Understanding Yourself Through Personality Tests
- thomaschilds5
- 3 days ago
- 12 min read
What draws people to personality tests? In my opinion people take personality tests because they want to feel understood and appreciate the feeling of resonance that accompanies it. It simply feels good to be seen.
Im going to briefly explain the science of resonance before continuing. The principle of resonance is a scientific principle that deals with frequency. All things, no matter what they are, emit frequencies as a function of their quantum particles, an energetic emittance based on the cumulative energy of the particles released in the form of an electromagnetic wave. These waves, although invisible, are emitted by every object and those same waves are also permeating every object around them even though we can't see it or feel it on a conscious level. Resonance occurs when two objects emit the same frequency which results in a heightened energetic state that neither could reach on their own. This is best recognized by the ability of tuning forks at resonant frequencies to impact each other without touching as well as glass shattering when it encounters a resonant frequency.
The point is that energy tends to appreciate energetic matches. It's like being a die-hard swiftie and meeting another die-hard swiftie, instant resonance, instant connection, instant energy. You can use this same idea to understand who you are by paying attention to what resonates with you when taking a personality test if you struggle with knowing who you are. I would recommend taking a couple, or all of them because they're fun, and making a list of the personality traits that strike a chord. Doing this should give you a template from which to understand yourself.
Here is a list of personality tests that we will be going over:
Myers-Briggs Test
Big 5 Personality Test
The Enneagram
Strengths Finder
Gene Keys
Astrological Birth Chart
Human Design
Myers-Briggs Test
The Myers-Briggs is my personal favorite. The test works from the unique combination of 8 different categorically paired options: extroverted or introverted, intuition or sensing, feeling or thinking, and judging or perceiving. The categories were developed by Carl Jung not as an attempt to explain personality, but as a way to figure out how people learned. If you'd like to read about the original context of these terms I recommend reading Psychological Types by Carl Jung although be forewarned, it is a very long and dry read.
Jung's concepts were later reimagined and developed by Myers and Briggs to explain personality. While there are many free tests that you can take online such as 16 Personalities (my favorite) and Truity, the official test is quite different which you can take through MBTI and costs $60. Curiosity got the best of me once upon a time and I paid for the official test so I can reliably say that the questions are not the same in the paid and free versions. That being said, I've taken the free tests multiple times each and like their results as well. As for the explanations of your type, each website has a slightly different explanation and I recommend Googling your type and reading multiple versions.
To understand each pairing I recommend exploring the links in the categories which gives a brief but more in-depth explanation of these concepts. I want to emphasize that both options of each pairing are good, there are no bad ways to learn or be.
Jung actually coined the terms extrovert and introvert although they didn't mean how you recharge, they indicated whether you learned by external or internal means. For example, if you were to organize a shelf, do you first do it externally by physically moving things around and seeing what works or do you do it internally by mapping out where it fits in your mind before physically doing it? If you do it physically first then you are labeled an extrovert because you learn through external means. If you do it in your mind first then you are labeled an introvert because you learn through internal means.
Extroverts live externally, they focus more on experiencing the world outside of themselves in order to learn. Their motto is "act first, process later." Introverts live internally, they focus more on their internal world in order to learn. Their motto is "process first, act later."
Intuition based learning prefers the abstract, the innovative, and the possibilities of an idea or concept. Their motto is "what is possible?" Sensing based learning is more concrete-oriented preferring the facts, ordered steps, and mastery of an idea or concept. Their motto is "what is practical?" Another way of putting it is the dreamers versus the builders.
Feelers prioritize feelings. They emphasize harmony, feelings, connectedness, and individualized treatment using their heart to guide them. Their mottos are "how do I feel about that" and "how does that make you feel?" Thinkers prioritize thoughts. They emphasize truth, facts, logic, and equivalent treatment using their brain to guide them. Their mottos are "what do I think about that" and "what do you think about that?"
The judging type prefers structure. They create plans, set tasks, appreciate lists, and make decisive judgments. Their motto is "make a framework and act on it." The perceiving type prefers freedom. They adapt, observe, go with the flow, and prefer to keep their options open. Their motto is "live in the moment and see what happens."
I won't go over the 16 personality types but you can check out simple explanations of each type here if you'd like.
The Big 5 Personality Test
The Big 5 scores you on five specific traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. You can take the test through multiple sources including Personality.co, Bigfive-test, and Truity. I gained a much deeper appreciation for this test as I took it to write about it, it can be quite insightful.
I personally only found the results from personality.co to be insightful, the explanations are beautiful, accurate, and it's visually more appealing. Its results are $2 which is completely worth it. The second option is free and gives a breakdown of traits which is useful for our purposes but the explanations are basic. Truity costs $30 and gives the longest report with a couple different charts but I wasn't impressed. The explanations felt as generic as a horoscope. It was a waste of money.
The explanations for these traits is pretty straight-forward:
Openness - How open you are to new and abstract ideas. The complexity of your thinking.
Conscientiousness - How goal-oriented, responsible, and driven you are.
Extraversion - How energized you are by others.
Agreeableness - How much you put other's needs above your own.
Neuroticism - How you respond to stress.
The Enneagram
The enneagram is a personality test that uses the numbers 1 through 9 to indicate different types of personalities. Options to take it are The Enneagram Institute and Enneagram Test among others. While the enneagram has relevant information, it is not my preferred personality test because it doesn't resonate with me like the others do. I have met many people who swear by the enneagram though so take my opinion as what it is, an opinion.
The Enneagram Institute's test costs $20 and it's moderately worth it. Keep in mind that I'm biased and don't appreciate the enneagram the way I do the other tests. That being said, it gives an in-depth description of your top three types which is insightful. It also gives 9 different stages of progress within each type which I really like as it helps you determine how healed you are based on the best-matching description. The Enneagram Test's results cost $2 and the results are meh. I liked the definition of core values, the description of healthy, average, and unhealthy version of the enneagram number, and the career options, otherwise the 15 page report was pretty basic and not super engaging. But for $2 it may be worth checking out.
The questions of The Enneagram Institute are poorly constructed as it gives two options to pick from and there were times that both felt true, that neither felt true, or that half of one or both options felt true. It is the official test though which makes me question the validity of the results overall. The different test options also gave me different results as I was a type 7 in the first and a type 5 in the second. Once again, a bad indicator.
Here is a cursory description of each type taken from The Enneagram Institute with links to a more in-depth description:
Type 1: The Reformer - "The Rational, Idealistic Type: Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic."
Type 2: The Helper - "The Caring, Interpersonal Type: Demonstrative, Generous, People-Pleasing, and Possessive."
Type 3: The Achiever - "The Success-Oriented, Pragmatic Type: Adaptive, Excelling, Driven, and Image-Conscious."
Type 4: The Individualist - "The Sensitive, Withdrawn Type: Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental."
Type 5: The Investigator - "The Intense, Cerebral Type: Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated."
Type 6: The Loyalist - "The Committed, Security-Oriented Type: Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious."
Type 7: The Enthusiast - "The Busy, Fun-Loving Type: Spontaneous, Versatile, Distractible, and Scattered."
Type 8: The Challenger - "The Powerful, Dominating Type: Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational."
Type 9: The Peacemaker - "The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type: Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent."
Strengths Finder
Strengths Finder is a test aimed at finding your 5 unique strengths out of 34 possible options. The test was created by and is run by Gallup which does the Gallup polls that most people are probably familiar with. Here is a picture of the four main categories of strengths and all of the individual strengths. You can find the test here which costs $60. Fortunately I took this in graduate school and still have access to it so I didn't need to pay for it.
Strengths Finder gives you your top 5 strengths in a 15 page report. It gives a helpful description of what each strength means and how that strength relates to your other strengths in a practical way which I really appreciated. I don't even know if my test is currently accurate due to how long ago I took it but it still felt accurate overall to me which speaks to its efficacy. I also enjoyed reading it and appreciated its insights. $60 seems a little steep but I do think that it's a great way to get an idea of your talents and what they mean for you.
You can read a basic description of each strength here by scrolling down and clicking on the desired strength.
Gene Keys
The Gene Keys is a spiritually-based personality profile developed by Richard Rudd which uses astrological information such as date of birth, place of birth, and time of birth to determine your profile. The Gene Keys assumes that everyone is born with a unique combination of 64 different genes, spiritual gifts and strengths, and the profile names your genes for specific categories of your spiritual purpose including delving into what you're here to do, what you're here to learn, what keeps you healthy, and what deeply fulfills you. It also goes into a lot more information that is pretty cool to read about besides the basic four categories named. The Gene Keys also pulls in part from the I Ching, a scriptural text used in Confucianism and Taoism.
When I first researched the Gene Keys I wasn't spiritual but the results deeply spoke to me. You can get your basic results for free here but the basic results compared to the explanations in the actual book are not even close to the same thing. You can buy the book for $13 on Kindle, for $15 used, or $30 new which is entirely worth it, or at least I think so. I also paid for a further description on the Gene Keys website, but I don't think it gave me a whole lot more than the book did and wouldn't recommend buying it unless you want to get ultra in-depth.
When I say that the Gene Keys deeply spoke to me, I mean that it provided extensive explanations of my personality that were spot on in ways that I had never even considered before but rang true. Each chapter was not only rich in information, they were also highly insightful. Even if you don't believe in spirituality, this book is worth checking out if you want to understand yourself.
Another aspect of it that I like is that it gives three levels of attainment for each gene, a shadow level which is the unhealed version of your gift, a gift level which is attained after healing yourself, and a siddhi level which is the gift at an enlightened level, enlightened as in Buddha level enlightenment. It's helpful to see where you stand and how you can develop in your gifts. It gives you personal insight into yourself, delineates where to direct your energy, and provides a relatively clear path of spiritual development should you care about that. It also allows you to read about and appreciate the gifts of others if interested.
Astrological Birth Chart
Once again, I investigated into astrological birth charts when I didn't believe in them and was pretty surprised by my chart's accuracy. I even did it twice by two different people just to compare what was said. While the two explanations were somewhat different, both charts were accurate in different ways similar to different explanations of the Myers-Briggs test. Friends who also aren't spiritual have felt similarly about their astrological birth chart.
Astrology contains a lot of information to try and explain but here is my very brief breakdown about what all the houses, planets, signs, and other stuff mean taken from a longer and more in depth explanation found here. Basically everything has a general meaning on it's own but your personality description forms when the individual aspects are combined according to their unique integrated positioning.
To be fair, not all explanations are created equal. I went through at least six shitty online charts before finding two that are accurate and worth sharing which is probably why astrology gets a bad rap. The first is Upastrology which is $30 although I got it for $15 and the second is Birthchart.net which is $45 but I bought for $35. I absolutely loved Upastrology, it was extremely accurate until the last 20 pages or so and was visually pleasing. The report was also 158 pages long which I received in a PDF format. Birthchart.net was accurate for the most part but there were several times when it felt pretty inaccurate and also several times when I thought "...that applies to everyone..." because it was so generic and universal. It was pretty long as well although it didn't give a page count, but you can buy it as a book so... it's lengthy. As with everything else, take what resonates and leave the rest.
If you'd like to do a birth chart with a human being you can contact Kikie Johnson from Emanon Healing, phone number: 385-474-1182. Her prices vary depending on whether it's an in-person or online appointment but it's definitely more expensive than the online tests. She's also an incredibly gifted spiritual practitioner, just saying.
Human Design
Human design is another astrologically based profile which tells you which one of five energy types you are: manifestor, manifestor generator, generator, projector, and reflector. Choices include Freehumandesignchart which is free and Ahumandesign which costs $47 and gives a 251 page report on what it all means. Once again, human design is not one of my favorite methods of understanding personality but I'm including it because some people live by it.
The core concepts of Human Design are helpful in pointing you towards specific things to pay attention to that you might not otherwise do or know about yourself. Information about what energizes you, how to use you energy, the basics of your personality, how you know you're off track, and other information is what you will get from Human Design.
Freehumandesignchart is way, way better than Ahumandesign, at least in my opinion. I recommend getting the information and then using this webpage to figure out what it all means although the free profile explanation gets you basics as well. Ahumandesign says very little in the most amount of words humanly possible which is why I don't recommend it. I considered it a waste of money but if you want excessive words to explain basic concepts, go for it.
The five energy types briefly explained are:
Manifestor - Get things started in bursts of energy followed by resting periods.
Manifestor Generator - Get a little bit of everything done.
Generator - Endless energy to get their passions accomplished.
Projector - Here to guide the world and offer meaningful advice.
Reflector - A very rare and sensitive type that is highly sensitive to energy.
Conclusion
Here are the personality tests listed in tiers according to what I've found the most helpful:
Tier 1 - Very High Insight
Myers-Briggs Test
Astrological Birth Chart (this surprised me)
Gene Keys
Big 5 Personality Test
Tier 2 - High insight
Strengths Finder
Enneagram
Tier 3 - Moderate to Low Insight.
Human Design
Each test offers their own unique insights and way to explain personality and while I may not personally enjoy all of them, I recommend that if you want to understand yourself you take the time to check them all out.
Have fun getting to know yourself!
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