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Intro

DISC assessment is a personality assessment based off the DISC personality theory of psychologist William Marston. Marston's theory centers around four different personality traits: Dominance, Inducement, Submission, and Compliance. This theory was then developed into an assessment by Walter Clarke. The version used today was developed from the original assessment by John Geier, who simplified the test for better, more concise results. While DISC assessment is used in many fields to gauge things like work habits, management potential, conflict resolution, and leadership style, there are still many questions concerning its validity and reliability[1].

History

William Moulton Marston was an accomplished man who was not only a lawyer and a physiological psychologist; he also produced the first functional lie detector polygraph, authored self-help books and created the Wonder Woman comic. His major contribution to psychology came when he generated the DISC characteristics of emotions and behavior of normal people. Marston, after conducting research on human emotions, published his findings in 1928 in his book titled Emotions of Normal People. In this book, he explained his theory that people illustrate their emotions through behavior using the four behavior types called (Dominance (D), Inducement (I), Submission (S), and Compliance (C). Also, he argued that these behavioral types came from people’s sense of self and their interaction with the environment (Marston, 1928). He included two dimensions that influenced people’s emotional behavior. The first dimension is whether a person views his environment as favorable or unfavorable. The second dimension is whether a person perceives himself as having control or lack of control over his environment. Dominance:perceives ones self as more powerful than the environment, and perceives the environment as unfavorable. Inducement:perceives oneself as more powerful than the environment, and perceives the environment as favorable.Submission: Perceives oneself as less powerful than the environment as favorable. Compliance:Perceives oneself as less powerful than the environment as unfavorable(Marston, 1928). Although William Moulton Marston contributed to the creation of the DISC Assessment, he did not create it or even intend to use DISC as an assessment. In 1956, Walter Clarke, an industrial psychologist, was able to accidentally construct the DISC assessment using William Moulton Marston’s theory of the DISC model. He accomplished this by publishing the Activity Vector Analysis, a checklist of adjectives on which he asked people to indicate descriptions that were accurate about themselves. This assessment was intended for use in businesses needing assistance in choosing qualified employers. His assessment was later amended by Walter Clarke Associates and called a self-description. Also, it no longer required a checklist. Instead, test takers choose from two or more terms. Even with all of William Moulton Marston and Walter Clarkes developments, the DISC assessment still had further developments to undertake. John Greier contributed to this assessment by producing the DISC personality profile in 1958 based on the works of Marston and Clarke. Greier conducted hundreds of clinical interviews which assisted him to further progress the fifteen patterns which Walter Clark had exposed. Lastly, Inscape Publishing made the DISC assessment more reliable by adding and removing items in the assessment. Inscape Publishing improved the assessment by construction it as a self-score and self-interpreted assessment. In 1994, the DISC assessment was called the Personal Profile System 2800 Series (PPS 2800) but since then its name has changed to the name currently used which is DISC Classic (Cole and Tuzinski, 2003). Also, the four behavior types have changed from (Dominance (D), Inducement (I), Submission (S), and Compliance (C) to be known as (Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S), and Conscientiousness (C).

Use of DISC Assessment

There are many versions of DISC assessment that can be taken online or with the tradition pen and paper. The largest provider of the DiSC assessment is Inscape Publishing, which offers different forms of the test, each serving a different purpose in real-world application. The most popular include:

Everything DISC Workplace

Focuses on behavior in the workplace Made to assist in hiring process Offers insight to work habits based on personality traits (Inscape, Everything DISC Workplace)

Everything DISC Management

Focuses on management potential Offers insight on managing styles based on personality traits (Inscape, Everything Disc Management)

DISC Classic

28 questions Self-scored and self-reported Used for things like career development, conflict management, communication, etc (Inscape, DISC Classic)

However, there are other ways to access DISC assessment. While Inscape is the most widely-used publisher, there are other companies that print and distribute the test. The free versions of the DISC assessment can be found on the internet.

The DISC and its assessment can be used for a variety of real-life situations. Many companies use it as a way to screen potential employees, with the thought that a certain personality type would be better or worse in certain jobs or positions[5].

It can also be used in an educational environment, especially in the development of courses for student. In an online setting, the results from the DISC assessment can be used to better understand the personality and needs of the students. This is especially important because the online setting does not allow for a lot of interaction between the students or teachers. Instructors can use the data from the test to create better lessons that are more conducive to the various students, in addition to having a better concept of how to help or motivate the student in general [6]. Furthermore, one study showed that students' DISC temperament or type helped determine their success in certain classes, which shows the influence one's DISC classification could have on his or her education[7].

Another field in which DISC assessment can be used is leadership. There are different leadership methods and styles that coincide with each personality type, which could help leaders be more effective. DISC has also 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 [8].

Dimensions of DISC

Dominance- People who possess this dimensioned are characterized as being direct and guarded. They are strong minded people who enjoy taking on challenges and gaining instant positive results. They are also direct and decisive.

Influence- People who possess this dimension of DISC tend to be direct and open. They are team players and they adore sharing ideas, talking with others, as well as entertaining others. They are optimistic and outgoing.

Steadiness-People who possess this dimension are indirect and open. They like to assist others indirectly or anonymously. They are good listeners. They are also very sympathetic and cooperative.

Consciousness- people who possess this dimension are indirect and guarded. They like to plan. They like to be accurate and are likely to keep checking details for accuracy (Greene, 2011).

Research of DISC

There have been a few studies done concerning DISC assessment. Although these tests are widely used, there are still questions regarding the validity and reliability of the test.

Validity

While Inscape Publishing, the leading producer of DISC assessment, has done many studies proving the validity of DISC, there are still some worries psychologists have. The research presented by Inscape is less than complete and does not meet the necessary standards as defined in the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing [9]. Furthermore, the only tests done by Inscape Publishing have been on Caucasian men, so the applicability to other ethnicities and genders is still a question.

Reliability

Similar to validity, the main issue is that there have been few in-depth studies done to support the claims of reliability from Inscape. Psychologists suggest further testing to gain a more solid sense of reliability, particularly in the area of test-retest reliability [10].