For this post I have taken alllll the personality tests and will now tell you what I think! This post was inspired by Hannah Witton’s recent(ish) YouTube series Who Am I? because I love personality tests, it looked like she had a lot of fun and she mentioned some tests I’d never heard of before.

I bloody love a personality test – I’m a little obsessed with psychology and so testing myself is the best way I have to evaluate. I know they aren’t always accurate, in fact they often tell you a lot of stuff that you want to hear and apply to yourself. Shan Boody mentioned in one of Hannah’s videos that whilst horoscopes and stuff may give out lots of passive statements, the tests can help us to analyse different aspects of ourselves and this can prompt action for how we can work on our strengths and weaknesses, and that’s kinda where I sit with it.

So we’ll start with the personal categorisation that we all know: astrology! Less of a personality test really because we have no say in which sign we are but there is a wealth of information out there to read about your type. A while back I used the app Costar to find my full astrological chart which came up with loads of information. If you’re interested to know: I am an Aquarius, Virgo moon, Gemini rising.

“While Aquarius prefers ideas over emotions, their stimulating personality earns them fast friends. A progressive spirit who is focused on the greater good. When this rebellious sign isn’t satisfied with the way things are, they’re experts at garnering the support they need to instigate change. Always two steps ahead, Aquarius’ brilliant ideas and visionary plans inspire us all to raise the bar in our daily lives”

I really relate to the idea that Aquarius’ are very emotional people that are masters at keeping their feelings inside (if that ain’t me!). One of the things on my natal chart that punched me in the guy with accuracy was that my Venus is in Capricorn. I know that sounds ridiculous but basically it means my romantic side is somewhat repressed in the name of responsibility and rationality. That sometimes it might seem like I don’t care about love, but I’m just extremely cautious and appreciate stability, not interested in fannying around because it’s a waste of my time… felt a little attacked when I read that one.

My all time favourite personality test is the classic OG big daddy: the Myers-Briggs! Myers-Briggs basically shows you psychological preferences in how you perceive the world and make decisions and is one of the big bois in the world of personality testing. My favourite website for it is 16 Personalities because is so easy to interpret. I’ve taken this test a couple times in my life but always come out with an ENFJ result – which 16 Personalities calls ‘The Protagonist’. There is so much detail in this test like how you’ll respond in romantic, friendship, parental and working relationships, what your workplace habits will be and, of course, your strengths and weaknesses. There were too many good, relatable bits in this one that I can’t share them all so we’ll just go with this wee bit:

“With a natural confidence that begets influence, Protagonists take a great deal of pride and joy in guiding others to work together to improve themselves and their community.”

One I hadn’t heard of before was The Enneagram. This one was a little bit annoying because you have to pay to properly take the test and I was just not that fussed about it. You can, however, go on the website and read the descriptions of each of the 9 types. I did a bit of a skim but found myself immediately drawn to one of them and even without a test I know I am absolutely Type 3, ‘The Achiever’.

“Threes are self-assured, attractive, and charming. Ambitious, competent, and energetic, they can also be status-conscious and highly driven for advancement. They are diplomatic and poised, but can also be overly concerned with their image and what others think of them. They typically have problems with workaholism and competitiveness.”

The Colour Code was another new one to me – this one claims to analyse not only what you do but why you have that kind of approach. In the test I turned out as a Red which means I’m motivated by power (cue evil laugh).  Here’s a little more of an explanation…

Reds use logic, vision and determination. From a Red perspective, emotion has nothing to do with completing tasks. Strengths include being action-oriented, assertive, confident, decisive, determined, pragmatic, proactive, productive, and responsible. The downside is Reds often have to be right. They may come across as harsh and critical, even when they don’t mean to. They may tend to give priority to work over personal relationships.

The HIGH5 test identifies your 5 unique strengths as a person, which for me are apparently Commander, Philomath, Storyteller, Deliverer and Catalyst which means I lead, seek to learn new things, communicate, get shit done and cause action.

Finally, The Big 5 test, which looks at your core approach to the world. I think this is a really effective and interesting test with some pretty insightful results. Problem is you have to pay $30 for the full results report and I was not prepared to do that for a personality quiz. I came out as an Empathic Idealist and an Analytical Thinker – here’s some of the key bits that I really vibed with:

“You do your best to make the world a better place, although you also work towards you own personal achievements. You have a genuine love of ideas, and value originality, creativity and imagination. It is important to you to have consistent opportunities to learn new things and improve your mind. You are a structured, orderly thinker, and rarely waste time on unproductive daydreaming.”

Taking all these personality tests taught me a few things. Yes, it can be a self-centred pursuit and you could choose to focus on all the ego-puffing details they tell you about your personality type. But I don’t think it’s just about stroking my ego. I also found a lot of areas of weakness that I could then consider. Whether I try to improve myself or if I’m just more aware of my shortcomings and the negative aspects of my personality, I think it’s always good to know. I also found it really interesting how many of my results talked about the same sort of thing.
I’ve always been drawn to understand human psychology, so in better understanding myself, I can better navigate how I relate to and communicate with other people. In fact, 16Personalities told me that my ENFJ type has a tremendous capacity for reflecting on and analysing their own feelings so the fact that this blog post happened was basically written in the stars… Anyways, until I can afford to actually go to therapy this is the closest I can get to processing my thoughts.
You can take the results from any personality test with a pinch of salt but all of the 5 mentioned above give some pretty fun insights so I think they’re worth having a go – but the 16Personalities one is my absolute favourite!
(If you take any of the above tests plz do comment your results on this post!)

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Also just gonna leave this here because I saw it and felt attacked…