“Everyone Has a High School Musical Character That Matched Their Personality – Just Choose Your Favorite Foods To Find Yours” I got Ryan Evans, apparently I am “fun, caring, and underrated.”. I am sure most people who have access to the internet have heard of these types of quizzes and answer them, as I am guilty of doing so as well. Although there are no correlations between the High School Musical characters and the type of food I eat, yet I am still appealed to answer these questions. People who are still lost in self-identification are often easily convinced by the world telling them what or who they are. They need justifications and words of affirmation in order to understand their purpose and who they are meant to be. They even seek the ways of how they are meant to live in this world that is full of societal expectations. This is why people believe in astrology, tarots, Chinese horoscope, to tell them what to expect in the future. Why do people believe in fortune tellers? Because most people still do not have a firm understanding of who they are and what their purpose is in the world. They forget that they are the only person who can tell themselves what they like, other people cannot arrange their future for them. Most people are too occupied in trying to survive that they lose their identity.
When you ask a little kid, “What do you want to be?” Even though the answer sometimes is beyond possible, yet oftentimes they do have something to say. On the other hand, when you ask a high school or college student the same question, “What do you want to be?” Half of them would answer “I am still trying to figure it out.” This is not a bad or wrong answer. However, this demonstrates how as the children are becoming adolescents, they start to understand the reality of the world and have become clueless on who they want to be and how their life can have an effect on the world. They develop a sense of self, the need to discover their identity. This understanding have been observed and explained by a psychologist named Erik Erikson. Erikson explained how there are eight psychological stages in growing. The fifth stage is “identity vs role-confusion.” This stage happens when the person is in their adolescence. In this stage, a lot of changes are happening to their surroundings, such as puberty and societal expectations. If they succeed in their social life, hang out with the right group and know what is important to them, the person will be able to understand what kind of a person they are. However, if the surroundings do not support, often they get confuse on their own identity. They still struggle to answer the “Who am I?” questions.
People strive to understand who they are and what they are meant to do in their lives in order to use their lives to the maximum of their capabilities and to make an impact to their world or even as small as their community. This is the main reason why people do personality tests. People are able to confirm and verbalize their traits and qualities through these personality tests. Director of the Media Psychology Center, Pamela Rutledge says “they are always curious to get a bit of insight as to what they’re really like.” She explains how people are eager to understand themselves as individuals and how they are similar or different than their surroundings.
Why are people invested in the personality test? According to the author of an article entitled “What Personality Tests Can (and Can’t) Tell You About Yourself,” Virginia Sole-Smith’s stance on this article is that people are comforted in the validation of a label. In an out-going tone, her purpose in writing this article is to explain why people like filling up questionnaires, developed into an algorithm that could tell us how we would react under some circumstances. Sole-Smith utilizes statistical evidence of how “Google tracks an average of more than 400,000 searches each month for “personality tests”.” This highlights the idea of how people nowadays are legitimately interested in learning about themselves. They believe that this tests would lead to self-discovery. The genre is tabloid article. The audience of this article is people who questions how well personality tests describe a person’s characteristics. These personality assessments are developed in the 1950s, when corporations introduced the idea that a quiz or a test could tell us something about ourselves that we have and have not yet to discover. Why are we fascinated by these quizzes or tests? Due to the comfort of labels. These labels validate our personality in the simplest form in the hope to reassure us of who we think we are.
The effect that personality tests give in our social life is the main reason people are intrigued by the test. According to Jennifer V. Fayard is the author of the article “Why Do We Like Personality Tests, Even the Bad Ones?” She concludes that by character tests we are grouped into different personalities and we can feel as though we belong to a community. In a matter of fact tone, Fayard’s purpose on writing this article is to explain why even though the personality type is wrong, people are reluctant to acknowledge it. Her stance on this matter is that personality tests are not a good indicator of who we are, however we still believe that the results are true. The genre of this article is encyclopedia article. The audience targeted by Fayard is people who are overly obsessed to personality tests and base their personality on the tests. Fayard believes that the reason we are intrigued by this personality test is because “we want to belong.” This explains the reason as to why personality test is a part of a person’s identity. As Erikson says, in order to know our identities and avoid role confusion, we have figure out where we belong. She then develops this idea by saying how “feeling understood and normal is a powerful experience.” This highlights the importance of feeling “there were others out there like me.” Also, how we are as social beings crave to be a part of a community, to be included. This idea leads to how in order to be a part of community, we need to understand other people. Fayard believes that by these personality tests, we are able to comprehend why a person is acting a certain way. Therefore, Fayard elaborates on how even though we realize that there is a certain personality that do not match with who we are, we refuse to recognize the mistake. As we want to be included in that group of personality type, regardless of how bad the personality test is.
Buzzfeed quizzes are known to be ridiculously weird and impossible. As their questions mostly have no connection to the result. Why do we do these questions? “Choose Your Favorite TV Shows To Determine Which Movie Theater Snack You Are.” According to Josh Haynam, the author of the “What makes BuzzFeed Quizzes So Popular?” It is because “they’re short, seemingly interactive, chockful of pictures.” In an engaging tone, Haynam writes this article for the purpose of showing how buzzfeed quizzes catch the audience attention and why we want to answer those questions. His stance on this article is that the fun of BuzzFeed quizzes is part of the marketing scheme. The genre is tabloid article. The medium of this article is electronic devices. His target audience are people who are intrigued with buzzfeed quizzes. Haynam utilizes statistical evidence of how Facebook feed is sixty-six percent “BuzzFeed Quiz Results,” this stresses the fact that people are interested in learning about themselves. He also exposes the fact these BuzzFeed quizzes fall into the same category as the well-known personality tests, however the results are more positive. In mentioning this, he believes that people needs validation of the positive traits that they have. The content that “makes them look good.”
The second part of humans identity is the career path they choose to pursue. This is explained by the author of “The Psychology of Career Choices: Why Personality Matters,” Thomas Chamorro-Premuzic. Chamorro-Premuzic’s stance in writing is to explain how career choice cannot be listed through the personality test. The genre of this piece is informational article. The targeted audience is to people who are in contemplation of their career choices and start doing these personality tests to choose. The media of this article is technology. He wrote this research in a neutral tone with a purpose to demonstrate how personality does not correspond to career. There are certain features that could apply and indicate how a person would suit a job, however it is not possible to say that an extraverted-feelers would be a good manager. He believes that people are constantly going through a “personality war,” where people could change characteristics as they live. He then contrasts it to the fact that “people don’t change careers very often.” This highlights the fact that a person cannot constantly change their careers, however a person is constantly changing in personality. Therefore, these quizzes might match our personalities for a week, will it match the next week?
Long-terms employment companies are implementing pre-screening personality test to whether their future employee would be a good fit for the company or not. As an interview is not enough to know how a person would react under pressure. In a formal tone, Ken Sundheim, the author of the article “Do Personality Tests Lead to Better Hiring Decisions?” with a purpose to illustrate the effect of having a personality test for the company. The stance of this article is that certain even though the tests are “not perfect,” it is beneficial for the companies. The target audience of this article is to future employees who question the purpose of the pre-screening tests. The medium for this piece is electronic device. Sundheim initially mentions the limitations of the test as the future employees could “fake the answers.” However, he believes that the benefits outweighs the limitation of this pre-screening tests. He then shifts his idea to listing the benefits of how the pre-screening tests when it succeed. Sundheim mentions how these personality tests “tend to be the most accurate” way of knowing whether a person is suitable for the job position. The indicator to whether a person would match with the other employees and the working environment.
The most widely known psychological test is the MBTI test, abbreviated from Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Just as how they abbreviate their test name, their personality test result are also abbreviations of four different words. This personality test divides our personality or characteristics into four different categories, which results in sixteen different personalities combination. These four categories are mind, energy, nature, and tactics. The mind determines how we interact with our environment, either you are an extraverted of introverted. The energy shows where we direct our mental energy, either to intuitive or observant. The nature determines how we make decisions and cope with emotions, either by thinking or feeling. Lastly, the tactics reflect on our approach to work, planning, and decision-making, either by judging or prospecting.
According to Ronald E Riggio, the author of an article entitled “The Truth About Myers-Briggs Types,” MBTI test is a useful tool for self-reflection and understanding the differences in individuals. In an informative tone, the purpose of Riggio’s article is to explain how even though this personality test can be good for understanding oneself, this tests enforce people to be divided into two different categories. There is no middle ground for this personality test. The audience for his article is for people who are interested to know or learn more about the MBTI personality test and its accuracy. Through the medium of technology devices, Riggio writes an article in which his stance on his article is that there is a problem with the psychometric associated with the MBTI. Riggio disagrees to the idea of career should not be based on the personality tests. Riggio believes that companies that use the MBTI to select employees is “an obvious misuse,” as there is no evidence to prove that the test would support hiring processes. Hence, Riggio acknowledges that the MBTI can be positively use as a reflection of personality and a reason to tolerate one’s surroundings, however he exposes how the personality test is often misused.
I personally have done this MBTI personality test and I am an ISTJ type. They explain how in friendship I do not lightly give away myself to someone and would end up building a smaller circle. Interestingly, when I took another personality test they say I do not find it easy to get close to new acquaintances and I have limited and selected network. This two different test similarly explain how I build a relationship with others. However because of this test, I accentuate this personality type and become more selective towards the new people I want to get to know more. I would start ignoring people who I assume I would not connect with and one-by-one looking at each individual judging their personality. This exemplifies to what Riggio explains about how the MBTI is often misused by people. Because MBTI is not exactly defining who we are and how we are supposed to react, the test is a “best-fit” type. Therefore, I might only be fifty one percent of the selective friend type and forty nine percent opened to any types of friendship. This is Riggio believes how the MBTI test are often misused by people, as you are “given the same score” as a person who is a hundred percent judgmental in terms of friendship.
Furthermore, Riggio’s idea is reinforced into detail by Angus Chen, the author of the article “How Accurate Are Personality Test?” The rhetorical situation in this article is how the personality test that are known as reliable is debatable. In an assertive tone, Chen’s stance on the issue is that this personality test is “bogus stuff” as it gives false information. The purpose of this article is to explain why people who do these personality tests should not be used as guidance on our actions to the world. The audience of this article is directly emphasized on people who allows their negative behavior as an excuse because their personality type says so. Chen quotes a personality researcher from University of California, Davis saying, “Until we test them scientifically we can’t tell the difference between that and pseudoscience like astrology.”(Simine Vazire) This explains how researchers have not yet found the difference between the personality test that is known as a reliable and accurate source and the astrology, where people believe the stars shape on the sky when you were born is able to determine who you are.
Chen believes the inaccuracy of this reliable personality test is because of how questionnaire is the worst way to test someone, however through the questions we are able to reflect on ourselves. Often the wordings of the questions are “shockingly bad” as it is poorly worded. There was a question on the personality test I did “ Do you agree or disagree, you cannot imagine yourself dedicating your life to the study of something that you cannot see, touch, or experience.” This demonstrates how the personality test can be vague and hard to understand what the psychologist meant. Filling this one question randomly could be the one question that determines whether you are an intuitive or sensing person. Leading us to believe that we are this one type, even though we answered the question wrong. He then shifts his idea to quoting the personality researcher mentioning how “you won’t learn anything that you didn’t already know about yourself” and “personality tests can only tell you what you tell it.” This displays we need this questionnaire to identify ourselves, more than the result of the test. As the result only summaries the response of our answers, which also depends on how truthful we are in answering those questions.
In conclusion, these personality tests can be a good indicator of the traits and characteristics that we should improve and try to be better on. However, we should not base our lives on these personality test. Let’s try another BuzzFeed quiz, “Make A Delicious Pizza And We’ll Accurately Guess Your Age” It says I am 40+.
References
Sole-Smith, Virginia (2015) What Personality Tests Can (and Can’t) Tell You About Yourself
https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/life-strategies/what-personality-tests-tell-you-about-yourself
The Everygirl (2017) We Need To Talk | Why We’re Obsessed with Personality Tests
Fayard, Jennifer (2019) Why Do We Like Personality Tests, Even the Bad Ones?
Haynam, Josh (2015) What Makes Buzzfeed Quizzes So Popular?
https://www.business2community.com/social-media/makes-buzzfeed-quizzes-popular-01335537
Premuzic, Tomas Chamorro (2011) The Psychology of Career Choices: Why Personality Matters
Sundheim, Ken (2017) Do Personality Tests Lead to Better Hiring Decisions?
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/294897
Riggio, Ronald (2014) The Truth About Myer-Briggs Types
Angus, Chen (2018) How Accurate Are Personality Tests?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-accurate-are-personality-tests/
