Struggling to figure out who you are in this world? Never fear – there’s a test for that! In fact, there’s A LOT of them. In this episode, we discuss the historical origins of personality tests, and discuss two popular ones available today – the MBTI and the Big Five – with a focus on what’s “real” and what’s pseudoscience. You’ll even get to hear our results! Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and more.
The free MBTI we took: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test
The Big Five test we took: https://bigfive-test.com/
A comparison of our Big Five results: https://bigfive-test.com/compare/W3sibmFtZSI6Ik1lYWdhbiIsImlkIjoiNjRkMTE0NDNiZWZlZDgwMDA4ODM5NGViIn0seyJuYW1lIjoiTWUiLCJpZCI6IjY0YzMyNTM1OGVkNGJkMDAwODczZmU2MCJ9XQ%3D%3D
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Here are our sources:
General:
- https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/life/leisure/personality-tests#:~:text=The%20tests%20capitalize%20on%20our,isn’t%20a%20bad%20thing.
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/people-are-strange/201909/your-favorite-personality-test-is-probably-bogus
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/people-are-strange/201909/why-do-we-personality-tests-even-the-bad-ones
- Stuff You Should Know podcast – How Personality Tests Work
- https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/mar/03/they-become-dangerous-tools-the-dark-side-of-personality-tests
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/first-personality-test-was-developed-during-world-war-i-180973192/
- https://vervoe.com/history-of-personality-tests/
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-accurate-are-personality-tests/
- https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-enduring-allure-of-the-personality-quiz
- https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/brief-history-personality-tests/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_temperaments
- https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~duchan/new_history/ancient_history/humor_theory.html
Myers-Briggs:
- https://www.npr.org/2018/09/22/650019038/how-the-myers-briggs-personality-test-began-in-a-mothers-living-room-lab
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelbarthur/2018/09/16/the-strange-history-behind-the-mbti-and-what-that-can-mean-for-career-owners/?sh=674490ae2fb3
- https://www.vox.com/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personality-test-meaningless
- https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/the-problem-with-the-myers-briggs-personality-test
- https://eu.themyersbriggs.com/en/tools/MBTI/Myers-Briggs-history
- https://www.myersbriggs.org/about-us/myers-briggs-jung-legacy/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indicator#CITEREFLilienfeldLynnLohr2014
The Big Five:
- https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/assessment-and-selection/other-assessment-methods/personality-tests/
- https://www.retorio.com/blog/big-5-history-psychometric-test
- https://www.verywellmind.com/trait-theory-of-personality-2795955#:~:text=The%20first%20trait%20theory%20was,traits%20into%20three%20levels%3A3
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-big-five/