Psychometric Profiling
We now offer to mediators a psychometric profiling report of the parties to the dispute provided by one of the world leaders in the field. The psychometric profiling offered to mediators by The Mediation Room is undertaken by AQR, one of the world's leading edge international test publishers, and who operate in 25 countries. The particular profiling undertaken by us has been developed in association with Dr Peter Clough, Head of Psychology at the University of Hull. The Report made available to mediators will be adapted to help identify key elements of character that may impact on the person's approach to negotiation and mediation. The process involves the parties completing a simple online questionnaire. There are no open questions but just a series of descriptions of character traits to which the person has to select one of five responses that identify the extent to which he or she believes the description is accurate. The questionnaire should take less than 10 minutes to complete. As soon as it has been completed the system produces a report with its assessment of character.
A number of issues arise:-
1.Obligatory or optional. It has been decided that the profiling should be entirely optional for each party. A Report will be issued to the mediator for one party if he or she is the only to both consent and complete the questionnaire.
2.Consent. Clearly the party has to consent to complete the questionnaire and thus be informed fully of its purpose. Consent will be full and informed and if there is any concern expressed with the consent, it will not be performed.
3.Accuracy. It is acknowledged, as the mediator will be informed, that the reports are not fully accurate. One reason is that reason is that people sometimes can be poor judges of their own character or may fake answers to fit a profile that they feel may advantage them in the mediation.
4.Transparency. As well as providing full information about the purpose of the profiling and obtaining full consent, the report will be made available to each person completing the questionnaire. They will be asked by the mediator if they agree or disagree with any aspect of the report. This is perhaps the most important aspect of the procedure.
5. Mediator involvement. The mediator will be responsible for both explaining the purpose of the profiling and obtaining consent as well as conducting the post-report response session. In addition, it will be entirely for the mediator to evaluate the benefit to him, if any, of each report. All mediators will be offered a guidance paper from AQR.
Whilst the purpose of the profiling is to add something that is otherwise lost when mediating wholly online, mediators may wish to use it in their offline practice.