Temperament

April 20, 2016 at 9:07 pm | Posted in Online services, Psychology | 12 Comments
Tags: free tests, MBTI, Myers-Briggs, personality testing

Understanding who and how you are and what you have to offer is a big part of finding a fulfilling life and a place in society. Yet we often discover such things by happenstance or difficult experience. Most of what we’re given is generic rules and training that rarely suits us.

Often, we don’t entirely recognize our own abilities and temperament because they’re innate and we assume our experience is similar to others. Yet how we’re distinct points to what we have to offer.

This is where aptitude and related testing can shine a light for us. But testing without temperament can put you on the wrong track. I spent some decades taking pokes at a desired and recommended career goal before I finally realized it required a specific temperament I didn’t have.

The psychologist Carl Jung observed 3 personality polarities in the 1920’s, then his daughter added the 4th. The Myers-Briggs mother-daughter team extrapolated that into the Myers-Briggs test (MBTI). Various versions of mixed quality have shown up over the years and on-line.

Jung went on to develop the Jungian Archetypes from his research, a more symbolic approach to the memes underlying traits.

MBTI is essentially our preferences in how we see the world and make decisions. Some polarities can be quite strong and others less so, though we tend to moderate with age. The results also tend to evolve over time. While not seen as entirely reliable, many find them quite insightful.

(click the image to see a larger version)
It’s worth noting that the personality types are not evenly distributed in the population.

The full MBTI test is a 6 hour affair where you not only get to know your own type but your contrast with others of each of the opposite polarities. You can also get tested personally by certified testers.

Over the years, I’ve taken the full test and tried a few free on-line tests. One’s I found insightful:

Humanmetrics has a Jungian version.

Keirsey developed a variant based more on behavior and shifted the emphasis a bit. That has a test here.

And recently, I ran into another variant “16 Personalities” that adds a 5th polarity: Assertive/Turbulent.

(I didn’t have any trouble with any of these sites abusing my contact info)

After testing, I’ve also found these profiles useful.

Have fun with it.
David