Self Assessment Test Bias

[VH]

I'm really beginning to see how self assessment is problematic.

If you don't know what the questions are essentially asking, you can't really self assess, because you're not providing relevant answers.

If you do know what the questions are essentially asking, you can't really self assess, because your opinion on the subjects taint the answers.

I can really see the efficacy of having an 'expert' assess an individual.

 

[Barnabas]

I'm really beginning to see how self assessment is problematic.

If you don't know what the questions are essentially asking, you can't really self assess, because you're not providing relevant answers.

If you do know what the questions are essentially asking, you can't really self assess, because your opinion on the subjects taint the answers.

I can really see the efficacy of having an 'expert' assess an individual.

it's why I my trust my first test over all others, that and I had no idea of what the outcome would or could be so I could not myself alter my answers to get a specific result.

 

[NeverAmI]

I have come to the same conclusion. I really don't trust my cognitive function tests. I don't give them any weight when I analyze myself. Restraint had a good theory about taking the test many times and trending based on those results. But ultimately, I dismiss it personally as it has WAY too many open variables.

What you said about either not understanding, or understanding too well is so true. I believe your mood can vastly change how you interpret a question.

Kind of like, how you get a new car that you don't think many people have, then you get the car and you suddenly see it all over!

 

[IndigoSensor]

I have taken function tests so much over the past +year that they almost always come out to the same result with only slight variations. Even when I take it and feel like I am answering totally different from I have in the past. This happened recently actually. As such, I tend to trust my self assessment, and put stock into it. I do like to hear imput from other people on what they think and discuss it, as it is extremely easy to hide parts of who you are from yourself (consciously and subconsciously), and thus get skewed results. My Si score was totally innaccurate up until this summer when I acknowlaged an aspect of myself that I pretended did not exsist.

Self assessment will have levels of accuracy depending on who they person is. Some people are more direct and honest with themselves then others. Also, people are dynamic, and so are test results. They change around with experience and time. With self assessment, input from other people (and actually taking it to heart), and large sample sizes, these combinded inputs can be accurate.

 

[birdshit]

i don't trust self assessment as much as i used to because i don't trust others to attempt to be objective with themselves. i trust myself, but that's different. i'd rather take the word of an "expert," but only if i personally agreed with their conclusions in general.

as for my own self assessment results, i've gotten all kinds of stuff. INTP, ISTP, INFP, and INTJ were the notable ones, but i don't think i'm any type but INTP.

cognitive functions ehhhhh

 

[Quinlan]

I think you guys overthink it, if you roughly fit the type description then close enough is good enough I reckon.

 

[Barnabas]

I believe that taking the test multiple time starts to form a bit of a bias on the users part, not intentionall of course, but I've caught myself clicking answers that are just me saying thats J thats P. Maybe I'm alone but I doubt it.

 

[GaiaGraha]

YES, I completely agree.
People always fuck up self-assessments of MBTI.
Most people don't know themselves very well, or they don't understand the lingo.
And it can be hard to know what you actually are like and what you do in situations, cuz however you are is just natural.
Also people tend to answer as what they'd LIKE to be, rather than what they REALLY are.
I know I used to test as Thinker because I believe that logic and doing what was rational and speaking the truth is what is more important.
But the truth is that I am a Feeler- through and through, that's how I naturally am.

I believe that taking the test multiple time starts to form a bit of a bias on the users part, not intentionall of course, but I've caught myself clicking answers that are just me saying thats J thats P. Maybe I'm alone but I doubt it.

I kinda do that now too. P_P
lol. But luckily I figured out my type years ago. It took me years to figure it out...but I am 100% positive now.
But yeah, it's impossible for me to take an MBTI test and not instantly know what each question is referring to.
But I still try to answer individually for each individual question, not just "I'm a J, and Js do that, so yes"

 

[Quinlan]

My mum did the test on facebook, it said she was INFJ but she is total ISFJ I know it.

 

[VH]

Even when I take it and feel like I am answering totally different from I have in the past.

I always try to reject any association I have with what the question is measuring, and try to focus on what the question is asking. I imagine best and worst case scenarios, then try to measure which way I lean. When I am taking these tests, I am usually running an estimation of my score. Despite feeling very much that I am going to come up as some other type than INFJ, I always answer as honestly as I can. I actually find it interesting that I am going to come up as something else, like ENTP or INTJ because I am answering yes to a lot of Ti or Te oriented questions, and in a way I am kind of hoping that I will, as my honesty will have paid off if I do. However, I almost always come up as INFJ... very rarely coming up as barely INFP or barely ENFJ.

But... I also acknowledge that despite my honesty, I'm only inputting my self image, and that my self image has probably been swayed subconsciously by knowing how I am 'supposed' to be, as I've taken the descriptions to heart. THAT is the real danger of self assessment, identifying with a type. It can cloud your self image, which is really the only thing a self assessment test can measure.

When we take self assessment tests, we're only getting an indication of our self image. Knowing about the types may be as detrimental to a true indication of type as not understanding the questions.

Personally, I don't think types exist, other than to describe common patterns in cognitive function preferences. People are actually nothing more than the summation of their own unique cognitive function sets, which are constantly growing and adapting. If anything, the only tests that have relevence to me are the cognitive function tests, especially considering that the axis approach that the MBTI type tests use is an extremely assumptive way to imply function preferences.

I do have to admit however, that it is interesting that on MBTI type tests I usually come up INFJ, sometimes INFP or ENFJ, and in rare cases ENFP. On cognitive function tests I almost always come up Ni ≥ Fi ≥ Fe > Ne. There is clearly a synergy to these two approaches, which either means that I'm testing rather accurately, or at minimum I have a clear sense of self (which may or may not be entirely accurate).

 

[Ria]

I think you guys overthink it, if you roughly fit the type description then close enough is good enough I reckon.

It's an INFJ obsession, apparently, lol

 

[Raccoon Love]

It's an INFJ obsession, apparently, lol

Indeed, INFJ's seem to want answers to everything, constantly self-analyzing beyond belief lol.

 

[Ria]

Where does one go for a professional assesment then? I took a long variation of the test last year at a career centre when I was tryinbg to decide what kind of job I should consider as I have been wanting to change my career. I tested INFP/J because the score was SOO close with the J and the P. I began to realize that I was actually answering many of the questions though as to how I was living at that time. Such as, "are you almost never late for appointments?" and I was answering "no" because I was thinking in terms of how my kids so often make me late, instead of disregarding other's influences in my life, so there was no distractions from where my thinking should have been. Do you think an oral type test would be best or even offered anywhere, so that you could have a sounding board for any questions you would need help answering?

It's so true that the test results change at different times in life. I can def tell when I'm more centred and balanced, that my P score drops, and at times when I am highly emotionally distressed (which has been so often throughout my life), that (I'm linking present with past with this thought), my P has been very strong.

Much of the time now though, I am scoring a higher J, but they are always very close. I know it's because I'm a strong feeler...

 

[anica]

Self Assessment Bias

Cognitive function, like geometry, is someting I just ca't wrap my head ariund. It's like alphabet soup to me. I can never remember on the tests whether I've come by something naturally or had to lern it, and on and on. Thwy are beyond me, What's more, I don' know if they would've been so problematic before the brain injury and it's difficult to remember what I was like before; after all, it's been 18 years!

 

[VH]

I don' know if they would've been so problematic before the brain injury and it's difficult to remember what I was like before; after all, it's been 18 years!

This is is something that my INTJ brought up tonight... she said "I just realized that all of the Ni dominant people (INFJs and INTJs) we know have had a significant head injury at some point in life. I wonder if that is related."

I was shot in the head (not through the skull, but fractured it) many years ago, and looking back, I am very convinced that it changed my personality.

I'll post a poll on this subject here.