How To Find Out Your Real Personality Type
October 14th, 2009
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I’ve been interviewed on the Introvert Zone regarding my ebook The Personality Puzzle.
The Personality Puzzle: Interview with Hunter Nuttall, Part 1 – this is about whether our personality changes with age, or in response to significant life events.
The Personality Puzzle: Interview with Hunter Nuttall, Part 2 – this is about why it’s helpful to understand different personality types, and what advice I have for introverts.
Klaus @ TechPatio asked a question in the comments, but when I realized that my reply was way too long for a comment, I told him I’d answer his question here. Here’s what he asked:
“A week ago I took a 40-question test that gave me these four letters: INTJ
I: 75%
N: 55%
T: 55%
J: 55%
As you can see, NTJ is pretty close to the middle, I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, if I’m just “average”?
But then I took another 40-question test a few days ago, that placed me as ISTP and a bit ISTJ. So I think it’s quite confusing with all those personality types when they can change so much in tests depending on your mood when you take them, and how you understand the questions.
I guess my question is, Hunter, what is the *best* way to find out your four-letters?”
Great question! It’s not always easy to determine your type.
When I attended a full day MBTI workshop, I came away thinking I was an ISTJ. I actually tested as an INTP, but the facilitator explained that the test is not always accurate, and after going through all the exercises, I decided I was an ISTJ in spite of what the test said.
Looking back on that now, it sounds ridiculous to me, but it made sense at the time.
3 years later, I met with a career coach to talk about career options, and the MBTI just happened to come up. I said I was an ISTJ, and she seemed surprised. She asked me if fitting in was very important to me, and I said no, if anything, I’d want to be different.
She said, “Oh, then you’re definitely not an ISTJ,” and after a couple of minutes decided that I was probably an INTP. I told her that’s what the test said, and she smiled.
Now I can see why I misunderstood some things and concluded that I was an ISTJ. And when I take the online tests, I get INTJ/ISTJ/ISTP quite often, and I can see that it depends on how I’m interpreting the questions, and even my mood.
First you need to realize that even the official test isn’t perfectly accurate. Yet it’s been tested and refined over 40 million administrations, and it meets and exceeds the standards for psychological instruments for both reliability (consistent results from one test to the next) and validity (measuring what it attempts to measure).
On the other hand, the online knockoffs have barely been tested at all. And even tiny variations in the questions can make a difference in how you answer them.
When I see you’re testing as INTJ, ISTP, or ISTJ, I know something is way off. These aren’t just three different types – they’re three different temperaments.
The 16 types are organized into four temperaments, which are the most basic personality types dating back to ancient times. They represent the starkest differences you can have between different personalities.
So if the online tests are taking you across temperament boundaries so easily (even if you’re borderline on those letters), something is wrong.
The best ways to find out your type, in descending order:
#3 – Take the official test and attend an MBTI workshop. The test results will probably be accurate, and the workshop will provide additional info as well as being a lot of fun.
#2 – Read books and websites about the MBTI until your type becomes obvious. The official MBTI guidelines say that you are the best judge of your own type, regardless of what the test says. And I think that when you understand the different types well enough, you can’t fail to correctly type yourself.
And the #1 best way to find out your four letters…read my book!
While I’m at it, I’ll comment on this part too:
“As you can see, NTJ is pretty close to the middle, I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, if I’m just ‘average’?
You’re using a smiley, so you know that “average” isn’t a bad thing here. It just is what it is.
If you have split preferences, you can say you have a balanced personality. This might sound good, and of course it is in some ways. At the same time, it can lead to confusion. Imagine not being sure whether you want to be a hedge fund analyst or a panda ballet choreographer.
If you have very clear preferences, you won’t have this confusion. You’ll be pulled in only one direction, and you’ll be full speed ahead when you get to do what you want. The downside is that you’ll be a fish out of water when you have to act against your preferences.
There are always pros and cons. There are no bad types, nor bad preference splits. So just be who you are!
October 14th, 2009 at 3:51 am
Thank you for a very comprehensive post and reply to my question(s) – and you even raised one or two other questions in my mind, which I intend to find the answer to, in your book. As you know, I already purchased it, will just need to print it out and then I’m ready to dig in.
I have done some home-studies into NLP and such but never really come across MBTI, but I believe that once I’ve read your ebook I will be able to further distinguish between the different types and hopefully use that to help determine my own four letters.
October 14th, 2009 at 8:24 am
Hunter thanks so much for getting back into this cool personality stuff with us! Like Klaus, I have gotten different results for every letter except the first, a strong I, but using your book I think I have it narrowed down. I’m still playing with P vs. J – I don’t LIKE deadlines but I do consider them “drop dead dates” if someone gives me one.
The chemistry.com test you suggested in your The Science of Seduction post was really a cool test too – I liked that we could just react to a lot of the questions and not have to interpret the meanings so much.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:30 am
I also had this test professionally administered, coming out as a definite “IN” with the others F/T and J/P coming out at half. So I asked the instructor if this meant I was wishy-washy or something. She said, “No, on the contrary – it means you are very flexible and are quite rare.”
So, revel in your uniqueness!
Blessings,
Keena
October 14th, 2009 at 11:16 am
IMHO another point to consider is if the person has prejudice for or against certain personality type(s). This can influence the test results badly.
When I took the MB workshop, which not only tested my type but also explained each point into details, there were quite a few attendants who were unhappy with their test results. For instance, there was this woman in pretty high management level. I don’t remember her type, but probably something like ESTJ. I do remember it said how she is capable of making well-thought-out decisions, how good she is to keep the organization in order and in a fair way, etc. It was great, esp for her position. But she was unhappy. She wanted to be something like ENFP, which she thought was more feminine and intuitive — it was obvious she was craving to be seen as such.
Left alone, she probably took the test several more times until she got the result she wanted to see.
Of course, there is no “better” personality type. So it’s important to take this test with clean, open mind and with fresh curiosity.
October 14th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Hey Hunter.
This is pretty cool because it is sort of like finding out the psychological phenotype of our genes and neuronal network through experimentation, with more tries giving a better idea of which categories to fit in.
The long-term value of this is having a solid idea of where one’s strength’s lie, as you already know, but I just thought about.
Cool material.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
@ Klaus, I tend to do that – try to answer one question, and raise two more.
If you have any questions left after reading my ebook, feel free to come back and ask.
@ cb, J vs. P still gives me a hard time too, though I’m much more likely to consider a deadline a drop dead date if I’m the one who determines it.
@ Keena, my, how flexible you are!
@ Akemi, I remember one person in my workshop who seemed to want a different type. I didn’t know her very well, but other people were saying she definitely wasn’t what she was trying to convince herself she was.
The first time you take the test though, you’re least likely to be biased. When I take the tests now, I’ll think “OK, this question is a matter of J vs. P. How am I going to answer that today?”
@ Armen, the MBTI actually makes a point of saying it’s about preferences rather than strengths. In practice, these are probably very similar, because if you like certain things, you probably have some talent for them, and you’ll be motivated to develop your skills further. But I think they want to stress that anyone can be anything, for example, an introvert like Johnny Carson can become a TV host, even if that’s outside his expected comfort zone.
October 15th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Hi again, Hunter. I wasn’t meaning that I, in particular, am quite flexible, but it seems that yourself and quite a few of your readers are as well…. Meaning, I guess, that we are a rare and flexible bunch?!?! And that we aren’t all so easy to peg into a particular category.
And I like your excellent point about how anyone can be anything.
November 8th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
I took the MBTI test and workshop as part of a new employee workshop at a job about six years ago. I seemed a certain E, and I even felt it was validated through the workshop. I can’t remember what my other letters were, none of them really mattered as much to me at the time as the i/e question.
Now I’m really certain that I’m an introvert. It’s only in the past year that I’ve come to this conclusion. I’ve spent a lot of time being confused about this, and still am, and it took me months and months before I accepted that I wasn’t actually an extravert. Of course I found out that my close friends were surprised that I had ever had any doubts about this.
I think I was answering the tests as who I wanted to be, or something like that, just not consciously. Maybe I’m just really bad at these tests…I’m going to check out your ebook to see if it makes anything clearer to me!
November 10th, 2009 at 1:48 am
@ Deb, sometimes the questions are hard enough to answer even if you’re not trying to steer the results in any particular direction. It can be tough at times to be objective and see yourself as you really are. So if you think you might have been subconsciously trying to alter the results, you very well might not have gotten an accurate result.
Note that some introverts are very chatty, they just usually talk about things other than themselves. This is one factor that can cause I/E confusion.
Thanks for ordering my ebook, and let me know if you have any questions!
November 11th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Thanks Hunter! I *am* very chatty (sometimes), so that did add to the confusion for me. I can’t tell you how many conversations with strangers I get into! But you’re right, they’re interesting and enjoyable to me because we’re not talking about me! Hadn’t thought of it that way before.
Your book has helped a lot! I had a lot of questions as I went through the three tests and tried to figure things out, and your book answered most of them. I am still not 100% certain whether I’m a P or a J, but I’m either INFP or INFJ, and the description (especially for INFP, I think) resonate with me, so I do feel that I’m on the right track.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:59 am
@ Deb, I flip flop on J/P too, though I do find the INTP description to fit me slightly better than the INTJ description. If the INFP description resonates with you, I’d say you can think of yourself as an INFP, with the understanding that you’re probably a split P. Glad you liked the book!