Self-Assessment and Self-Reflection

Introduction

The Cattells 16Pf Personality Factor Test was developed by Raymond Cattell. Cattell sought to provide a module that comprised of the sixteen variations of the human personality that he considered most significant ("Cattell's 16 Personality Factors Test," n.d.). The test is scored using a scale of 1-5 where a score of one is most strong disagreement and the strength changes as it proceeds to a score of five which represents strong agreement. I also took the Big Five Personality Test. The test has its focus on analyzing five main characteristics of the human personality. Scoring is on a scale of 1-5 where one represents most disagreement, two represents moderate disagreement, three stands for a neutral response, four is a score for moderate agreeableness and five is a response to strong agreement. The Big Five Personality Test was developed by Goldberg in 1992 ("Big Five Personality Test," n.d.). The two assessment tools are meant to serve as a guide to personal assessment and help one advance the levels of personal insight.

The 16PF Assessment Results and Explanation of the Results

The test has sixteen traits and are represented in the results with a score and explanation for each. Scores range between zero and four (0-4). The traits tested in this tool are warmth, reasoning, emotional stability, dominance, liveliness, rule consciousness and social boldness. Other factors include sensitivity, vigilance, abstractedness, privateness and apprehension. The last group of traits are openness to change, self-reliance, perfectionism and tension.

The first factor is warmth in the list of sixteen traits. I had a relatively high score of 3.3. The trait test how nice one is to people. My score indicates that I am outgoing, kind, attentive to others, friendly and easy going. I scored 2.8 in reasoning which indicates that I often prefer abstract thinking. A score of 3.2 for emotional stability indicates high levels of the trait. I find it easy to adapt to changing situations and acquire necessary skills that help me fit better in a strange situation. I act in a mature manner and with a tendency to face stressful situations calmly. Another trait tested is the levels of dominance, and with a score of 3.8, it indicates my high tendency to be dominant, assertive and forceful. I am usually aggressive and competitive when pursuing a goal. As indicated by the results, I tend to be bossy when working with a group of people. I am very resilient, and focus on overcoming the challenges and making sure that I achieve the goal. Also, I had a low score for liveliness which represents enthusiasm and sometimes a tendency to be spontaneous and impulsive. I often focus on being cheerful and expressive, living to enjoy the moment. In rule-consciousness, the result indicates a neutral position. I agree with the results as I consider myself neither very moralistic and rule-bound nor am I nonconforming or taciturn.

In social boldness, I am bold, uninhibited and venturesome. I make friends with ease and can effortlessly start a conversation with a person next to me. My levels of sensitivity are very high. I am sentimental, intuitive, refined and tender-minded. I feel deeply for the people who are struggling or in pain, and I experience emotions with great intensity. Considering vigilance, I tend to trust people very easily, easily accepting, easy and relatively unconditional. Somehow, I dont seem to change this aspect even when people betray my trust. In abstractedness, I had a low score of 0.9. The score is correct as it indicates that I am very practical, prosaic, steady, solution-oriented, conventional and imaginative. Often, I get absorbed in ideas and will daydream and visualize the world in a context when my ideas have come true.

In privateness, I scored lowly, and the interpretation to the low score indicates that I am naive, unpretentious, genuine, open uncanny and involved. I scored 1.4 in apprehension a score that correctly represents me as a self-assured, complacent, secure confident and self-satisfied person. I am very open to change, liberal, analytical, experimental, free-thinker and flexible. I fit in nearly all situations since I easily adapt to the changes and the demands of a situation. In self-reliance, I am a self-driven person who enjoys own company. I am resourceful and value independence hence focuses on being self-sufficient. In perfectionism, I scored 2.1 indicating a neutral trait. I agree with the results since I value perfection in tasks, but at the same time I understand and consider that human beings are not perfect. I have been conditioning myself to cease seeking perfection at a personal level and also when working on a task. Currently, I have managed to control the compulsiveness to have everything in order, to be in control and being socially precise. As a result, I have managed to release some tension as I scored 1.9 in tension trait. I am relatively composed, tranquil and placid. I am thoughtful, patient and have a higher tolerance to frustrations.

The Big-Five Assessment Results and Explanation of the Results

The Big Five Personality Test targets five dormant traits abbreviated as OCEAN. The acronym stands for Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism or emotional stability. I had a score of 70, 52,19, 87 and 81 respectively.

The low score for extroversion reflects my introverted nature. Interacting with people exhausts me hence I often take breaks to have personal time for reflection and refreshment. I enjoy my own company a lot, for instance, I often prefer staying indoors alone and watch a movie rather than going to a party with friends. In conscientiousness, I obtained a high score which correctly indicates my tendency to be very careful and diligent in decision making and completing tasks. I consider various factors that would affect my course of pursuit, examining various possible outcomes before deciding on the option to actualize. I value quality and look forward to the fulfillment that I derive from a task completed to perfection.

In emotional stability, I had a score of 81 which justify my personal view that I am emotionally mature and stable. I am not easily influenced by what I am feeling at the time when am making decisions but rather, I focus on being objective. I have control over my emotions and can manage to focus on something even when I am emotionally frustrated. In agreeableness, the score reflects my friendliness and optimism. I am a good friend, and I easily get along with people. I am comfortable starting conversation with strangers at a party or in a vehicle. For openness, I obtained a score of 70 an indication that my levels of acceptance to new experiences and willingness to participate in unfamiliar events. I also have a commendable level of emotional intelligence and intellectual ability.

Critique of the Assessment Tools

The assessment tools are responsive and provide accurate results to a large extent. From the 16 PF results, fourteen factors gave me results that accurately reflect how I view myself. However, the I felt that on sensitivity, the test did not consider the all factors and dimensions involved. For instance, sometimes, I feel deeply for people because they are victims while other times, I feel for people because they are the perpetrators of their misery. Also, I dont agree with the test using sympathy to represent feeling as it ignores the motivation to empathize and help a person in need.

For the big five-factor test, I felt that the test is accurate but doesnt take into account for life contingencies. For instance, I am going through losses at a personal level and in the family as a result of the death of a close relative. Such life changes are bound to affect my scores for mood stability and neuroticism. Also, the test doesnt make it clear the context of openness to experience. It is questionable whether being adventurous is equated to the level of intellectual ability.

Various Areas of Individual Personality that the Tools Omitted

I felt that the assessment tools didnt cover the introversion vs. extroversion trait in detail. Also, more details would improve on scoring for conscientiousness. I felt that this trait didnt represent my personality because although I procrastinate some tasks, I do so in efforts to plan and have everything done on time. I have to prioritize my time, mental energy and other resources to meet expectations in different fields.

Explanations on why I agreed and Disagreed with Various Sections of the Assessment Tools

The most outstanding traits from the tests were my tendency to get lost in a dream world, the ability to enjoy, value and create personal time. I also felt that the most traits reflected who I am. For instance, the assessment of social boldness, vigilance, and abstractedness in the 16PF test. Other traits include warmth, reasoning, emotional stability, and dominance. For instance, in real life context, I tend to overthink most issues and analyze various possible outcomes for a project. As a result, when I start working on the project, I am drawn to control all the possible errors to ensure perfection which makes me dominant and sometimes bossy.

Self-Reflection

Self-reflection for future career plans and how the knowledge from this course will be beneficial in the chosen profession.

Career Significance

The assessment tool provided me with important information and personal insight. I have learned in this course that personality traits play a significant role in determining how a person makes decisions. I intend to incorporate the results obtained from the tests when choosing a career path. When I complete my studies, I intend to pursue a career in psychology. However, I am yet to settle on a specific specialty.

Significance at a Personal Level

In my day-to-day life, I will apply the insight obtained from the course and the tests to ensure that I improve on my areas of weaknesses. By applying the principle of reinforcement to for enhance learning a behavior as proposed by B.F Skinners theory (Whitehead, 2016), I will condition myself to a learning process focuses on behavior change in some aspects. The cognitive-affective processing system is founded on principles that propose that cognitive and emotional traits are personality variables that are intertwined and have a complex linkage to each other. In this context, I derive that there might be more context and insight needed before I can explain how and why I am still very trusting of people even when they have disappointed me severally. Also, most behavioral theories, for instance, social learning theory by Albert Bandura agree that the social environment has a significant impact on an individuals personality development (Mortensen & Cialdini, 2010). Also, people express personality differences in different contexts. Since behavior can be learned and unlearnt and relearnt according to B.F Skinners, operant conditioning theory, (Whitehead, 2016), I intend to make efforts to change some traits, for instance, being dominant. With sufficient conditioning and reinforcement, I can manage to be dominant when necessary and discern when there is no need to express dominance.

Embracing the biological significance of personality formation and development is important. The concepts of temperament and resilience determine the general behavioral system (Xu & Krieg, 2015). Understanding the biological explanations to my test scores is crucial as it informs me of the need to manage expectations as I work on changing certain behaviors. I accept that some aspects are biological and even though I might alter their expression for some time and in some ways, the traits will remain and might sometimes resume dominance. For instance, by tendency perfectionism surface from time to time....