Behavioral and Personality Inventories in Outdoor Recreation

For this blog post, I will be sharing information about different types of behavioral and personality inventories and see how they could be used in the outdoor recreation field. In order to begin comparing behavioral and personality inventories, I should first define “behavior” and “personality”. This will allow us to focus in on which part of the human condition we are really trying to understand with each style of test. The human condition is so varied and complex that being as specific as possible will help outline what these subjective tests are trying to convey. According to People Styles At Work and Beyond by Robert Bolton & Dorothy Grover Bolton, behavior is defined as “what a person does” and personality as one’s “beliefs, thoughts, motives, values, attitudes, feelings, etc. as well as behaviors”. They also try to explain how their inventory is different than “many” others because theirs is a behavioral inventory. However, theirs is not the only behavioral inventory ever created.

The Cambridge Behavioral Inventory (CBI)  is used to distinguish the difference in behavioral and psychiatric symptoms between Alzheimer’s dementia patients and fronto-temporal dementia patients. There have been different versions of the same test created over the years, however the questionnaire is always self-administered and asks questions about daily behavior from a range of zero to four, going from “never” to  “constantly”.  One version of it  asks questions such as “forgets the name of familiar people”, “has problems bathing or showering self” and “acts impulsively without thinking” (http://www.ftdrg.org/wp-content/uploads/cbi_caregiver.pdf).

However this behavioral inventory could be really helpful in a specific medical situation, this type of test is one that seems like it wouldn’t be used in very many applications in the outdoor recreation world. It is important to note I believe it still has its place in the medical field and should be used in specific situations, however it doesn’t seem like OR  generally wouldn’t be using this test often.

Outdoor Recreation focuses a lot on individuals and group dynamics. Knowing more about ourselves and others is extremely important in being a strong outdoor leader as well as participant. One personality test that focuses on this, and has been taken more more one hundred million times is 16 personalities. Their website promotes that taking their test will help people learn more about others, build meaningful connections, and help them circumnavigate life as they acquire and learn more about their own strengths and challenges. (https://www.16personalities.com/)

Overall, all these tests are easily attainable, and for the most part, free or really cheap depending on where you look. In a recreation setting, the CBI isn’t going to be very useful for most participant, however still holds an important place in the medical field. While Bolton’s theory plots people in one of four “categories”, 16 personalities shows sixteen different personality types, and also has one hundred questions, all that have a severity scale of seven options from “agree” to “disagree”. Because of this, I think 16 personalities can show and determine a lot more about a person compared to a “below the line” and “above the line” style of test interpretation, like in Bolton’s. I believe both tests allow participants to learn more about themselves however and could be vital to creating stronger, more understanding, and more communicative outdoor leaders and participants.

References

Cambridge Behavioural Inventory for the diagnosis of dementia . (n.d.). Retrieved January 24, 2018, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/pnp.92/asset/92_ftp.pdf?v=1&t=jctalncp&s=2735fa76e1c056da328913061fc6c93d22c4b0d3&systemMessage=

Bolton, R., & Bolton, D. G. (2009). People Styles at Work and Beyond(2nd ed.). Ridge Associates.

Distinction Between Personality and Behaviour. (2018). Retrieved January 24, 2018, from http://www.callofthewild.co.uk/library/theory/distinction-between-personality-and-behaviour/

Hodges, J. R. (2008, October 3). Cambridge Behavioural Inventory Revised (CBI-R) . Retrieved January 24, 2018, from http://www.ftdrg.org/wp-content/uploads/cbi_caregiver.pdf

Https://www.16personalities.com/. (2018). Retrieved January 24, 2018, from https://www.16personalities.com/