So, how accurate are psychometric tests?

[Niecie]

I am trying to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life and start earning again after being a SAHM for 9 yrs. I have several ideas and plans but don't know which way to go and I am nervous having made a mistake by chosing my original career.

I had a go at the psychometric test that was linked to on Onebatmother's thread last week and the results, I thought, were just like me and gave me a list of possible careers that included several of the things I am already thinking about. Hooray!!

But then I got to wondering whether I had sub-consciously fudged the tests so that I got the results I wanted to see rather than getting to the real 'me' iyswim.

I tried very hard not to cheat and be honest but now I am wondering whether these test are robust and stand up to (subconscious) manipulation.

Does anybody know how reliable they are?

Thanks.

Thanks for replying. I guess you are right about capturing the sub-conscious idea - that is really what they are all about.

I have also just been pondering, whilst just having had my haircut, whether the result would be the same if I redid the test in a week or a month or even a year. Are they affected by mood or are they able to capture the essense of the personality rather than how you are feeling on any given day?

I don't see much point to them if I come out as somebody who would make a good bricklayer, for arguments sake, one week and a great accountant the next just because of how I was feeling (I came out as neither by the way). That wouldn't help hone your choices at all.

As it is it hasn't helped because my short list remains in tact and I still have to make the same choice! Ho hum.

Was it the Meyers-Briggs (something like that) test? I recently did one of these (my sister recommended it) and then made dh do it and also my best friend. The results were quite startling (none of us were looking to move careers, it was just for interest) and it even made me look at a continual issue I have with dh in a different light. Dh did psychology at Uni and said the MB test is usually pretty accurate and can be helpful as a way to look at yourself.

Thanks Wilbur - yes, I think it is based on Meyers-Briggs. Did you get the four letter categories - for example I was ISFP, which is apparently The Artist (although I am not any good at art but temperament wise it works).

You are right it is startlingly accurate - well for me, but it is interesting that you found each other's accurate too. That is somehow more encouraging as other's are agreeing with your own self-image.

I am currently doing an MSc in psychology so you would think I would know more about all this stuff.

Having said that, it might be why I am over-thinking it and not just accepting the results at face value.

Yes MBTI is one of the more reliable tests - if you repeat it, the changes are likely to be minimal in the short term. Over a longer period (10 years or longer) you may see some changes as significant life event can change how you respond.

It sounds as though you tried to be honest with yourself when you did the test, so if the results are meaningful to you - then go with it.

However, keep remembering that we all have the potential to grow in any of the dimensions.So even if your profile and career options fit with how you feel now, it is worth taking notice of your least preferred areas, because these are the areas that could inhibit you - even in your preferred career.

Do you have a link please.

www.humanmetrics.com/index.htm#intro

I am INTJ - hilarious, the description is so like me. And the ideal careers are described as science, or development engineering - I am an engineer.

I came up as INTJ too.
But it doesn't feel right.

Just done the link on this thread, which is not the same as the test I did before and have come out as ISFJ instead of ISFP so pretty close, especially as the results say I am not strongly a J on this test.

Apparently famous ISFJ's (Protectors) are George Bush and Mother Theresa.

Not sure they are a pair that I would have instantly thought were similar in any way!

Anyway, I take comfort from getting the same sort of result on completely different questions.

Myers Briggs is really interesting, and I think a relatively accurate test. But I don't think you should use it to as a huge aid to career guidance, it is more about understanding yourself better, and even more, what makes other people you interact with tick (it is often done as a group development activity). So more useful to look at the preferences and then think about what that means for you.
i have done it twice, once on my own, and once as part of career development, and the second time was much more useful, as the facilitator challenged my outcome - I rated myself as extrovert, but in truth I am very introvert, just when the passion takes me I can be quite dominant (in fact here is some really interesting reading about what happens when you are under stress and you try exhibiting the mirror values, usually not very well). So you have to watch out for values you think you should exhibit ( I was brought up. by introvert parents, who think being outgoing is very important) rather than those you actually have. The facilitator said that your preferences on Myers-Briggs are rather like being left of right handed, they are where you are comfortable, but they don't define you.

My famous INTJs included Hilary Clinton and Michelle Obama.

A little daunting to be in the company of such high powered women.

I liked the title of 'Mastermind'
but felt it just wasn't me.
Perhaps 9 years of SAHMdom have simply reduced me to mush.

Flymetodunoon - perhaps you have latent tendencies and abilities that you just haven't tapped yet!

Clinton & Obama are indeed formidable women but at least they aren't saints like Mother Theresa - that really is something to live up to!!

Just in case you are interested and have £3.50 to spare (it isn't free) this is the other test I did here. It would be interesting to know if you got the same results twice like I did.

nooka - perhaps I shouldn't base a career choice on these tests but I'll try anything to stop being in limbo land and make a decision on what to do with the rest of my life. I think I have been thinking about it too much and for too long and need to make a decision before I get too old to be taken seriously by anybody!

Thank you Niecie.
I am planning on doing the other test when I can access DP's credit card
Will report back.

How do they work out what other people are. Dead people even. I just can't imagine Mother Theresa sitting down to do a psychometric test.

I was wondering that myself - I am pretty sure it must be guesswork!

Presumably at least some of them will have done test in the past - they have become a big part of recruitment, judging by the no. of courses on how to administer the tests I have seen.

A word of warning about paying by credit card. It might only be M&S who are a pain but they stopped my credit card as a result of me trying to pay with my M&S credit card. Apparently, card cloners make small test payments like the one to this site before bleeding you dry with bigger spending if they don't get caught. It is a US site and M&S got all nervous and blocked the payment to the website and all my other payments until I sorted it out.

I wouldn't mind their vigilance but they keep doing it and it is getting annoying - particularly at Christmas when they made me chop up my card for no good reason!!

My other credit card worked just fine!

Flyme - perhaps you should develop your latent INTJ abililities gradually, starting with an engineering degree...
it sounds as though you underestimate yourself

We were told by our facilitator that if your description doesn't sound right, it probably isn't, and you should look at similar types and if you find one that fits better have a think about the answers you gave (which is why I changed from an E to an I) and see if they are really how you are. The internet tests are really very quick snapshots - doing this sort of test properly takes a good long time, with lots more questions.

I have come up as ISFP and ISFJ and also on one test was close to be INFP.

They do sound fairly similar when I was reading the descriptions and I started to wonder if they were like horoscopes - a little bit of truth in all of them and not really specific to anybody.

However, going completely away from my own results to something like ENFP or ENTJ it was comforting to find they were nothing like me.

Flyme - how do you answer these things. Do you go with a gut reaction or do you sit and ponder the answers? I tend to go with the gut and get through the tests quickly as I think the more you sit and ponder the more likely you are to come up with what you think you ought to come up with rather than how you really are. I don't know if that is the right way to do it.

I was just wondering how you have ended up with a result you are convinced about.

I agree with nightbynight too - you do sound hard on yourself. If you are anything like me 9 yrs of being a SAHM has left you not knowing who you are other than mummy! What did you do before children? Would have been anything like your result back then?

a result you aren't convinced with.

I have just done the free test again and put thought into it this time.
Came up the same! Slightly different scores on the different parts but still Mastermind Rational, INTJ.
DP sat beside me says it is more me than I realise.

I was good at art at school, went to art college intending to do graphics or illustation and ended up doing Painting.Scraped through and got a BA.
Did nothing with it.
Had many short term jobs-waitress, usherette,shop assistant. Did get promoted in many of them but often found that the increased responsibility stressed me out.
Did PGCE.
Taught in primary school for 4 years. Got very stressed toward the end and left mid term.
Did supply for a year which I enjoyed-no responsibility and some great schools. I realised that much of the stress I felt at my main teaching job was exacerbated by the people I worked with.
Got preganant!
I can't think what would be different in my answers then.

OK - I am going to go with my personality type because I can't resist and put my career counselling hat on.

Is Myers Briggs linked to the Enneagram? I've heard about both of these tests and personality types questionnaire recently. They sounded similar.

In the last one I did my J score was low. Just 1.

Did you mean change the J to a P?

and thank you for your engagement.

Yes, change J to P or whatever way round it should be.

I am supposed to be writing a psychology essay but I have a 5 yr old playing Zoo Tycoon and yattering in my ear so not in the 'zone'.

Good question nfk - they do sound similar although I haven't done an enneagram for along time but I think they have 12 categories too don't they?

I don't know though.

Hi Neicie - I meant to come back to this thread sooner, but life got in the way. You seem to have had lots of answers to your q's though! I am INFJ on the Meyers-Briggs and dh is INTP. He said he knew what he was going to be, he had had the same results every time he'd done it since being a student, so over 20 years. It's clearly pretty constant as a test. I did it again (and I have terrible short term memory so couldn't remember my previous answers) and it came out the same. I have printed out the sheet about myself (I'm so vain) as I think it is quite extraordinary. I sort of wish I had done one of these years ago!

Hope your essay goes ok.

Thanks Wilbur - I wish I had done mine years ago too - could have save me from several years of doing a job I didn't like!

And if you are vain so am I! I have printed it out too - I shall probably go round asking people if it sounds like me!

I find it all fasinating though.