responses, Joshua’s strength is very high in Adapting, and he scored low on Delay Responding, indicating an opportunity for developing this response. For active-destructive responses, he was high in Demeaning Others, and was found high in the passive-destructive response involving Avoiding, with no other high or low scores. Although there were no extreme scores for Joshua’s Hot Buttons Profile, he did score high in the Hostile variable, and low in the Untrustworthy variable.
In terms of areas for development, suggestions for increasing delay in responding include being aware of emotional situations that may overwhelm, finding time for relaxation techniques, and having the ability to collect one’s thoughts before responding, if appropriate (Davis et al., 2004).
Additionally, being more aware of one’s facial expressions and body language, while remembering to always attack problems over people, can help in hampering demeaning others. Fear is said to be behind the act of avoidance (Eckerd College, 2009), and spending more time pondering the consequences of avoidance can help in creating the drive to take initiative and solve problems more proactively (Davis et al., 2004).
Finally, dealing with hostile individuals can be challenging, but can be overcome with tactics such as staying in control, not passing judgment, and implementing perspective taking skills to help reframe negative viewpoints (Eckerd College, 2009).
Results from the CDP offer an overall objective look into Joshua’s current need to maintain more control over his emotions, especially in regard to allowing himself to outwardly display nonverbal cues of frustration and disgust for others, which is construed as a form of demeaning people.
Joshua would do well to continue practicing ways of stopping himself when feeling the urge to roll his eyes, or to try and diffuse a highly emotional conversation by stepping away for a few minutes if possible, or finding other ways of delaying his responses.
In an effort to spark an internal motivation for behavioral change, Joshua can keep in mind how he would like others to perceive him, and the ideal outcomes he wishes to facilitate in and out of the workplace, while also understanding that he has special talents with creating solutions and expressing his emotions, when done in a constructive manner.
The 16 Primary Factors (16PF)
The 16PF describes a participant’s overall personality trait pattern that begins with response styles as an indication of possible biased responding through the variables of Impression Management, Infrequency, and Acquiescence (Russell & Karol, 2008), none of which were flagged for Joshua’s answers, indicating an honest attempt with his responses.
Key features of the test include results for five Global Factors and sixteen Primary Factors (IPAT, 2010). Global Factors scored outside of the norm group include Joshua being above average in Extraversion, Independence, and Anxiety, and low in Tough-Mindedness (indicating more receptive behavior).
Primary Factors scored outside the norm group included being high in Warmth, above average in Dominance, Sensitivity, Apprehension, Openness to Change, and Tension, and low in Privateness (being more forthright).
Finally, Joshua scored highest on two compatible interests offered by the Holland Themes, involving Social (8) and Artistic (7) job fields, indicating a very good fit for someone who desires to use organizational psychology (social) as a means to strengthen his motion picture producing skills (artistic).
Since the 16PF is known to predict leadership potential (IPAT, 2010), Joshua would do well to increase his Emotional Stability and Social Boldness, while looking for ways to decrease Sensitivity and Tension in an effort to become a better leader. He should also practice management of pressure in order to lower anxiety, reduce reactions when relating to others, work on his supervisory skills more, and reframe failures into opportunities.
Joshua’s greatest gift and opportunity comes from his most extreme scores in global Tough-Mindedness (3) and the primary factors of Warmth (8) and Privateness (3), indicating a need to always keep in mind the value of conditions already in place before moving in too quickly with something new, allowing time for others to make decisions, and sharing private information with people who may interpret this as a sign of untrustworthiness (IPAT, 2010).
Using the intercorrelations provided by IPAT for the 16PF, the inverse relationships between Tension and Emotional Stability (-.47) and Apprehension and Emotional Stability (-.60), indicate that an increase in Emotional Stability can have a direct impact on decreasing Tension and Apprehension, which also falls more in line with effective leadership behaviors.
One of the most beneficial development opportunities for Joshua remains in his ability to ward off stress and tension, using a calming demeanor to increase Emotional Stability, a construct that the 16PF combines to measure both stable and situational themes (Russell & Karol, 2008).
While working on his more resilient trait-based behaviors, Joshua can immediately begin changing his situational-related stress and anxiety for healthier management of pressure.
Joshua’s greatest asset in the workplace, according to the 16PF results, is his information processing style, which can assist in better understanding his ability to bring people together for a common goal and touching people’s hearts, while motivating himself to become a superior leader by taking the time to work on his personality, and not rushing or becoming overwhelmed too easily, remembering that “[q]uick transitions only happen in the movies” (IPAT, 2010, p. 161).
Perhaps part of that motivation for change can come from visualizing what it would look and feel like to be a better professional leader, and to relax a bit with the understanding that Joshua might be considered fortunate to have the opportunity to mix his love of art and movies with psychological theory and social betterment each day in the workplace.
DiSC Classic 2.0 Plus (DiSC)
The DiSC offers participants their behavioral tendencies that can spur situational effectiveness through greater understanding of four main styles, including (D) Dominance, (i) Influence, (S) Steadiness, and (C) Conscientiousness, which become the basis for fifteen profile patterns (DiSC Classic 2.0 Plus, 2015).
Joshua’s highest DiSC dimension is Influence (7 out of 7), with Conscientiousness being the second highest (5). This indicates Joshua’s main behavioral style to include a faster pace of action with a focus on people, instead of primarily using a slower pace focused on tasks.
His intensity index for the highest two dimensions include adjectives such as “persuasive” for i and “sensitive” for C, with adjectives for his lowest scored dimensions including “unassuming” for D (3 out of 7) and “fidgety” for S (2). Joshua falls into the Classical Profile Pattern of Appraiser, which is reported to be a behavioral type known to “make creative ideas serve practical purposes” (DiSC Classic 2.0 Plus, 2015, p. 16).
Individuals high in Influence, like Joshua, should be good at inspiring others, being enthusiastic, having a positive attitude, and easily giving feedback in the workplace.
Also, being high in Influence can foster the overall need to practice better communication skills, listening skills, and organization skills. The Appraiser Pattern suggests influencing others by gaining competitive recognition with a goal to win and look good, possibly motivated by a fear of loss, failure, or the disapproval of others.
According to the DiSC results, Joshua’s value added to the organization includes being able to accomplish goals with a team, and he can improve his effectiveness by understanding how to temper his authoritarian nature when giving others feedback, especially when showing disapproval and forgetting to use empathy.
Additionally, Joshua tends to allow his frustration to show when standards are not met or when progress stalls, which can be ameliorated by finding ways of slowing his pace, relaxing more, and focusing more on the tasks at hand.
Since Joshua’s highest dimensions seem diametrically opposed, (i and C), he might benefit from redirecting some of his situational behavior-decisions into his alternate, secondary behavior in an effort to balance out his knack for a faster pace and people focus with a slower pace and more task focus when needed (Introduction to the DiSC, n.d.).
Also, Joshua’s low scores in D indicate the tendency for being self-reliant, self-critical, and self-affacing. His low scores in the S dimension provide evidence that he is eager, critical, discontented, restless, and change-oriented.
Joshua will thrive better in the workplace by making sure to always implement deadlines and set priorities for himself, being more realistic when appraising others and setting demands, and surrounding himself in cultures that foster social and public recognition, free expression, and group activities inside and outside of the job.
Analyses and Conclusions
New Insights and Perspectives
Although many of the findings seem to corroborate Joshua’s current self-understanding, there have been new insights and perspectives worthy of mention.
First, the CDP helps to solidify the need for Joshua to continue honing reflective listening skills in and out of the workplace, with the understanding that although he may communicate effectively through emotional expression, this is not the same as an overly emotional display that may negatively affect others (Eckerd College, 2009).
This should be addressed by delaying his responses when appropriate, using perspective taking to lessen the demeaning of others, and using emotional expression to help dispel emotional conflict instead of using passive avoidance tactics.
Joshua can also take the perspective given by the 16PF to understand how his proclivity to share private information may be construed negatively by others, even though he may perceive it as only being forthright.
The DiSC results help to indicate that Joshua may not be as great as he perceives himself in communicating with others, although when he does communicate effectively, he has the ability to deeply motivate and inspire those around him; also, he should be careful with allowing his primary default behaviors to allow an imbalanced focus that relies solely on people and moving to action too quickly.
Facilitating Development Initiatives for Increased Effectiveness
Based in these findings, Joshua would do well to work on continuously finding ways of lessening his tension and anxiety in an effort to increase his effectiveness.
Joshua needs to take a close look at situations where conflict has happened in the past in an effort to lessen its perpetuation in the future. This can be done by reaching out to those he feels have hurt him in the past, something he has begun doing this week to initiate the practice of rising above holding any grudges.
Also, although Joshua comes from a very strong educational foundation in performance techniques that includes stress and anxiety reduction, he has allowed himself to stray away from implementing these exercises each day.
To assist with getting him back on track, Joshua has downloaded a mobile application that reminds him to take about 10 minutes each day to meditate, with videos and activities for completion, and he plans on implementing more writing methods, such as journaling more consistently, to combat his need to indicate or project his feelings and emotions onto others.
Alignments and Contradictions
The three aforementioned tests overwhelmingly indicate Joshua’s need for more relaxation and anxiety-reducing tactics, something that is now triangulated when coupled with prior feedback information recently solicited through qualitative means and behavioral monitoring.
Joshua’s high extroverted and influential nature makes him ripe for creating solutions and emotional expression (via the CDP), while also setting himself up for more unrestrained and forthright behavior (via the 16PF).
The CDP offers his behavioral responses needing more of a delay for greater effectiveness and staying away from people conflicts, which falls in line with his classical DiSC pattern showing him being more people focused and quick to action.
On the 16PF, Joshua is shown to be above average in the Primary Factor of Dominance, while showing a below average score in the DiSC dimension of Dominance.
This seeming discrepancy may be explained by understanding that the 16PF factor is shown to have more predictive validity over its global counterpart (Independence); whereas, the DiSC seems to be a more pure measure of global Dominance, indicating that Joshua has the overall tendency to not be highly dominant, but can be predictably dominant in situations that call for more independence.
Overall Evaluation
In the workplace, Joshua wants to get things done well above the standard, while influencing people and winning with flair.
His deep respect for others stops him from ever allowing this competitive nature to turn destructive, although his elevated emotionality, openness, and high expectations can cause issues with others.
Joshua would do well to find multiple avenues for reducing his stress and anxiety, while keeping in mind how fortunate it may be to secure work that aligns with one’s inner convictions and passions each day.
These tests help to solidify and put into perspective what Joshua does exceedingly well, and what will make him a better leader in the workplace. These tests, then, become beacons of light for those dark tunnels that may propel him to future workplace effectiveness, giving clear-cut evaluations of an overall well-rounded individual who will always have something to work on and become better at, offering the opportunity for achieving betterment with the assistance of scientific research and empirically applied knowledge.
References
Davis, M. H., Kraus, L. A., & Capobianco, S. (2004). Conflict Dynamics Profile Individual Version Development Guide [Downloadable PDF.]. Retrieved from https://tcsedsystem.instructure.com/courses/21653/files/3086674/download?wrap=1
DiSC Classic 2.0 Plus (2015). [Downloadable PDF Feedback Report.]. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Introduction to the DiSC. (n.d.). DiSC explained. [Downloadable PowerPoint presentation.]. Retrieved from https://tcsedsystem.instructure.com/courses/21653/files/3086708/download?wrap=1
IPAT, Inc. (2010). An introduction to the 16PF questionnaire [Power Point presentation.]. Retreived from https://tcsedsystem.instructure.com/courses/21653/files/3086663/download?wrap=1
Eckerd College (2008). A powerful approach to improve conflict management skills. Conflict Dynamics Profile Individual Version (CDP-I) [Power Point presentation.]. Retrieved from https://tcsedsystem.instructure.com/courses/21653/files/3086704/download?wrap=1
Eckerd College (2009). Coaching Tool Kit [Downloadable PDF.]. Center for Conflict Dynamics. Retrieved from https://tcsedsystem.instructure.com/courses/21653/files/3086671/download?wrap=1
Prien, E. P., Schippmann, J. S. & Prien, K. O. (2003). Individual assessment as practiced in industry and consulting. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Russell, M., & Karol, D. (2008). Manual for the 16PF Interpretive Report. Champaign, IL: IPAT, Inc. Retrieved from https://tcsedsystem.instructure.com/courses/21653/files/3086738/download?wrap=1
