Personality Test in Interview: Your thoughts

[camkiss]

At one of the poster sessions at ASA this weekend, one well known program is doing research on administering a personality test to applicantrs to help better select anesthesia residents. What do you guys think of this? Would you be willing to take one, or pass on the interview. (I am not affiliated with this program, but thought the idea was unusual to say the least).

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[lane]

how would they use it? it's one thing to administer a test, but what really counts is how the results are translated and ultimately used. are they looking for a certain type of person? do they want to fill a quota of certain types of people? is it meant to test someone's moral compass?

it seems like there'd be so many variables with something as subjective as a personality exam that it'd be difficult to utilize practically.

 

[camkiss]

"Discussion: We expect to develop a program that will test cooperation, self-efficacy, achievement-striving, neuroticism, anxiety, anger, and vulnerability. This program may be used for selection of anesthesiology residents, and as objective assessment during training."

 

[lord_jeebus]

Glad I'm not applying to Florida!

Or perhaps I should...As a past psych major I'm pretty sure I could exploit the personality test, and probably others as well.

 

[camkiss]

The purpose of the question is not to bash any program that is considering this, but to see what you all think of this idea. Should we use other means of assesing potential residents other than board scores, LORs, etc?

To my knowledge, no program is currently doing this.

 

[Ferdie]

I'm the kind of person who used to waste lots of time taking online "personality tests" when I was a teenager, so I'd probably take the test for the sheer amusement of it. And if I was already down there I don't think I'd just leave the interview. Although you're saying this is Florida, and there are beaches just a short drive from there, so maybe I would take off and make for the beach if the program otherwise rubbed me the wrong way.

 

[InductionAgent]

Some personality tests have a good amount of evidence base and research behind them and are a lot less subjective than the interview itself. The interview is total potluck and has as much to do with the mood of the interviewer and their personality quirks as it does of the interviewee. A personality test, while not perfect, is extremely more consistent.