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Insights into the latest Leadership thinking, models, and tools.
Practical, research-based guidance to help you navigate your Leadership journey.
Send me a message!
Insights into the latest Leadership thinking, models, and tools.
Practical, research-based guidance to help you navigate your Leadership journey.
1. Validity is Not Binary
Critiques often assume that if a tool is not perfectly valid, it is therefore invalid. In psychometrics, validity exists on a spectrum. Many widely accepted models also have limitations. The more appropriate question is whether a tool is sufficiently valid for its intended purpose.
2. Evidence of Psychological Grounding
Tools such as DISC style frameworks show moderate reliability and evidence of construct validity. This increases with analysis and application as we de brief with you. They also correlate with broader personality models like the Big Five. This suggests they are not arbitrary, but simplified representations of real psychological traits.
3. Purpose Over Precision
These tools are not designed for prediction or diagnosis. Their primary aim is to enhance self-awareness, communication, and reflection. Research in adult development supports that structured reflection improves metacognition and behavioural change.
4. The Role of Facilitation
While critics of Psychometrics highlight the ‘Barnum Effect’, this mainly applies to passive consumption. In facilitated settings, insight is generated through our dialogue, challenge, and application. The tool acts as a catalyst rather than a conclusion.
5. Simplicity Drives Application
Complex academic models may offer higher statistical validity but are often less accessible. Simplified tools reduce cognitive load and allow faster behavioural application, making them more effective in practice.
6. A Balanced Professional Position
Profiling tools should be positioned as structured frameworks for reflection. They are grounded in personality theory but are not definitive measures of identity.
Conclusion:Â Personality profiling tools are not scientifically perfect, but they remain valuable when used responsibly. Their strength lies in enabling insight, dialogue, and development rather than delivering precise measurement.
Research to support the validity of tests relating to PPA’s are shown here. This manual demonstrates the validity of the PPA.
Firstly, as a construct the PPA model has been shown to have good fit across multiple fit indices and item scores correlate well with overall factor scores.
Furthermore, the PPA has been shown to be fair, demonstrating no ethnicity, age or education differences and only modest gender differences on some factors when taken at a whole working population level which are not replicated when narrowing the focus to a single organisational sample. This suggests differences are reflecting differing behavioural demands of roles that are more frequently taken up by women or men.
Further to the topic of fairness, the PPA items have also been shown to only include one adjective on one item that exhibits differential item functioning and so the effect of this on overall assessment scores would be negligible.
The research aims to position the PPA behavioural preferences model amongst other contemporary models of behavioural, motivation and personality. The interpersonal circumplex as a model of interpersonal behaviour and the aspects of socioanalytic theory as a model of motivation for behaviour show clear theoretical similarities to the PPA model of preferred or habitual behaviours whilst still aiming to explain behaviour from different standpoints. Strong correlations between scores on the PPA, IPC and SAT measures demonstrated above highlight theoretical similarities and support the PPA construct.
The PPA is not a measure of personality, but by demonstrating links between prominent personality models and the PPA we can better understand the link of how underlying personality drives styles of behaviour. The support of theorised links between the PPA and the Big Five personality model, Cattell 16 Personality Factors Scale, the Occupational Personality Questionnaire, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Dark Triad, The High Potential Trait Indicator and the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire show how personality drives behaviour as well as providing strong validation of the PPA construct.
The research also provides very strong criterion validation support for the PPA. The PPA’s primary use is to aid employee selection decisions and so the job fit and work performance study above is very important in demonstrating how matching job applicants’ behavioural preferences to job demands results in better work performance. These correlations were very strong for a criterion measure. Further research showing the link between the PPA and resilience and burnout as well as performance in a range of roles from call centres, sales, leaders, managers and revenue protection inspectors highlights the utility of the PPA to inform employee selection decision making.
Overall, the PPA model is a well-supported construct and one with very apparent criterion validity.
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