Back in April, as part of an “introversion” showdown with PPFP, I posted my Myers-Briggs results and asked you to do the same. The response was tremendous! Conclusion: my friends enjoy personality tests!
If you missed the MBTI post, it’s never too late to add your results! Click here, to join in on (or review) the fun!
So, a couple of weeks ago, at Leadership Ottawa’s 3i Summit, when I learned about the “Big Five” personality traits, I thought, “Aha, new personality test post here I come.” Just in time for those slow-moving holiday work days!
What are the “Big Five” personality traits? According to a heap of independently verified research, they are the five traits to which all personality can be reduced. The traits are (courtesy of Wikipedia):
- Openness – appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, curiosity, and variety of experience.
- Conscientiousness – a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behavior.
- Extroversion – energy, positive emotions, urgency, and the tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others.
- Agreeableness – a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.
- Neuroticism – a tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability.
A short version of the test can be found here. According to this test, I’m a O96-C96-E42-A14-N3 (click the link, if you want to learn more about my result). Essentially, I score in the 96th percentile for O & C, the 42nd for E, the 14th for A, and the 3rd for N.
Based on these results, the test tells me: “1) You enjoy having novel experiences and seeing things in new ways; 2) You are very well-organized, and can be relied upon; 3) You are neither particularly social or reserved; 3) You find it easy to criticize others; 4) You probably remain calm, even in tense situations.”
All in all, this seems like a pretty fair assessment. Initially, I didn’t like the notion that that I find it easy to criticize others but it occurs to me that this trait is essential for an inquiring mind such as my own. Criticism itself is not necessarily harmful. Rather, it is more of a question of how one goes about criticizing. Personally, I am working on bringing more sensitivity and thoughtfulness to this inquiring mind of mine.
I would love to know your results and what you think of them! Please take the test and post the results and your reflections below!
Who wants to take bets that PFPP will be more extroverted than me? Again! (Oh, no he didn’t!)
For more posts like this, click here.
O:80
C:1 (The test judged me and assumed my desk is messy)
E: 89
A: 63
N: 96 (I win at being a spaz! Eleventy!)
I object (somewhat) to my high neuroticism score. Make no mistake, I *am* neurotic. I “very strongly agreed” with certain questions about feeling stressed because I do tend to manifest physical symptoms under relatively mild duress. But my brain is rarely as frantic as my body chemistry would suggest.
When I was discussing these results with Wayne, he was surprised that my E wasn’t higher. I explained to him, that while I enjoy socializing and tend to be gregarious in those situations, I also crave regular “down time” to be alone and recharge my mental batteries.
Thanks Nadine!
My desk is always messy! Although there is usually some kind of inherent system in the mess.
Wayne’s misunderstanding makes sense because he only ever see you at your most gregarious! It’s not unlike people who think I am a robot because they only ever see my more conscientious approach to the world. That’s one feature I like about this test: it clearly illustrates that a person can be both very open and very conscientious.
To be clear, I don’t think you’re a robot because you’re conscientious. I think you’re a robot because (and Myers/Briggs support me) you have no emotions.
The context of this conversation implies that your reply is meant to invoke some sort of “emotional” response. Silly human, my programming will not allow it.
Thank goodness, this day was a-dragging. Here are my scores:
O – 24
C – 74
E – 79
A – 17
N – 49
I am critical of other people so that was no surprise to me. And I am definitely not the person to come to it you need sympathy!
I’m not sure if I would label myself as uncreative as this test indicates. I think I strike a pretty good balance between creativity and convention. But maybe I am a dry stick in the mud doing things the way they’ve always been done and I just don’t realize it.
Did you test yourself by comparing yourself with someone? That might help gauge your stick in muddiness. What sort of description did you get for your O score?
Oooh, dayum. I guess it’s on – again. Someone’s gonna get served a big ol’ plate of introversion, courtesy of me.
That someone is you. Sterling.
The longer you wait to post your results, the more it seems like you are trying to game the results!
Openess: 95
Conscientious: 35
extraversion: 95 (this doesn’t seem right to me.)
Agreeable: 83
Neuroticism: 71
Neurotic also is a very loaded term and very perjorative. The same trait could also be described as passionate. Greater sensitivity might be described as negative to those who can’t experience it in the same way that Mozart can’t be experienced by the deaf. Someone with Aspergers would probably register as a 0 on the N scale. I might have to write a post about this (different modes of being) after all.
In support of your claim, the psychologist at the summit who introduced OCEAN made a similar claim. I can’t remember what term he used exactly but it was one like “sensitive”
In contrast, by my reading, the Wikipedia explanation of OCEAN does not really support your claim that “neurotic” can be translated as “passionate”
It says:
Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, or depression. It is sometimes called emotional instability. Those who score high in neuroticism are emotionally reactive and vulnerable to stress. They are more likely to interpret ordinary situations as threatening, and minor frustrations as hopelessly difficult. Their negative emotional reactions tend to persist for unusually long periods of time, which means they are often in a bad mood. These problems in emotional regulation can diminish the ability of a person scoring high on neuroticism to think clearly, make decisions, and cope effectively with stress.
There are, for example, many passionate people who don’t also experience a lot of negative emotions. Passionate people rarely see minor frustration as hopelessly difficult.
Fortunately, there is probably enough science out there to settle the issue. Unfortunately, wikipedia may not be the best resource. If only there were a psychologist out there who might clarify this matter for us. If only …
I’m a O76-C25-E70-A79-N27. I’ve taken another test (posted on Facebook under “Boxes”) that gave me the same results but different percentages.
Anyway, my scores mean I am:
1) original, creative, curious, and complex (all highly true)
2) disorganized, undependable, and negligent (not really true, especially not the last two… I’m just not always organized in the traditional sense and I prefer to start than finish projects)
3) sociable, friendly, fun-loving, and talkative (totally true)
4) good natured, sympathetic, forgiving, and courteous (si, si, si)
5) calm, relaxed, secure, and hardy (most of the time)
Aka:
I am relatively open to new experiences, I tend to do things somewhat haphazardly, I am relatively social and enjoy the company of others, I tend to consider the feelings of others, and I am generally relaxed.
I love personality tests.
Bryn! I hope all that snow over there isn’t killing you.
With those kind of results, I can see why you like personality tests.
In regards to your comment about 2), the wiki entry mentions that not all the adjectives / characteristics necessarily apply to each person — e.g. being really open minded doesn’t mean a person will always like poetry but on the whole most open-minded people do. So you personally may not be undependable and negligent but people like you often are.
I’m with Wayne. My extroversion score was 91%. As my presence here will attest, appearances are not always what they seem.
You extroverts always stick together.
Not to keep pointing at Wayne or anything, but I also agree with his note as to the inaccuracy of the term “neuroticism”. I suggest that anyone who scores high in this category feels things more deeply and intensely than others do. Such a person would also feel joy, peace and happiness more deeply than others. My score was N55, which is actually kind of funny.
Don’t worry about the pointing; Wayne loves the attention. He’s an extrovert!
Your take on the neuroticism dimension certainly could be correct but it does not jibe with the wiki definition we are currently working with. Perhaps, we need to source another definition.
As the discussion develops, I’m starting to think it is a strength of the test / model that it creates results we don’t necessarily like. As a point of comparison, what would be the point of a fitness test that tells everyone they are perfectly healthy. It seems to me a robust personality test should also be able to flag areas of concern — like reacting too strongly to negative experiences.
I think you meant “currently” working with rather than “correctly”. I’m suspicious of IQ, and personality tests as a rule. They are fun to play with but are of only moderate use at best. Context is everything, my personality shifts depending on the social setting and the individuals I’m socializing with. (Hanging out with introverted robots clearly contributes to my neuroticism
)
I do enjoy the MB test because it gives me a way to make sense of the behaviours of others in a way that is useful; however, apparently some employers are beginning to use OCEAN as a filtering device. I think that’s highly problematic.
These tests make great blog post fodder though. Looking forward to the next one. I’m always happy to play along. As an INT,J it’s only a matter of time until you discard this model anyway.
Yes! You are correct and so edited. Thanks for flagging that.
I agree: the value of these tests is not that they mirror and capture human personality; they are valuable because they provide a framework to make sense of a range of personalities and behaviors. Like any tool, they have better and worse uses.
I suspect that is one reason I can take these frameworks so seriously in the short-term (while others are reluctant to adopt them), I have no problem discarding then when they no longer serve my purposes.
I’m a O90-C6-E3-A69-N43
I’m not sure about the N but the others seem about right. It’s tough to say if I’m more agreeable than shown above or just so introverted that it seems that way.
Thanks JC!
Yes, I expect the different dimensions probably affect each other. I wonder if the test reflects that in the measurements somehow. Perhaps, scoring high on one dimension boosts or reduces the score on another measure.