Validity and Reliability of Profiling

Validity or validation is concerned with the extent to which an assessment instrument actually measures what it is designed to measure. It implies comparison between the assessments and some external criteria.

Reliability is concerned with the consistency of assessments.

PeopleMaps is a Jungian profile designed to measure personality. The measures used are Jung’s Rational and Irrational preference scales, together with his Extraverted and Introverted attitude scales.

That the profile has measured personality accurately is confirmed by the respondents face validity. Hundreds of thousands of people have contributed to these findings, which also confirms reliability.

Profiling that is not Jungian based will normally be norm referenced, i.e. discriminating between individuals, PeopleMaps does not discriminate in this way.

The PeopleMaps questionnaire provides an Ipsative questionnaire, which means that it is self report and the respondent’s choosing from a selection of four word pairings. On each of the four the respondent will choose which they believe is most like them and and which is least. All four are weighted, which improves the accuracy of the questionnaire. (Some ipsative questionnaires only measure Most and Least and thereby lose accuracy.)

PeopleMaps is a type measure which takes account of interactive scales. Two methods are combined to improve the accuracy of the questionnaire, a choice forced between most and least and the freedom to weight the other two items. 40 word pairs i.e. 10 frames each containing four word pairs, which describe the functions and their attitudes.

To measure the dominant and inferior a most and least forced choice must be made in every frame. This is in effect forcing a choice between opposed functions with their respective attitudes of extraversion and introversion, for example extraverted thinking with introverted feeling.

A normative element is created by asking the respondent to further weight the other word pairs while not choosing the same weighting twice. This produces a spread of scores to assess the order of preferences between the dominant and inferior functions. The variance and spread of scores is modelled on Jung’s bi-polar dynamics, which helps to increase the instruments test-retest reliability and decreases the effect of random error.

At the date of writing over 1.2 million people have completed the online version of the questionnaire which comprises 10 questions and the results have proven to be consistently accurate. The short questionnaire can improve accuracy as there is no time for boredom to affect the results. (Reliability refers to the degree of consistency with which instances are assigned to the same category by different observers or by the same observer on different occasions.)

Good item analysis provides a psychometric tool with its accuracy. The length of questionnaires does not generally have an effect on the accuracy of any profile. There is an exception to this and that is there could be a negative effect due to respondents losing interest, becoming fatigued or generally lacking concentration towards the latter part of an overlong questionnaire, which could have a detrimental effect on accuracy.

In the case of PeopleMaps, its items have been extensively analysed and then measured against Jungian preference scales. The Interview questions within the profile get rave reviews from respondents both in their accuracy and utility, as they provide an excellent preparation for prospective interviews.

Hundreds of thousands of PeopleMaps customers judged their profiles as “highly accurate”.

The PeopleMaps personality profile is the first of its kind geared entirely for online delivery. It is designed to stand-alone, i.e. is not dependant on a face-to-face feedback, hence the reason for the inclusion of consultant’s comments since feedback is still necessary to make the process effective.

PeopleMaps profiling is even available via Twitter and you can read about that here.

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