Personality and Preference Inventory

The Personality and Preference Inventory (PAPI) was originally designed by Dr Max Kostick, Professor of Industrial Psychology at Boston State College

Boston State College

Boston State College was a public university located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.It was located in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston. Boston State College's roots begin with the Girls High School, founded in 1852. In 1872, the Boston Normal School separated from Girls High School and...

, in Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, USA, in the early 1960s.

Kostick’s original goal was to design an instrument that:

Had a sound theoretical base
Was simple to administer, complete and score
Could be used by non-psychologists
Avoided clinical terminology and interpretation
Comprehensively covered aspects of personality relevant to the workplace
Was primarily a counselling and discussion tool.

PAPI is a personality measure which was specifically designed to elicit behaviours and preferences which are appropriate to the workplace. It is an applied, workplace instrument and this is reflected by the conceptual model of personality it seeks to measure.It is recognised as a valid and reliable measure of personality by a number of institutions internationally including The British Psychological Society

British Psychological Society

The British Psychological Society is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. The BPS is also a Registered Charity and, along with advantages, this also imposes certain constraints on what the society can and cannot do...

and the Swedish Test Committee.

Setting The Scene: The Work Of Henry Murray

To many, Henry Murray

Henry Murray

Henry Alexander Murray was an American psychologist who taught for over 30 years at Harvard University. He was Director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic in the School of Arts and Sciences after 1930 and colluded with Stanley Cobb, Bullard Professor of Neuropathology at the Medical School to...

(1893–1988) was the first person to be entitled to use the label ‘personality psychologist’. His seminal work in personality was carried out at the Harvard Psychological Clinic in collaboration with a group of dedicated colleagues whose ideas culminated in the classic, Explorations in Personality (Murray, 1938).

In developing PAPI, Kostick acknowledged the influence of numerous personality theorists, including Murray, Schutz and Edwards. However, it was probably Murray’s greatest contribution to personality research, his need-press theory of personality, which was most influential in helping Kostick devise the theoretical basis of PAPI.

The Relevance of Murray’s ‘Needs-Press’ Theory for PAPI

The rationale for the design and formulation of PAPI as an assessment measuring preferences (Needs) and perceptions (Roles) is based on Murray’s needs-press theory. The PAPI Role scales measure the individual’s perception of himself or herself in the work environment and look at areas such as integrative planning and attention to detail. The Need scales probe the deeper inherent tendencies of an individual’s behaviour such as the need to belong to groups and finish a task.

The key features of the PAPI Need and Role scales can be summarised as follows:

PAPI Needs

Ten Need scales
Expressed as preference statements, e.g. ‘I like to do new things’
Measure an individual’s preference for behaving in particular ways based on what has gone before, i.e. an estimate of ‘general tendency’
Internal determinants of behaviour
Aim is to achieve ‘need satisfaction’ and avoid ‘need frustration’
Needs which are not satisfied or channelled appropriately may result in dysfunctional behaviour
Similar to Murray’s needs on the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule
Edwards Personal Preference Schedule
Developed by psychologist and University of Washington professor, Allen L. Edwards, the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule is a forced choice, objective, non-projective personality inventory...
Widely held to be a measure of stable personality traits.

PAPI Roles

Ten Role scales
Expressed as perception statements, e.g. ‘I always focus on the steps ahead’
Measure our perception of our behaviour in the work situation
Determinants of behaviour which include external influences
Include ‘situational’ characteristics that put pressure on us to behave in certain ways, reflecting organisational culture, demands of job role, management style of one’s boss etc., as well as experiences outside work.
Do not measure transient psychological ‘state’ – roles are reliably measured on PAPI.

The scales are:

Role scales

Leadership role (L)
Organized type (C)
Attention to detail (D)
Conceptual thinker (R)
Social harmonizer (S)
Ease in decision making (I)
Work pace (T)
Emotional restraint (E)
Role of the hard worker (G)
Integrative planner (H)

Need scales

Need to control others (P)
Need for rules and supervision (W)
Need for change (Z)
Need to finish a task (N)
Need to be noticed (X)
Need to belong to groups (B)
Need to relate closely to individuals (O)
Need to be forceful (K)
Need to achieve (A)
Need to be supportive (F)

PAPI-I (Ipsative) and PAPI-N (Normative)

PAPI is available in two different formats: PAPI-I and PAPI-N.

PAPI-I is recognisable from the way that it presents questions in a forced-choice format. By their very design, ipsative

Ipsative

Ipsative is a descriptor used in psychology to indicate a specific type of measure in which respondents compare two or more desirable options and pick the one that is most preferred . This is contrasted with measures that use Likert-type scales, in which respondents choose the score Ipsative is a...

instruments such as PAPI-I examine and compare the attributes of an individual. They do not allow comparisons to be made between individuals and should be used only when the essential aim is to understand a person, not when it is necessary to make judgements in order to compare them with others. PAPI-I is thus suitable for assessment situations which do not require comparative judgements and where individuals are more likely to appreciate the benefit of presenting themselves honestly, such as:

Career development
Personal development
Coaching and mentoring
Counselling
Work problem diagnosis
Aiding better performance
Identifying training needs
Team building

PAPI-I comprises 90 items: 180 statements paired in a forced choice format from which one has to be chosen. 45 dual statement items are used to assess Roles and 45 dual statement items are used to assess Needs. Each of the 20 PAPI scales is thus measured by 180/20 = 9 statements.

PAPI-N is recognisable from the way it presents questions as single statements, each accompanied by a rating scale. Unlike ipsative instruments such as PAPI-I, normative

Norm (sociology)

Social norms are the accepted behaviors within a society or group. This sociological and social psychological term has been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit...

questionnaires are suitable for assessment situations where there is a need to make judgements about a person in order to compare them with others. PAPI-N is thus suitable for assessment situations which require comparative judgements to be made about people and where, as a consequence, individuals might see the benefit of presenting themselves in the best possible light, such as:

Selection between candidates for a post
Matching a candidate against a PAPI ‘template’ for a specific job
Development of in-house PAPI ‘‘norms’’.

PAPI-N is a 126 item questionnaire, comprising 126 single statements, each accompanied by a Likert-style rating scale. Each of the 20 PAPI scales comprises 6 items, with the ‘’Social Desirability’’ scale contributing a further 6 items to the questionnaire.

Administration

As a first step, the individual under review is asked to spend approximately 15 minutes completing the PAPI personality questionnaire. Once the questionnaire has been completed, the results are then mapped on to a PAPI profile ‘’wheel’’ displaying the respondent’s profile in a visual format.

The findings provide a wealth of information for the employer to discuss with the respondent in an open, honest and frank feedback discussion. The feedback discussion is a key element of the PAPI process. The thinking behind the Inventory is that it is not possible to reduce people to mere scores on a test and to assume that one can make judgements or interpretations of the person based on such limited information. For the participant, the feedback discussion provides the opportunity to explain and explore their profile; for the user it provides the chance to verify or refute the hypotheses generated by the profile.

Delivery Methods

PAPI is delivered via an online assessment platform. The online platform provides users with a range of additional features such as role profiling facilities, interview guides and candidate feedback reports.

Language Availability

Since 1979, PAPI has been translated into a number of languages, including:

Brazilian
Catalan
Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Estonian
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Greenlandic
Hungarian
Icelandic
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Slovenian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Welsh

Ownership

In 1966, PA Consulting Group

PA Consulting Group

PA Consulting Group is a global management and IT consulting and technology and innovation organisation with specialist expertise across the defence, energy, financial services, government and public services, healthcare, automotive and consumer goods, telecoms, and transport and logistics sectors...

acquired the rights for using PAPI in selected countries outside the USA, and in December 1979 acquired the world rights to the instrument. PAPI is now owned by Cubiks Group Limited. Cubiks was formerly the assessment and development practice of PA Consulting Group and became a PA Venture company in January 2000. In June 2007, the Cubiks Management team and employees completed a management buy-out which gave the company full independence.