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understanding individuals we look at their position on scales measuring a variety of personality traits. This is often referred to as a personality profile. For instance, Jay may be described as a very structured individual, who is moderately extroverted, is imaginative and likes change, is moderately helpful and sympathetic to others but can be quite anxious. Personality profiles are often provided in diagrammatic form. For instance, Jay’s profile might look like this:
    Figure 2: Personality profile for Jay
Unstructured

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Structured
Introvert

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Extrovert
Down to earth

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Imaginative
Independent

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Sympathetic
Anxious
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Relaxed
    Of course, this description and the profile are an abbreviated description of the person. Jay is described as ‘structured’, and this may be the name of the scale used in the personality questionnaire, but ‘structured’ will have an exact meaning in this context that will have been defined by the questionnaire’s developers, and it would not be possible to know exactly what it implied without being familiar with the questionnaire itself. It might, for example, include some or all of the following: planful, tidy, inflexible, disciplined, conscientious, rigid, neat, punctual, ordered, controlled and forward thinking.
    The principle of a profile should be clear, however. It provides a picture of the individual in terms of the personality traits measured, and this can be interpreted by someone who is trained in the use of the personality questionnaire. From the profile an experienced tester can derive a portrait of the person’s behavioural style and emotional responses, and this can be used in determining the person’s suitability for a job. Of course, it can have many other uses, including helping a person to understand themselves better, advising individuals on their development needs or helping them to work better in a team or as a manager.
    Traits can be quite broad, encompassing a wide range of behaviours, or narrow, relating to only a specific aspect of behavioural style. Extroversion is a broad trait as it refers both to the way a person feels and acts with other people and also to their mood (extroverts tend to be lively and cheerful). Extroversion can also encompass narrower traits such as emotional control, outspokenness, energy, optimism and (lack of) modesty. These traits are grouped together in the broad extroversion trait because they typically occur together. Someone who is outgoing is more likely to be energetic than lethargic. A trait such as emotional control is much narrower than extroversion, because it refers only to how a person controls the expression of their emotions to others. Extroverts tend to be lower on emotional control than introverts, but this is only one aspect of their behaviour.
    Broad traits provide a description of personality at a very general level, whereas narrow traits are needed for more detailed descriptions. Broad traits allow for short, relatively simple descriptions of personality, which can provide a good overview without becoming bogged down in detail. However, they may be over generalized and not reflect the exact personality style of the individual. They may overlook ways in which a person is different from the norm of people with similar positions on a broad trait.
    Narrow traits are more useful when a detailed description of a person’s behavioural style is needed because they can be used to make fine discriminations. Someone who is generally highly extrovert may have more emotional control than is usual for people in this group, and narrower trait descriptions make it possible to elicit these fine distinctions. However, this will require a longer and more detailed description, which may be more than is required for some purposes. When working with narrower trait descriptions it is possible to lose sight of the overall personality of an individual through concentrating on the detail of specific aspects of their