How do you answer personality tests?

[Hawthorne]

Do you focus on your current state of mind or do you do overall?

Do you give more weight to your preferences when in a healthier state of mind?

(How) Do you go about separating your idealized self from your actual?

If present, how do you manage any conflicts between these criteria? For example, what if your "current" state is healthier than your "overall"? What if your "idealized image" is more optimistic than your "actual"?

I guess the long form of this question is, how do you know you're assessing "you" when you take personality quizzes? Or is that even a concern in the first place?

Discuss.

 

[á´…eparted]

I consider how I am statistically in all aspects and try and take the average of those. However I exclude mindsets that are not healthy.

 

[Galena]

I make a rough statistical estimate of how I've been for the majority of my life so far, except with some extra weight given to harder times because I think those reveal my character more.

Because that estimate goes off of memory, and what I remember is affected by the mood of those past times, it's not perfect as a method. True to type, my test answers run hard on myself, which screws me over on ones like "How Neurotic Are You??". Also, because it goes off of majorities, it could favor longstanding abnormal habits over my real preferences. Finally, I err toward believing in behavior over inner states when they contradict each other.

Now I feel like taking a few tests based on happier data, just to see what happens.

 

[MyCupOfTea]

Do you focus on your current state of mind or do you do overall?

Do you give more weight to your preferences when in a healthier state of mind?

(How) Do you go about separating your idealized self from your actual?

If present, how do you manage any conflicts between these criteria? For example, what if your "current" state is healthier than your "overall"? What if your "idealized image" is more optimistic than your "actual"?

I guess the long form of this question is, how do you know you're assessing "you" when you take personality quizzes? Or is that even a concern in the first place?

Discuss.

To answer the bolded part - I don't. What I'm really doing is assessing the self image I have. After lifelong introspection, I believe that I know myself quite well. I think it's up to quality of personality test how much I have to speculate or guess to be able to answer the questions.

That being said, I don't give much weight to the tests anymore. I mostly answer them as entertainment. I'm too biased to the mbti tests at least, as I can tell which of the questions measure which dichotomy/function. That's boring.

 

[Kierva]

You guys make it sound so mechanical. I just make a really rough estimate of how I was in the past few years, compared to how I am, in the past year. It also depends on my mood as well; I've learned not to take tests when I'm in a bad or really good mood.

This isn't without a lot of introspection, otherwise I'd constantly be changing according to what the situation requires of me. Feels nice to be alone to ground myself.

 

[Verona]

I just pick whatever feels right. Sometimes if I am not sure about some answers I will retake quizzes and compare the two results to see which one sounds more like me.

 

[/DG/]

Imo, I actually think the best way to answer them is as quickly as possible. Go with your first instinct and try not to mull it over too deeply.

 

[Yama]

I answer them based on how I believe I am most of the time.

It's when questions get social that they get tricky... how I act in social situations is not always how I really am. It also depends on who I'm socializing with. Friends? Strangers? Family?? WHO!

 

[iHeartCats]

I'll approach these questions with having predominantly MBTI personality tests in mind

Do you focus on your current state of mind or do you do overall?

Both at the same time. When I'm mentally very tired I sometimes score as 2-4% introvert and get ISFP instead of ESFP, but that doesn't happen often.

Do you give more weight to your preferences when in a healthier state of mind?

Yes. An unhealthy state of mind is known to be an extremely helpful tool for mistyping yourself.

(How) Do you go about separating your idealized self from your actual?

I don't need to separate those two, because they are the same in me. ESFPs, once they mature emotionally, are known to be extremely accepting of reality and to not idealize themselves, others, or anything for that matter.

If present, how do you manage any conflicts between these criteria? For example, what if your "current" state is healthier than your "overall"?

I take the test without giving conscious thought to it and after taking the test, at some time I retrospectively recall my state of mind at the time I was taking the test and analyze the relationship between my state of mind at the time and the result that I got.

I guess the long form of this question is, how do you know you're assessing "you" when you take personality quizzes? Or is that even a concern in the first place?

It's not a concern. I just take the test. I know my type for almost 2 years now and any irregularities in results usually either encourage me to assess my state of mind at the time when I was taking the test, or to question the validity of the test itself, depending heavily on self-assessed quality of the test.

 

[EmotionLessGirl333]

After learning about MBTI and my own type I have found most personality quizzes are easier to take. You know, Buzzfeed style quizzes. I would say the result is right more often than wrong, though I can also more easily predict my results and that can be a killjoy.

 

[MisterNi]

Hm, I understand that self-assessment is actually difficult for many people, especially if a person does not really value or use much of Fi. I know of Fe types who feel like they're simply social chameleons and don't really feel like they have a true self. When I'm taking tests though, I usually try to do so in a neutral state and free from distractions so my answers won't be distorted. Most point and click internet tests aren't very accurate for me either and I prefer tests where you have to tally your scores and figure out what you'd type as since that gives the test make much more time to actually work on developing a proper test.

 

[Masokissed]

I answer with how I am at the time being, because it's too much work to have to explain how I would answer otherwise because of [whatever reason] for every test. I'm guessing this is about written questionnaires, anyways. So, people will type me different things off of that, but I don't trust it very much. I prefer to just fuck with people and see how easily they'd type me as different things. They don't read into anything and that's why a lot of them are mistyped, too.