2-choice tests bad for typing?

[Ghost of the dead horse]

Thought inspired from a thread where we wondered my latest ENFP result, which I quickly found out to be a test artifact.

Thanks Dana, that sounds sensible.

I read some of ENFP, and I didn't find a greater match with those decriptions than what I found with ENTP.

I really didn't feel more an F than a T before taking the test. I did feel more F than before; but I think the error comes from the calculating method in the online tests.

I took a test with forced choice questions from 2 possible responses.
Many of the T/F questions were either slightly in favor of F, or strongly in favor of T. Even tho I was slightly in favor of T as a whole, the testing method made me select more of the F choices, giving me an erroneous T/F score.

This would make me recommend against the use of two-choice personality type questionnaires.

Thoughts?

 

[Totenkindly]

I know with those sorts of questions, sometimes just how they are worded can be confusing... and sometimes the test creators were not specific enough in capturing context.

Basically, most of us have both T and F experiences... depending on circumstance. A T who is sentimental (particularly ISTJ types) could respond to "I am deeply moved by sad movies" with an F response. Because they often are, if the movie is about something that they connect with.

But they would never show it, and they would process the emotion outwardly as a T would. Despite having strong feelings.

The more questions like that, the more erroneous/inconsistent results the test will provide.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

Hm, that seems relates to the I/E content of the question, IMHO.

 

[Totenkindly]

Hm, that seems relates to the I/E content of the question, IMHO.

I suppose.

Questions like that tap the Fi (tertiary for ISTJ) and/or just the feelings and confuse that with primary/secondary functioning. So they're bad questions.

I think I mentioned it before, but my ISTJ FIL -- and he's a stereotypical ISTJ, you couldn't mistake him for anything else -- typed himself on the work test they had to take as an ENFJ. Because of things like this.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

Questions like that tap the Fi (tertiary for ISTJ) and/or just the feelings and confuse that with primary/secondary functioning. So they're bad questions.

Yep, I agree. That's another well-established source of error.

 

[Wandering]

I think I mentioned it before, but my ISTJ FIL -- and he's a stereotypical ISTJ, you couldn't mistake him for anything else -- typed himself on the work test they had to take as an ENFJ. Because of things like this.

Inversely, my ENFJ husband has a strong tendency to type as an ISTJ, for 2 reasons:

1- He constantly rewrites the context of the questions according to his own preferences. When I go over the questions again with him, and explain to him what the *real* choices are, he goes "but who would think *that* way??" Well, quite a few people, it turns out, but he's not aware of it, so he dismisses even the possibility.

That's not very clear. Let me give an example. Let's say he's given the question: "What do you rely most on when making a decision? Your head, or your heart?" He will tend to answer "my head", because he has no idea what being a Thinker actually implies.

2- Being DomFe, he's over-inclined to try to fit other people's expectations - or more precisely, what he *thinks* other people expect of him. And that is, as it turns out, ISTJ. So instead of answering what he *really* prefers, he answers what he thinks he's supposed to answer, because the two are not really that separate in his head anyway.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

I thought you were both derailing my thread, but then I understood what you might think. You are thinking of multiple different kinds of choices which capture different aspects of thinking and feeling, externally and internally, for example?

That's a good topic of discussion per se, and yes another occasion where the number of questions becomes a source of error.

But really, I think there are ways to rephrase the questions so as to elicit the truthful response with 2 questions only, in the examples you both used. Just use a phrasing of the words that captures both Fi and Fe into one option, and Ti and Te into another.

It might be easier with a continuum on complete agree - completely disagree - spectrum.

 

[Athenian200]

From what I've heard, testing this way isn't really preferred by the person who created MBTI... I think it's usually considered better to rely on observation by a professional trained in the instrument. The two-choice test is basically a concession to procedure and the low supply and/or impracticality of finding sufficiently qualified individuals every time someone wants to know their type.

A graduated test (as you've proposed) works better for some people, and it has been tried. The DDLI and the ever-popular function test both use this approach. It seems to give similar results to the two-choice questions for some, seems less accurate to some, and seems more accurate to some. I couldn't tell you which is the case. *shrug*

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

Puuh, I'll take a real MBTI test from a qualified professional once I find where I can get one cheap in my area .. under 80eur preferably.

 

[mcmartinez84]

I found that with only two options I was forced to decide which way I lean. I don't have the T/F problem, but with S/N and P/J sometimes I come out differently with different tests.

I think it's more accurate when one is much more dominant with one trait instead of the other, but not for borderline folks.

One of my friends took both types of tests and came out ENFJ and then ESTJ. *Shrug*

 

[Ezra]

Thought inspired from a thread where we wondered my latest ENFP result, which I quickly found out to be a test artifact.

Thoughts?

That stuff about the T/F; that's simply an imbalance in the test. It doesn't mean all two-option questions are biased towards T.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

That stuff about the T/F; that's simply an imbalance in the test. It doesn't mean all two-option questions are biased towards T.

I wouldn't believe them being biased towards any particular preference in all cases.

Let's take the classical head-heart question. So you're asked if you decide with your head or your heart? Person might feel slightly towards F in the question, and they would choose an answer indicating they decide "a little more with heart" if such answer would be available.

See the illustration.

If such a weak response is not available, the person is forced to choose the one and only "F" response, even if they wouldn't feel that way to such a great extent.

If these kinds of answers accumulate (like in my illustration), it will bring an error in the result, as noted.