WEBVTT - How Personality Tests Work 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.600 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.720 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:17.560 There's Charles W Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there, and 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.119 this is Stuff you Should Know. Yeah, a couple of 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:27.600 I T J. This is I don't remember what I am. 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:31.880 We've taken it before. How Stuff Works hosted it years back. 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:34.720 Do you remember. Yeah, we had, like many companies do, 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.600 as you'll see, we had when we were under Discoveries 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.720 tender Wing. They paid for someone to come to our 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:47.839 office and administer the Myers Briggs personality tests at gunpoint. Yeah, 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:50.440 I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure I was in 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.960 E n F P. I. I don't remember what I was. 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:57.680 I'll probably say like three different things as we go 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.400 through this one, like just looking at it again, pretty 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:03.280 sure I was an E n F B. Can he 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:14.160 stands for pisces right? Or pooper? Yeah, let's see extroverted intuitive? Okay, 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:20.960 what is the F stand for feeling? Is a spoiler? Yeah, 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.880 feeling pooper? So we're what we're talking about where it 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:25.959 sounds like we're saying strings of letters, They actually do 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:28.360 make sense if you're familiar with what Chuck just said, 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:33.399 the Myers Briggs type inventory, which if you are in 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:37.119 corporate America and have been a part of corporate America 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:41.080 for more than probably three years, there's probably a pretty 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:46.119 good likelihood that you've taken the Myers Briggs type inventory 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:49.960 for sure. Like it's really widespread. I love it. I 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:54.400 saw something like percent of companies in America use it. 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.120 It's a lot. Yeah, it was eighty nine of the 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:02.040 Fortune one use it, right, And then I saw another 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:05.600 status It was from two thousand one though, so I'm 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:11.160 not sure how current it is, right, but they said that, um, 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:17.120 the the I think British companies somewhere between ten and 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:22.560 of British companies use them. So I mean it's who knows. 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:26.120 It's pretty wild. Guess that sounds like. But once they 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:31.399 have their own. No, the Myers Briggs test, they don't 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:33.600 call it a test, as we'll see, but the the 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:39.280 test um is, it's worldwide, it's translated into tons of 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:43.239 different languages. They and no, it's it's the Myers Briggs test. 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:46.720 And there's tons of knockoffs. There's tons of personality tests 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:50.560 in general, which really is the larger umbrella the Myers 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.400 Briggs test falls under, but it's probably the most famous 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.760 of all time, at least as far as pop culture goes. Yeah, 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.600 we're gonna hit on everything from ror Shack to the 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:03.240 Myers Briggs, but we're gonna hit on them. But the 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:05.600 m B T I definitely UM is more of the 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:09.160 focus of this one because of its ubiquity, right, because 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.680 most people know it, and because it's uh one of 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:17.120 the overlooked past times in the United States to take 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:21.160 pot shots at the Myers Briggs type inventory. Sure, it's fun. 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:29.040 Uh So categorizing one's personality is nothing new. Uh, and 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:32.680 that's what these tests aim to do. Um for various 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:36.600 reasons which will go over later. But um, going back, 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.800 and this was a Grabster article, correct, that's right, so 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.520 you know it's good. Yeah, and Grabster was just our 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.760 show in Toronto. Yeah he was for the second time 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.200 he stood up and like did that victory shake? Did 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.200 he do that? No, he did. I'm a big fan 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:54.320 of that. That's old school. Oh it is. It's a 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:56.760 good way to go. It looks like you should be 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.760 wearing those dolphins shorts and just having crossed the finish 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:02.920 line and then you're doing that. Um. So Yeah, it's 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.840 nothing new trying to categorize personalities. Um, way back in 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:10.400 the day, Uh, I know, on our Grave Robbing Live 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.320 Grave Robbing episode, we talked about the four humors, and 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:17.200 we've talked about them before, um, before medical science was 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:21.640 kind of a real thing. Um, it was an early attempt. 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:26.240 They talked about the four fluids, the four humors black bio, 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:31.839 yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Uh and and imbalance in 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:34.880 those will cause disease. But they were also this is 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.359 something I didn't know, These are also linked to uh, 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:43.720 corresponding personality types. Yeah. So like the word melancholy in English, 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:48.880 it's an adaptation of the Greek words I believe for 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:54.520 black bile. There it is and and melancholy personalities were 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:59.600 associated with an overabundance of black bile. And Um, basically 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:02.840 you're alancholi, you're you're a depressed person, or you're very 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:07.239 reserved or quiet. And for thousands of years people thought 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.720 guy's got a lot of black bile. Yeah, that explains 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.840 his personality. The other ones are pretty pretty um interesting too, 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:20.680 like flag matic, uh flegmatic, I've seen flag I've heard 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.599 flag magic. I've seen it too. So like when you 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:27.040 cough something up, you call it flag him. Sometimes it 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:30.040 depends if it had like a lot of extra chunks 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:34.240 in it. It's flags But flam plegmatic, I say, flegmatic. 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:38.000 That's very laid back. Did you know that? Well, yeah, 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.479 because I looked all these up, um, because sanguine is 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:45.520 one of my favorite words. Um. And that's this is Hippocrates, 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.520 by the way. He kind of further refined these concepts 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:53.640 of the temperament. So melancholic, flegmatic, sanguine, and what is 0:05:53.680 --> 0:06:00.920 it caleric? Yeah, choleric, yeah, caleric. Caleric is like irritable 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:05.080 and short and terse and curt Yeah. But the thing is, 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.880 there's something weird here, right if you are a thinking 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.000 human being who is not in a vegetative state right now, 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:18.400 and for all we know at this point in medical science, 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:21.159 maybe even if you are in a vegetative state, you're 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:25.800 probably thinking, Uh, it doesn't seem like anyone I've ever 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:31.080 met is just flagmatic or just choleric, or just sanguine 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:35.560 or just melancholy. Sometimes I'm all four of those things. 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:38.960 Sometimes I go through those things all four in a day, 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.520 depending on how weird the day is. Sometimes I go 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:43.280 through all four of those within the course of one 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:48.040 happy hour. Sure, okay, right, And and that's kind of 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:50.640 the point here, and it's also the basis of any 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:54.200 criticism from this moment in the podcast here on out, 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.599 is that this whole thing that started back with the 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.640 four Humors and continues on to this in the guise 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:05.320 of personality tests, is an attempt to take a human 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:10.480 personality and say you're this, you're this one type, You're 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.560 this type, this is your type, this is what you're like, right, 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:17.640 And the human personality just too complex, too squishy, too 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:22.480 jelly like to be boxed into one thing like that. Yeah, 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:24.880 And we'll get into all the criticisms. So that definitely 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:30.720 is the leading criticism that is, Ah, well, we'll say that, Um, 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.000 that was a tease. It was good tease, because a 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:38.400 flagmatic one. All these classifications though, um, that we talked 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.640 about now are or most of them at least or 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.480 drive late at the feet of one man when called 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:49.600 young Yeah, who wrote a book called psychological types. How 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.360 do you say it? Though? In in German? I don't know. 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.560 It's um, oh, where is it? Let me see there 0:07:55.560 --> 0:08:00.440 it is. I I can't even begin to do it. Uh, 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:08.400 psycho psycho sorry, psychologic is yes, psychological type. That's not fair. 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:11.560 It's so tiny. That was the problem because you, oh yeah, 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.680 I do ten point well you know me, you do 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:21.000 like sixteen point times new Roman paper, and I don't 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:22.680 want to waste it, but I also have to do 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.880 my job. Maybe I should go double sided, but then 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.360 my highlighter gets in the way. Oh yeah, it would 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.079 be a problem. Everything would be highlighted. You might as 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.160 well just dip the whole page and yellow ink or 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.839 something exactly. Um. So, anyway, Young wrote this book, that 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:43.439 book uh German, and had it translated to English a 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:47.880 couple of years later, and he created these four categories 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:55.160 uh sensation, intuition, thinking, and feeling. So those were his 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.600 four that kind of most of these modern tests are 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.520 based on in somewhere or another. Yeah, and um, it's 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.600 really almost impossible that I guess we could just save 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.199 all the criticisms for the end and just pile them on. 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.040 But it's it's really tough to talk about the stuff 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.080 and not like, as you present one fact, talk about 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.800 the problem with that fact as it relates to modern incarnation. 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:20.520 What do you think we should do? Should we just 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.560 save them like you say, because I can buy my time, 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:26.079 let's save the okay, and then you can just like 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.400 I'm not even trying, like I'm not I'm not going 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.920 crop circle here. I'm just saying like there's just there's 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.760 just a lot wrong with this. But um, even before 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:39.680 Young who created these the concept of the modern concept, 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.000 i should say, of personality types, and he created the 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.760 idea of introvert and extrovert, which say what you will 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:47.599 about you And and a lot of psychologists have a 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.760 lot to say about him, not necessarily the nicest things 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.640 to say, but introversion and extra extra version is so 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:59.920 widely accepted inside and out of the field of psychology 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.959 that I mean, if that were his only contribution to 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.199 the field, that's that's enough to to engrave it on 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:08.959 your tombstone for sure. Yeah. And each of those um 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:13.360 for psychological types he was talking about or modified by 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.360 whether or not you're introverted or extroverted, they all kind 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.280 of work together too. That was like the right, that 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:22.760 was the main thing is how you how you approach 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.520 life is introverted extrovert, and everything else is like a 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:29.560 sub it's kind of a sub section of that or something. Yeah, 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:31.480 And and one of the issues with this, and I 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:33.760 don't think this is part of the criticism, but I 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:35.760 was gonna say I thought we were saving he was. 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.640 This was based on his ideas. It wasn't like he 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.240 had all this research and all this data. He was 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.600 a deep thinker and he sat around and and thoughts 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:50.920 of these things, right exactly, and then he wrote entire 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:53.319 books based on him. Yeah. But he's a very well 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:58.680 respected psychoanalysts, and he was part of the early movement 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.800 for psycho and elysis with Freud, they were they were 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.920 colleagues or young was much younger, um. But they eventually 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:09.360 said I don't like you anymore. Were parting ways. Um. 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:14.679 But as as all as psychoanalysis was really kind of 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.560 establishing itself, And if you want to know more about 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:20.160 that background in the origins psychoanalysis, go listen to her 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:23.120 how pr works the live show. We talked a lot 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.800 about that. Um. But as this was going on and 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:29.800 it was starting to kind of dominate the field of psychology, 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:34.000 there was a whole other movement, a parallel movement that said, 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.320 you know what, we think all that's a little mushy. 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.720 We like the idea of being able to quantify psychology. 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.800 And so even before Young there were guys like Alfred Bennet, 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:49.280 who was one of the indirect fathers of the Intelligence 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:53.800 test i Q test UM, a pair of researchers named 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.839 Gray and wheel right um, and plenty of others who 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:00.640 wanted to say no, no, no, no, you can study psychology. 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.640 You can study things like the human personality, and you 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:05.640 can type of fire, and you can add numbers. You 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:10.000 can quantify this stuff, and in doing so, we will 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.760 prove psychology as a science as well. So this, this 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:20.080 whole movement to typify people and put them into convenient, um, 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:25.240 almost numerical categories, came out of this urgent need to 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:30.679 science to establish a scientific basis for psychology. Yeah, and 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.000 Young Uh, he's kind of laid the table for this. 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:37.600 And many years later, although not that many, um, there 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.839 was a woman named Katherine Cook Briggs uh and she 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:46.680 was working on this with her daughter, one Isabelle Briggs Myers. 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.199 Think you see where this is going. Uh. This is 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.520 post World War two when they women were kind of 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:55.959 for the first time really going into the workforce in 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.760 full uh and on mass and so they thought, well, 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.960 maybe we can put together some personality types to find out, um, 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:05.679 what kind of jobs these women might be suited for, 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.400 what types of jobs they might enjoy. Um. So they 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:14.599 started working together on this and um, as legend has it, 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:20.280 the mom Catherine Briggs Cook Briggs, she was doing her 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:24.280 thing and then saw Young's works and said, I gotta 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:26.800 start over. This is this is the stuff. She had 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:30.560 already been working on a personality test, but apparently, according 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.400 to the legend, through her work into the fire I said, 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.000 I'm starting from scratch because she's dramatic. She was a 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:43.079 voracious reader, especially of um the psychology, the new psychology 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:45.679 books that were coming out of Europe. She didn't read Young. 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.160 She did well eventually, but yeah, and then it seems 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.800 like it kind of came along later. Well, so, yeah, 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:55.199 there's a there's kind of a weird discrepancy in the history. 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:56.640 And I don't know if it's just it hasn't been 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:58.719 covered right or if there is a weird discrepancy. But 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:03.240 supposedly she initiated it, and so it would have been 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:09.199 contemporary or shortly after Young's Psychology or Personality Types was 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:13.800 translated into English in n So. But it was her 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:16.520 daughter Isabelle who really took it and ran with it 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:20.360 because of World War Two in the need for women 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:25.160 in the workplace. Uh So they you know, kind of 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.320 kept some of young stuff built on that kind of 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:31.760 stripped some of it away, most notably a lot of 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.560 the unconscious stuff. They might have thought that was a 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.880 little too weird for you know, the modern American workforce. 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:40.960 Uh So, what they ended up coming up with was 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:45.080 the the m B t I Myers Briggs Type Indicator, right, 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.080 very famously. Yeah, and they had they had a publishing 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:50.760 arrangement with one group, I can't remember what they were called, 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:52.760 but they thought it didn't do very well, and then 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:57.000 in they went with another publishers C P P. And 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:01.000 they're the current publishers of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:05.760 And since then, that's when it's ubiquity, like just really spread, 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:09.680 was starting in the seventies and and now it's just 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:14.160 it's basically married to corporate America. Should we take a break, Sure, 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.200 go get married to corporate America. As if we aren't already. 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:19.800 All right, we'll come back and we'll talk a little 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:23.360 bit about personality tests in general, and then focus in 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:28.640 a little more on the m B T I S 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:52.640 K a good shouldn't all right, So UM personality tests 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:54.960 is just there are many many ways you can get 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:59.400 evaluated psychologically by a professional. This is just one way, 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.560 and you get your head measured with calipers and back 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:04.200 in the day they didn't give you a bunch of 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:06.840 jugs and see what you do. There's a lot of ways. 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.840 But these tests generally, UM, as grabs her points out, 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:16.720 falls into a couple of types, projective and objective. Projective 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:19.920 tests or things like the roar check test where you're 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:24.240 shown something some kind of stimulus and it's open to 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.120 interpretation and you tell them what you think about it, 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:29.680 and someone sits back very quietly and taps on a 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:34.800 pad of paper and makes an evaluation. And then objective 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:39.520 are more like these personality tests, their standardized assessments that 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:43.720 people use UM and while it's subjective what you put down, 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:47.600 they are then evaluated again by a professional. Right. But 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:52.080 ultimately that objective name is a bit of misnomer because 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:56.200 on the end of it it's still interpreted by a person, 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:01.200 which is therefore makes it subjective, right, and which, depending 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:02.960 on who you ask, is the fatal flaw of all 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:06.640 personality tests. It should be the like a good songs 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:08.720 from the seventies had a little parenthetical at the end 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:14.119 of the title. Should just say subjective also in parentheses? Baby. 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:20.879 Um So the Big five are and and this is 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:23.960 the Big five. I get the feeling or the psychological 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:28.600 tests that that legit psychologists are more in favor of 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.960 over something like the m b t I that right. Yeah, 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.600 it's not just there's tests to suss out the Big five, 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.000 the Big five or the personality types of the field 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:39.520 as psychology has come up with that. Yeah, but the 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.399 tests that that you utilize, that right, they kind of 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:44.840 think are more legit than the m b t I. Yeah, 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.560 there's not a psychologist alive who uses the m b 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:51.800 t I and their regular practice. There are not not 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.720 not that not that are speaking up. I guarantee there's 0:17:55.720 --> 0:18:01.080 someone out there. Sure it's a freewheel and type. Where's she? 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.400 Uh So? The Big five are extra version, agreeableness, openness 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:12.040 to experience, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. Right. It sounds like it 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:14.560 could be like a dating site thing that you fill out. 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.240 It's funny every time I see or hear the word neuroticism, 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:22.320 a bell goes off in my head, like thing just 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.320 a silent bell. Yeah, I don't know what that means. 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.720 I don't either, but it draws my attention to UM. 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.439 So some of these tests, uh, I mean it depends 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:35.160 on what it is that. They might not all call 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:38.280 them by those exact words, but they're generally using they 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:40.440 call them, you know, like I said, the Big Five. Yeah, 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:42.600 and I was, I was looking into that Big five 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:46.080 and um, this this site, I can't remember what it 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:48.240 was called, but they were basically they're going over it 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:52.119 like extra version is again just part of the scientific 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:56.520 literature at this point. Um. Agreeableness is like whether you're 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.879 how sympathetic or kind or affectionate you are? Concientiousness is 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.040 are your organized? Are your thorough? You're the type who 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.359 shows up on time? That kind of thing. Um neuroticism, 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:10.199 which is some kind of sometimes called emotional stability. Um, 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:15.240 how tense are you? How moody? How anxious? Uh? And 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:19.200 then like openness to experience? Right, they sometimes call that 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.560 intellect slash imagination? Do you have wide interests? Are you 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:26.040 an imaginative person? Are you insightful? And this this site 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.520 really went to a lot of pains to point out 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:32.359 that what you would call these things. The big five 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:37.000 personality traits are, as far as the psychologist is concerned, 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:41.680 just one dimension of you, the human being, and that 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.360 to get a clearer picture of you, they would also 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:48.240 need to study your motivations, your emotions, your attitudes, your abilities, 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:52.760 your self concepts, your social roles, autobiographical memories, your life stories, 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:54.960 and if you're starting to put all these things together, 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:59.640 then you can start to kind of approximate the person's personality. 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:02.600 But it would just it takes a lot of study 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:06.040 of an individual and these different components that make up 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.080 their personality to get a clear picture. So I don't 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.200 think there are any psychologists walking around saying the big 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.440 five personality types are like the beginning and end of 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:19.280 a personality. It's just if you put them together, you have, uh, 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:22.240 just a sketch of somebody's personality, and you you should 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:25.720 go much deeper if you're analyzing someone. Yeah, I think 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:28.000 I used to think this stuff was a lot neater 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:30.800 when I was younger, and now it kind of gives 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.920 me a little anxiety. Oh yeah, yeah, Like I just 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:35.840 I don't know as far as doing this to myself, 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.800 and I still enjoy therapy, Like that's different, But I 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:42.359 don't know, because every single one of these, Like my 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:44.680 answer would be, well, it depends well, I think, I 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.440 think also though um, and I don't mean to speak 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:50.120 for you, but one of the issues that's that comes 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:53.600 up for me is if somebody goes to you and says, 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:56.040 you know you you you rate pretty high on the 0:20:56.119 --> 0:21:02.200 spectrum of neuroticism, Like that's obviously you're gonna obsess about 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:04.400 that kind of stuff, especially if they're right. It can 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:07.560 make you neurotic. But yeah, it's it's it's a boundary 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.080 that somebody has just established for you that you may 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.879 need feel the need to stay in because that's the 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.200 boundary that you're bound by, whether you are or not, 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:20.320 like this is my box, live in it. That would 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:23.399 be the reason it raises anxiety for me. Yeah. My 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:25.640 whole thing, like I said, though, is just depends every 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:29.320 single question that I would get asked. Well, not everyone. 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:33.080 Sometimes I'm pretty like set on something, but usually it's say, 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:35.480 I don't know. It depends on the scenario. Am I 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:39.040 more prone in a crowd to do X or Y? 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.760 Maybe maybe not? Depends on my mood. So one one 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:47.520 with these other personality tests and in the whole field 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:54.040 in psychology of um studying traits personality traits in a 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:59.600 quantitative way is called psychometrics. So with these tests, the 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:03.240 more sophisticated ones, if they had a test taker like you, 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:07.440 they're designed to get around that. So they're gonna ask 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:10.399 a bunch of different questions about the same thing, but 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:13.960 in different ways, coming from different directions, so that eventually, 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:16.040 if you put all of them together and run them 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:19.119 through statistical analysis, they're actually going to come up with 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:21.720 your genuine answer, which is kind of one way or another. 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:25.440 The other way they get around this um, that kind 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:31.200 of hemming and hawing, I guess is um. By placing 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:34.320 it on a spectrum, you're not being lumped into one 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:38.080 category or another. It's here's one end of the spectrum, 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:40.040 here's the other end of the spectrum, and based on 0:22:40.160 --> 0:22:42.760 your answers, you fall somewhere around the middle, like almost 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:47.240 everybody does. If you look at psychometric tests, a legitimate 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:49.920 psychometric test is going to basically look like a bell 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:53.200 curve where most people are going to be distributed toward 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:56.520 the middle. I think, what, that's why gives me anxiety? 0:22:56.560 --> 0:22:59.120 It's like, what's the point? Don't box me in it's 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:03.880 a great question. UM. Well, I think the second half 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:06.719 of this is a lot of what's the point, you know, Uh, 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:10.400 so looking speaking on these tests to see if it's 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:13.320 actually if there is a point, if it's a valid 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:16.440 thing to do. Uh. There are a couple of measures 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:20.119 that one must look at and that psychologists do look at. 0:23:20.320 --> 0:23:23.159 UM is it valid and is it reliable? Valid in 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:26.040 the sense that it really is a pretty good reflection 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:29.760 of Josh or Chuck or whoever. And is it reliable? 0:23:29.880 --> 0:23:32.760 So if we take this test tomorrow or a different 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:37.000 test that's UM just you know, maybe different questions, will 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:41.200 it reprove reproduce the same result? And that's a big deal. 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:44.840 Like you're talking science and you're trying to have a 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:47.800 foundation that says, no, this is science. It's not just 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:52.159 a bunch of questions and hippie dippy questions that we're asking. 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:54.800 If you really want real data and science behind it, 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:58.920 you have to be able to reproduce it. Um. One 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:01.280 of the other things too, that these tests are designed 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:05.440 to do is to weed out fakers. We'll talk a 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:11.439 lot more about the Minnesota Multi Phasic Personality Inventory UM, 0:24:11.560 --> 0:24:14.720 which is one of the big ones, probably the most 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:19.520 taken personality test in the world. Um, and it has 0:24:19.800 --> 0:24:23.040 a lot of built in mechanisms, and apparently it's really 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:26.520 good at detecting people who are faking they're faking a 0:24:26.600 --> 0:24:30.320 mental illness or who are trying to pretend that they 0:24:30.400 --> 0:24:33.760 aren't suffering from a mental illness. It's really good at 0:24:33.800 --> 0:24:39.600 detecting that because it's so exhaustive and um using statistical analysis. 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:42.960 If somebody skewed really far one way or skewed really 0:24:43.000 --> 0:24:47.479 far the other, they're just immediately exposed as as gaming 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:49.880 the tests as best they can. Yeah. And one way 0:24:49.920 --> 0:24:52.600 they do that, which is in its own way, its 0:24:52.720 --> 0:24:56.399 own little psychology experiment at least, is by telling you 0:24:57.720 --> 0:25:01.000 we have ways like you will be rooted rooted out 0:25:01.040 --> 0:25:03.840 and we will know. So they tell people that beforehand, 0:25:03.960 --> 0:25:05.960