DISC assessment

DISC is a behavior assessment tool based on the DISC theory of psychologist William Moulton Marston, which centers on four different personality traits which are currently Dominance (D), Inducement (I), Submission (S), and Compliance (C). This theory was then developed into a behavioral assessment tool by industrial psychologist Walter Vernon Clarke.

History

Marston was a lawyer and a psychologist; he also contributed to the first polygraph test, authored self-help books and created the character Wonder Woman. He generated the DISC characteristics of emotions and behavior of normal people (at the time, 'normal' had the meaning of 'typical' rather than an antonym for 'abnormal'). Marston hypothesised that our behaviour is influenced by ‘psychonic energy’ that is transferred through a web of nerve cells he named ‘psychons’.

He published his findings in his 1928 book called Emotions of Normal People in which he explained that the four personality types (yellow, green, blue and red) arise as variations between different people in the structure of their psychonic network. According to Marston, people illustrate their emotions using four behavior types: Dominance (D), Inducement (I), Submission (S), and Compliance (C). He argued that these behavioral types came from people's sense of self and their interaction with the environment.[1] He based the four types on two underlying dimensions that influenced people's emotional behavior. The first dimension is whether a person views their environment as favorable or unfavorable. The second dimension is whether a person perceives themselves as having control or lack of control over their environment.

Although Marston contributed to the theory of the DISC assessment, he did not create it. In 1956, Walter Clarke, an industrial psychologist, constructed an assessment based on Marston's theory. Clarke created the Activity Vector Analysis, a checklist of adjectives on which he asked people to indicate descriptions that were accurate about themselves.[2] This assessment was intended for use in businesses needing assistance in choosing qualified employees.

Merenda, Peter F. and Clarke published their findings on a new instrument in the January 1965 issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology."[3] Instead of using a checklist, the "Self Discription" test forced respondents to make a choice between two or more terms. Factor analysis of this assessment added to the support of a DISC-based instrument. "Self Discription" was used by John Geier to create the Personal Profile System in the 1970s.[4] Geier's DiSC assessment would eventually become Everything DiSC which is now owned by John Wiley & Sons.

DISC has been used to help determine a course of action when dealing with problems as a leadership team—that is, taking the various aspects of each type into account when solving problems or assigning jobs.[5]

Criticism

There are worldwide various representative bodies for psychology and psychologists that are responsible for the promotion of excellence and ethical practice in science, education, and application of the discipline, such as the British Psychological Society, which do not speak to the use of DISC.[6]

Various writers have written about the shortcomings of DISC, such as journalist Emma Goldberg, compares tests like DISC with astrology.[7] In modern psychological research, there is concern that personality based predictions of behavior may differ by context.[8] This context element is not integrated in models like DISC or the five factor model, without explicit effort to contextualize the model.

The book Surrounded by Idiots, written by author Thomas Erikson, popularised DISC. It was given the Fraudster of the Year award in 2018 by Swedish Skeptics, mainly for making scientific claims that were not supported by any scientific research.[9]

See also

Notes
  1. Marston, William M. (1928). Emotions of Normal People. K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd. pp. 405.
  2. Wallace, S. Rains; Clarke, WALTER V.; Dry, RAYMOND J. (September 1956). "The Activity Vector Analysis as a Selector of Life Insurance Salesmen". Personnel Psychology. 9: 337–345. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1956.tb01072.x.
  3. Merenda, Peter F.; Clarke, Walter V. (January 1965). "Self description and personality measurement". Journal of Clinical Psychology. 21: 52–56. doi:10.1002/1097-4679(196501)21:1<52::AID-JCLP2270210115>3.0.CO;2-K.
  4. "DISC History". Center for Internal Change. Center for Internal Change. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  5. Beamish, G. (2005). How chief executives learn and what behavior factors distinguish them from other people. Industrial and Commercial Training, 37(3), 138–144.
  6. "Shortcomings of DISC Profiling". www.salesteamfocus.com. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  7. Goldberg, Emma (2019-09-18). "Personality Tests Are the Astrology of the Office (Published 2019)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  8. "context" (PDF).
  9. "Personality Test Pseudoscience – Swedish Edition". NeuroLogica Blog. 2020-01-17. Retrieved 2020-10-25.

References
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