imoutofhere
11-02-2007, 07:44 AM
When you take tests/quizzes, remember... There's no guarantee of quality or accuracy. Most of them are not going to do a very good job. Instead of going by the result you seem to get most, check the quality (and therefore likely accuracy) of it while you're taking it. How do you do this? Ask the following questions. (I make quizzes, so I think about these things more than some people. If you never thought about it, don't feel too bad.)
Is this test really long enough to accurately sort between sixteen different possible results? The more results it has, the more questions it should have, and the more probing a lot of those questions should be. A sixteen-result quiz should be fairly lengthy and not particularly superficial, or else it's not covering all results evenly, making takers more likely to get a select few, causing those of the other results to generally get the wrong one.
Does it seem to be evenly covering the different dichotomies? Even a quiz of a decent size might have neglected one of the dichotomies causing inaccuracy in your results.
Keep in mind the number of questions, and their depth. If it felt lacking in one or the other, it's very unlikely you'll get a correct result.
Next, don't care about whether the results sound close in description; if it doesn't feel/seem/sound quite right, then it's probably not right. I said this in my myspace blog already, tests are not the best way to determine your type since most are going to be ****. You need to look at the system and figure it out for yourself, or have someone else who knows you very well take a crack at it, or even both do it yourself AND have one or more other people do it to make sure you did a good job.
If it's a full-out garbage quiz it will not be able to distinguish I vs. E correctly. I vs. E should be the easiest to get right.
If it has trouble determining your P vs. N or your T vs. F, then it had neglected that set in it's questions, making so only those very strongly one over the other will get a correct result. A lot of people will be moderate-strong with BOTH, and will confuse a quiz that didn't put enough effort in to figure out which is stronger. (Almost everyone should have one stronger than the other, no matter how balanced they might be.)
If it can't get your J vs. P correct, this is because both your P/N and your T/F are moderate-strong, and the test didn't balance between the two well enough to tell which is really stronger. This is where most tests/quizzes should have the most inaccuracy.
If you happen to be both strong in Intuition AND in Thinking, put it this way for which is correct... Your Intuition is what makes you get the right answer seeming from nowhere, your Thinking is what you then apply to that answer to try to determine if it's really correct. If you often put your Thinking's answer before your Intuitions (for what you actually choose to think is right), otherwise known as second-guessing yourself, then it's your Thinking to which you prefer to listen. In case of T over N, your second-guessed answers will probably prove wrong while the N was correct, because N can answer questions right that you don't even understand. If it's you have greater preference for N, either you won't second-guess, or you'll get a Thinking answer figured out first only to side with a later answer that came at you from nowhere (I.O.W. Intuitively).
If you're like me and happen to be okay in Feeling while significantly stronger in Thinking, and then good with BOTH Intuition AND Thinking, but with Thinking as your preference... Also, while I like Intuition because it combines well with Thinking to solve things, that doesn't mean I'm bad with Sensing. I'm actually kind of well-rounded, so it'd be easy for a test to get me wrong. More balanced = harder to determine which is stronger, therefore overall well-rounded = all kinds of room for error. You might get confused when tests give you the wrong result, and start rethinking your type. Some of you, once confused might choose to go by what the tests give you most instead of what you were pretty sure is your actual type. An INTJ, will get tempted to base it off the test results because they will THINK, "but what if they're right?" And, they will THINK, "even if they're not really right, if I go share these results with others they'll say they have to be and object when I try to remind them that I'm actually INTJ." That thinking means that you prefer your Thinking even when it's not 100% in the right, and are therefore an NTJ, not an NTP.
Lastly, while once you've determined your true type it's okay to read descriptions... But, if you don't know what you are for certain, don't look at them, or you'll just get confused. Focus on the dichotomies till your certian which you prefer using/doing before touching descriptions.
A) They have just as much room for error as the tests, since the person writing the description may not be of that type and may therefore have limited understanding of it.
B) A lot of the types have some high similarity, meaning there's actually a number of types that will sound like you in description, though none will hit the mark as well as your actual type's. But, still... The more balanced you are between types, the harder it will still be to determine which is most right while looking at those descriptions since more will have higher fit to you. So, reading descriptions will often not help at all even when they're accurate profilings of those types.
C) The more well-rounded you are, the more of other types that will sound like they might be you, making it yet even harder to determine based on descriptions.
D) MBTI is about your preferences, not what you're good at. So, no matter what in all else you might be good at, it comes down to which you prefer to do/use.
And then, in case of crazy people, they'll get the wrong type because they're going by what they prefer to think of themselves over what they actually do/use. So, while it's not really their type, they could use the technicality of it being how they prefer to think of themselves, since it weights that it's about preference, even though it's supposed to be preference to do/use, not how you prefer, or WISH, to be viewed. And, yes, they do in fact constitute as insane as that is an irrational way to think. It means they believe that what one chooses to believe is the truth regardless of the facts. These people are going to be more prone to be religious and may have learned to think like that from their church/temple/etc. (or from religious relatives/friends/significant others/teachers, if they're not religious themselves) in the first place. To confirm you're not just one such irrational persons, you can have people who know you well confirm if they agree it's your type. (Have them look at the dichotomies and what they mean, NOT the descriptions, as they usually won't know you well enough to really know what goes on in your head. A simple look at the dichotomies themselves, such as Feeling = more sympathetic while Thinking = more "cold.")
This also answers why there are people on the INTJ forum who are not INTJ. Some might be INTJs who got confused about INTJ vs. INTP, then were made to switch the type in their profile, or did so to avoid conflict over it. And, those seriously not INTJ at all, but while thinking they are, are the crazies I mentioned. And, then some non-INTJs here might want to learn more about INTJ, or know they're compatible with them so joined to make friends.
(If the staff would prefer this topic elsewhere, feel free to move it to wherever you think it might be most useful/correct to place.)
Is this test really long enough to accurately sort between sixteen different possible results? The more results it has, the more questions it should have, and the more probing a lot of those questions should be. A sixteen-result quiz should be fairly lengthy and not particularly superficial, or else it's not covering all results evenly, making takers more likely to get a select few, causing those of the other results to generally get the wrong one.
Does it seem to be evenly covering the different dichotomies? Even a quiz of a decent size might have neglected one of the dichotomies causing inaccuracy in your results.
Keep in mind the number of questions, and their depth. If it felt lacking in one or the other, it's very unlikely you'll get a correct result.
Next, don't care about whether the results sound close in description; if it doesn't feel/seem/sound quite right, then it's probably not right. I said this in my myspace blog already, tests are not the best way to determine your type since most are going to be ****. You need to look at the system and figure it out for yourself, or have someone else who knows you very well take a crack at it, or even both do it yourself AND have one or more other people do it to make sure you did a good job.
If it's a full-out garbage quiz it will not be able to distinguish I vs. E correctly. I vs. E should be the easiest to get right.
If it has trouble determining your P vs. N or your T vs. F, then it had neglected that set in it's questions, making so only those very strongly one over the other will get a correct result. A lot of people will be moderate-strong with BOTH, and will confuse a quiz that didn't put enough effort in to figure out which is stronger. (Almost everyone should have one stronger than the other, no matter how balanced they might be.)
If it can't get your J vs. P correct, this is because both your P/N and your T/F are moderate-strong, and the test didn't balance between the two well enough to tell which is really stronger. This is where most tests/quizzes should have the most inaccuracy.
If you happen to be both strong in Intuition AND in Thinking, put it this way for which is correct... Your Intuition is what makes you get the right answer seeming from nowhere, your Thinking is what you then apply to that answer to try to determine if it's really correct. If you often put your Thinking's answer before your Intuitions (for what you actually choose to think is right), otherwise known as second-guessing yourself, then it's your Thinking to which you prefer to listen. In case of T over N, your second-guessed answers will probably prove wrong while the N was correct, because N can answer questions right that you don't even understand. If it's you have greater preference for N, either you won't second-guess, or you'll get a Thinking answer figured out first only to side with a later answer that came at you from nowhere (I.O.W. Intuitively).
If you're like me and happen to be okay in Feeling while significantly stronger in Thinking, and then good with BOTH Intuition AND Thinking, but with Thinking as your preference... Also, while I like Intuition because it combines well with Thinking to solve things, that doesn't mean I'm bad with Sensing. I'm actually kind of well-rounded, so it'd be easy for a test to get me wrong. More balanced = harder to determine which is stronger, therefore overall well-rounded = all kinds of room for error. You might get confused when tests give you the wrong result, and start rethinking your type. Some of you, once confused might choose to go by what the tests give you most instead of what you were pretty sure is your actual type. An INTJ, will get tempted to base it off the test results because they will THINK, "but what if they're right?" And, they will THINK, "even if they're not really right, if I go share these results with others they'll say they have to be and object when I try to remind them that I'm actually INTJ." That thinking means that you prefer your Thinking even when it's not 100% in the right, and are therefore an NTJ, not an NTP.
Lastly, while once you've determined your true type it's okay to read descriptions... But, if you don't know what you are for certain, don't look at them, or you'll just get confused. Focus on the dichotomies till your certian which you prefer using/doing before touching descriptions.
A) They have just as much room for error as the tests, since the person writing the description may not be of that type and may therefore have limited understanding of it.
B) A lot of the types have some high similarity, meaning there's actually a number of types that will sound like you in description, though none will hit the mark as well as your actual type's. But, still... The more balanced you are between types, the harder it will still be to determine which is most right while looking at those descriptions since more will have higher fit to you. So, reading descriptions will often not help at all even when they're accurate profilings of those types.
C) The more well-rounded you are, the more of other types that will sound like they might be you, making it yet even harder to determine based on descriptions.
D) MBTI is about your preferences, not what you're good at. So, no matter what in all else you might be good at, it comes down to which you prefer to do/use.
And then, in case of crazy people, they'll get the wrong type because they're going by what they prefer to think of themselves over what they actually do/use. So, while it's not really their type, they could use the technicality of it being how they prefer to think of themselves, since it weights that it's about preference, even though it's supposed to be preference to do/use, not how you prefer, or WISH, to be viewed. And, yes, they do in fact constitute as insane as that is an irrational way to think. It means they believe that what one chooses to believe is the truth regardless of the facts. These people are going to be more prone to be religious and may have learned to think like that from their church/temple/etc. (or from religious relatives/friends/significant others/teachers, if they're not religious themselves) in the first place. To confirm you're not just one such irrational persons, you can have people who know you well confirm if they agree it's your type. (Have them look at the dichotomies and what they mean, NOT the descriptions, as they usually won't know you well enough to really know what goes on in your head. A simple look at the dichotomies themselves, such as Feeling = more sympathetic while Thinking = more "cold.")
This also answers why there are people on the INTJ forum who are not INTJ. Some might be INTJs who got confused about INTJ vs. INTP, then were made to switch the type in their profile, or did so to avoid conflict over it. And, those seriously not INTJ at all, but while thinking they are, are the crazies I mentioned. And, then some non-INTJs here might want to learn more about INTJ, or know they're compatible with them so joined to make friends.
(If the staff would prefer this topic elsewhere, feel free to move it to wherever you think it might be most useful/correct to place.)