Student Advising Based on
Aptitudes and Personality
Dwane H. Dean
TASTE Conference
May 27, 2015
Overview of Session
•
•
•
•
•
The main point
About aptitudes
About personality
Case history of aptitude and vocation mis-match
Group administration of test of three-dimensional
aptitude
• Interpreting results of test
The Main Point
• Currently, student choice of a major (career path)
is influenced by uncertain factors and students
receive limited guidance from the university.
• Ideally, the university would help students make a
more informed career decision by testing students
for selected aptitudes and personality and provide
information on which occupations best “fit” their
aptitude profile and personality.
Why Aptitudes and Personality?
• There is evidence that different occupations tend
to attract people with different aptitudes and
personalities (suggesting the need for a “match”).
• Personal happiness in one’s work is believed to be
highly dependent on the level of congruence
between aptitudes possessed by the worker and
the aptitudes demanded by the occupation as well
as one’s personality “fit” with the vocation.
• Aptitudes and personality do not change over time
(like interests, situational influences, knowledge),
so it is best to focus on these two factors.
Avoid Being a Square Peg in
a Round Hole
Square Peg, Round Hole – Michael Dennis, CBF
500 x 375 | 209KB creditmanagementassociation.org
Definition of Aptitude
• “Aptitudes are natural talents, special abilities for
doing, or learning to do, certain kinds of things
easily and quickly. They have little to do with
knowledge or culture, or education, or even
interests. Musical talent is an example of such
an aptitude”
The Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation website - 2015
http://www.jocrf.org/about_aptitudes/what.html
What Are Natural Talents?
• Natural talents are innate abilities for doing
particular tasks; they are not related to intelligence
or knowledge, or values, or interests.
• For example, ideaphoria is the ability to rapidly
generate ideas, an aptitude needed by writers.
• Structural visualization is the ability to think in
three dimensions, an aptitude needed by engineers,
but not at all necessary for writers.
• Finger dexterity and tweezer dexterity are abilities
needed by surgeons but not writers.
Resource for Aptitudes
Your Natural Gifts: How to Recognize and
Develop Them for Success and SelfFulfillment Paperback – Aug 1991
by Margaret E. Broadley (Author)
http://www.amazon.ca/Your-Natural-Gifts-Recognize-Self-Fulfillment/dp/0939009560
About Aptitudes
• The range for an aptitude among people is very
large, it is common to find a six-fold difference
(much larger than the range in IQ or height).
• Strong aptitudes cry out to be used; if not used in
work or play, a sense of unfulfillment may occur.
• Aptitudes exist as “potentials” such that people are
limited to the potential they possess and cannot
simply gain ability through practice. In other
words, aptitudes are truly “gifts” rather than
something that can be acquired.
Deliberate practice and performance in music, games,
sports, education, and professions: A meta-analysis.
Macnamara, Brooke N., Hambrick, David Z., Oswald, Fred .,
Psychological Science, Vol 25(8), Aug, 2014. pp. 1608-1618.
Effect of Practice
Effect of Practice
• "Deliberate practice is unquestionably important,
but not nearly as important as proponents of the
view have claimed," said Macnamara.
• Commenting on Macnamara’s work, David
Lubinski, a professor of psychology at Vanderbilt
who has studied talent identification and
development, said "The view that essentially
anyone can do essentially anything is not
scientifically defensible."
Evidence for Aptitude
Performance of Occupational Groups on Ideaphoria
http://www.jocrf.org/research/occupational_plots.html
More Evidence for Aptitude
http://www.jocrf.org/research/2DPlot.html
About Personality
• “Personality refers to individual differences in
characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and
behaving. The study of personality focuses on two
broad areas. One is understanding individual
differences in particular personality characteristics,
such as sociability or irritability. The other is
understanding how the various parts of a person
come together as a whole.
American Psychological Association
http://www.apa.org/topics/personality/
Resource for Personality
Please Understand Me: Character and
Temperament Types Paperback –
January 1, 1984
by David Keirsey (Author),
Marilyn Bates (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Please-Understand-Me-Character-Temperament/dp/0960695400
Resource for Personality
Type Talk: The 16 Personality Types
That Determine How We Live, Love, and
Work Paperback – September 1, 1989
by Otto Kroeger (Author),
Janet M. Thuesen (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Type-Talk-Personality-Types-Determine/dp/0440507049
MBTI Personality Dimensions
Information gathering function
Sensing versus Intuition
Decision making function
Thinking versus Feeling
Source of energy
Extraverts versus Introverts
Life-style orientation
Judgers versus Perceivers
Personality and Work
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
ISTJ – The Accountant
ENTJ – The Executive
INTP – The Scientist
ESTJ – The Manager
ESFJ – The Salesperson
ISFJ – The Nurse
ESTP – The Entrepreneur
ISTP – The Artist
ESFP – the Performer
Myers, I.B. and Myers, P.B. (1980), Gifts Differing,
Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc., Palo alto, CA,
Page 159.
Evidence for Personality
Putting It All Together
• Aptitudes are not generally correlated with each
other (meaning that a person scoring high or low
on one aptitude is not more or less likely to score
high or low on another). Also, aptitudes are
independent of personality type. And, aptitudes
and personality are both stable over time.
• The result is similar to a one-time pull of a slotmachine lever. You get what you get, there is no
“do-over”, and you are stuck with the complex
problem of finding the best job fit for your
aptitude profile and personality type.
Analogy to One-Time Slot Play
slot-machine
500 x 600 | 28KB
blogs.denverpost.com
Case History
• A real-life example is presented illustrating how
mis-match between aptitudes and occupation led
to multiple problems.
• The case suggests that intervention (aptitude and
personality testing and guidance) at an earlier
stage in the career-path might have avoided an
unfortunate sequence of events.
The ROT Test
• The Purdue Visualization of Rotations test will
now be administered.
• There is a strict 10-minute limit for the test.
• This is a group-administered, paper and pencil
version of the structural visualization test.
• A high level of structural visualization is needed
by surgeons, architects, engineers, mechanics,
and sculptors, among other occupations.
Bodner, GM, and Guay, RL, (1997), The Purdue Visualization of Rotations Test,
The Chemical Educator, 2(4), 1-18.
ROT Answers
#1
A
#11
B
#2
D
#12
E
#3
A
#13
A
#4
B
#14
E
#5
E
#15
D
#6
C
#16
A
#7
B
#17
B
#8
E
#18
D
#9
A
#19
D
#10
C
#20
E
ROT Score Distribution
ROT Test
• You may keep the test booklet.
• DO NOT further reproduce the test booklet.
• The ROT test belongs to Dr. Bodner and
Purdue and I have limited permission to use it
for education and research (non-commercial)
purposes.
• Contact Dr. Bodner if you have additional
interest in the test.
Conclusions
• There is no “good” or “bad” aptitude profile or
personality type. Rather, it is simply that some
aptitude profiles and personality types are better
suited for certain occupations than others.
• Knowing one’s aptitude profile and personality
type at the time of entering college may help
students make a more informed career decision.
That is, the aptitudes and personality of the
student should be consistent with those of the
intended occupation.