Understanding oneself and making productive personal changes are difficult but rewarding tasks. Future Generations Assistant Professor Dr. Jesse Pappas, along with a team of colleagues, created the Personality Pad to facilitate these tasks. 

“The Personality Pad’s goal is to assist with self-insight and self-development,” says Pappas. “The tech platform it uses will drive a peer-reviewed process among faculty and will eventually be used among students.” The National Science Foundation has been funding Dr. Pappas’ work on the Personality Pad since 2011. In that time, thousands of individuals worldwide have used it to gain self-insight and set self-development goals. 

Personality Pad uses a system of 360 degree feedback. “Essentially, 360 degree feedback provides insight about how individuals perceive themselves compared to how they are perceived by the people around them,” reads the project’s website, www.personalitypad.org.

Dr. Pappas and his team’s goal is to adapt this well-established professional tool for personal use. Findings suggest that a majority of individuals have a greater understanding of their personality after implementing 360 degree feedback. In many cases, this leads to actionable plans to implement personal development. Pappas is also working to adapt the technology to the specific needs of Future Generations Graduate School. “One unique but challenging aspect of the Future Generations cohort module is an extremely diverse group of students, in terms of culture, previous academic training, and learning styles. The Personality Pad could go a long way in improving the teaching effectiveness of our faculty.”