A personality test is a questionnaire or other standardized instrument designed to reveal aspects of an individual's character or psychological makeup.
The first personality tests were developed in the 1920s[1] and were intended to ease the process of personnel selection, particularly in the armed forces. Since these early efforts, a wide variety of personality tests have been developed, notably the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the MMPI, and a number of tests based on the Five Factor Model of personality, such as the Revised NEO Personality Inventory.
Estimates of how much the industry is currently worth are between $2 and $4 billion a year.[2] Personality tests are used in a range of contexts, including but not limited to, individual and relationship counseling, career counseling,employment testing, occupational health and safety and customer interaction management.
The origins of personality testing date back to the 18th and 19th centuries, when personality was assessed through phrenology, the measurement of the human skull, and physiognomy, which assessed personality based on a person's outer appearances.[3] These early pseudoscientific techniques were eventually replaced with more empirical methods in the 20th century. One of the earliest modern personality tests was the Woolworth Personality Data Sheet, a self-report inventorydeveloped for World War I and used for the psychiatric screening of new draftees.
There are many different types of personality tests. The most common type is theself-report inventory, also commonly referred to as objective personality tests. Self-report inventory tests involve the administration of many questions/items to test-takers who respond by rating the degree to which each item reflects their behaviour and can be scored objectively. The term 'item' is used because many test questions are not actually questions; they are typically statements on questionnaires that allow respondents to indicate level