WHAT IS PERSONAL ASSESSMENT TEST (PAT)?

Richard Wicklund-Hansen, based on the theories and research of psychologists David G. Mayer and Herbert Greenberg, developed the PAT in Norway.

The PAT is a combination of several tests each of which has been tried and accepted. Through the synergy given by combining the different tests, a whole new dimension is added, enhancing the value of the analysis and assessment. By using forced choice, social desirability is significantly eliminated. To put it more simply: "Fooling" the test is very complicated!

In 1989 the PAT test was scientifically studied under the supervision of Professor Sigvard Rubenowitz at the University of Gothenburg. The results of this "test of a test" were very satisfactory, proving that the PAT is an excellent way of measuring what it is supposed to measure (validity).

Professor Rubenowitz's measurements also showed that absolute miscalculations using the PAT were on average below 10%.

The PAT has been translated and adapted to the following languages: Swedish, Danish, Finnish, German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Czech and Hungarian.

Because the PAT is used to such a great extent in a variety of industries and countries, the PAT is under constant evaluation. The PAT is a test instrument, which, according to users, adds dimensions that are impossible to observe with the naked eye.

In the year 2000 PAT was studied on the Swedish market with similar result as in Norway.

The PAT describes personal traits that are interesting no matter what work-related context they are used in. Besides focusing on personality factors, the test endeavours to shed light on a person's interests and areas of skill. "Consequently, the PAT is not only a personality test," as Swedish psychologist Hans Fribergh puts it.

The PAT is used in many contexts. Starting as a pure recruitment aid, the PAT has now also become a concept used in management development, team building, career planning, and assessment of an organisation's efficiency and in planning further education/development.

EMPATHY AND EGO-DRIVE

These two concepts are by far the most important part of the PAT. The combination of the two is crucial to interpreting the test. To put it briefly:

"The combination of empathy and ego-drive is the key to effectiveness, regardless of choice of occupation."

EMPATHY

Definitions:

• Empathy is the ability to understand and imaginatively enter into another person's feelings and experiences, and thereby "know" what another person feels at a given moment in his own world.
• But it is also the ability to enter into another person's world as if it were one's own, but without ever forgetting the "as if" perspective.
• It means that, through understanding communication, one is able to show that one can appreciate and understand the other person - without necessarily agreeing with him or her.

An empathic person has emotional radar enabling him to register feelings without involving one's own feelings. Empathy is not sympathy. Sympathy results in overly identifying with another person, losing sight of one's own objectives in the process. It blocks the ability to relate realistically to others.

EGO-DRIVE

Ego-drive is most easily explained with respect to the sales business. A person's ego-drive is what causes a sale to be made, regardless of any rewards. The seller must feel that he has to sell and that the customer is there to help him fulfil his personal needs. A salesman with a strong ego-drive sees a lost sale as something that triggers his motivation to make a greater effort to succeed the next time, and he immediately tries again.

The definition of ego-drive is thus: The inner needs to persuade and influence one’s surroundings primarily in order to personally satisfy this "need to conquer."

A person with a high ego-drive wants, and must have, success in order to function on an "it must happen now" level. His mental state is thus governed according to how his ego-drive is satisfied.

People with low ego-drives do not in the same way regulate their mental state through their ego-drive.

A Swedish survey shows that ego-drive is not included in other tests on the market, and hence, as a concept, it is uniquely linked to the PAT.

COMBINATION OF EGO-DRIVE AND EMPATHY

This combination is initially the key to effectiveness regardless of choice
of occupation. Persons with a good ego-drive and an equally good
empathy should be motivated, flexible and objective. Although a
person without a particularly good ego-drive and empathy will
naturally have other qualities, he will lack a really convincing inner
drive and ability to size up a situation.

Most psychologists who have studied the concept of empathy
agree that it is probably a person's most important quality and
entirely essential to interhuman communication.

The PAT also assesses the elements affecting this combination.
Good empathy and mild ego-drive means an "observer," but not a
good "initiator," which is often the case in highly emotional people
who "think with their heart" and not their head.

But remember that methodicalness, hard work, intelligence, positive
behaviour and service-mindedness can often compensate for weak
empathy