Psychometrics as moral labour: Subject formation at the intersection of neoliberal and spiritual discourse

Abstract

This ethnography-based research article explores the negotiation of well-being and subjectivity for youth workers in a Faith-Based Organisation (Canterbury Youth Services [CYS]) in Christchurch, New Zealand. We highlight the emergent significance of the Clifton StrengthsFinder psychometric assessment as a biopolitical mechanism, operating to actualise vocational identities and optimise ‘life and health’ of CYS leaders, in response to burnout and other salient threats to ‘collective human vitality’. We demonstrate how StrengthsFinder contributes to the governing and responsibilisation of youth workers through a call to heightened self-reflexivity, interacting with existing faith practices. We suggest the concept of ‘moral labour’ as the most appropriate term to describe the active participation of individuals in their own subjectification through a combination of managerial and spiritual techniques. We highlight the paradoxical value of this neoliberal/managerial tool of introspection and personality auditing to the growth of spiritual identities.