One of the most important determinants of happiness and stability in life is the quality of the emotional core of a person. Some people have the good fortune to have a strong sense of emotional wellbeing while others have had a much more turbulent emotional history in which their needs have not been met in a consistent way.
Blind spots and lack of awareness of one’s Shadow or Dark Side often lie at the centre of repeated interpersonal conflicts, dysfunctional relationships and failure to thrive for otherwise highly talented people. Repeating the mistakes of the past is not the inevitable fate of people who want to find ways of changing outcomes.
The distinctive or exaggerated aspects of our personality are often also the source of our success, but some traits, taken to excess, can be our undoing. The diagnostic tool: Hogan Development Survey is the product of years of research by Robert and Joyce Hogan. It provides a solid basis for understanding how the Dark Side of personality functioning can cause interpersonal strain and career derailment. JQA make a significant contribution to clients and candidates by illuminating the dark side.
The eleven scales are:
| Excitable/Volatile | moody, easily annoyed, hard to please, and emotionally volatile; alternating between idealising and devaluing |
|---|---|
| Sceptical | distrustful, cynical, sensitive to criticism, and focused on the negative |
| Cautious | unassertive, resistant to change, risk-averse, and slow to make decisions |
| Imperceptive | aloof, indifferent to the feelings of others, and uncommunicative |
| Leisurely | overtly cooperative, but privately irritable, stubborn, and uncooperative |
| Bold | overly self-confident, arrogant, with inflated feelings of self-worth |
| Mischievous | charming, risk-taking, limit-testing and excitement-seeking |
| Colourful | dramatic, attention-seeking, interruptive, and poor listening skills |
| Imaginative | creative, but thinking and acting in unusual or eccentric ways |
| Diligent | meticulous, precise, hard to please, and tends to micromanage |
| Dutiful | eager to please and reluctant to act independently or against popular opinion |