self-report – The Original Personality Test Blog

“Based on another test, I am a thinker not a feeler,” was the statement from one client. It is not the first time this issue has come up from clients that have been profiled by other personality tests (others might say they were told they are a feeler). One said that after taking a test that put them in a thinker category, they became very self-conscious about being perceived as cold and aloof. They find themselves being preoccupied in groups; worrying about how they are coming across and if it is too cold. They expressed they feel as though they have lost their natural curiosity when they are with other people because they are worried about it. This is an example of what happens when a personality test of any sort is limiting. If we start to specialize humans too much, we find ourselves in a place that we might be hurting more than we are helping.

In my opinion, a far more superior system is when we look for patterns and equations of how they do both thinking and feeling. At Human Art you have a profile of how you authentically think and how you authentically feel. We all do both. It might be in a different order or in different degrees. It can even show up differently when in different settings. Human Art can define that for you.

The most important step is that we, as a society of humans, really settle in to the idea that we are all beautiful in our own right. And defining the complexity of each one of us is far more rewarding than categorizing our ability or traits in too much of a simplistic way. I will tell you that over the years I have fought for this. We have had so many well-intentioned and intelligent people try to convince us that, from a business stand point, it is better to just identify each person with one or two of the Human Art designs (rather than a unique combination of all four) to make it more duplicatable. We refuse to do that because it is not authentic. I tell you that you as a human have the God-given right to have someone take the time to see you for who you really are. From your most obvious and predominant trait to the one that is so small it might be a just a “fume” – that “fume” changes everything that we think we know about you.

Showing the amounts and the order for each of the designs is the key to helping people fall in love with their authenticity again. The amount of thinker and the amount of feeler that you are, and what it looks like for each individual. We can talk about what it feels like to you and also what it looks and feels like to others around you.

Let’s go back and look at the client that was worried about coming across too cold. Her original test was correct in that she is a “thinker” first, but it failed to measure how fast the “feeling” part of her design accompanied that. It was amazing to me how fast it was. She is high in what we call the Saturated Design. Her thinking is done in an introverted, clear way, but immediately her feeling part of her design accompanies the thinking. This would lead her to move right away to how she felt about the things that she was drawing conclusions about. I saw it time and time again when I watched her interact with others. It was so beautiful to me. The minute that happened (the thinking) she would turn her head slightly, her chin would shift smoothly in the direction of her left shoulder, and she would immediately start to ask questions and deduct how the conversation was making the other person feel. She already knew how she felt because she is such a clear thinker. So before the person she was interacting with even has time to deem her cold, she was swimming in a pool of empathy for that person. No time at all for aloof feelings, just understanding. I also noticed that when she was preoccupied with the results of the prior test, her authentic come across, or that shift to feelings, would not happen. We did not get to experience that observable empathy because of her worry, so she would actually get more of what she was afraid of—negative reactions and less authenticity. When she was more authentic and understood herself, her Saturated and Blackened design did the thinking first and then quickly moved her into her Grayed that felt things in an intuitive way and with compassion and sensitivity.

I had a conversation with another client who is very high in her ability to feel. She took a test that was helping her employer define the best task for her and they came up with the task of typing. They actually told her that she should focus only on that. That is just far to limiting for this particular client, or for any other human being. In Human Art, we would see that this person is high in the Whitened personality and has large amounts of it at first. This type of feeler is a free spirit and full of natural curiosity with no guile. She is very curious and full of spontaneity. She loves social interactions and can enroll others easily. Taking a test that is too simplistic would see that and be able to point that out. What it would miss is that she then has an underlying amount of thinker that is done in a serious and detailed way. These come from her second and third designs. That means she has the ability to be serious and logical in her tasks as well. This is critical to know. I agree with the original test based on the Myers-Briggs, she would be an excellent typist, but it falls too short and depreciates the breadth of what she can do. Her employer is missing out on so much that she has to offer by basing their idea of her abilities on such a narrow perspective. That is the mindset we are trying to challenge.

So again, I worry that when tests that are accurate in the application but not the complexity, they run the risk of marginalizing or devaluing the totality and the capability of what a person can offer. You run the risk of putting someone in a corner to do a job and, though they will do it well, they could also have the potential and the desire to be more—maybe even a great executive. It is not just in business this happens. It is in family, friendships, learning settings, and social settings.

The point I am adamant about making is that we all have something so unique to add to this great earth and it is time to get smarter about discovering it. We as a human race can define other complex systems and we have evolved enough and are intelligent enough to demand them. We wouldn’t settle for limited or simplistic ways of interacting and contacting each other, so we demanded it until we got social media and better networks. We knew we were falling short of how we take care of ourselves, so we are constantly finding ways to be healthier—we demand it. It is time to want a more complex system to measure a person, and to demand for ourselves nothing short of our full and complete authenticity. You need to find it, we can define it, and we all need to require it of each other. We are unique, we are all complex, we are all beautiful, we are all one of a kind.

We cannot settle for anything less, because everyone is a masterpiece.

Brook

To learn more about Human Art: The Original Personality Test, visit our website at https://theoriginalpersonalitytest.com

When someone new runs across Human Art, our personality methodology, they are often very curious as to how our methodology compares to other personality typing approaches. There are many that we are aware of and probably a few that we are not. One that comes up a lot because it is so well known is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Several of the other personality tests are also a spin-off of the Myers-Briggs, so we will use that as an example to compare, but know that this analysis also applies to the other tests.

Self Report vs. Empirical

The first important distinction is that the Myers-Briggs (as well as others) is based on self-report; meaning you are answering questions or providing the information yourself. Human Art, on the other hand, is empirically based so it is observable. You do not need to take a test to see one’s personality. You can simply start to deduct what their design or personality is within seconds of them walking through the door or approaching them.

This is important for several reasons but the most obvious is that when needing the benefits of a personality test you do not always have the luxury of sitting down, administering a test, sending it in to an expert to evaluate it and draw conclusions and then sending the results back to you. With Human Art you start to get a clear view of someone’s personality within seconds, and you can do it for yourself. We use correct principles of art, design, and psychology and the elements of color, line, sound, and movement to quickly observe someone’s personality or design.

Potential for Skewed Results

The second reason self-report like a Myers-Briggs test and those that spin off of it might not always be the superior option is that an individual taking a self-report test can skew the test results. This can happen when a person answers a question to portray the way they want to be seen, rather than how they truly are. Or if there are traits seen as more valued than others, they may answer in an effort to show they have that valued characteristic or meet an expectation. This skewing could be a conscious or subconscious decision. Regardless, it has the potential to cloud the results, leading to a gap in which unhealthy relating seeps in.

Then you are in a situation where the advantage of knowing someone, or using a test to know how to best work with an individual, is based off false information; which then has the potential for failure and negates the reason you were administering the test in the first place. The test has the potential to be inaccurate. For example, if an employer administers a Myers-Briggs or other similar test, if any answer is skewed or based on false report, it gives the employer a false sense of what the profile means; which then leads to an incorrect expectation or view of the person they are hiring. That could give you the opposite result, low job satisfaction and high turnover.

The original intention from the other personality tests, in my opinion, is to categorize which type of people can do certain tasks. At Human Art we just simply tell how all personalities do that same task in their best way.

Motivation and Categorization

The third reason, and the most important one to me, is the motivation of the Myers-Briggs and other tests seem to be too simple in my opinion. It is trying to categorize a human and put them in a specific category, which is counter-intuitive to human independence and the need for a healthy autonomy. I hear this all the time with people who are afraid of personality tests; they all say about the same thing: “I don’t want to be put in a box.”

I Googled how many people are on the planet and got the answer 7 billion. Because we are all so different and unique, that would require a personality system that had approximately seven billion boxes.

The Purpose of Human Art

I feel very strongly about this. It is not in my nature to compare. My usual response is to find the good in all systems. I have done that. Today it is not about that. Today it is simply a warning to not let our industry, one that yes I am a part of, in any way rob you of your autonomy and independence. My intention is to have a healthy debate about how we use personality tests and move into a space where we get more of what we all want: healthy independence, more efficacy and higher sense of self. No more beating each other up over who has a superior personality type and who has the superior thought process.

To be clear, every human being is born with a basic right to be acknowledged for who they are, understood for what they need, seen for how they feel and think and love, and to be one of a kind.

Here is an example of this. One of my mentors, we will just call her Nancy for today, was high up in a very large international company. She did a lot of public speaking and training. It was time for one of her first appearances with this new and rather large company. Her boss, a very smart and well-respected man in the business community, was trying to get her to be more of a prototype business personality type. He had worked with her on this with all the good intentions in the world. As often happens, he had his view on how she would best find success. As she was about to walk on stage, he mentioned something that had a negative ring to her and led her to believe in her mind that she was not enough. The thought rang through her head, “Don’t be Nancy.” This is the problem I am talking about.

When she got on stage she recounts how she made the decision to not only be Nancy but to really be Nancy, in an attempt to stay true to the Nancy she knew was authentic. When she was done, she said to her boss, “don’t ever ask me to speak again unless you want me to be Nancy.” She turned and noticed the crowd and they were all on their feet giving her her first standing ovation.

Later, in an attempt to find the “real Nancy,” she was administered another self-report test like Myers-Briggs. When we finally caught up with her at Human Art, the first thing she did was throw the report at us and said, “here you might have more use for this than me. I don’t even understand it.” She recounts her first interaction at Human Art when I had the privilege to explain her equation and design. She said it hit her so hard when I told her she was introverted first and then in social settings she became more extroverted. She told me I was the first person who had ever understood that about her. Every other personality test she had taken identified her as extremely extroverted. She said it meant so much to her that I knew her, and it was all because of the principles behind Human Art. That was my goal and always will be—to know someone for who they really are.

Everyone is A Unique Masterpiece

At Human Art, we use four personality types, we call them harmonies or designs, to find a unique equation of a person’s personality. Everyone is a unique combination of all four. The slightest amount of one makes a totally different profile than what someone else’s is. I personally have done thousands of personality profiles over the years and no two people have ever been the same. I can attest to the fact that EVERYONE IS UNIQUE. Even though I have not met everyone, it just makes sense to me that if everyone I have profiled is different and unique, so must be the rest, and I will spend the rest of my life observing personalities and their uniqueness.

Our test is empirical and can be observed. You do not have to fill out a self-report test. You can watch and see with your own eyes, the study, the science, the art of being human—Human Art—where everyone is a masterpiece.

~Brook

To learn more about Human Art: The Original Personality Test and what we do, visit our main website at theoriginalpersonalitytest.com

Tag: self-report

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