Psychometrics in Coaching

Using Psychological and Psychometric Tools for Development

Jonathan Passmore

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780749466640
• eBook ISBN: 9780749466657
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Gestion des ressources humaines

With a growing demand for psychometric testing in the coaching profession, coaches and practitioners alike need to understand the psychology underpinning the tests as well as how to select and apply them effectively. Published with the Association for Coaching and written by an international team of global coaching practitioners and psychometricians, Psychometrics in Coaching provides an overview of using psychometrics and providing feedback and offers clear explanations of the key models and tools used in coaching today. Whether you are new to using psychometric tests or an experienced practitioner, this book provides you with a deep understanding of the models, the theory and research behind them, their reliability and validity, and how to implement them as part of a wider coaching and development programme. Psychometrics in Coaching is an essential resource for those seeking expert guidance from the leading writers in the field, as well as students on psychology, psychometrics, business and human resources programmes.

Part one

Psychometrics and feedback

01

Using psychometrics and psychological tools in coaching

DR ELIZABETH ALLWORTH and DR JONATHAN PASSMORE

Introduction

Coaches have an expanding range of psychological assessment tools from which they can draw to assist coachees build the self-awareness that is necessary to identify new career and life goals, and to enhance their performance at work. The burgeoning psychological testing industry has produced a myriad of measures enabling coaches to support coachees to better understand their behaviour, their preferences and their capabilities as they relate to work and life. Personality tests, aptitude tests and questionnaires assessing values, interests, leadership and motivational needs represent some of the kinds of tests currently available on the market internationally. Many of these psychological tests have made a positive contribution to coaching and have been rigorously tested to ensure their reliability and validity (terms we shall explore later). There is, however, considerable variability in the level of research undertaken and the reliability and validity of these tools.

The aim of this chapter is to provide the background information that will help coaches to choose technically sound tests that are appropriate for the situation in which they intend to use them. First, we present the various kinds of tests that are available to coaches, what they measure and their role in the coaching context. Second, we describe the psychometric properties of tests and the standards that are required for test reliability and validity. Third, profiling and criterion-oriented approaches to assessment are compared, highlighting the need for coaches to broaden their perspective beyond the skills, knowledge and personal attributes of the coachee by also taking account of the demands and the rewards of the environment in which the coachee lives. Fourth, the benefits of psychological testing for the coach and the coachee are explored, and in the last part of the chapter, ethical guidelines and best practice in psychological testing are presented.

Psychological tests

A psychological test is a standardized measure of one or a number of psychological attributes. The attributes of an individual that are most commonly of interest in the coaching context include personality (attributes such as conscientiousness, interpersonal confidence, sociability), career interests (for example, preference for working with people or engaging in artistic activities), values (such as altruism or protection of the environment), motivational needs (that is, what drives the person such as money, status, autonomy), and cognitive ability (for example, numerical or verbal problem-solving abilities). Here, we briefly describe the kinds of tests that measure each of these attributes.

Personality questionnaires

There is an abundance of personality questionnaires on the market, each measuring a broad or narrow domain of individual behaviour and personal preferences. Here, we look at four kinds of personality measures that may be used in work-related coaching: multidimensional measures, measures of the Big Five personality factors, measures of personality type and competency-based tools.

Multidimensional measures of personality assess a wide range of personality attributes or traits such as achievement drive, sociability, self-control, flexibility or empathy, to name just a few. The results of personality testing should provide comparisons of an individual’s personality attributes with those of others from a ‘norm’ group, such as others in the general population or other managers. The validity of multidimensional personality measures as predictors of performance is enhanced when the test is carefully chosen to measure the attributes that coachees require, or will require, on the job or in their personal life. As an example, if interpersonal confidence and achievement drive are required in a role, the personality test should be able to measure these same constructs or attributes in the person as closely as possible.

Multidimensional measures of personality are particularly helpful in the coaching relationship to build the coachees’ awareness of their preferred styles of thinking and behaving across situations. This kind of assessment can help to explain why some people are well suited to some kinds of work environments or situations while others are not. It can also help to explain why some situations or tasks are more stressful than others.

Measures of the five-factor model of personality are based on the accepted premise that all personality attributes are represented in five core, broadband attributes, commonly referred to as the ‘Big Five’ (Goldberg, 1990). The five factors are: Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and Neuroticism (Emotional Stability). The five factors are defined in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 The five-factor model of personality

Big Five factor	Description
Conscientiousness	careful, reliable, hard-working, well-organized, punctual, disciplined, ambitious
Extroversion	sociable, fun-loving, affectionate, friendly, talkative, warm
Agreeableness	courteous, selfless, sympathetic, trusting, generous, acquiescent, lenient, forgiving, flexible
Openness to experience	original, imaginative, creative, broad interests, curious, daring, liberal, independent, prefers variety
Neuroticism (emotional stability)	worrying, emotional, high-strung, temperamental, insecure, self-pitying, vulnerable (emotional stability: calm, at ease, relaxed, even-tempered, secure, hardy)

SOURCE: McCrae and Costa (1987)

Although there is considerable research showing the generalizable validity of some of the five factors, a measure of these factors alone may be too broadly defined to be practical in the coaching context. In selecting an appropriate measure based on the five-factor theory, those that provide facet scales or subscales can offer finer definition to the broader five factors, and as such, can enable more detailed information and analysis of the coachee’s personality. Examples of facet scales or subscales of Extroversion include being friendly, sociable or assertive. It is possible that an individual may be friendly and sociable without being assertive, or vice versa. Understanding these facets can be more informative for the coachee than simply knowing their result on the broader trait of Extroversion.

Measures of personality type provide a categorization of the individual into a personality typology that defines a specific set of behavioural tendencies, reflecting broad differences in attitudes and orientation. While multidimensional measures of personality are used to profile individuals across a range of individual attributes, measures of personality type profile people according to a cluster of attributes that represent their preferences. These kinds of personality measures are very popular with coaches as they often provide a more succinct description of the individual across a manageable number of dimensions.

In addition to the kinds of personality tests discussed above, coaches may draw from a range of special purpose tests that are designed to measure specific aspects of behaviour such as leadership style, team orientation, sales orientation and emotional intelligence. Examples include MSCEIT, which measures emotional intelligence, MTQ48, which assesses mental toughness, and TLQ, which measures leadership competence. These kinds of measures of personal attributes can have value in specific contexts. For instance, a measure of leadership style could be relevant for those coachees who want to better understand their preferred way of leading and managing others. On the other hand, a measure of team orientation can offer insights into the way in which a coachee prefers to contribute in the work environment.

Vocational interests

The assessment of vocational interests can be useful in the coaching context by providing insights into the fields of employment and the range of occupations that are attractive to the individual. Career interest assessments ask people what they enjoy doing, not just at work but also in other domains of their lives such as school, university and leisure.

Generally speaking, vocational interest theories categorize jobs and careers into those that involve working with people, those that involve working with data and those that involve working with things (Fine, 1955). Occupational preferences are also closely linked to personality style (Holland, 1997). To illustrate, while artists may describe themselves as creative, expressive and independent, accountants may describe themselves as stable, organized and dependable. By comparing an individual across a broad range of occupations and vocational fields, interest inventories are particularly useful with those coachees who are considering a career change. They can enable insights into occupational areas that may not necessarily have been previously considered by the coachee.

Motivational needs and values questionnaires

The assessment of motivational needs and values is possibly the least defined aspect of the assessment, particularly in view of the multitude of motivational theories upon which motivational assessment tools are based. Most questionnaires and tools that assess motivational needs and values focus on one or a combination of four areas: sources of motivation, how the person likes to be rewarded, the kind of management style that brings out the best in the person, and th...

Table of contents

• Psychometrics in Coaching
• Psychometrics in Coaching
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• About the Contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part One Psychometrics and feedback
• 01 Using psychometrics and psychological tools in coaching
• 02 Designing psychometric questionnaires
• 03 Administering and managing the use of psychometric questionnaires
• 04 Psychometric tools in development – do they work and how?
• 05 Using feedback in coaching
• Part Two Individual instruments and their use
• 06 Coaching with the MBTI instrument
• 07 Coaching with teams: Team Management Systems (TMS)
• 08 Coaching with OPQ
• 09 Coaching with the Motivation Questionnaire
• 10 Coaching with Saville Consulting Wave ®
• 11 Coaching with the 16PF questionnaire
• 12 Coaching for emotional intelligence: MSCEIT
• 13 Identifying potential derailing behaviours: Hogan Development Survey
• 14 Coaching for engaging transformational leadership: The Transformational Leadership Questionnaire (TLQ™)
• 15 Developing resilience through coaching: MTQ48
• 16 Using archetypes in coaching
• 17 Coaching for strengths using VIA
• 18 Coaching for stress: StressScan
• 19 Coaching for cultural transformation: CTT
• 20 Coaching with FIRO Element B
• 21 Coaching with LSI
• 22 MTR-i and Type Mapping system for team coaching
• Psychometrics glossary
• APPENDIX The Association for Coaching
• Index
• Copyright Page