High score
Unclear self-image
Low score
Clear self-image
The 12 personality traits of the IPA Analysis are supplemented with a 13th factor called UNAMBIGUITY . This factor is calculated based on the sum of the number of contradictions on each personality trait.
A contradiction is defined as the smaller of the two gross numbers at the end of each bar in the graphical result image. In other words, a contradiction expresses that the candidate, in relation to the dominant direction in the answer to the given trait, has answered contradictorily to some of the statements that define the trait.
When you take this sum of contradictions for all the people who have completed an IPA Analysis and normalise them, you get a new and 13th scale, which like the other scales (Trait) has an underlying normal distribution. The Unambiguity scale, like all other scales, contains a median score and upper and lower quartile scores.
Elaboration on unambiguity
The correlation between the number of contradictions and the Unambiguity factor is that the FEWER contradictions a candidate has in their answer to the IPA Analysis, the GREATER/HIGHER their Unambiguity is. This is expressed graphically so that the fewer contradictions, the further to the right of the median the score is marked.
Similarly, the MORE contradictions a candidate has in their answer to the IPA Analysis, the LOWER/LOWER the Unambiguity. This is expressed graphically so that the more contradictions, the further to the left of the median the score is marked.
Remember that the scale for UNAMBIGUITY is reversed so that a numerically low score indicates high UNAMBIGUITY and a numerically high score indicates low UNAMBIGUITY .
Characteristics of a low level of unambiguity
A person who has a LOW Unambiguity has – in the context of the IPA Analysis – a more vague and indistinct image of themselves when it comes to the factors that are measured in the IPA Analysis.
This might be someone who is currently in a process of change, and someone whose inner and outer circumstances are shifting.
Furthermore, the surroundings might find it difficult to read this person. It is someone who can seem indiscernible and sometimes unpredictable.
Characterised by high unambiguity
(Low score = few contradictions)
A person with HIGH unambiguity sees themselves and knows themselves clearly on the factors we measure with the IPA Analysis.
It is also a person who remains the same despite the changeability of their surroundings, who holds on to themselves and who generally has a stable behaviour on the traits in the IPA Analysis.
In a slightly broader interpretation, we can talk about a correlation between a person’s position on the Uniqueness factor and their level of Self-Awareness. The greater/higher a person’s Uniqueness, the more Self-Awareness they possess.
We will often perceive a person with a high unambiguity as very clear, stable and readable in their behaviour. In other words, this is a person you know where you stand and who is often perceived by others as someone with a certain degree of inner harmony and balance.
Conclusion on unambiguity
If the many contradictions are evenly distributed across all 12 traits in the IPA Analysis, the person may perceive themselves in several different ways depending on the situation. For example, as one person at home and another person at work.
In any case, as a consultant and user of the IPA Analysis, you should pay attention to the traits where the candidate’s answer is contradictory.
A person with a MEDIUM Unambiguity, i.e. a score that lies between the quartiles, should be interpreted in relation to the actual distribution of contradictions. Often the person will have many contradictions on two or three traits and few contradictions on the remaining traits.
The person’s answer to an IPA Analysis should therefore be interpreted in relation to unambiguity – and as mentioned above – in relation to the traits with the most contradictions.
Steen Wæver Poulsen
CEO & Owner IPA Nordic