Personality Tests: Testing Personality Types

The personality of an individual determines his character and in turn helps identify the patterns in his behavior, thoughts and feelings. Personality tests help to determine these character traits along with the behavioral and emotional patterns of an individual.

There are a variety of personality tests in use for several purposes. The most important use of these personality tests is to ascertain the personality traits of an individual. This is often done by psychiatrists all around the world while treating their patients. However, the assessment of personality traits has also become incorporated within the corporate world, where employers are using personality quizzes to know the personality traits of potential employees.

If you search on the Internet, you will find a variety of free and paid personality tests which will help you assess and understand your own personality. These tests follow the pattern of all the popular methods of personality testing. These tests allow you to make choices. The test is in a form of a questionnaire with multiple choice answers. You choose the answer that best relates to you. The scoring is then done and your personality type is determined.

Let us look at the popular methods of personality testing that are used by professionals around the world:

Rorschach Ink Blot Test

This test is a method of psychological evaluation used by psychiatrists the world over. There are 10 such Rorschach Ink Blots – 5 of them are black ink on white paper, 2 are black and red ink on white paper and the remaining 3 are multicolored. These are shown to the individuals about to be tested. These can also be rotated. One by one, the individual looks at these ink blots and talks about what he sees / perceives in the picture and what makes it look that way to him. While the patient talks, the psychiatrists writes down what is being said.

These responses are then analyzed to gain an insight into the patient’s personality. Various determining factors are used for such an analysis such as: what makes the ink blot look like what it is supposed to resemble, what the ink blot is supposed to be, and to what degree is the response of a patient close to the actual look of the ink blot, the capacity for mental organization of the patient, and of course, the illogical and incoherent parts of his responses.

The psychiatrist then performs a series of mathematical calculations and produces a structure of the patient’s personality.

Myers-Briggs Personality Type Evaluation

This is perhaps one of the most popular and freely available tests. One can even do this personality quiz for free over the internet and get immediate results.

This test was created by Isabel Briggs-Myers who devised, what is called as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Their theory and model was built around the ideas and theories of the renowned psychologist, Carl Jung. The theory states that there are 4 primary ways in which people differed from other people, divided into a set of 2 ways of metal processing and 2 kinds of mental orientation.

The first set refers to how people ‘Perceive’ or take in the information around them. Some people tend to ‘Sense’ the data, while some prefer to form ‘Intuitive’ assessments of the larger picture based on the data available.

The second set refers to how people form ‘Judgements’ or make decisions. Some people prefer to ‘Think’ and decide, whereas others prefer to decide based on their ‘Feelings’.

Within the set of type indicators fro mental orientation, there are two sub-sets. One defines the energy orientation of the people, while the other defines the outer world orientation of that energy.

With regards to energy orientation, one can be ‘Introverted’ or ‘Extraverted’. With regards to the outer world orientation, one can prefer ‘Judging’ or ‘Perceiving’.

These permutations and combinations form 16 distinct personality types. Using the data, the personality types in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are defined in 4 Letters:

• First Letter: E or I: Identifies your favored energy source.
• Second Letter: S or N: Identifies your favored Perceiving Mental process.
• Third Letter: T or F: Identifies your favored Judging Mental Process.
• Fourth Letter: J or P: Identifies your favored Outside World Orientation Process.

Thus, the 16 Personality Types under the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are: ENFP, INFP, ENFJ, INFJ, ESTJ, ISTJ, ESFJ, ISFJ, ENTP, INTP, ENTJ, INTJ, ESTP, ISTP, ESFP, and ISFP.

Keirsey Temperament Theory

Loosely taking off where the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator leaves, off the Keirsey Temperament Theory claims that there are two sides to the personality: the temperament and the character. While the temperament indicates the inclinations of an individual, the character outlines his habits. Thus, the temperament is the pre-disposition of an individual, while the character is the disposition of the individual.

He too divides his personality types into 16 different combinations corresponding with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators. According to Keirsey, there are 4 temperaments: Rational, Idealist, Artisans and Guardians.

The Rationals are divided into Architects (INTP), Masterminds (INTJ), Inventors (ENTP) and Field Marshals (ENTJ).

The Idealists are divided into Healers (INFP), Counselors (INFJ), Champions (ENFP) and Teachers (ENFJ).

The Artisans are divided into Composers (ISFP), Crafters (ISTP), Performers (ESFP) and Promoters (ESTP).

The Guardians are divided into Inspectors (ISTJ), Protectors (ISFJ), Supervisors (ESTJ) and Providers (ESFJ).

16 Personality Factors or 16 PF

This personality test was devised by the famous psychologist Raymond Cattell. He stated that individuals describe others as well as themselves using 16 independent and different factors. He then used these 16 factors as a basis for formulating his questionnaire which is popularly known as the ‘16 PF Questionnaire’.

The 16 Primary Factors used are: Warmth, Reasoning, Dominance, Emotional Stability, Rule Consciousness, Social Boldness, Liveliness, Vigilance, Sensitivity, Privateness, Abstractedness, Apprehension, Openness to Change, Self Reliance, Tension and Perfectionism.

Individuals can either be on the high range or on the low range of all of these primary factors. This would thus result in the type of a personality of that individual.

Thus, the various personality tests help us in testing for the personality types of the individual. All of this is just a matter of every individual’s inner quest for knowing himself better.

After all, knowing oneself is akin to opening the doorway for better understanding of the human nature and its intricacies.