Behavioural Profiling in Recruitment, Educational, Criminal Behaviour and Marketing

Learn more about the use of psychological and behavioural profiling in a wide range of settings.  A profile helps us to find out more about a person, what they are really like, their characteristics and personality.  We often assume that behavioural profiling is used mainly in the field of criminal behaviour, but psychological profiling can also be used in a wide range of other areas, such as –

• Is this person the right candidate for the job?
• What careers would suit this person?
• Does this child or adult have a specific educational need?
• What customers will buy this product?
• How will a customer buy this product?
• Does this person have a personality disorder, such as Antisocial Personality Disorder?
• Does this person have the right aptitude and skills for this job?
• Does this person have a clinical condition?
• Does this person have the skills and personality required for a promotion?

Psychological profiling can help us to learn more about people and find out whether they are the right candidate for the job, whether they have educational needs, whether they show criminal tendencies and how we can market our goods and services to a particular group of people.

This 20 hour short course gives you an insight into the use of profiling in different settings – education, customer profiling, marketing, criminal behaviour and recruitment.

How does it work?

At the end of each lesson, you will be given a short interactive test to undertake, which will provide an indication of how your learning is progressing. Upon completing the very last lesson, you will be offered a more thorough automated test or examination. This final assessment can be undertaken at any time of day or night; and any day of the week; and if you achieve an overall pass (60% or more); you will be able to obtain a “certificate of completion” with your name and completion date on it.

Note: these short courses are self-guided online courses and are not to be confused with tutor-supported online courses.

What will you learn?

Lesson 1: Introduction

• What is profiling?
• Personality
• Types of profiling
• When and why do we carry out profiling?
• How profiling is done
• Lesson 1 additional reading
• Types of serial killers
• Psychopaths
• But why do murderers kill?
• Who commits murder?
• Murder statistics

Lesson 2: How To Profile Someone

• Profiling techniques
• Putting it all together
• Psychological testing in recruitment – how good is it?
• Personality testing in recruitment

Lesson 3: Interviews and Questionnaires

• Psychological screening
• What is an interview?
• Planning an interview: structured or unstructured
• Components of a profiling interview
• What can go wrong?
• Dealing with interview data
• Competency based interviews in recruitment
• Non-verbal behaviour
• Active listening and SOLER

Lesson 4: Behavioural Assessment

• The ABC model
• Traditional vs behavioural assessment
• Different applications of behavioural assessments
• Behavioural assessment techniques
• Problems with behavioural assessments
• Functional analysis
• More on behavioural assessments
• Methods of behavioural assessment
• The focus of assessment
• Analysis of problem behaviour

Lesson 5: Classical Assessment Tests

• The nature of traditional assessment tests
• Reliability and validity of psychological tests
• More on Wechsler intelligence scales
• Subtests
• Psychological testing in recruitment – how good is it?

Lesson 6: What Comes Next?

• Applications for profiles
• How & where to use a profile
• Computer profiling
• Ethics of profiling
• Problems with profiling
• The future of profiling
• Profiling – a summary

Who is this course suitable for?

This course will be of interest to human resources managers, supervisors or employers, it may help them to a better understanding of how to select and manage their staff. For anyone involved with law enforcement it may help to understand and predict the behaviour of criminals. Counsellors, welfare workers, teachers, marketing professionals and many others can also find applications for behavioural profiling.