What is DISC?

What is DISC? The brief answer is: one of the most popular methods of personality testing and assessment in use today. Based on the answers to a simple questionnaire, it can describe a personality in terms of four key DISC factors: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance.

This article will give you a general introduction to the concepts behind DISC, but you'll also find more extensive reference resources on the site. Pay a visit to our full DISC Reference Library to explore the ideas behind DISC in depth.

The DISC Questionnaire

A standard DISC questionnaire consists of twenty-four questions. Each of these questions presents four options, and asks the respondent is to select which of these applies most closely, and which least closely, to their approach. For example, a typical DISC question might look something like this:

Most	Least
		Behaving compassionately towards others
		Persuading others to your point of view
		Showing modesty in describing your achievements
		Producing original ideas

Marston's original questionnaire, and many others derived from it, use simple adjectives for each of the four options. The 'phrase-based' approach shown in this example, though, is becoming more popular, as it provides the respondent with a clearer idea of the intention behind the question, and is less prone to misinterpretation.

Once we have a questionnaire with all twenty-four questions completed (a process that takes typically around fifteen minutes), we need to analyse the responses on that questionnaire.

Creating a DISC Profile

A completed DISC questionnaire will contain 48 answers (one 'most' and one 'least' for each of twenty-four questions). It is possible to analyse these responses manually, such a procedure can easily introduce errors into the results derived from the questionnaire.

The preferred approach is to have a computer analyse the responses and calculate the resulting DISC profile or profiles. This is part of the function of the Discus system, for example.

The analysis process involves taking each of the forty-eight answers from the questionnaire, and associating it with a particular DISC factor. This is a more complex task than it might seem, because some answers to the same question will relate to different factors depending on whether the respondent chose them as 'most' or 'least'.

Finally, the results of this calculation are scaled, adjusted according the population averages, and plotted on a graph known as a 'DISC Profile'.

What a DISC Profile Tells Us

This example shows a typical DISC Profile. Each of the four points indicates the level of one of the four DISC 'Factors' present (see the section on DISC Factors for more information on these).

This example, for example shows a very low level of 'D' (Dominance), relatively low levels of 'I' (Influence) and 'C' (Compliance), and high 'S' (Steadiness). You will notice that the order in which these four factors are shown on the profile provides 'DISC' with its name.

The darker areas at the top and bottom of the profile relate to highly significant factors - where one or more of the four factors fall into these areas, they are highly significant from a statistical point of view.

The central area of the profile is also marked with dotted lines. Factors falling into this central ('medial') region of the profile lie very close to the average, and are not considered statistically significant.

The ‘Profile Series’

Most DISC systems are not limited to single DISC profile, and instead will provide at least two analyses of a questionnaire, and usually more. Together, this collection of profiles is referred to as a 'Profile Series', and will consist of one or more of the following:

Profile Interpretation

The calculation of a DISC profile or profile series is, of course, only a step in the process. The most vital link in this chain is the description of a person's real behaviour based on the numbers shown in the profile.

This is not a simple process: although each of the factors relates to particular style of behaviour, the details of that behaviour will vary according to the positions of the other three factors on a given profile. With training and experience, it becomes possible to interpret profile 'shapes' and apply them in real-world situations.

In very specific situations, there is no real substitute for experience, but in more general terms, the computer once again provides a simple solution. By building an expert system based on DISC factors and their relationships, it becomes possible to present the system with a DISC profile series and produce an individual interpretation in plain language. Again, this function is part of the Discus profiler.

Advanced Interpretation

DISC profiles provide far more scope for interpretation than just the production of textual report. We can expand the interpretation to provide information such as: