TESS : have you ever wondered... >>

TESS may be regarded as a behavioural checklist.

It is not a test as such and the resultant profile printout is not to be seen as definitive, but more as a reflection of the individual's interactive style, within a set context. This context could be family, friends, work, or other. The context often determines how we see ourselves and our social presentation can change from context to context. Therefore TESS as an assessment of social presentation and stress, within that context, needs to be viewed more as a socially interactive evaluative tool and not as a test as such.

Within the South African context, tests are tightly controlled by the South African Medical Health Professions Board. The use of TESS on line, as far as we are concerned, complies with these rulings in that the profiles are:

1. Printed out in a report form.
2. Not open to interpretation as such.
3. TESS is a behavioural checklist rather than a test as such.
4. The profiles and clients are reviewed before sending them.

TESS is in no way to be used as a discriminative selection tool as it is designed to give feedback to the selected client, with regard to that client's selected interactional capabilities and difficulties within the client's chosen context.

TESS can be used in many ways:

1. To evaluate what interpersonal style the individual has.
2. To estimate how intensely the individual comes across in that specified context.
3. To determine the atmosphere that the individual produces and to what degree that atmosphere is positive or negative.
4. The test also looks at the interactional and intrapersonal stress that the individual experiences within the field he/she has selected to evaluate him or herself. The stress levels give us an effective way of determining social coping.

The most effective use of TESS is that the individual in question can be rated by 10 other people and thereby determine his/her own true social fit within that group. He or she will also be able to see how much stress he/she is experiencing in that group because he/she may not be coming across as he/she expected to. This dissonance will produce stress and the testee can establish for him or herself in what way this is occurring.

The TESS profile provides a concise inroad into personality and examines how the client presents himself or herself both subjectively and objectively. More importantly it examines the interpersonal stress experienced as a result of daily interactions. Essentially a TESS profile will assist you, by supplying a scientific confirmation for your pre-established intuitive assessment and equip you with valuable perceptual assistance and human understanding.

The Nature of the Instrument

The Test of Encounter Stress is a unique test that allows for a curt, succinct assessment of an individual's interpersonal style and personality. The instrument is based on the Interpersonal Circle adapted from Shostrum's book, GOD IN YOUR PERSONALITY, 1986. The test discriminates the testees interactional position with respect to interpersonal intensity and atmosphere. The former indicating how much impact the particular person will have on others, while the latter determines the type of atmosphere the person will produce amongst others. The person's profile is seated within the confines of a three dimensional model of interaction that allows for a clear conception of interpersonal functioning, within a predetermined context. An additional feature of the test is the assessment of stress as encountered by the individual within the two fields of atmospheric influence and intensity. Two stress types are calculated for these two fields and have been labelled Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Stress respectively. General and style specific scores are considered for all the stress dimensions.

Other relevant dimensions included in the profile are the person's general interpersonal functioning and effectiveness, self-concept, congruence levels and communication effectiveness.

The profile is unique in that it makes specific facility for an objective rating of an individual's interpersonal style. In effect one can have up to ten other people rating the targeted individual's behaviour in a specific context. This allows one to ascertain to what degree the person's perceptions of themselves are shared by others and how versatile the specific candidate is.

The profile may be utilised within a number of different contexts. Some examples are:

1. Assessment centres
2. Individual Profile Analysis
3. Profile comparison within companies for effective personnel placement
4. Conflict management amongst personnel
5. Specific interpersonal training requirements
6. Group personnel selection
7. General interpersonal problem analysis and resolution within a counselling context

Finally a TESS profile may be regarded as a highly versatile interpersonal assessment instrument that may assist in the functional analysis of most human encounters. The test is soundly researched and has working validity and reliability coefficients.

The validity coefficients were calculated by means of a factor analysis and the multitest-multimatrix method.

The reliability coefficients were calculated at 0.6065 for the Atmosphere scale and at 0.6276 for the Impact scale.