It takes those personality scales where there can be ambiguity and splits them into narrower traits. For example, the scales covering affiliation (Detached-Affiliative) and sociability (Self Contained-Sociable) have been separated out within Congruity, as experience shows that individuals may score differently on these two related areas.
The Cattell model is notably weak on assessing depression. Congruity therefore introduces a pre-cursor to clinical depression, a ‘burnout’ scale (Pessimistic-Optimistic). In the modern labour market, with increased job pressure and decreased job security, this scale is particularly pertinent.
There have been certain cultural shifts in recent years - the desire for fame, the rise of celebrity culture and the growing status attributed to physical appearance that all suggest a potential growth in egotism, vanity, and pride. The leadership literature identifies narcissism as an important and often problematic feature of managerial personalities. Congruity introduces a scale (Need for Recognition-Modest) missing from Cattell’s model: the strong need for approval and admiration.
One common omission from many personality tools is whether the respondent tends to project their anxiety onto others and so becomes more critical and mistrustful. The literature indicates that this can be a significant derailer for leaders. This is now picked up in Congruity’s Sceptical-Trusting scale.
We have tried to make this the most sophisticated, insightful, and user-friendly expert system in the market. Specifically, the system is based on ‘multi-level algorithms’. That is, statements are not dropped into the expert-system report simply based on a single scale score, rather the statements are crafted based on the interaction of three (or more) different, relevant scales. This gives a more nuanced and refined level of interpretation, and moves us much closer to our original goal when creating this system – ‘a psychologist in a box’. To be clear, no expert system can replace the granular insight and expertise achieved by a good psychologist using a sound personality tool, but the Congruity expert-system report is a very good second.
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