Journal of Personality Assessment

Transcription

Sometimes it seems like tests dictate your life. Almost every big decision seems to involve a test; will I get my permit, or will I be taking the bus? Will my scores get me into an Ivy league school or will I be heading to my safety school? Today, we're going to tell you about a test that'll help you far more than good grades or great parallel parking skills. It won't dictate your life, but it'll help you understand yourself, and others, better. Welcome to WellCast: Today we're taking a suggestion from our coworker Danny, and our loyal viewer 8MissGreeny8. We'll be looking at the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a personality test that actually started as a way to get women into the workforce. Now it's taken by 2.5 million American men, women and children each year. We'll show you how this test can help you become more aware of your personal traits, and then teach you how to use this awareness to get more out of yourself at school. Ready? The Myers-Briggs test was first developed in the 1940s by Isabel Myers and her daughter-in-law, Katherine Cook Briggs, two amateur psychologists who were huge fans of a Swiss psychiatrist named Carl Jung, and his theory on personality types. When the U.S. entered World War II, many women entered the workforce for the first time. Myers saw a very specific need in the market for a personality test—one that would help women figure out what sort of jobs they'd be well-suited for. Thus, the Meyers-Briggs test was born. Today's exercise will give you an introduction to the different personality types, so you can start to think about which categories you fall into. Pause and print this WellCast worksheet. Next to each category, tick off the box that you think applies most to you. One: Are you an extrovert or an introvert? Are you a Fluttershy or a Rainbow Dash? This category deals with what stimulates people—are you the kind of person who gets pumped up in busy, social situations, or are you more fulfilled when reading a book? Extroverts respond to external stimuli—being around a large group of people, for example—whereas introverts are stimulated internally—by reflection, toying around with ideas and analyzing an interesting train of thought. Two: Do you sense or do you intuit? This category deals with how you gather information and learn. Some people rely mainly on the information at hand—they look for facts, concrete details, tangible data. They're mainly focused on minutiae and want to get to the bottom of things quickly. Much like Joe Friday, they want "the facts, ma'am." Others prefer to look for connections between ideas rather than nailing down facts, and are more interested in the bigger picture than the nitty-gritty details. These fall under intuition category. Three: Would you consider yourself more a thinker or a feeler? This one is the classic Spock vs. Kirk dilemma. How do you make decisions? Do you analyze all the data at hand exhaustively, write out pro and con lists, think logically through a problem? Or do you go with your gut, let your emotions be your compass for a situation? Four: Are you perceiving or judging? An easy way to look at this one is to ask yourself how you respond to deadlines. If you plan your work out far in advance and manage to get everything done on time, you're probably "judging." On the other hand, if you see deadlines as more of a suggestion than that hard-and-fast rule, and are constantly changing your work up until the last minute, you're a perceiver. At the bottom of the worksheet, put it all together. What did you come up with? ESFP? INTJ? Annoyingly, taking the official test costs money—but there are several fairly good, free knock-offs available on the Internet. (Click here, here and here.) Try taking one of these tests now, and see how your answers stack up. Let's recap: Today we went over the four main personality categories of the Myers-Briggs personality test, an indicator developed in the 40s by amateur psychologists. Your personality is a series of four letters: E (extrovert) or I (introvert), S (sensing) or N (intuitive), F (feeling) or T (thinking), and P (perceiving) or J (judging). We also explained how knowing your four letters can help you get more out of life. Next week, we're going to show you eight great methods for improving your productivity based on your personality type—how to accentuate your strengths and combat your weaknesses when it comes to finishing a paper or getting through a difficult week at school.