Personality tests April 28, 2009

 (image by me)

My two favorite personality tests are Mayers-Briggs -Typindicator and Multiple Intelligence Test. Based on my expeirence, these two are able to give a realtively clear and information-rich personality snap, especially what the social life /work is concerned.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator(MBTI) assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. These preferences were extrapolated from the typological theories originated by Carl Gustav Jung, as published in his 1921 book Psychological Types (1923). The original developers of the personality inventory were Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. They began creating the indicator during World War II, believing that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women who were entering the industrial workforce for the first time identify the sort of war-time jobs where they would be “most comfortable and effective”. The initial questionnaire grew into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which was first published in 1962. The MBTI focuses on normal populations and emphasizes the value of naturally occurring differences.

I first heard of this test from the INSEAD  Business School Professor who told me that the test is being widely used in the USA especially in work-related matters. Interstingly, I have found some evidence that despite being one of the favorite test in American business schools, the test has been mistrusted by scholars. Skeptics criticize the terminology of the MBTI as being so “vague and general” as to allow any kind of behavior to fit any personality type. They claim that this results in the Forer effect, where individuals give a high rating to a positive description that supposedly applies specifically to them. On the other hand, some theorists, such as David Keirsey, have expanded on the MBTI descriptions, providing even greater detail. For instance, Keirsey’s descriptions of his four temperaments, which he derived from the sixteen MBTI personality types, show how the temperaments differ in terms of language use, intellectual orientation, educational and vocational interests, social orientation, self image, personal values, social roles, and characteristic hand gestures.

Whatever it is, I was using this test at my work for the staff assessment and found it very helpful. For those who know me in person or for a longer time throught my blogging: you can see about the correctness of this test by my results below or by testing your personality here. NOTE: I did some similar tests and got the same result everywhere!