Personality Tests; are they reliable?
An article published in 2012 on BBC News claims that there are about 2,500 personality tests in the US alone. Today we easily come across personality tests that inform us on our “personalities” and some further suggest on the career types these subgroups of personalities fit into. These tests have always intrigued me and one of them is the MBTI. Here I would like to briefly explain how the MBTI decides our personality types and whether such personality tests are reliable.
The MBTI broadly differentiates 16 personality types and eight alphabet letters; E, I, S, N, T, F, J and P are used repetitively. These alphabet letters stand for extroversion, introversion, sensing, intuition, thinking, feeling, judging and perceiving respectively. The eight personality types are divided into four dimensions with each personality types at one end of the pole. For instance, when we look at the introversion and extroversion dimension, one end of the pole runs highly on introversion and the other end runs highly on extroversion. This applies the same with the other dimensions.
My result showed that I lie within the ENFJ group; thus, it tells me that I am more extroverted than introverted, more aware of knowledge that comes through my senses (intuition) than orient my mind to the patterns of the information I receive (sensing), highly attuned to feelings and emotions, and tend to prefer an organized lifestyle (judging) compared to an adaptive one (perceiving).
How reliable are such personality tests? For me the MBTI is genuinely reliable because all three times I took this test, within a five year range, it gave me the same results. Furthermore, statement such as “You trust reason rather than feeling” clearly indicate what the MBTI is trying to measure; T-F dimension in this case. Thus, the validity of the MBTI seems to be trustable as well.
However, because our personalities can’t be defined by only these four dimensions there are limitations. Moreover, most of us act differently depending on the situations that we are in and this makes it hard for us to say that we have a stronger personality type than another; perhaps someone fits right in the middle of the bipolar dimension. Therefore, although to a certain extent such well-known personality tests are reliable and valid this does not necessarily mean that they should be absolutely trusted personality type-wise and relied on when considering a suitable career for one. Barack Obama and Johnny Depp are both thought to show ENFJ personality type by experts but it’s hard to find similarities in their careers!
References
“The Myers & Briggs Foundation — MBTI® Basics.” The Myers & Briggs Foundation — MBTI® Basics. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.
“Myers Briggs Type Indicator.” Spiritual Networks. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.
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