Personality Types

Knowing your personality type doesn't just help choose the right career path, it can also play an important role in personal growth and developing a sense of identity and purpose. It can even contribute to choosing the right partner if you're on the market. If you have often felt misunderstood or alone in life, reading your personality test results can provide an 'ah ha!' moment - almost like seeing a psychic or someone reading your private journal.

In this episode, Lianne & Corey are joined by author and founder of personalityjunkie.com, A.J. Drenth, whom they quiz on test accuracy and the benefits of knowing your type. Listen in to explore the different personality type systems and discover why A.J prefers the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. If you're curious about your sassy hosts, this is your opportunity to know them better as A.J breaks down what Lianne and Corey's personality types say about them.

Expect many laughs and a few eureka moments as you learn how to further your education about your own personality type.

Get To The Point

Show Notes

If you've changed jobs in the last 5-10 years, there's a solid chance you've taken a personality test as part of the hiring process. A lot of colleges also use personality tests to help students choose a career path or field of study.

One of the better known and arguably more accurate methods of testing personality types is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, inspired by the work of Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Carl Jung. Jung developed a ground-breaking personality theory based on 4 psychological functions, the rational functions - thinking and feeling, and the irrational functions - sensation and intuition. He believed that every person has a dominant attitude (introversion or extraversion) and a primary function that categorizes their personality.

Popular free online personality tests based on the Myers-Briggs system are available at 16personalities.com and personalityjunkie.com while the official MBTI assessment costs US$49.95. Take the time to read the test result synopsis in detail, and jump over to Google to take a deeper dive into what your 4-letter type means.

Remember the advice Chris Armstrong gave in episode 1, about letting the information sink in before jumping into another course. That applies to personality tests. Give yourself some time to marinate in the results fit before trying an alternative test.

Key Interview Takeaways

• Knowing your personality type can help you understand your identity and purpose and work out where you fit in the bigger picture of humanity.
• It also provides room for personal growth as each person possesses all 8 elements: extroversion and introversion, intuition and sensation, thinking and feeling, and judging and perceiving. Knowing your dominant attributes allows you to grow your inferior ones.
• Expect your test results to shift as you grow over the course of your life. E.g. extroverts may become more introverted as they get older.
• The 3 most common personality type systems are the Enneagram (meaning/spiritual end of the spectrum), Myers-Briggs (middle ground), and The Big Five (academic/scientific end of the spectrum).
• Problems can occur when taking tests by self-reporting, like if you don't fully understand yourself. Expect self-reported test results to give you a nice ballpark idea of your personality type, then go ahead and read up on your results and type systems in general to get a broader understanding. Always answer based on your historical personality over the course of your life, not just on that particular day or week.
• Visit personailtyjunkie.com for detailed articles on the different personality types and practical advice on how to determine which type you are. There's also an online course for "NP"s seeking to better understand their personality, identity, life purpose, relationships, career path, and more.
• AJ has written 4 books, 2 being on his own personality type, INTP. Check out The 16 Personality Types, My True Type, The INTP, and The INTP Quest.