Friday 25 April 2014

So, what's your MBTI type?

On someone's Quora profile, I read about this test that tries to tell your personality type. I had heard this kind of stuff before but never tried it. If you have seen some usual psychological questionnaires in magazines, they are of the type "If most of your answers were A then you are adjective1, adjective2, adjective3", "If most of your answers were B, then you are .." so on. Even if we assume for a second that these tests truthfully assess you (and this is a big IF) they suck so much that their creators haven't even bothered randomizing the choices. (I think) After going through first few questions, the reader understands the pattern and from that point onwards they try to (probably not fully consciously) conform to their previous choices. For example, if someone selects choice A for first three questions, if they are in doubt about the fourth question, they are likely to choose an option that is consistent with their previous choices, irrespective of what they actually feel. So, the readers trick their minds trying to paint a consistent picture, rather than fractured bits of truth.

Coming to this particular personality assessment test, look at some of the yes/no answer statements. While some questions have relatively straightforward answers, others don't. For example,

You feel involved when watching TV soaps. Yes/No?

Firstly, let's put all the serials, series, and soap operas into one bucket. Since everyone's tastes are different, most people will find themselves more involved in at least one series (different for each person). If most people answer Yes to this question, how is this supposed to give insight into their personality? 

You are more interested in a general idea than in the details of its realization. Yes/No?

Well, sometimes I am and sometimes am not. Depends on how critical the situation is.

It's difficult to get you excited. Yes/No? 

This is an amusing question. It's difficult to get you excited by what or whom? There could be a myriad number of situations, how am I supposed to answer this? Also excited means what? It could vary from mild to mania. I suppose this and most of such confusing questions could be answered by comparing ourselves with those around us. If these people get more excited than you (about things in general), then you are difficult to get excited.

You know how to put every minute of your time to good purpose. Yes/No?

This is such a pretentious question. Every minute? Hardly a few people on earth would be able to truthfully answer this as Yes. (And would they take this test?). Ok, I get it, we shouldn't take this literally. Still. The situation changes from day to day. There are uptimes and downtimes.

Anyway, despite such confusion, I somehow managed to finish the test. INTJ.

On an unrelated note, I will leave you with this video :)








2 comments:

  1. These are known problems with the MBTI. Thats what tests have to administered with a certified practitioner. Also the Jungian cognitive functions that the test maps to is bit abstract to be determined from a test. The test only seeks to provide an outline of the behavioral pattern of the test from what a 'most probable type' can be got. Determining one's type actually takes a lot of months (a few months) and some careful self observation :)

    Whats you type????

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I see, didn't know that. My predicted type was INTJ, what's yours?

      Delete

So, what do you think?