Walking the Shadow Line: Make a strength of your weakness

 

     I have always had fun with personality tests. Do I believe in them? Maybe. They can give you a doorway into examining yourself. Just don't let them persuade you to put yourself into a tidy box. None of us are that tidy. If a test says you are A or B -- it really means that, on that day and in that environment and with known others evaluating the results, you have answered in a way such that the result is A or B. The people who administer the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) say specifically that your results may vary depending on when you take the test and your environment. If you are doing the test for the office, you should take the test in the office.

     At any rate, whether you think the MBTI (or Enneagram or HEXACO or Berkman or ...) is valid or not, at best it can only give you the DOMINANT aspect at that time and in that environment.

     For example, I am INF/TJ in the MBTI. Each of the four attributes (Introversion/Extroverstion, iNtuitive/Sensing, Thinking/Feeling, and Judicial/Perceiving (some say Judging -- I think that word carries too much implied baggage)) are the labels on the ends of four sliding scales. Sometimes, along with the acronym that you end up with, they will give you a percentage score as to just how strongly you tend towards that attribute. For myself, I usually test right in the center between Feeling and Thinking, so I usually put INFJ down if it is asked for but the descriptions for an INTJ sometimes match me.

     Not only does your environment make a difference in your results, but the people you are with will affect the way an attribute (assuming you believe in the validity of such -- not all do) manifests. For example, I am moderately Judicial. I aim for the goal, the result, the destination. My wife tests out as a moderate to heavy Perceiving personality. For her, it is the journey that matters, learn and enjoy on the trip and arrive, or not, depending on whatever. When we are together, the urge is for me to move farther towards the Judicial endpoint to "balance" her Perceiving nature. I move in to "take care of the details" while she looks out the window and says "stop here, I want to look at those flowers".

     But, a large part of being in a relationship is to value what the other brings with them. Perceiving brings along with it an ability to be flexible. So, over the years, I have deliberately worked on myself to appreciate the value of being flexible. Is that my inherent, comfortable, state -- no. But, I can work with it much better than I could 25 years ago.

     And that is true for each of the sliding scales or whatever personality inventory you might be taking. All values are a strength within a certain situation. An Introvert might find it much easier to sit in an office and focus on a bunch of data to come up with useful results while an Extrovert may find it so easy to present the results to a bunch of people and bring energy to the group and the project.

     Without conscious work on being able to incorporate the "other side" of the personality scale -- each is weaker than they could be. That introvert may not be able to even consider the idea of presenting results within a group of strangers while the extrovert finds the idea of sitting down, by themself, with a bunch of data, and no external interactions, to be boring to exhaustion. But an introvert who has trained themselves to TEMPORARILY (within that limited time and situation) make use of the extrovert's characteristics will be a much more balanced, and strong individual (and, afterward, probably will need hours in a room by themselves with a good book). Someone who can work through the data, find the results, AND present them to a group in a comfortable manner? I know -- hire them!

Personal inventories and assessments: Does your box matter?

     Have you ever taken a personality inventory test? For work? For a career exploration workshop? For fun? As a Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory (MBPI) INT/FJ (usually just put down as INFJ), Enneagram Type Nine, TeamSpace Teacher/Pioneer I have to say that I have done many (but only when they're free).
     On a more serious grouping, there are tests which lead to diagnoses from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). This manual of diagnoses is now up to the fifth version and is called DSM-5. Two of my sons have been classified as being on the ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder -- I prefer the phrase Autistic Spectrum Difference) scale. In DSM-4, one was classified as having Asperger Syndrome and the other was classified as PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder -- Not Otherwise Specified). The PDD-NOS diagnosis basically meant that not enough sub-boxes were checked off in diagnosis to give a different, more specific, label.
     In the DSM-5, both Asperger Syndrome and PDD-NOS are no longer separate diagnoses -- they blend into the more general ASD category. They have not changed substantially but their boxes have "moved". In a parallel way, this type of thing happens in other categories (I had relatives change the town in which they lived without moving by having the town boundaries changed). Still, if the boxes, or labels, can be changed at any time -- what are the uses, if any, of the boxes?
     The labeling can be broken into two general groups -- legal/medical and interrelational. Laws are written around the DSM. Medical benefits (or lack thereof) are based on the diagnosis (or box -- or label). Thus, when the DSM-5 eliminated the separate classification for Asperger or PDD-NOS it also changed the relationship to medical insurance and general law. It is possible the guidelines will be modified to adapt to the new boxes of the DSM -- but probably only after time and pain.
     I do not know the exact differences between the DSM-4 and the DSM-5 but I do know that, when such documents are directly tied to laws and policy, changes will be a problem. Sometimes, it may work to people's benefit such that they NOW qualify for benefits when they did not used to do so. But it will change.
     Within the other group, that is usually for "fun". That means that there are usually no repercussions based on the box in which you end up. There are no laws that mean that an Extroverted Sensing Thinking Perception (ESTP) people will be treated differently than those who come out Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judgmental (I prefer the term Judicious). An Enneagram Type Five is not covered under different sections of the law than an Enneagram Type Eight (though, perhaps, they should be ).
     This interrelational category is best used for self-analysis. Use the box to see if things "ring true". See what it says about your strengths and weaknesses. Find out if its insights about approaches to problems or relationships holds true for you. Above all, do NOT assume that the box defines you. The box is useful only as a tool to help you to understand yourself by correlating (within the initial test or assessment) answers with behaviors and tendencies. Just as there are 7.6 billion unique people for external characteristics, there are only 16 boxes into which the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory can put those 7.6 billion people. They will not fully fit into any of the boxes.
     When I first took the MBPI I was told that I might get a different result depending on whether I took the assessment at work or at home. This is because the "what would I do" or "what would I prefer" types of questions depend on context. You might very well have a different response within the work environment than the home environment (and perhaps you should respond differently). However, this does mean that the box is not fixed -- it depends on your emotional and social context within your environment.
     Sometimes, the tests come out with a specific answer (TeamSpace Teacher/Pioneer). Other times they come out with a range. That is why my official Myers-Briggs is INF/TJ -- because my Feeling scores and my Thinking scores balanced out and I am on the "0" spot on the scale. On the other hand, my Judicious score was pretty far towards the J. I retook the test with a Career Counselor after having taken it at work and it was more strongly on the Feeling side of the scale -- which is why I usually call it INFJ. The Enneagram expands from 9 to 27 "boxes" by adding something called "wings".
     For most evaluation assessments, they emphasize that the results are your preferences. An introvert CAN be among groups of people. A "thinking" person CAN do things based on a "hunch" or via intuition. In the specific case of the MBPI, there is a sliding scale so your actual label would include both the letter and a numerical value. For example, I might actually be I15N7F0J25. Some assessments work within the Jungian models that allow for "shadow" types. A shadow type is your non-strength but which you can exercise in order to strengthen. Strengthening your shadow side allows you more flexibility in how you react to circumstances.
     There are lots of tests which work in either category. The Body Mass Index (BMI) is a physical assessment often used within a medical/insurance setting. The designers of the BMI stated that it was appropriate for about 85% of the population. Another way of looking at it is that it is NOT appropriate for about 15% of the population. (I, of course, am in that 15%.) The 15% include athletes and other people with higher than average muscle mass and also very slender people. There are better methods of determining body fat, and mass, composition -- but they are more expensive and more complicated. Your doctor may talk with you and understand if you are not in the 85% -- your medical insurance will probably not care whether or not the BMI is relevant -- they will just use the BMI number as it fits easily into their actuarial tables.
     With 7.6 billion people in the world, there should be 7.6 billion "boxes" in the world. Assessments, and characteristics, exist that attempt to group people. The groupings are valid within the context of the test but their appropriate use and interpretation still need to be done according to your own specific history and situation. A football player or body-builder may have a high BMI but that does not make him (or her) fat. You may be considered to be Introverted -- but that doesn't mean you cannot make a speech in front of thousands of people and do a great job. Use the boxes and labels -- don't let them use you.