Community of Certified Practitioners Newsletter

Touching Lives & Transforming Organizations

Even though Marston developed the DiSC model, the DiSC test or assessment, to prove his theory of the emotions of people within their environment, he never copyrighted his DiSC profile test.   Thus DiSC is available in the public domain.

Later, the work of Marston was researched and updated by Dr. John Geier and Inscape Publishing at the University of Minnesota. The DiSC model and its complementary assessment tools have helped over 50 million people in 20+ languages over the last 40 years.

As an added bit of trivia, Marston is known in many circles for his work in developing the lie detector test.  He was also the creator, writer and producer of "Wonder Woman" which introduced into comic strips, the role model of a strong female.

 

 

 

Q:   Why is the "i" in DiSC printed in lower case?

A:    For you curious, high C styles, the lower case "i" in DiSC is an Inscape, trademark - originally a printers error.   Being flexible and adaptable, Inscape, Carlson Learning Company, Performax decided to copyright the mistake and create their version of DiSC, using the small i.  If your version doesn't have a lower case "i" it is not from Inscape.

 

 

Q: Is there any meaning to Graphs I & II?

A: After people have completed the 28 forced-choice boxes, their 28 most responses are charted on Graph I. On this graph, if a person has a high score on a given DiSC® scale, this means that the person endorsed many items that belonged to that scale as being most like them. For instance, a high score on the D scale of Graph I means that a person endorsed many D items (e.g., daring, determined, outspoken) as most like him or her.

 

On the other hand, the individual’s 28 least responses are inverted and then charted on Graph II. If a person has a high score on a given DiSC scale of Graph II, this means that the person did not endorse many items that belong to that scale as least like him or her. For instance, a high score on the D scale of Graph II means that a person endorsed very few D items as least like him or her. Conversely, that same person may have a low score on the S scale of Graph II, which means that he endorsed many S items as least like him or her.

 

Ultimately, Graphs I and II reflect two different methods of measuring DiSC. The results of these two methods are combined to form Graph III, which is shown to be the most reliable measurement of DiSC.

Issue 02/07, October 2007

OTi Partners

<<Back