Where’s everyone getting their results from? I had the test properly administered once (I had a temp job as a student for a day being a guinea pig for people learning to administer the test) and I think I’ve taken it online at some point but I don’t remember the results. I just found a free online test through Google and got ENTP but I don’t know how reliable a random online automated test is. The ‘official’ Meyers Briggs page seems to suggest that you have to pay a trained professional to administer the test to get ‘correct’ results. I remember getting the distinct impression of a somewhat dubious money making scheme when I did my day as a guinea pig.
I once again had the problem I mentioned elsewhere taking the online test just now that I really struggle to answer the questions. Very few of them have a clear answer for me and most I could feel comfortable answering either way so I feel like I’m more or less picking at random. Maybe it is supposed to all come out in the wash.
Got INFJ from the online test, the one I got in 2003 was INTP. Strength of the preferences from the online test were 11/62/12/33. I can’t find the professional test.
It might be worth considering what answers you give now that might be different than ones you gave 7 years ago. I know I took one of these back in college, and probably every 5 years or so I’ve revisited it, each time never recalling my previous result (what does THAT say about my personality?).
But it struck me this time that some answers I gave this time would have been different 5 years ago. Enough that I probably would have been rated a different alphabet.
For the record: ENFP (slight, distinct, moderate, slight).
Like the sun over course of the day, our luminousity and spectrum change over time, from the blue tints of dawn to the harsh light of day, and again the blues towards dusk if I recall correctly, followed by gruesome darkness.
Anyway forgive my lyricism, but you catch my drift (although some claim that people never ‘fundamentally’ change, I disagree).
I wonder if there’s a way to measure how an individual is trending over the years, probably by comparing a series of tests over the years (although I think the act of taking thr tests repeatedly would tend to increase introspection, in the manner of observation effecting the outcome).
I took the test this morning and was amazed that I was assigned ESTJ, which is very far from what I was assigned 5 years ago (ENFP). I decided that while the discrepancy could be due to the online test being poor (I self-identify much more with being ENFP), it’s also quite possible that I’ve changed. I noticed that the questions were worded more along the lines of what do you do verses what your preferences are, and the truth is that since becoming a mother I’ve had to restructure my life a great deal away from my original preferences. I spend all day every day being a “guardian”, so perhaps it’s not so surprising my personality test results would change to reflect that.
Up to this point, in the thread, there have been 2 possible explanations given for why a 5-year old professional exam has different results than a current online one:
-personality changes over a long time-scale (5 years, etc)
-scoring differences between professionals and automated counters.
These two explanations seem based on the assumption that the responses given to the individual questions are only determined by the responder’s “personality.” That is: person A, having personality x, will always give answer a1, s.t. if A (under reliable test conditions) gives answer a2, A must not have personality x.
I’ve only just now tried this test, but I at least found questions where my answer could have been either True or False, depending on the moment. (ie, “Your workspace is clean and organized,” the answer of which will vary depending on my proximity to deadlines.)
If we’re discussing tests, I propose that we need a control, where we take the online exam multiple times over a sufficiently small time-scale that we do not expect our “personalities” to have dramatically shifted. That is: once a day, at various hours, for a week.
If the control tests have similar results, then we can go back to our question of “what changed between 5 years and now.” But, if these control tests have differing results (I’m not sure what significance condition we should set), then we should probably assume that the test may not be a “personality” test, but a “state of mind” test given “personality” and “external conditions.” In that case, we may want to be suspicious about self-evaluating with these tests.
If I have time (and remember) to take this control myself, I’ll post the results.
17/9/11 → 10:30 → ISTJ (22/62/12/22)
although I think the act of taking thr tests repeatedly would tend to increase
introspection, in the manner of observation effecting the outcome
It may also just increase the “ability” of taking the test such that it produces outcomes that match better with your (desired) self-perspective. I’ve noticed a slight drift from INTP to INFP (which I identify with a bit more) in repeated self-administrations of the test. Possibly that’s just due to how I feel on a particular day, but partly I may be choosing answers which favor F over T without outright lying in cases where I am not very sure.
I had the test administered by a “certified” assessor, but as the venue was the AYE conference it kind of came free with attendance.
I tested as (surprise, surprise) INTP, although from having had previously used online tests I’d self-identified as INTJ.
really struggle to answer the questions (...) Maybe it is supposed to all come out in the wash.
I’m the same, and yes, it’s supposed not to matter. I’d agree with Ben that the test isn’t necessarily much more rigorous than a horoscope, but I also agree with Alicorn that the point is more to raise awareness about the existence of more modes of being than the one you’re most familiar with. It’s a good antidote to generalizing from a sample of size one.
Mine was in a leadership seminar I took in college. They paid the Myers Brigg IP owners and we got glossy pamphlets; I don’t remember how the test was actually administered. On that test I was +1 towards the E, but it would go back and forth depending on my mood.
I don’t think a professionally administered Myers Brigg test is better than an online one, but it’s quite possible that some or most online versions have different questions than the real one.
I have a distinct memory of being asked if I was afraid of snakes in the face-to-face test (it stuck out because it seemed so out of place) which wasn’t in the online version I just did. There was indeed a glossy pamphlet at the end of the day.
I was only just E on the online test and I got the impression that some of the questions I found particularly difficult to answer were the primarily E/I questions.
The test I took was a group test, I think we wrote down our answers while the questions were being read to all of us and then scored them ourselves. I don’t remember a question about snakes or anything about fear. I took the test in 2006.
I took the test over 10 years ago so I only have marginal confidence in my memories of it but the snake question stood out at the time and it seems an odd detail to confabulate out of nowhere so I am inclined to think the memory is probably genuine. It is entirely possible there is some cross-contamination of the memory from elsewhere however.
I have a half memory that the snake question may have been part of some kind of calibration process where the interviewer got the interviewee in the habit of answering questions quickly with their ‘gut’ response and not hesitating or deliberating over the question too much. That is an even less reliable memory than the snake question however.
Where’s everyone getting their results from? I had the test properly administered once (I had a temp job as a student for a day being a guinea pig for people learning to administer the test) and I think I’ve taken it online at some point but I don’t remember the results. I just found a free online test through Google and got ENTP but I don’t know how reliable a random online automated test is. The ‘official’ Meyers Briggs page seems to suggest that you have to pay a trained professional to administer the test to get ‘correct’ results. I remember getting the distinct impression of a somewhat dubious money making scheme when I did my day as a guinea pig.
I once again had the problem I mentioned elsewhere taking the online test just now that I really struggle to answer the questions. Very few of them have a clear answer for me and most I could feel comfortable answering either way so I feel like I’m more or less picking at random. Maybe it is supposed to all come out in the wash.
We can test this...
We should probably compare with the same online test. Would you mind linking to it?
Don’t forget to put links to the karma-balance in the poll questions.
If you took the online test and it doesn’t match your professionally-administered test, vote this up.
(karma-balancer)
Got INFJ from the online test, the one I got in 2003 was INTP. Strength of the preferences from the online test were 11/62/12/33. I can’t find the professional test.
It might be worth considering what answers you give now that might be different than ones you gave 7 years ago. I know I took one of these back in college, and probably every 5 years or so I’ve revisited it, each time never recalling my previous result (what does THAT say about my personality?).
But it struck me this time that some answers I gave this time would have been different 5 years ago. Enough that I probably would have been rated a different alphabet.
For the record: ENFP (slight, distinct, moderate, slight).
Like the sun over course of the day, our luminousity and spectrum change over time, from the blue tints of dawn to the harsh light of day, and again the blues towards dusk if I recall correctly, followed by gruesome darkness.
Anyway forgive my lyricism, but you catch my drift (although some claim that people never ‘fundamentally’ change, I disagree).
I wonder if there’s a way to measure how an individual is trending over the years, probably by comparing a series of tests over the years (although I think the act of taking thr tests repeatedly would tend to increase introspection, in the manner of observation effecting the outcome).
I took the test this morning and was amazed that I was assigned ESTJ, which is very far from what I was assigned 5 years ago (ENFP). I decided that while the discrepancy could be due to the online test being poor (I self-identify much more with being ENFP), it’s also quite possible that I’ve changed. I noticed that the questions were worded more along the lines of what do you do verses what your preferences are, and the truth is that since becoming a mother I’ve had to restructure my life a great deal away from my original preferences. I spend all day every day being a “guardian”, so perhaps it’s not so surprising my personality test results would change to reflect that.
Up to this point, in the thread, there have been 2 possible explanations given for why a 5-year old professional exam has different results than a current online one:
-personality changes over a long time-scale (5 years, etc)
-scoring differences between professionals and automated counters.
These two explanations seem based on the assumption that the responses given to the individual questions are only determined by the responder’s “personality.” That is: person A, having personality x, will always give answer a1, s.t. if A (under reliable test conditions) gives answer a2, A must not have personality x.
I’ve only just now tried this test, but I at least found questions where my answer could have been either True or False, depending on the moment. (ie, “Your workspace is clean and organized,” the answer of which will vary depending on my proximity to deadlines.)
If we’re discussing tests, I propose that we need a control, where we take the online exam multiple times over a sufficiently small time-scale that we do not expect our “personalities” to have dramatically shifted. That is: once a day, at various hours, for a week.
If the control tests have similar results, then we can go back to our question of “what changed between 5 years and now.” But, if these control tests have differing results (I’m not sure what significance condition we should set), then we should probably assume that the test may not be a “personality” test, but a “state of mind” test given “personality” and “external conditions.” In that case, we may want to be suspicious about self-evaluating with these tests.
If I have time (and remember) to take this control myself, I’ll post the results. 17/9/11 → 10:30 → ISTJ (22/62/12/22)
It may also just increase the “ability” of taking the test such that it produces outcomes that match better with your (desired) self-perspective. I’ve noticed a slight drift from INTP to INFP (which I identify with a bit more) in repeated self-administrations of the test. Possibly that’s just due to how I feel on a particular day, but partly I may be choosing answers which favor F over T without outright lying in cases where I am not very sure.
although I think the act of taking thr tests repeatedly would tend to increase introspection, in the manner of observation effecting the outcome
This was the online test I used. There may be better ones out there, this was just the first free one I found through Google.
If you took the online test and it matches your professionally-administered test, vote this up.
(karma-balancer)
karma-balancer
I had the test administered by a “certified” assessor, but as the venue was the AYE conference it kind of came free with attendance.
I tested as (surprise, surprise) INTP, although from having had previously used online tests I’d self-identified as INTJ.
I’m the same, and yes, it’s supposed not to matter. I’d agree with Ben that the test isn’t necessarily much more rigorous than a horoscope, but I also agree with Alicorn that the point is more to raise awareness about the existence of more modes of being than the one you’re most familiar with. It’s a good antidote to generalizing from a sample of size one.
Mine was in a leadership seminar I took in college. They paid the Myers Brigg IP owners and we got glossy pamphlets; I don’t remember how the test was actually administered. On that test I was +1 towards the E, but it would go back and forth depending on my mood.
I don’t think a professionally administered Myers Brigg test is better than an online one, but it’s quite possible that some or most online versions have different questions than the real one.
I have a distinct memory of being asked if I was afraid of snakes in the face-to-face test (it stuck out because it seemed so out of place) which wasn’t in the online version I just did. There was indeed a glossy pamphlet at the end of the day.
I was only just E on the online test and I got the impression that some of the questions I found particularly difficult to answer were the primarily E/I questions.
The test I took was a group test, I think we wrote down our answers while the questions were being read to all of us and then scored them ourselves. I don’t remember a question about snakes or anything about fear. I took the test in 2006.
I took the test over 10 years ago so I only have marginal confidence in my memories of it but the snake question stood out at the time and it seems an odd detail to confabulate out of nowhere so I am inclined to think the memory is probably genuine. It is entirely possible there is some cross-contamination of the memory from elsewhere however.
I have a half memory that the snake question may have been part of some kind of calibration process where the interviewer got the interviewee in the habit of answering questions quickly with their ‘gut’ response and not hesitating or deliberating over the question too much. That is an even less reliable memory than the snake question however.