Personality test you've found useful

September 29, 2017 12:14 PM

Is there a particular personality test you've used that you learned from? Which one? Why?

In college I came across the Enneagram and my type from that test felt almost eerily accurate, and I learned things about myself I hadn't realized or articulated. I have never felt that way about other popular tests that I've taken for work, for example. I'm curious what else is out there that people have found useful.

posted by Emmy Rae to Health & Fitness (16 answers total)

I took StrengthsFinder with a group of coworkers a few years ago. It's $15, and going through the results is a little overwhelming at first, but the amount of conversation and introspection it encouraged was well worth the cost and time. A friend and I enjoyed it so much we re-take it once a year.

There's a more expensive version, but I was more than happy with the $15. I'm not sure the more expensive one is worth it.
posted by Krop Tor at 12:31 PM on September 29, 2017 [3 favorites]

I enjoyed learning about myself through reading my results from the DiSC assessment.
posted by emkelley at 12:38 PM on September 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

I also took strengthsfinder at work and got to see my own results and those of serveral co-workers. It seemed about as accurate as astrology, tarot, or a which-Friend-are-you quiz.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 12:47 PM on September 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

If you like the Enneagram, you'll probably like the Meyers-Briggs- it's definitely the personality test I've found most useful and helpful.

A bunch of people on metafilter don't like it and apparently have found it useless, though. I have a theory that is works well/is accurate when it is, but certain people don't fit into any "type" and so it's not useful for them. Nevertheless, my Meyers-Briggs type describes me to a "t" and I have found the categories extremely helpful in thinking about other people and how I relate to them as well. Also, you can take the test for free online.
posted by bearette at 12:54 PM on September 29, 2017 [9 favorites]

Chiming in to add that you should definitely avoid purchasing the more expensive version of the Clifton Strengths Finder. I found it to be completely useless.

By contrast, I really enjoyed the free tests offered by Truity (esp. the Holland Code career test).
posted by houseofleaves at 1:13 PM on September 29, 2017

I also loved Strengthsfinder. I found it particularly useful for job interviews. It gives you really good ways to verbalize what you can bring to the table, and for me it helped with the confidence in saying good things about myself.

Sixteen Personalities is a really user friendly and free version of the Meyers Briggs. I found it pretty accurate and the advice they give for each personality type was constructive.
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 1:14 PM on September 29, 2017 [4 favorites]

I can only agree on the Myers-Briggs. I found it very useful both as regards myself and others. It helps you to learn to how to deal with people who are different from you. Most interestingly, the people who know me best got it spectacularly wrong about me before I got the results.
posted by TheRaven at 2:15 PM on September 29, 2017

I found that the real value (to me) of MB is the more intensive led program (mine was over two days), particularly the shadow elements. Until then I had been, 'interesting, but no big deal' about the several MBTI tests I had done, this one had me nailed.
posted by GeeEmm at 3:05 PM on September 29, 2017

I have generally found that *any* personality test is useful in that it makes me think about myself and my reactions to things (even if that's spurred by results so wildly incorrect I'm not sure they're describing the correct species) and none of them accurate enough to be explained by more than confirmation bias. Full horoscope? Fascinating, and a neat party trick! Myers-Briggs? Totally wrong about introversion/extroversion, but some of the second-order analyses that roll through Facebook are creepily dead-on. Chinese horoscope? Come on, I'm an Iron Cock, it doesn't get better than that.
posted by restless_nomad at 3:10 PM on September 29, 2017 [4 favorites]

My therapist suggested Gretchen Reuben's Four Tendencies. It's a little woo (and it's sort of her "thing") but it did help explicate a conflict my partner and I were getting into, about how we respond to expectations. So it's not like "Oh this test really knows me" as much as "Oh this quiz helped highlight a weird difference my partner and I had which was previously sort of confusing and now it is much less confusing."
posted by jessamyn at 8:26 PM on September 29, 2017 [1 favorite]

Note on Myers Briggs from Wikipedia:

Although popular in the business sector, the MBTI exhibits significant psychometric deficiencies,

notably including poor validity (i.e. not measuring what it purports to measure)

and poor reliability (giving different results for the same person on different occasions).[8][9][10]

The four scales used in the MBTI have some correlation with four of the Big Five personality traits, which are a more commonly accepted framework.[citation needed].
posted by iNfo.Pump at 8:33 PM on September 29, 2017

Decades ago I got my hands on The Lüscher Color Test book and we found it so embarrassingly accurate that my friends and I stopped "playing" with it. You can take it online now, although book and the website stress that the accuracy of the colors is imperative to obtaining accurate results; the book came with cards but I guess they've figured out the screens thing. The test results are not static, they're designed to capture a moment in time.

Wikipedia says that, according to some, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is now preferred over the Lüscher Color Test. I haven't heard of the MMPI until now, so I can't compare.
posted by Room 641-A at 3:33 AM on September 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

I should add That since you're asked to spontaneously choose colors it's probably best not to read up about the colors before you take the test. I still have the book but haven't retaken the test since then because I'm sure it will reveal something I'm actively trying to repress!
posted by Room 641-A at 3:46 AM on September 30, 2017 [1 favorite]

As above, historically MBTI isn't based on scientific fact, however it is useful in general to think about how you think. And I found it useful on a weekend away with colleagues to map out the diverse ways that people think relative to each other, rather than regarding MBTI as some kind of absolute everyone could be measured against.

Strengths Finder was more useful, definitely.

As with all of these though, it feels a bit....

"Would you do action Y in situation X?"
"Yes"
...
"You're the kind of person who, in situation X, would do action Y"
"That's spot on, this is so insightful"

Be wary of something that repackages your own interpretation and hands it back to you.
posted by DancingYear at 12:30 PM on September 30, 2017 [2 favorites]

I found DISC testing and training at work to be interesting, mostly for highlighting different styles and for the little chart that took my "bathtub curve" (high D and C, low S and I) and plotted that as "you are super task oriented and not entirely aware of the people around you". It hadn't really occurred to me until taking that and realizing how extreme my results were, and how many great and successful managers and coworkers were *different*, that the other ways to be actually had strengths in the workplace.
posted by Lady Li at 2:13 PM on September 30, 2017

Response by poster: FYI, if you want to take the Gretchen Rubin Four Tendencies test, at the last page where it asks for your zip and email you can just leave them blank and click "next" and it shows you the results without getting your info.

The result wasn't mind-blowing but was one of those things helped me to articulate some things that I've struggled to explain about myself in the past.
posted by Emmy Rae at 12:20 PM on October 4, 2017 [1 favorite]