Self-assessment questionnaires
A questionnaire, or checklist, designed to help someone take stock of their skills and abilities.
People often need a simple way to take stock of their skills and abilities and self-assessment questionnaires are designed to aid and abet such self-examination. The most useful questionnaires for self-assessment purposes:
- are short and straightforward to self-administer
- openly explain what the questionnaire is designed to probe
- are simple to self-score
- give advice on how to interpret the score
- suggest ideas for self-development.
Questionnaires are designed to cover a broad spectrum of human attributes from knowledge to aptitudes, from behaviour styles to personality types. Some of the more complex questionnaires have to be administered, scored and interpreted by certified 'experts' under licence but there are plenty that are available for the lay-person and they are the best ones to help with learning and development. The important thing is not to be over-awed by questionnaires and to regard them as a useful way to open up an area that might otherwise be difficult to get at.
One of the hazards with self-assessment is that people's perceptions of themselves may differ significantly from those of other people. This is not necessarily because self-assessees are being deliberately dishonest. It may occur because they genuinely see themselves differently and cannot disentangle their inner motives from their outward actions. When you know your 'heart is in the right place' and your intentions are for the best it can put a different gloss on your behaviour, a gloss that might be lost on other people who can only observe what you say and do. Even when this happens, the questionnaire has served a useful purpose in surfacing differences of perception and making them more amenable to discussion.
The more questionnaire results can be shared and aired the better, but it is even more essential that people commit themselves to some actions to build on strengths and/or overcome weaknesses identified by the questionnaires. These can form the basis of self-development plans or a learning contract (see Self-development and Learning contracts).
When, over thirty years ago, Professor Eysenck published 'Know Your Own IQ' he broke the mould by attacking the cloak of secrecy which had previously shrouded psychometric testing. Since then there has been a gradual increase in openness and in the publication of questionnaires for self-assessment.
Whether you invent your own or buy them off the shelf, self-assessment questionnaires are a useful way to kick-start learning and development.