The Good and Bad of Personality Tests
In our world today, we greatly value and endorse the use of personality testing for almost anything. Anything where understanding ourselves and others matters; such as in school, in work, and in living situations. So, pretty much everything. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve taken a personality test for something, and I can’t keep track of how many different ones I’ve tried.
For anyone who has not taken a personality test, I’m surprised to meet you. There are so many different tests you could take if you’re interested in giving it a go. The one I’ve found to be the most informative and accurate for me personally is 16Personalities. This test is relatively short and completely free. It was created by Myers & Briggs, who you may have heard of. Myers & Briggs were the two women (mother and daughter) who created the “Personality Type Indicator”, a 4-letter code that identifies a person’s personality and traits.
Before you take your first test (or your 100th), I want you to remember that whatever your results may be, there is no good, bad, better, or worse. I wanted to share my personal journey with personality testing, in the hopes that I can help any others who may have had a similar experience to me. I also have just been thinking a lot about the good and bad that can come from taking personality tests, as I sit here with an incomplete one at my feet.
The good:
As I said at the beginning, personality tests can be used for many different things. And I believe in a lot of ways, successfully.
To better learn about yourself and why you act the quirky way you do, these tests can be a great way to gain some insight. For anyone that may be experiencing an internal struggle, taking a personality test may help to explain why you may be feeling/acting a certain way. Personally, I remember being confused as to why I was so susceptible to feeling other people’s energies. So much so that if I was spending time with a friend and they were angry about something, I would internalize their anger and carry it with me throughout my day. I was worried something was wrong with me, until I learned from taking a personality test that I’m an Empath and my experience is totally normal for people who are like me.
Personality tests can be especially great if you’re working within a team. I’ve had jobs and projects where I’ve been assigned to a group of people I’d never met before. In the past these projects have been short-lived, so getting to know my teammates well was pretty impossible. Taking personality tests and sharing your results with your team can be beneficial to making group work more comfortable and effective. It sort of makes everyone responsible for remembering how others respond to working in groups and who will be best suited for which aspect of the project at hand.
Last semester, I took a class titled “The Psychology of Leadership” while I was abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. I absolutely loved this class. My professor was amazing and I learned so much about myself as a leader and as a team player. In her class, we took a personality test specifically for leadership. Our results showed us in which instance of leading (since leading is circumstantial) we would best fit. It also explained to us how we as leaders may deal with conflict, and how to best give praise that would be received. I believe tests specifically made to explore a certain aspect of life, like leading, are especially important. Another example of a specific aspect test could be the love language test, which is also available free of charge. In this test, you can learn more about yourself in relationships, and how you like to be shown love as well as how you show love to others. I recommend that everyone take this test. Love is a language, and everyone has a special way of communicating it. Learning how to best speak it with your significant other or friends can really deepen the connection.
The bad:
While I endorse the use of personality testing, I do so with caution and prior awareness.
The classic way of determining personality is using traits with spectrums, where everyone falls somewhere on the spectrum. Something we discussed a lot in my “Psychology of Leadership” course was the Five Factor Model. This is the most used taxonomy for determining personality.
I’d like you to think about that for a second. The Five Factor Model. Five traits being used to describe a human being. That was hard for me to wrap my head around then, and it still is now. A human being is so much more complex and intricate than five spectrums and a personality is impossible to encompass fully.
My first semester of college, my school required all first year students to take a class that will better prepare them for college life. In this class, we did a lot of searching and planning; spending the majority of the time taking different tests that had to do with our personalities and school/career aspirations. For me, this was a very stressful time. I really had no idea what I wanted to do.
About the second week in, we took the fancy-shmancy Myers Briggs Test and all got our 4-letter codes in the hopes it would help us better understand ourselves as students. My results confused me. A lot. It was my first time taking any serious personality test; one that took almost an hour to complete with results spanning more than 4 pages long. I’m an INFJ (Introverted, intuitive, feeling, judging). I share my 4-letter code with you now because I’m proud of it. But at the time I first received it, I was horrified.
I was horrified mainly with the whole introverted aspect of my personality. Second week of being a college student, and I was being told (as I viewed it) that I would likely struggle to connect with people. Fuck. Little did I know that this would be something I would struggle with for many months to come. I couldn’t get the thoughts out of my head: that I was lame, that I didn’t do well socializing, that I couldn’t express myself easily. The world doesn’t have the best attitude towards introverts in comparison to extroverts. Extroverts are almost always viewed as being the more preferred personality type, in our highly outward-expressing world.
I tell you this story because I believe it is important to understand that personality tests are not the end-all-be-all. Since personality tests are self reported questionnaires, depending on the day and the type of morning you’ve had, you may have differing results than on another day. When I first learned I was an introvert, I felt that I would never again be able to feel confident while socializing. This was the farthest thing from the truth. *I now know that I can socialize confidently when I want to, but require a balance of alone time as well. I am now more accepting of this aspect of myself and love my need for quiet reflection and the resetting energy I gain from it.*
I realized the spectrum aspect of these tests. I saw that my personality, as much as I like to believe it is always the same, does in fact change over time and based on circumstance and experience. We have good days and bad days; and so do our personalities. Your place on the spectrum can and will change often. It is important to recognize we are never set in cement; we are more like playdough and can be crafted and remodeled often, if we allow ourselves to be.
You are always changing and evolving, and your personality is always going to reflect how you feel. Personality tests will try and put you into a box. You are not meant to be put into a box, so don’t let them confine you to one. Take your results and view them more as your middle ground, but remember that you have a lot more room to work with than may be apparent. We’ve all heard that cheesy saying: “you can be anything you want to be!” While I love this saying, I think it is mostly true. We all have limits. I believe it is important to recognize those limits, while still being willing to push and test them.
…
I will be the first to recommend you get to know yourself, the best you can. But remember to be kind to yourself when you find aspects of yourself that aren’t your favorite, and to know you can always attempt to alter your findings. Once we find our personality characteristics aren’t set in stone; we can always modify them if we are willing to try.
The next time you take a personality test, remember to look at it with an open mind. Remember it is pretty circumstantial, and that it’s bound to change. Know that it’s a spectrum, and you can move freely up and down that spectrum all you want, within your limits. And lastly, remember that you are so much more than a four, or five, or even ten letter code could ever describe. You are beautifully unique and special, and only you know truly what it means to be you; so prioritize finding that meaning within yourself first and foremost. I leave you with a message from famous author and teacher Louise Hay:
“It is safe for me to look within myself… It is safe for me to enlarge my viewpoint of life. I am far more than my personality- past, present, or future. I now choose to rise above my personality problems and recognize the magnificence of my being. I am totally willing to learn to love myself. All is well in my world.” — Louise Hay
