The personality test 16pf: rediscovered again, and I’m certified!

The 16pf personality test enables people to gain insight about themselves. It can be used to substantiate coaching and advice (especially for careers). And it also allows the targeted selection of applicants. The online version is standard today. It offers solutions to the following challenges: Recognizing oneself and your ones self-concepts, trusting ones own strengths and developing them further. On the other hand, the 16pf personality test allows suitability to jobs to be tested beyond performance tests.

I know the 16pf very well – from my studies. But for a long time I had nothing to do with the diagnosis of personality; I had to diagnose suitability for jobs based on performance tests. And about advice and preparation for decisions about careers in assessment and development centers. An increasingly important focus of my work is the professional (including career) coaching of individuals. To this end, I would like to use the 16pf as an instrument for gaining knowledge of oneself. And I’ve just been certified as a 16pf user!

Put your feet in the water of self-knowledge – it’s worth it. The personality test 16pf reults in characteristics; these can very well be seen as personal strengths. And if you are aware of these, you can very well utilize them: both for yourself, as well as for your conversation partners, colleagues, customers – and in private relationships. However, the 16pf sometimes also shows where dangers lurk in one’s own behavior. Knowing them and not falling into the trap is another advantage. – Both, using strengths and avoiding dangers, are starting points for coaching and consulting!

Career success can be predicted with personality tests – with a certain probability, and therefore with a certain error rate, also! But this also applies to assessment centers, and to performance tests, for example on intelligence and ability to concentrate, as well. It will therefore be important to embed the personality test 16pf into a broader approach. In particular, you will want to schedule a more in-depth interview. – However, before applying all of these procedures, a profile of the requirements must always be created.

However, there were always opportunities for me to do tests with myself as the test subject. And every time there was something new to discover. The MBTI already showed that I am an introvert, and another test (Gallup Strength Finder) showed that I am a collector of ideas – something new for me and almost a relief. The personality test 16pf then basically confirmed introversion, but corrected its extent. It gave a certain bias, nothing more, while the MBTI made (and always does) an either/or statement. Thus, depending on what the purpose is, I prefer one method or the other. I am also certified for the MBTI.

On the one hand, the MBTI asks the test person (coachee) to participate: only from the test results and self-assessment does he or she determine the ‘best fit’. This somewhat slow, required process is guided, but the determination of preferences and type is carried out by the test subject her- or himself. A very nice inclusion of the client! On the other hand, however, the objectivity of this result suffers. So I tend to consider the MBTI when it comes to coaching and consulting.

In contrast, the results of the 16pf are objective – in the sense of test theory, this means that they cannot be influenced by the test subject or the test leader. The test subject gives answers to 184 multiple choice questions – the evaluation is done by the computer, so the test person has as little influence as the test leader. The test even offers a lying scale that can be used to debunk attempts to answer in accordance with social desirability. I therefore prefer it when it comes to serious decisions about others, for example in recruiting.

Normal distribution is the statistical basis of the 16pf

The underlying characteristics model is not without controversy. On the one hand, it requires a personality with traits that are stable and determine actions. On the other hand, this clearly implies: the test describes a person’s tendency towards their normal, typical behavior. So in most situations he or she will behave as predicted by the test. But depending on the circumstances, he or she may well display some atypical, maybe inappropriate behavior. Anyone can act extremely politely – or rudely – when the situation requires, or seems to. Regardless of his or her inherent social skills.

It is a strange coincidence, but funny nonetheless. The MBTI leads to sixteen different types, while the 16pf describes people based on sixteen factors. However, it will usually provide a profile that shows rather few extreme, tus not very noticeable, values for the various traits. Nevertheless, it also provides five global factors, the well-known Big Five. And so leads to an easy to understand result.