Leaders are born to guide others. While they can be very compassionate, they are not opposed to dealing out orders and taking charge when necessary. People who fall into this category are steadfast individuals who refuse to give up - they rarely back down or break down when confronted with challenges. Always open to new experiences and ideas, Leaders' desire for knowledge and self-improvement knows no boundaries. They are extremely dependable, genuine, and conscientious, and have a strong sense of integrity - a value they both uphold and expect from others.
Leaders are easy to get along with, and are comfortable working in teams or on their own. If in a position of authority, they don't need to demand loyalty or deference - their charismatic disposition and amiable nature make others want to follow them. However, while some in power might let their egos get a little too big, Leaders are not the type to pull rank; they know they need to earn the respect of others as well as show it in return. Not only do they thrive on change and stress, but they also have a knack for putting others at ease when faced with difficult times. In situations where cooler heads must prevail, Leaders are a class above the rest.
Based on the Five Factor Model credited to Goldberg, Costa and McRae, the Advanced Multidimensional Personality Matrix (AMPM) is a comprehensive personality assessment designed to provide you with valuable insight into Sample's character, aptitudes, and disposition. The AMPM is based on the theory that all human personality traits belong to one of five broad dimensions of personality. Using factor analysis, a technique that reduces a set of characteristics into a smaller number of underlying factors, personality psychologists discovered that five recurring factors seemed to encompass all others.
The first three factors established were Emotional Stability, Extroversion, and Openness. Emotional Stability refers to calmness, confidence, and emotional security, whereas Extroversion refers to an external orientation and an interactive and socially engaged nature. Openness suggests curiosity, imagination, and flexibility. The additional two factors that form the big five are Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Agreeableness refers to good-naturedness, sincerity, and likeability, and Conscientiousness refers to careful, productive, rule-abiding behavior.
Each of the five main personality traits stretches along a continuum. For example, Sample will not be designated as Agreeable or Disagreeable, but somewhere in between on a normal distribution. The personality traits tested in the questionnaire are consistent cross-culturally, and are fairly stable over time, beginning in young adulthood. An understanding of Sample's position on each dimension can provide you with valuable insight into his personality.
Probability of social desirability bias
What is Impression Management?
Impression Management assesses the degree to which results on a test are distorted, biased, or manipulated. It is added to assessments like this one in order to call attention to suspicious test-taking behavior. When taking aptitude or personality tests, some people will try to present themselves in a better light, especially if the stakes are high, such as when they are applying for a job. The person may deliberately or subconsciously choose to underreport negative behaviors or overreport positive ones, or he or she may select responses that he or she believes other people will give under the same circumstances. Other names for concepts similar to Impression Management (though not necessarily identical) include Social Desirability, Gaming the Test, Faking, Faking Good, Distortion, Lying, and Self-deception.
How is Impression Management assessed?
A test-taker's answers on the Impression Management questions are compared to the responses of the general population who also took this assessment. When someone selects socially desirable responses that are rarely endorsed by other people, there is reason to believe that a self-presentation bias is at play.
It is important to keep in mind that a socially desirable response to any single Impression Management question could actually be the truth, in that the person is actually as good or as skilled as he or she is claiming to be. However, if most or all the questions on the scale follow a socially desirable pattern, it is unlikely that the person is being truthful, though not entirely impossible.
How should an Impression Management score be interpreted?
The information offered by an Impression Management scale is meant as a cautionary note, an indication to pay careful attention to the test-taker's results and to his or her responses in an interview. A high probability of social desirability casts doubt on a person's results, but this doesn't mean that he or she should automatically be dismissed solely based on that. The hiring manager should view this as a sign that they need to be particularly thorough when interviewing the candidate, paying special attention to the skills and traits a person claims to have and probing in the interview to see if the person is really as good as he or she claims to be. For additional tools that can help with the hiring process, we suggest that you use the interview questions module available in ARCH Profile, which provides questions that are tailored to a test-taker's results and specifically designed to probe deeper.
There is one caveat: any Impression Management scale can produce a false negative. People who are familiar with psychometrics may be able to detect Impression Management questions and achieve a low score. A false positive is also possible, in which a person is actually as wonderful and honest as he or she claims to be. However, both of these conditions are quite rare.
How did this test-taker perform on Impression Management?
The probability that Sample's responses were influenced by social desirability bias is low.
This means that while he picked a few responses that are associated with "faking good," it is likely that his results on the scales are a fairly accurate reflection of how he conducts himself in real life. It is always a good idea to validate that by asking probing interview questions in which you solicit concrete examples of situations when he displayed certain positive characteristics or competently managed challenging circumstances.