I’m probably late to the game, but a few weeks ago I took my first Myers-Briggs personality test. I’m an Assertive Advocate (INFJ-A), part of the Diplomat family of personalities and someone who uses confident individualism as a strategy:
Confident Individualists tend to trust in themselves. They enjoy their own company and don’t mind spending time alone to pursue their interests. Over time, this can give these personalities an impressive range of skills and interesting ideas.
But these types take pride in their skills for their own sake, not to impress others. They tend not to see the point in social displays and bragging. While they’re proud of who they are, these personality types don’t always feel the need to prove themselves to anyone else. They prefer substance to superficiality and personal honesty to playing along.
The test results come with a few pages of descriptions for the Assertive Advocate, all of which I feel resonate strongly with my view of myself:
Creative, Insightful, Principled, Passionate, Altruistic
Of course, the weaknesses sound nothing like me! Or do they?
Sensitive to Criticism, Reluctant to Open Up, Perfectionistic, Avoiding the Ordinary, Prone to Burnout
And that’s just the thing, isn’t it? It’s really easy to find yourself in a specific personality type’s strengths, but then not so easy to accept you may share the accompanying weaknesses.
The test reminded me a lot of horoscopes, whose predictions are just general enough to fit a large swath of the population. How many creatively-minded people are also principled and passionate? How many Altruistic people have strong principles? I’m going to assume a lot.
Turns out there’s a name for this – the Barnum Effect – and it affects not only horoscopes but personality tests as well.
I’m glad I took the test, but I’m unsure what the purpose is. To better know your strengths and weaknesses? Sure. But more than that I think we like to fit neatly inside of boxes. Saying I’m an INFJ-A isn’t much different than saying I’m a Taurus. It’s informed more by real personality traits, as opposed to a random birthdate, but it serves the same purpose: to reinforce notions I have about myself already. I doubt anyone’s ever taken one of these tests and thought, “you know, I’ve always been a selfish bastard, but this clearly shows I’m really generous!” Instead they’ll just skip over that one, and assume that all the rest must be true (like I did with sensitivity to criticism, showing very little self-awareness).
The test is worth taking, if you haven’t already. It’s a great jumping off point to start thinking about your skills. But that’s all. Everyone’s different, and getting too attached to a quiz like this one is bound to inflate your head, regardless of the results.