Self-Reports in Work and Organizational Settings

Introduction

Self-report as a method of psychological assessment had its beginning in 1918, when Robert S. Woodworth published the first personality inventory, the Personal Data Sheet. The items (116) were questions to the respondents. For example: ‘Do you feel well and strong?’ (1) to ‘Do you like outdoor life?’ (116). The response format was Yes/No. The inventory was developed during the latter stages of World War I to aid mental health officers in the US Army to identify recruits who might be susceptible to psychometrics (Dubois, 1970). Later on, Robert G. Bernreuter modified the Woodworth inventory and applied it to US business and industry for the purposes of personnel selection, placement, transfer and retention-termination (Berneuter, 1931).

From these early beginnings throughout the 20th century to the present, self-report psychological assessment instruments have flourished; some with varying degrees of successes, and others with controversial criticisms. Among these measurement instruments predominantly have been personality questionnaires and inventories, interest inventories, social attitude inventories, adjustment inventories, character tests, scales to measure the self-concept and inventories of self-description as a report of typical behaviour of individuals (Cronbach, 1960: 442–444). Concurrent with the growth in development of self-report measurement instruments there has been a commensurate development in statistical methodology, psychometric methodology and measurement techniques. To name a few these are, not necessarily in any order of importance, ‘response styles and bias’, ‘lie scales and honesty’, ‘ipsative scores’, ‘Q methodology as a method of factor analysis’, ‘faking and evasion’, ‘social desirability’, ‘forced-choice response categories’ and ‘preferences for behavioural styles’.

Some Self-Report Inventories and Scales of Long Standing

In this entry, self-report instruments are restricted to those assessing personality of normal people and behavioural types primarily, and those which have been in work and organizational settings over a reasonably long period of time within the 20th century. These assessment instruments are classified in normative (free response) versus adjective checklists and measures of behavioural types or styles.

The self-report assessment instruments that follow have been selected to be described and discussed because they are the ones that have a history of having been developed more than 50 years ago and/or are still widely used even if their development does not span the last half century. They are also the most popular non-clinical self-report instruments.

Response formats for these instruments vary among ‘yes/no’, ‘check/no check’, ‘tetrad/pentad [Page 881]forced-choice’ and ‘true/false’. These instruments focus on content, purpose, psychometric properties, dates of utilization, strengths, and weaknesses, measurement problems and special features as appropriate. In alphabetical order, the self-report instruments that are discussed include: Adjective Checklist (ACL), Activity Vector Analysis (AVA), California Psychological Inventory (CPI), Gordon Personal Profile Inventory (GPP-I), Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey (GZTS), Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), Jackson Personality Inventory (JPI), Jackson Personality Research Form (JPRF), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF).