Understanding Personalities Cmgt/530

Understanding Personalities
CMGT/530
Mark Lefler

Understanding Personalities
The chosen personality typing assessment for this assignment is the MOTIV personality theory. “The MOTIV personality theory is a refined hybrid of previous notions of personality…which posits that the entire spectrum of personality can be explained by five independent, alterable, and empirically provable personality motivations/strategies” (Similar Minds, 2012). These motivations/strategies also can be known as reward drives that have been evolutionarily hardwired and/or are environmental adaption styles to life. The five reward drives are Materialistic, Offbeat, Thinking, Intimate, and Vital, each of which are meant to provide the greater survival advantage. Materialistic means to be more externally perfect, Offbeat means to be more unconventional, Thinking means to be more logical, Intimate means to be more selfless and Vital means to be more alive or healthy. There is, of course, a counter preference to each of these drives. Respectively, they are Subjectivistic, Conventional, Emotional, Withholding, and Depressed. The MOTIV personality assessment gauges a person’s natural tendency towards either end of the spectrum for the reward drives.
After completing the MOTIV personality assessment, I had received a result of SCTWV. This means that I am Subjectivistic, Conventional, Thinking, Withholding, and Vital. In other words I have a desire to be more internally perfect, traditional, logical/rational, out for my own interests and am more alive/healthy. I believe this to be a fairly accurate assessment of my personality. In regard to Subjectivistic, I agree that I do strive to be more perfect, according to my own internal ideal rather than that of an external one. I also tend to stick to methods and solutions that have been proven successful or effective, which would explain the result of Conventional. I have no doubt about the accuracy of the result of Thinking that expresses that I tend behave more logically or rationally. I believe that I always have been more convinced or persuaded by evidence rather than by unsupported conjecture. I agree with the findings of Withholding because I am more inclined to be more concerned for my own interests rather than worrying about anyone else’s. Finally, the test concluded that I have a propensity to be more alive/healthy, which resulted in a high score for Vital. I feel this to be true because I am certainly happy to be alive and I strive to have a healthy lifestyle.
The results of the MOTIV personality assessment have given me a better insight into who I am as a person and I can use it to improve my relations with people in my life, including my coworkers. Concerning the aspect of Subjectivistic in the workplace, I should remember to take into account that sometimes my internal ideals that I endeavor to meet may not be the same as the ideals of the managers or of the company and could result in failing to contribute sufficiently. Because I am in a technological working environment where solutions and knowledge is ever changing, being Conventional may not be a good characteristic as it could lead me to become overly reliant on past knowledge. When it comes to working with computers, while a high score for Thinking can seem like an advantage but when working with teammates, it has the possibility of causing me to ignore or be ignorant of my instincts or feelings. A high scoring aspect of Withholding also can be a disadvantage when working with teammates as I could give the impression of being cold-hearted or selfish, but it would enable me from being taken advantage of. Finally, a high score for Vital is, I feel, quite excellent. It prevents feelings of depression as well as poor mental or poor physical health. The only possible downside that I can see is the risk of becoming over confident. I agree with the MOTIV assessment results and will be able to apply what it has taught me of myself toward improving my work as well as improving my working relationships.

Reference
Similar Minds. (2012, Winter). The MOTIV Personality System | Personality Research. Retrieved from http://research.similarminds.com/the-motiv-personality-system/588