Over the past few months, I conducted a self-experiment.
\nFollowing the idea that \u201cthe best test is the self-test,\u201d I worked through four different personality and strengths assessments \u2014 including tools used in assessment centers of major companies. I repeated some of them up to three times. In times of scaling and AI-supported preselection, I wanted to understand what we are actually basing decisions on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result made me think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I place my own results side by side, I am looking at two different people. The same person, partly within the same week \u2014 but with hardly any overlap. In psychometric terms: the convergent validity between the instruments was alarmingly low. And the repeated tests revealed the next problem \u2014 weak test-retest reliability: when someone takes the same test again after a few weeks, they often end up somewhere else. A measure that shows something different the second time does not measure anything stable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What particularly bothered me was this: even the tests that do not assign types or categories ultimately provide deterministic descriptions \u2014 statements that define who I \u201cam.\u201d They may avoid the crude typologizing of the classic Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), but they reproduce the same underlying assumption: that personality is a fixed state rather than a snapshot in time. Yet traits are demonstrably distributed dimensionally \u2014 not either\/or, but more or less, as the psychometrically robust Five-Factor Model (Big Five) has shown for decades. On top of that comes the Barnum effect: vague formulations in which everyone can recognize themselves.
\n\nAnd one final point genuinely surprised me: a test does not become more valid simply because the user is asked at the end to confirm whether they were \u201cin a quiet environment\u201d and tested \u201cin their preferred language.\u201d That is not control of confounding variables \u2014 it is shifting responsibility for them onto the test taker. True measurement quality comes from sound test construction, not from a self-report checkbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Daraus ergeben sich f\u00fcr mich unbequeme Fragen:
\ud83d\udc49 Wurden die Konstruktionsprobleme des MBTI je wirklich gel\u00f6st \u2013 oder nur eleganter verpackt?
\ud83d\udc49 Was bedeutet das f\u00fcr F\u00fchrung, wenn wir Teams nach \u201eFarben\u201c und \u201eTypen\u201c sortieren?
\ud83d\udc49 Kann man einen Menschen am Ende doch nur \u00fcber qualitative, dialogische Verfahren wirklich einsch\u00e4tzen?
\ud83d\udc49 Und etwas provokant: M\u00fcssten Recruiter nicht eher einen Kurs in qualitativer Forschung belegen \u2013 Interviewf\u00fchrung, Triangulation, Quellenkritik \u2013 bevor sie Menschen f\u00fcr Stellen ausw\u00e4hlen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I do not have a ready-made answer to that. But I am convinced: anyone who measures people should at least know how well their measurement instrument actually measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How do you approach this \u2014 do you rely on assessment tools, on conversation, or on both?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ich habe in den letzten Monaten ein Selbstexperiment gemacht.Frei nach dem Motto \u201eder beste Test ist der Selbsttest\u201c habe ich vier verschiedene Pers\u00f6nlichkeits- und St\u00e4rkentests durchgearbeitet \u2013 darunter Verfahren, die in Assessment-Centern gro\u00dfer Unternehmen zum Einsatz kommen. Einige habe ich bis zu drei Mal wiederholt. In Zeiten von Skalierung und 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