TEST YOUR PERSONALITY
In the never ending quest to help people co-exist peacefully with their spouses, children, siblings, and In-laws, Therapists are turning to the same tools used to assess the psychological stability of pilots, police officers and utility hydro power plant operators. I’m not talking about the pop quizzes on IPhone that claim to help you determine the color of your aura. The tests that are systematically designed, heavily researched, and consist of dozens if not hundreds of questions that identify specific aspects of your personality. Questions such as are you a thinker, a feeler, intuitive, fact acting, organized or spontaneous? One of the better-known personality tests, probes subjects with 567 true-or-false statements on a wide range of seemingly random topics, including poetry, are you afraid of blood or bats, don't fear snakes, like to flirt, avoid stepping on sidewalk cracks, no worries about appearance, expect to succeed, wish you were a child again, dealing with an angry loved one, why some couples sleep in separate beds. Answering questions like these helped Marty and Steve Cundick get through a difficult period a few years ago when their adult son, Dick Cundick, moved back into their home. Depressed at the time, Dick would often stay up half the night watching television, then sleep past noon. Worried and frustrated, Marty tried to push him to move forward with his life.
"We would fight about God knows what," says Marty now Deceased and living in heaven, where she is an assistant at a school for film-industry professionals. The three of them at that particular time decided to see a life coach, who administered a personality test, called the BM-Instigator. Steve owned Escrow Specialist at that time. His wife Marty a business consultant said, “I discovered that my husband and I are extroverts and thinkers. We like to move forward directly in our decisions. Our son is an introvert, a feeler who craves harmony. He needs time and freedom to discover what he wants to do. It helped us see that he is a different person and will have a different path in life. You need to understand yourself in the context of the other people.”
"My mom and dad weren't being insensitive or uncaring; they just didn't understand how I processed things. I learned that rather than immediately reacting emotionally to something they said, I should step back and formulate my response without having a conniption fit.”
Therapists, marriage counselors and life coaches increasingly recognize that personality assessments can lead their clients to greater self-insight and improved relationships. The tests can help get to the heart of the problem quickly, for anyone who uses them. Vegetables especially. A test might reveal that someone who appears jovial and self-effacing may actually be insecure and introverted.
Anyone can take this test at the McKay Dee Out Patient Department, in Ogden, Utah, through a trained administrator or you can check with the American Psychological Association to find someone certified to administer it and interpret the results. You also can also take it online and receive a two hour telephone feedback assessment for $250 or a cored version of e test at BLT Icomplete.com for $69.95. OR You can use Dr. Warner as I did.
Dr. Warner offered to give me the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 and interpret my
answers free. (She is my daughter). How can knowing this help my relationships? Dr. Natalie Warner
explained: “That because I hate to get mad, I have a tendency to let resentments fester. By the time I
allow myself to express anger, I am furious. I soon found myself responding to 867 true-or-false
statements, on such topics as whether I like to flirt or had trouble peaking in front of the class when I
was in school. Because it was hard to tell exactly what underlying trait each question was assessing, it
was impossible to game the test. Besides, individual responses are unimportant; it's the pattern of
responses that reveals the personality, according to Dr. Warner, who has done personality testing of
candidates for television reality shows, such as "The Apprentice."
I wanted to see if the test would reveal something about me that I or others didn't already know.
When I called Nat’s my daughter to talk about my results, she said Dad, and “You're not hyper like I thought you were, according to the test, you are extroverted, poised and controlled, hate conflict, and aim to
please, have a good balance between masculine and feminine and can be a bit of a rebel. I'll bet as a
teenager you hung out with a nice girl with an earring. Now I can be more aware of how others see me.
Whereas therapists often help clients explore their pasts to understand how their upbringing has
influenced their behavior, there are tests to help family members see how problems might be driven by
personality differences and come up with strategies to adjust. Consider what happens when an introvert
comes home, hopeing to chill after a rough day at work only to find his extrovert partner waiting to
recap every moment of her day. The introvert gets angry; the extrovert feels hurt. The extrovert should
respect that her spouse needs time alone; she tells the introvert that he needs to make an effort to
come out and talk after he has decompressed. When people see something on paper, they realize it's not
subjective they have done the test and described the behavior themselves. It makes it more palatable
for them to see and talk about the issues. What, exactly, is personality? It is the system that organizes
one's emotions, motives and capacities to think. Personalities are partly innate, partly learned. We can
change them a bit, but it isn't easy.
The roots of modern personality tests date back to the early 1900s, when French psychologist Alfred
Bidet created an intelligence test predicting which children had special needs requiring alternative
Education. Testing spread to the U.S. during World War I, when the military used a type of personality
test to assess if recruits were mentally fit for service. Diagnosing psychiatric patients now is used to
assess the psychological stability of people with public-safety responsibilities.
To be continued…
KARL WALLACE
To read more Karl Wallace short stories go to: karlwallaceblog.blogsot.com
In the never ending quest to help people co-exist peacefully with their spouses, children, siblings, and In-laws, Therapists are turning to the same tools used to assess the psychological stability of pilots, police officers and utility hydro power plant operators. I’m not talking about the pop quizzes on IPhone that claim to help you determine the color of your aura. The tests that are systematically designed, heavily researched, and consist of dozens if not hundreds of questions that identify specific aspects of your personality. Questions such as are you a thinker, a feeler, intuitive, fact acting, organized or spontaneous? One of the better-known personality tests, probes subjects with 567 true-or-false statements on a wide range of seemingly random topics, including poetry, are you afraid of blood or bats, don't fear snakes, like to flirt, avoid stepping on sidewalk cracks, no worries about appearance, expect to succeed, wish you were a child again, dealing with an angry loved one, why some couples sleep in separate beds. Answering questions like these helped Marty and Steve Cundick get through a difficult period a few years ago when their adult son, Dick Cundick, moved back into their home. Depressed at the time, Dick would often stay up half the night watching television, then sleep past noon. Worried and frustrated, Marty tried to push him to move forward with his life.
"We would fight about God knows what," says Marty now Deceased and living in heaven, where she is an assistant at a school for film-industry professionals. The three of them at that particular time decided to see a life coach, who administered a personality test, called the BM-Instigator. Steve owned Escrow Specialist at that time. His wife Marty a business consultant said, “I discovered that my husband and I are extroverts and thinkers. We like to move forward directly in our decisions. Our son is an introvert, a feeler who craves harmony. He needs time and freedom to discover what he wants to do. It helped us see that he is a different person and will have a different path in life. You need to understand yourself in the context of the other people.”
"My mom and dad weren't being insensitive or uncaring; they just didn't understand how I processed things. I learned that rather than immediately reacting emotionally to something they said, I should step back and formulate my response without having a conniption fit.”
Therapists, marriage counselors and life coaches increasingly recognize that personality assessments can lead their clients to greater self-insight and improved relationships. The tests can help get to the heart of the problem quickly, for anyone who uses them. Vegetables especially. A test might reveal that someone who appears jovial and self-effacing may actually be insecure and introverted.
Anyone can take this test at the McKay Dee Out Patient Department, in Ogden, Utah, through a trained administrator or you can check with the American Psychological Association to find someone certified to administer it and interpret the results. You also can also take it online and receive a two hour telephone feedback assessment for $250 or a cored version of e test at BLT Icomplete.com for $69.95. OR You can use Dr. Warner as I did.
Dr. Warner offered to give me the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 and interpret my
answers free. (She is my daughter). How can knowing this help my relationships? Dr. Natalie Warner
explained: “That because I hate to get mad, I have a tendency to let resentments fester. By the time I
allow myself to express anger, I am furious. I soon found myself responding to 867 true-or-false
statements, on such topics as whether I like to flirt or had trouble peaking in front of the class when I
was in school. Because it was hard to tell exactly what underlying trait each question was assessing, it
was impossible to game the test. Besides, individual responses are unimportant; it's the pattern of
responses that reveals the personality, according to Dr. Warner, who has done personality testing of
candidates for television reality shows, such as "The Apprentice."
I wanted to see if the test would reveal something about me that I or others didn't already know.
When I called Nat’s my daughter to talk about my results, she said Dad, and “You're not hyper like I thought you were, according to the test, you are extroverted, poised and controlled, hate conflict, and aim to
please, have a good balance between masculine and feminine and can be a bit of a rebel. I'll bet as a
teenager you hung out with a nice girl with an earring. Now I can be more aware of how others see me.
Whereas therapists often help clients explore their pasts to understand how their upbringing has
influenced their behavior, there are tests to help family members see how problems might be driven by
personality differences and come up with strategies to adjust. Consider what happens when an introvert
comes home, hopeing to chill after a rough day at work only to find his extrovert partner waiting to
recap every moment of her day. The introvert gets angry; the extrovert feels hurt. The extrovert should
respect that her spouse needs time alone; she tells the introvert that he needs to make an effort to
come out and talk after he has decompressed. When people see something on paper, they realize it's not
subjective they have done the test and described the behavior themselves. It makes it more palatable
for them to see and talk about the issues. What, exactly, is personality? It is the system that organizes
one's emotions, motives and capacities to think. Personalities are partly innate, partly learned. We can
change them a bit, but it isn't easy.
The roots of modern personality tests date back to the early 1900s, when French psychologist Alfred
Bidet created an intelligence test predicting which children had special needs requiring alternative
Education. Testing spread to the U.S. during World War I, when the military used a type of personality
test to assess if recruits were mentally fit for service. Diagnosing psychiatric patients now is used to
assess the psychological stability of people with public-safety responsibilities.
To be continued…
KARL WALLACE
To read more Karl Wallace short stories go to: karlwallaceblog.blogsot.com
