Personality Tests

The DASS is a widely used self-report instrument with good psychometric properties. It is useful for clinical, as well as for research purposes. Croatian adaptation of the DASS scales is available digitally and in two forms: one measuring the depression, anxiety and stress as three negative emotional states (DASS S) and the other, measuring the three constructs as personality traits (DASS O).

The DASS is a set of three self-report scales designed to measure the negative emotional states of depression, anxiety and stress. It consists of 42 items in total. Participants are asked to evaluate each item by considering did he/she recently experienced certain feelings. Items are covering aspects of depression (low self-esteem, dysphoria, lack of motivation), anxiety (autonomic arousal, perception of panic and fear) and stress (negative affective responses that are common to depression and anxiety, but factorially distinct from them, characterised by nervous tension, difficulty relaxing and irritability).

Also, it is possible to obtain a total score on all DASS scales. The DASS scales have been shown to have high internal consistency and to yield meaningful discriminations in a variety of settings. Because of that, the scales should meet the needs of both researchers and clinicians who wish to measure current state or change in state over time (e.g., in the course of treatment) on the three dimensions of depression, anxiety and stress. As the essential development of the DASS was carried out with non-clinical samples, it is suitable for screening normal adolescents and adults. The principal value of the DASS in a clinical setting is to clarify the locus of emotional disturbance, as part of the broader task of clinical assessment.

The DASS is a widely used self-report instrument with good psychometric properties. It is useful for clinical, as well as for research purposes. Croatian adaptation of the DASS scales is available digitally and in two forms: one measuring the depression, anxiety and stress as three negative emotional states (DASS S) and the other, measuring the three constructs as personality traits (DASS O).

The DASS is a set of three self-report scales designed to measure the negative emotional states of depression, anxiety and stress. It consists of 42 items in total. Participants are asked to evaluate each item by considering did he/she recently experienced certain feelings. Items are covering aspects of depression (low self-esteem, dysphoria, lack of motivation), anxiety (autonomic arousal, perception of panic and fear) and stress (negative affective responses that are common to depression and anxiety, but factorially distinct from them, characterised by nervous tension, difficulty relaxing and irritability).

Also, it is possible to obtain a total score on all DASS scales. The DASS scales have been shown to have high internal consistency and to yield meaningful discriminations in a variety of settings. Because of that, the scales should meet the needs of both researchers and clinicians who wish to measure current state or change in state over time (e.g., in the course of treatment) on the three dimensions of depression, anxiety and stress. As the essential development of the DASS was carried out with non-clinical samples, it is suitable for screening normal adolescents and adults. The principal value of the DASS in a clinical setting is to clarify the locus of emotional disturbance, as part of the broader task of clinical assessment.

Agentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) is a self-report questionnaire which describes the behaviour of those who manage other people and is relevant to such people’s performance. It reveals a person’s management style underpinned by the concept of Agentic Leadership.

Agentic leaders are respected by the people who work for them. They tend to control their work environment rather than be controlled by it and are independent as well as assertive (but not aggressive). They are unafraid of trying new things or of failure, which they see as a possibility for self improvement. They focus on achieving tasks but do this through bonding their team members, inspiring them and developing them as well as themselves. Thus, the term human agency in this report refers to how an individual describes him/herself in ways which fit this definition of Agentic leadership.

The ALQ consists of 75 statements investigating altogether three domains of the management activity, to which is added a scale of Social desirability (DeS) to measure the tendency of people to represent themselves in more positive or negative way.

Activity management describes the leader’s behaviors related to the management of time and resources to achieve objectives, the identification and planning of strategies for the coordination of the group, the planning of current work. In this dimension, the ALQ distinguishes behaviors of Maintenance, that is based on the maintenance of the activity, and of Development, that is oriented to the innovation.

Staff management includes how individual manages supervision, motivation and coaching of employees. Also in this dimension are distinguished behaviors of Maintenance, that is aimed at coordinating the current job of the team, and of Development, that is more related to the increase and the attainment of objectives.

Self-management refers to how person manages his/her own skills and interpersonal relationships, how handles stress, what he/she thinks is challenging, does he/she respect ethical principles and strive for continuous improvement. On this scale the ALQ distinguishes four sub-dimensions: Self-regulation, Passion, Ethics, Self-enhancement.

It is useful to detect, within organizations, the characteristics of the leader, both for the management of people and for organizational change. Moreover, it allows, in the programs of evaluation of the potential, a deep and articulated recognition of the leadership behaviors.

The Development Potential Questionnaire represents a short and quick measure of one's potential in a professional context. It consists of a series of scales that can be useful for assessment and creating concrete development recommendations.

The information offered by the instrument concern the aspects of self-confidence, privilege, dominance, levity, seduction, creativity, perfectionism and perfectionism towards others, coordination, tactlessness, stubbornness, suspiciousness, individuality, emotionality and distraction.

In addition, the instrument contains an impression management scale, which can provide information about the tendency to provide socially desirable responses. Information expressed in relation to norms and/or considered with regard to the relative prominence and dominance of individual scales, can be useful in assessments, organizational decisions, as well as in defining development guidelines and developing potential.

Organizational-Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (Org-EIQ) is an instrument designed to assess emotional intelligence in a business context. It relies on research that confirms the wide applicability of emotional intelligence at the workplace and the importance it can have for organizational effectiveness.

It focuses, first and foremost, on the vitality of the concept of organizational intelligence, implying the relationship between emotional competencies at the level of the entire organization and its effectiveness.

The test consists of 4 macrofactors: 1) self-awareness and self-evaluation, 2) self-management, 3) social competence and 4) relationship management.

The dimension of self-awareness and self-evaluation includes the ability to recognize and classify emotions at work, This macrofactor includes self-awareness, self-confidence and intrapersonality.

Self-management measures an individual's ability to dominate their own impulses, moods and feelings so that they do not affect work performance and the degree of flexibility and adaptability to new situations. It includes emotional self-control, perseverance and adaptability.

Social competence assesses the ability to create social relationships as well as the degree of empathy that a person knows and can develop in the workplace. It includes empathy, customer orientation, and organizational awareness.

Finally, relationship management measures the ability to communicate fluently with others, developing collaboration and leadership skills. This macro factor includes teamwork, leadership, and the catalyst for change. 

In addition, the test measures four correlates of emotional intelligence: result orientation, mood, stress tolerance, and life balance. It also contains a control scale that implies a tendency to put a positive impression.

This instrument presents an innovative way to capture personality and its development relies on the Five-factor model of personality. It consists of 50 photos that were selected on the basis of expert and research work, with the aim to measure big five dimensions (conscientiousness, openness, agreeableness, extraversion and emotional stability). It is developed through the cooperation of professors from the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb and the company Selekcija d.o.o., as a part of the project supported by the European Regional Development Fund and Cohesion Fund (2014 – 2020).

The instrument arose as an answer to need for a new test that could ensure an adequate measure of personality dimensions in a modern organizational context, and that could be more resistant to social desirability than traditionally used questionnaires, as well as more suitable to the dynamical, international and multilingual labour market.

Considering the internationalisation of the labour market and the presence of candidates from different linguistic groups, the idea arose for a test that could assess personality based on photos. Besides that, since the selection situations generally presume the tendency to impression management, it was of practical use to develop instruments more resistant to social desirability than traditionally used questionnaires. Finally, in order to "bring closer" the selection process to candidates, it seemed appropriate to use photos and check the possibility of its implementation as an additional or substitute measure of personality.

The research process started with searching huge bases and selecting a series of potential photos. The initial set consisted of 770 chosen photos, that were evaluated in terms of their suitability to measure Big Five personality dimensions. Further evaluations and collected data enabled the creation of a smaller set. Validation studies that followed ensured additional information regarding the convergent and criterion validity of the final instrument consisting of 50 photos covering the big five dimensions (10 photos per dimension). Those studies suggested that the instrument Photo 5 presents an adequate reliable, innovative way of measuring personality in a modern organizational context.