Know thyself in ten minutes?
By now, most JC1s have taken their DISC profiling test. Tan Ze Sheng reviews the reliability of other similar "Personality Tests"

During this developing stage as JC students, or in fact at any other time in our lives, wouldn’t we all like to know exactly who we are, identify our strengths and weaknesses, who our soul mate is going to be, what is our purpose in life, etc.? We often go through all sorts of undesirable experiences trying to find the answers. Perhaps, all along the solution lay in doing something as simple as a personality test online?

The history of personality tests is said to have begun as long ago as 450 B.C., with the Greek, Hippocrates. Since then, many others have followed. Studying personality is often ambiguous, but most tests propose different categories of personality that a person may belong to.

The common purpose of a personality test is to place one person in one such category and, in doing so, describe certain aspects of a person’s character that is usually consistent throughout that person’s lifetime, and perhaps patterns of thought and behaviour as well. Suiting the specific purpose that person has in mind, there is a wide variety of tests to choose from.

There is the basic personality test, which typically sorts people into one personality type or another, corresponding to the character traits a person possesses (e.g., the sanguine, carefree, sociable, uncommitted to work). Some tests offer to estimate the strength of a person’s specific qualities (e.g., communication skills, self-esteem). Others will even parallel a person with colours, or a favourite fictional character (e.g., cool blue, Jigglypuff). The last are mostly only for entertainment.

So, will a quiz between two to thirty minutes provide you with all guidance you will ever need in life? If you are ready to believe it and its advice, then maybe. However, one should first take in some healthy skepticism before swallowing the results of a quiz wholesale. There are a couple of reasons to doubt the reliability of a personality test.

Firstly, there is subjective validation. This is the tendency of one to deem statements as accurate because the person finds them personally meaningful and significant. Usually a person wants for a personality test to be accurate. And so it will be, no matter what the results are. If one is to avoid this, he or she should consider when the traits described in the results have been proven in his or her behaviour.

Secondly, there is the Forer effect. The Forer effect refers to the tendency of people to rate sets of statements as highly accurate for them personally even though the statements could apply to many people. Usually a person will take results from a personality test to be a precise description of him or herself, though it is in fact very vague and general and common for many people. To prevent from falling for this, he or she should take many different personality tests and look for descriptions that appear often, as these would more likely be true.

These reasons should not push you away from personality tests. They should instead raise your awareness that tests are ultimately flawed. They should be taken with anything from a low to a moderate amount of readiness to believe them. Still, after taking numerous tests, one might even be experienced enough to be his or her own judge of character, or even a judge of others’. Knowing more of oneself and others will be a vital tool in any form of relationship, and also to gain stability and control over one’s own life.

Recommended test to take –The IPIP-NEO. Two versions available, both sufficiently long to be accurate. Very detailed results.
http://www.personalitytest.net/ipip/ipipneo1.htm

For fun and killing time –A list of tests.
http://www.2h.com/personality-tests.html

Reference and further reading on subjective validation. Not long, highly recommended for reading.
http://skepdic.com/subjectivevalidation.html

Reference and further reading on the Forer effect.
http://skepdic.com/forer.html

By Tan Ze Sheng