Effectivness of Personality Tests

[Alex Bell]

Since getting out of high school a couple of years ago I've been struggling to deal with my psychological problems.  I've seen a few therapists with mediocre results.  With this in mind, my dad, without discussing it with me, signed me up for a $2000 psychological evaluation with his therapist, one I've been to before but dislike because he seems to run the meter more than help identify and alleviate problems (after a year my dad doesn't show any signs of improvement).  At first I didn't want to take it at all due to the circumstance, but decided to give it a shot so as to not simply avoid without good cause.  When I arrived I was surprised to find out not only were they standardized (fill in the buble) tests, but would take 5 hours to complete. 

As I began to answer the questions, it seemed to me answering some of them were reliant on commiting logical fallacies; for example: (true/false) "Most people are difficult to deal with."  I understand the idea is to force a commitment one way or another, but the logician in me doesn't want to make a hasty generalization.  My other concern is with the analysis of my answers; I'm trusting the analytical method of the people who programmed the computer-grader and that of the therapist I don't like, both of which are probably of the prevailing Skinnerian Behaviourist theory, which I don't agree with.  Are these types of tests really valid?  Am I just falling into a defense mechanism?  It seems to me that for $2000 and 5 hours, I could see 5 different therapists and then spend a few hours with the one I like best with better results.  Any help sorting this out is greatly appreciated!

[suomipoi]

As I began to answer the questions, it seemed to me answering some of them were reliant on commiting logical fallacies; for example: (true/false) "Most people are difficult to deal with."  I understand the idea is to force a commitment one way or another, but the logician in me doesn't want to make a hasty generalization.

I'm thinking the same way. That kind of questions would get me easily stuck. I don't like how the question is built. When I'm stuck with Yes or No questions I will often choose a third optiom: explain on the paper how I think about this.

I know that they are expecting Yes or No answer but I don't agree that you should just answer Yes or No if the question doesn't make sense.

[Seth Anderson]

There is actually an app on facebook, "My Personality," which offers these same types of tests. Personally, I'd say that they're not directly benificial towards psychoanalysis. However, I would think they are useful for determining what personality archetype a person is, which could help analyze the rational or irrational impetii and reactions to choices and events in an individual's life... Wow, that was a mouthful, I apologize for not being able to streamline that sentence some more :/Now, whether or not approaching psychology from an archetypal approach, al la Jung, is a valid approach is a different discussion altogether.

[Wesley]

There is a theory which I am floating, but I cannot say whether it is true or not based on what you said. I tend to be against standardized tests. They can be helpful in getting in the right "ball park" but there is obviously a lot more personal things going on. Something to recognize is that many therapists are not good. Nothing beats a good therapist, but you seemed to indicate that your father had not gained anything from extensive time with them. This would make me very skeptical and start to think that they are more about earning money than helping people. A personality test may not help you diagnose yourself or work through your issues, but it may teach them which kind of therapies will work and how to influence you. It also can be a way to pathologize things, or just make you spend $2k on a test and then because of the fallacy of sunk costs you will just have to go to therapy there.

I hope it is a good test and useful for you, but I am skeptical of things, and my instincts on limited information are telling me they want standardized proof as to why you need long term therapy from them or to learn your personality and how to better convince/manipulate (neutral connotation intended) you that you should stay with them. It is also easier to do something standardized rather than actually communicating and learning.

Feel free to disagree with more evidence, but you seemed to have a similar instinct before you went about this place, but curiosity and a desire to improve led you to go anyway. Let me know what you think about this.

[Magnus]

For $2,000, I'd expect more than a personality assessment.  You can get that for free online.  For that money, I'd expect some real psychological assistance, insight, therapy, coaching, etc. 

There are a ton of personality assessments that are wholly unscientific, of course.  But the good ones have a limited value, I think, sometimes. All they can really do is ask good questions -- questions that identify some of the criteria that differentiate people's mindsets. 

These assessments go back to Carl Jung, who identified 3 or 4 criteria, each of which could be scaled on a linear spectrum.  This yielded a 4-dimensional sorting of personality types (for a total of 16 types), which he claimed corresponded to various modes (or styles) of cognition, or styles of information processing.

the logician in me doesn't want to make a hasty generalization

That's part of your personality!  Using your abstract conceptions (as opposed to concrete senses) as your primary source of information-processing is what Jung called Intuition, in particular Introverted Intuition.  The opposite cognitive style would be Extroverted Sensing -- people who are impatient with abstractions and theories, and who tend to be spontaneous, and interested mainly in the concrete, tactile, observable world.

I don't believe, however, that the entirety of human personality can be summed up into 16 types.  There are obviously a lot more factors to consider than 4 linear criteria.  But these criteria are, to some extent, useful, and they do describe something about the human mind that is observable and objective (even though it's largely self-reported).

I would urge you to consider, also, that these cognitive modes or styles are not set in stone.   People go through personality changes all the time.  People can become more rational (or less) rational, or more (or less) extroverted. The factors that are measured by personality assessments are malleable, over time.

But most importantly, I would not consider personality assessment to be a form of therapy.  Personality sorting is only a way of describing a person's mental habits and preferences, which might help explain why a person tends to thrive in (or gravitate toward) particular types of social situations, hobbies, or jobs.  It's not much use when it comes to gaining insight into a person's motivations, psychological impediments, etc.

For that, I have never seen anything more helpful than the Internal Family System approach, which I would highly recommend.

[Stefan Molyneux]

judge the world before you judge yourself...

[Waster]

I went into the same procedure with a therapist. Also before applying to my current job i had to do a personality and intelligence test. I have been thinking about it lately as well and to me it seems like a narcissism on the part of the therapist by doing these kind of personality tests. We dont want to know, feel and understand the real person by asking open questions. We reduce people to shallow images like we always do in culture. And then we claim we understand the person, because we have diagnosed an image and we are going to give the image a treatment. There is so much subjectivity by asking these kind of loaded questions and making arbitrary conclusions out of it. I completely share your skepticism. When i look back, the reason why there was hardly any improvement with all of my therapists because they couldnt empathize with me. They didnt ask deep personal questions and whenever i showed vulnerability other questions gets asked that leads to the usual comfort zone or i get told what to do. 

Good luck with your pursuit to self knowledge. I hope this answer helps.