Personality Psychology: Brief Overview
Written by Crystal Ruizmun
There are many personality tests online, whether they be Buzzfeed “What kind of ice cream are you?” or Hogwarts’ sorting hat for which house you belong. Although they may be fun tests to do, they’re obviously not proven to be scientifically correct. There is an abundance of these kinds of tests online but there are only a few that are accurate. One of them being the Big5 Test. This tests the range of 5 types of behaviors: Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Open-Mindedness. Of course, there is a scale for these like Extroversion to Introversion, etc. This test provides a broad picture of a person’s personality, giving insight into certain traits.
Not all personality tests are scientifically proven but many are functional for professional use, two of these are MBTI and Enneagram. The Myers-Briggs test is commonly known for having 16 different personalities, each consisting of 4 letters that represent a part of your personality. But, personality is not just black and white, it is fluid and much more complex. Many think of MBTI as just Introversion versus Extroversion, or Thinking versus Feeling but that is incorrect. It is a very in-depth and complex idea that will be touched on in a later article, but a structure like this is why it is not scientifically accurate. The Enneagram is used for more spiritual uses and is composed of 9 personalities. Because personality isn’t fluid, this diagram connects all the personalities cohesively. Again, it is not proven so it cannot be used as scientific proof for anything but it can be referred to.
All these tests connect in a way that can be proven and disproven. There is little research on how to prove these personality structures to be accurate, so many of them are categorized as “fun” tests to do to see what kind of personality you have.
If interested in learning more about the tests mentioned, below are links to tests for a bit more accurate results!
Cognitive Function Test (Grant/Brownsword, Myers) (sakinorva.net)
Free Enneagram test (with wings) | Start the test (2024) (enneagram-personality.com)
Written by Crystal Ruizmun from MEDILOQUY