Are personality tests worth your time?

By: Martina Aucejo

During the pandemic, I’ve taken my fair share of personality tests. Whether it be a “what kind of cake are you” quiz from Buzzfeed, all the way to the Myers Briggs and enneagrams, I’ve taken ALL of the personality quizzes. It’s something I’ve been doing when I’m bored, or something that I’ve done while “multitasking” on homework. I’ve even gotten some friends on the personality test bandwagon, partly so I can have someone to talk about my obsession with. However, while taking these quizzes and going down rabbit holes worth of them, something I’ve come to question is “why?”. Why am I so inclined to take these personality tests? Are they truly accurate? Am I really learning substantial information about myself that I couldn’t have otherwise discovered through some serious journaling and self-reflection?

Well, what is a personality? According to the American Psychological Association, a personality is defined as “[something] that refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving”. Essentially, our personalities are made up of traits that cause us to think and interact with others in different ways. There have been many psychological theories about what causes personalities to be different and what factors their creation depends on. The most notable is Sigmund Freud’s theory, which states that personality is based on three things: instincts, unconscious processes, and childhood influences. Essentially, it’s a combination of both human nature and the environments we have been nurtured in. 

So, how do personality tests tie into all of this? Are they psychologically based? To help answer this question, let’s take a deeper look at one personality test in particular: the Myers Briggs, or more commonly known as the MBTI- type test. The Myers Briggs personality test was created and released in 1962 by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers after examining Carl G Jung, a psychologist, who published research about personality that aligned with Briggs’ and Myers’ ideas about personality they had already thought about previously. Now, almost 60 years after the release of the test, MBTI has been used by plenty of Fortune 100 companies to hire and evaluate potential employees. If such companies are relying so heavily on a personality test, it must be psychologically based and accurate, right? Well, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Many tests besides the MBTI, such as the Humm-Wadsworth Temperament Scale and the Thematic Apperception Test aren’t psychologically based. In fact, all of those tests above all somewhat drew from literary sources such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Herman Melville, and Gustave Flaubert– none of which are psychologists. Furthermore, Myers and Briggs didn’t have psychology-based backgrounds either, and Carl G Jung’s theories that they read weren’t proved to be credible either. Therefore, these personality tests don’t have a strong psychological base behind them. 

So if these tests don’t really have any solid psychological basis behind them, why have personality tests become so trendy? Why do people like to take them? According to associate psychology professor Jennifer Fayard, there are three main reasons why: 1) we want to learn about ourselves, 2) we want to belong, and 3) we want simple ways to understand other people. To elaborate further, when we take personality tests such as the MBTI tests, it’s comforting to know that we have similar personalities to other people– there’s a sense of belonging that comes with the test results. As people, it’s in our nature to want to belong, hence why those tests are so gratifying. Not to mention, when we are placed in such categories, others are as well, which only makes it easier for us to understand other people. 

So, what should you take away from all of this? Are personality tests accurate and worth my time? Are they useful? Are they worth taking? While this seems like a cop out answer (and it definitely somewhat is), my opinion is to take them if it makes you happy– anything that makes you happy is worth your time. Personality tests have definitely been somewhat of a coping mechanism for me, albeit questionable. Sometimes I want to know what kind of wacky job I’d have based off of dorm decorations okay?? Another main thing I’d take away too is to take such results from tests such as the MBTI with a grain of salt. While the tests are definitely somewhat important, seeing as how many companies are using them, they aren’t some end all be all to who you are. Lastly, it’s always a good idea to do more research about something you may not know much about. To be honest, I hadn’t known any of this information about personality tests before writing this article. Not only did I learn a lot, but my research changed the way I see personality tests and their credibility. I encourage others to research and learn more about unfamiliar topics, whether they’re conceptual things you learn in school or an unfamiliar word you may see in the news– knowledge is power folks!

Sources:

The Catalystpersonality, test, pandemic, trends, psychology, adviceComment