Theories of me
Development-oriented personality assessments in organizations have become very popular in recent decades. Many people today engage with a so-called 'colour test' at work and most managers have completed a personality questionnaire at least once during their career. These developmental assessments are intended to help people get to know themselves better, but the question of whether and how they gain self-insight as a result of this has not yet been properly investigated. In my research, I interviewed 55 people about how they made meaning of the personality profile that resulted from a questionnaire they completed themselves. In addition, I described how I made meaning of five different interpretations of my own personality profile, given by feedback professionals. Two of my conclusions were, i) that although personality assessment instruments are presented as objective and relatively static, making sense and meaning of the personality profile that is produced, is a rather subjective, interactive and dynamic process. In other words: in practice, the same profile can be interpreted in different ways and interpretations also change during new conversations with others about one´s profile, and ii) that when someone does not recognize themselves in a profile, they use, and are facilitated to use, various strategies to integrate the personality feedback into the image they have of themselves; often this includes a reference to multiple 'selves', like a ´former´ versus a ´current´ self, or a ´real´ versus an ´adjusted´ self. My research supports people's right to make meaning of their own scores on a personality questionnaire.