Overview

Purpose: To assess personality in order to facilitate career decision-making.

For: 16+ years with low average literacy or higher.

Length: Untimed (10 to 25 minutes depending on client decisiveness and reading ability).

Format: Pen and paper.

Materials: Professional manual, interpretive manual, question booklet, profile sheet.

People with different personality characteristics are attracted to, remain in and succeed in different occupations. However it is often difficult for young people with little or no employment history to know what their most suitable career options are.

As with the CPS-1, the CPS-2 assesses the personality trait dimensions known as "The Big Five". However, although it can be used across a wide spectrum of clients the CPS-2 was designed specifically for a school aged population, or individuals who have limited employment experience.

The CPS-2 is composed of 75 statements about common behaviours and attitudes that indicate personality dimensions. Effort has been made to make the wording simple, with most items being less than ten words in length. No explicit reference to work has been included in the items although most of the content has a transferable relevance to the work situation.

The main difference between the items of the CPS-2 and those of the CPS-1, is they are more behaviourally based and rely less on general descriptive trait labels such as "reticent", "adaptable" or "intuitive". Examples of the kind of items in the CPS-2 are:

- "I find it difficult to start big tasks"
- " I enjoy competitive sports"
- " I like to be in charge of others"
- " Compared to most other people I feel inadequate"
- " I think life is full of opportunities"
- " I am happy for others when they succeed"

Note: none of the above are actually in the CPS-2
Test takers generate a profile which describes their preference for relating to others, performing under pressure, taking responsibility for task performance, problem solving approaches and group performance. The CPS-2 can be used to provide test takers with valuable insight into how they perceive, describe and present themselves. Such factors which are particularly important for individuals' career decision-making.

The generated personality profile can subsequently be compared with occupations which have been found to consistently attract individuals with the same personality characteristics. Test takers have the advantage that they can determine which occupations or jobs most closely fit with their own personality characteristics.