Personality Tests For Self-Discovery
Why Personality Tests Are Useful
Socrates said: “The life unexamined is not worth living”. The main components of our lives are ourselves, our minds, values, thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. And one of the ways to get to know ourselves is the use of personality tests.
Psychological assessments provide insightful reflections on one’s strengths, personality traits, challenges, and behavioral patterns. They act as diagnostic tools, revealing aspects of our personalities and beliefs that remain obscured, but affect the quality of life. They also put on spotlight our strengths, fundamentals, and power. Psychological assessments open a road to self-awareness. And self-awareness is a key ingredient of any personal and professional growth.
Thanks to this self-understanding we can work on modifying harmful emotions and behaviors to be able to design an individual plan for a fulfilling future. Having an insight into our values and personality, we can find a meaningful direction in our career or discover a life purpose. Whether it’s understanding communication styles, stress triggers, or coping mechanisms, these assessments offer invaluable insights that empower us to navigate life’s challenges more effectively.
Psychological assessments can also help in daily life by realizing how we can be perceived by others and developing a deeper appreciation for the differences among us. This awareness enhances communication and collaboration, promoting healthier connections in both personal and professional spheres. Embracing the outcomes of these evaluations fosters a climate of self-acceptance and empathy toward others.
General Personality Tests
There is a huge number of personality tests all over the Internet, either free or chargeable. Some of them provide real insight, but the predictive power of most of them is low, regardless of how popular they are. I list below both the ones backed by extensive psychological research, as well as the popular ones, even if they are not proved to be very reliable.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The assessment rates the person in four dichotomies:
- Extraversion vs. Introversion
- Sensing vs. Intuition
- Thinking vs. Feeling
- Judging vs. Perceiving
There are 16 possible acronyms describing personality types; e.g., I am an ISTJ.
Clinton Strengths ®
The test measures the intensity of your talents in each of the 34 themes representing what people do best. You get a report of all 34 or top 5.
https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/253715/34-cliftonstrengths-themes.aspx
iStock: daniela-designs
Enneagram
The Nine Enneagram personality types describe individual behavior tendencies, motivations, and desires. Each type has distinct differences; there are even more variations within each of them with secondary types (known as “wings”), stress levels, and different levels of maturity.
DISC
Evaluation of the presence of the below 4 factors in the person’s personality:
- Dominance
- Influence
- Steadiness
- Compliance
Big Five
The first grouping of personality traits was built in 1958 to understand the relationship between personality and academic behavior. From 1980s, various researchers continued the research, ending up with 5 major personality traits
- Openness to experience (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious)
- Conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs. extravagant/careless)
- Extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved)
- Agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. critical/rational)
- Neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. resilient/confident)
My Self-Reflections
Not disputing the value of the widely available psychological tests, I designed a few of my own which help in my coaching practice, especially in the case of working on the work meaning, career changes, or demotivation and burnout.
From the coaching perspective they can be treated as a pre-work before a coaching session, because they contain many questions which should be pondered on a session. The purpose of these tests is to put a client in a mindset to reflect on their needs, dreams and up to date experiences.
Taking the tests will not assign you to any personality category, score on some measure, or give advices how to behave. Instead, it will get you thinking deeply about yourself, your current place in life and the place where you would like to be in the ideal world.
I warmly invite everyone who find these tests insightful and who wants to further use the results to facilitate your growth to contact me and schedule a free Intro Session. But you are also free to go on a journey on self-development by yourself once you reflect your emotions and mind.
Values and Priorities
Life priorities are the specific goals, activities, or aspects of life that an individual deems as most significant and deserving of their time, energy, and resources.
Work Motivators
Work is not
only about money for most of the people. And when asked, almost everyone says
that they want to be able to grow professionally and work in a pleasant
atmosphere. But we frequently end up in a place that for some reason does not
give us sufficient satisfaction.
Knowing own motivators can provide a tool for choosing a work
which will be meaningful and fulfilling. I know that some of the mismatches
between our expectations and what a workplace can offer become known only after
we actually started working, but the self-awareness makes us more alert and may
prevent ending up in a more serious condition, for example burned out..
Lessons Learned
The Lessons Learned method is one of the tools in project management. It helps look back at the past project and figure out what worked, what didn’t, and why. It’s about learning from both successes and mistakes.
The same method can be used for any other analysis to guides you through a step-by-step process to understand how things went, find smart solutions, and use these lessons to do better in the future.
In the case of looking for the next step in the career, noting down the best aspects of the previous jobs, which we would like to continue, and the ones which would would definitely want to avoid, can help figure out what is important for us to be satisfied in the growing career.
Analysis Of Job Options
Ever heard of a SWOT analysis? SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Imagine it as a way to make a list: what you’re good at (your strengths), what might need improvement (weaknesses), things you could grab onto (opportunities), and stuff that could cause trouble (threats).
This tool helps in all sorts of situations, whether it’s for a project or thinking about your own skills as applicable to some tasks. It’s a way to organize your thoughts and see the big picture. By knowing what you’re great at, what needs work, what chances are out there, and what might get in the way, you can make smarter plans and decisions.
