About Weighting
How unconscious choices highlight personal focus areas.
What Weighting Tells Us
When a candidate completes the questionnaire, every answer contributes to a score on each trait and each main factor. These scores form the graphical overview and the written assessment.
However, there is another layer that provides valuable insight. The distribution of all 96 ticks across the four main factors rarely ends up evenly balanced. Instead, most candidates place more ticks on some main factors and fewer on others. This pattern is the candidate’s weighting.
Weighting reflects where the candidate’s attention naturally goes. It tells us which parts of the personality the candidate considers important or central, often without being aware of it.
Three Key Interpretations
1. High Weighting and High Unambiguity with a High Score
This combination shows where the candidate builds identity, confidence, and motivation. It highlights the areas that feel natural, meaningful, and energising.
Example:
A candidate with high weighting, high unambiguity, and high scores on the Outcome factors will often be motivated by clarity, measurable results, autonomy, pace, and achievement.
These are areas where the candidate feels both skilled and aligned.
2. High Weighting and Low Unambiguity
Here the candidate places strong focus on a main factor, yet the pattern contains contradictions. This suggests an inner conflict that deserves closer attention.
Such areas require dialogue in the feedback session. The candidate may experience uncertainty, shifting reactions, or conflicting impulses related to this factor.
This is not a negative result. It is simply an area that benefits from exploration and clarification.
3. High Weighting and High Unambiguity with a Low Score
This is less common, but important. It means the candidate is very aware of traits on which they score low, for example low Self-confidence, introversion, or low desire for Influence.
Candidates respond to this awareness in different ways:
Some have accepted this position and understand how it influences their work.
Others may feel pressure, frustration, or low motivation when facing situations tied to these traits.
The interpretation depends on the candidate's own relationship to this position.
Final Thoughts
Weighting adds depth to the IPA Analysis by highlighting what the candidate pays attention to and what they consider important. While the three outcomes above form the overall framework, many nuanced combinations occur in practice.
These nuances are best understood in the dialogue between the HR professional and the candidate. Weighting is not a standalone result. It enriches the full picture and supports a more precise and human interpretation of the personality profile.
