Personality is the set of characteristics that define who we are and how we behave in different situations. Personality influences our thoughts, feelings, actions, preferences, values, goals, and relationships. Knowing our personality can help us understand ourselves better and improve our lives in various ways.
One of the most common and popular ways to assess personality is through personality tests. Personality tests are standardized instruments that measure different aspects of personality, such as traits, types, styles, motives, or preferences. Personality tests can provide us with a description of our personality profile, which can reveal our strengths, weaknesses, potentials, challenges, and opportunities.
There are many different kinds of personality tests available online or offline. Some of them are based on scientific theories and research, while others are more informal and fun. Some of them are free and easy to access, while others require a fee and a professional interpretation. Some of them are short and simple, while others are long and complex. Some of the most well-known and widely used personality tests are:
- The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): This test measures four dimensions of personality: extraversion-introversion, sensing-intuition, thinking-feeling, and judging-perceiving. Based on these dimensions, it assigns one of 16 personality types to the test-taker, such as ENFP, ISTJ, or INTP. Each type has a unique combination of preferences and characteristics that influence how they perceive the world and interact with others.
- The Big Five Personality Test: This test measures five broad domains of personality: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. These domains are further divided into six facets each, such as imagination, orderliness, sociability, trust, anxiety, or anger. The test provides a score for each domain and facet, indicating how high or low the test-taker is on each dimension compared to the general population.
- The Enneagram Test: This test measures nine basic personality types that are based on different motivations and fears. Each type has a core pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving that shapes their worldview and identity. The types are: the reformer (type 1), the helper (type 2), the achiever (type 3), the individualist (type 4), the investigator (type 5), the loyalist (type 6), the enthusiast (type 7), the challenger (type 8), and the peacemaker (type 9). The test also identifies the test-taker's wing (a secondary type that influences their main type), their stress and growth points (types that they move to when under pressure or when developing), and their instinctual variants (subtypes that reflect their dominant instinct: self-preservation, social, or sexual).
- The DISC Test: This test measures four behavioral styles that are based on two dimensions: dominance-influence and steadiness-compliance. The styles are: dominant (D), influential (I), steady (S), and compliant (C). Each style has a different way of approaching problems, people, pace, and procedures. The test provides a graph that shows the test-taker's intensity on each style and how they adapt to different situations.
These are just some examples of personality tests that can help us know ourselves better. However, it is important to remember that no personality test can capture the full complexity and uniqueness of who we are. Personality tests are not labels or boxes that define us completely. They are tools that can help us explore our personality from different perspectives and gain some insights into our patterns and preferences.
Knowing our personality can have many benefits for our personal and professional development. Some of these benefits are:
- Self-awareness: Knowing our personality can help us become more aware of our strengths and weaknesses, our values and goals, our needs and desires, our emotions and motivations. This can help us recognize what makes us happy or unhappy, what energizes us or drains us, what inspires us or scares us. Self-awareness can also help us accept ourselves as we are and appreciate our uniqueness.
-Self-improvement: Knowing our personality can help us identify areas that we want to improve or change in ourselves. For example, if we know that we are low on conscientiousness, we can work on becoming more organized and disciplined. If we know that we are high on neuroticism, we can work on managing our stress and emotions better. If we know that we are type 2 in the Enneagram, we can work on balancing our need to help others with our own self-care. Knowing our personality can also help us set realistic and achievable goals that match our abilities and interests.- Self-expression: Knowing our personality can help us express ourselves more authentically and confidently. We can choose activities, hobbies, careers, and environments that suit our personality and make us feel fulfilled and satisfied. We can also communicate our thoughts, feelings, opinions, and needs more clearly and effectively to others. We can also use our personality as a source of creativity and inspiration for our projects and passions.
- Self-regulation: Knowing our personality can help us regulate ourselves better in different situations. We can learn to adapt our behavior and attitude to the demands and expectations of different contexts and roles. We can also learn to cope with challenges and difficulties that may arise from our personality or from interacting with others who have different personalities. We can also learn to balance our personality traits and styles so that they do not become extreme or unhealthy.
- Self-esteem: Knowing our personality can help us boost our self-esteem and confidence. We can appreciate our strengths and achievements and recognize our value and worth. We can also acknowledge our weaknesses and limitations and see them as opportunities for growth and learning. We can also compare ourselves less to others and focus more on our own progress and development.
- Self-compassion: Knowing our personality can help us cultivate self-compassion and kindness towards ourselves. We can understand that we are not perfect and that we make mistakes sometimes. We can also forgive ourselves for our flaws and failures and learn from them. We can also treat ourselves with respect and care and avoid self-criticism and judgment.
Knowing ourselves better through personality tests can have many positive effects on our well-being and happiness. However, it is also important to remember that personality is not fixed or static. Personality is dynamic and flexible and can change over time due to various factors, such as life experiences, education, culture, age, or personal choices. Therefore, we should not limit ourselves to our personality test results or use them as excuses for our behavior or outcomes. We should always be open to new experiences, perspectives, feedback, and opportunities that can help us grow and evolve as individuals.
Personality tests are not the only way to know ourselves better. There are other methods that can complement or supplement personality tests, such as:
- Self-reflection: This is the process of examining our own thoughts, feelings, actions, motives, values, goals, beliefs, assumptions, biases, etc. Self-reflection can help us gain deeper insights into ourselves and understand why we do what we do or how we feel what we feel. Self-reflection can be done through various ways, such as journaling, meditation, mindfulness, coaching, counseling, etc.
- Feedback: This is the information that we receive from others about ourselves. Feedback can help us see ourselves from different angles and perspectives and learn how others perceive us or react to us. Feedback can be positive or negative, formal or informal, solicited or unsolicited. Feedback can be obtained through various ways, such as surveys,
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