BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TEST FORCED CHOICE – TAKE5 FC 

Theoretical background

TAKE5 captures the five basic personality factors in a professional context. The five-factor model of personality (Big Five) has been established worldwide since the 1980s. The clear structure of the five traits could be replicated across different languages and cultural spaces. 

Numerous studies show that the five personality traits can predict professional performance. However, personality factors differ in their predictive power depending on the performance criterion and specificity of the profession. Extrovert people, for example, perform better when it comes to teamwork or leadership success, while low agreeableness can be detrimental to both criteria. Research shows, however, that high emotional stability and a high degree of conscientiousness are advantageous for a wide range of professions and performance criteria. Openness for experiences has established itself in particular as a central predictable variable in the context of training and further education success. 

The development objective of TAKE5 was to capture the five factors as close to work as possible in order to maximise forecasting power in the working context. The recess in the private sector also has the advantage that the items are not perceived as invasive, which is also beneficial from a legal perspective (see DIN 33430). The vocational formulation of the items increases acceptance of the procedure by the participants and the predictive power of the procedure as a whole. 

A special feature of the TAKE5-FC is its response format. Three statements are presented simultaneously in the forced-choice (FC) format. Persons therefore do not evaluate the individual statements, but must make a ranking. This prevents people from being able to assess themselves positively throughout in order to convey a maximally socially desirable image of themselves. 

A newly developed analysis logic based on what is known as item response theory not only enables a comparative evaluation of the 5 dimensions against each other, but also outputs absolute values for them. This means that the results of the TAKE5-FC can be offset against those of the other tests at overall values in the same way as is usual for scales in Likert format.