Myers Briggs Personality test: Learning About Yourself

So a number of people have asked me about personality tests and whether they are useful. Here’s some tips to bear in mind if you have never taken a personality test yourself.
photo credit: Kevin Steinhardt

• Don’t take a test that is unvalidated. You need to know the source of your test and make sure it’s credible. But beyond the test, you need to know that your administrator can give you added value. For instance, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) can be useful, but not all administrators are made equal.
• Be prepared to be honest with yourself. A lot of times when I conduct personality assessments, people don’t take their test results seriously. In fact, many would tend to think of it as just an ‘interesting thing’ rather than something that can improve the quality of their life. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator does provide quite a fair bit of insight not just on an overall scale (which I used to believe it did) but it continues to improve the impact of the tool through the numerous research papers that espouse its use.
• Use it for self-improvement. Understanding your results and charting a direction based on what you know are two totally different things. A decent personality test such as the MBTI can reveal so much about you that you have overlooked, that it could literally be life changing. The only difference is that you have to be serious about making plans to move yourself toward the desired direction.

For more information about the MBTI, just place your questions in the comments below and I’ll answer them. If you are keen on taking the test, fill it in the comments box (but it will not be published) and I will contact you to conduct and debrief the test for you.