Personality tests in predicting future behavior and environmental adaptation

Personality testing has been used by a number of organizations for varying purposes, and most notably for the recruitment or promotion of personnel. It has also been used to determine, in part, which type of job would be most suitable for a person who must make career choices. The assumption behind such testing is that these provide an accurate portrait of the person being tested, and that the results demonstrate the greatest likelihood of a match between the personality and the purpose of the test. However, recent criticism has suggested that this assumed accuracy is in fact incorrect for a variety of reasons, but generally based upon the fact that tests are administered under artificial conditions. Instead, these critics suggest that a much better test for varying personality is the types of things and tastes people surround themselves with; even passwords are said to be more revealing about a personality than has been assumed.

Amble (2007) mentions that a growing number of organizations have been using personality testing to determine appropriate persons for recruitment and promotion in their companies. The author, however, also cites serious criticisms against this type of testing. One of the most obvious limitations is the fact that personality test results are influenced by the desire of test subjects to impress the decision makers. For a job application, for example, a candidate might provide answers that he or she believes the employer is looking for. The same is true for promotion candidates. A significant factor is also that little has been done to remedy this shortcoming, despite a clear awareness of it and attempts to do so.

Instead, authors like Andrews (2002) note that everyday objects and strategies are much clearer indicators of personality, not least so because they are not utilized in response to a predetermined test setting. Instead, they are spontaneous manifestations of the particular personality from which they emerge.

One example of this is computer passwords. Andrews cites British psychologist Helen Petrie in her assessment of the computer password as the "21st century Rorschach inkblot test." In this regard, Dr. Petrie identifies four basic password categories that indicate personality types: the family-oriented; the Fans, the fantasists, and the cryptics. The first group would use passwords like the names of people who are important in their lives, the second group would use movie star or character names, the third group would use passwords with sexual connotations, while the last group are the most security conscious and would use heavily encrypted passwords.

Other authors have focused on wider issues of taste, like music, to identify a greater range of personality types, such as the creative or extroverted types identified by Allen (2003) or the Neurotic self-medicators and the rule-loving users of art as decoration identified by Jay and Dixit (2008).