MANUAL
A study of the self
How to learn more about yourself with the help of personality tests
The results of a personality test can help you understand how to deal with difficult situations such as roommate conflicts, stubborn group members or stress at work.
Photo by Chance Dibben
By Ariel Tilson atilson@kansan.com
When she was a freshman, Lauren Balestrieri, Lee Summit senior, had a problem with roommates. Her first roommate came complete with a live-in boyfriend, her second left a tape recorder running in the room to catch any gossip and the last was simply a case of clashing personalities.
The college years are wracked with conflicts between roommates, classmates or such difficult choices as deciding a major. But learning about your personality type could help you understand why you work the way you do and how to get what you need from others. For example, are you an extrovert who's energized by other people or an introvert whose energy is drained by others? Counselors and psychologists routinely use personality tests or inventories to help people answer questions like these and learn more about themselves.
Roommate troubles wearing you down?
Dennis Karpowitz, KU associate professor of clinical psychology, uses the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, or MBTI, to assist with couples' counseling.The MBTI is in a forced-choice format made up of 93 questions that classify the four out of eight opposing mental processes people naturally prefer. Sound complicated? Professionals often administer the inventory for just that reason, but actually the categories are pretty self-explanatory. For example, are you a thinker or a feeler, perceiving or judging? Karpowitz says that the results are reliable and useful, but it's also important not to get hung up on the type labels. Instead, participants should use the information to better understand how their minds work in relation to others'. The MBTI is frequently used because of its simplicity and because it can be self-administered, but Karpowitz says the results should be considered as a diagnosis
"We're just trying to see how we're similar and how we're different," Karpowitz says.
Karpowitz also says one of the most
important things you can learn from taking the test is that you can't change other people. You can only try to understand them.
Can't communicate with your group members?
Personality differences also play a role in how people address and resolve problems. Wendy Shoemaker, senior associate director of the University Career Center, uses variations of the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory to help students understand why they may be having difficulties in class or at work. One of these is a self-directed personality assessment called "Focus" that can be taken online through the KU Career Hawk Web site. Shoemaker says this version is sometimes better for students because it doesn't use the four-letter classification system and it offers less of
a risk of getting hung up on personality labels. But before you go online to take the questionnaire and get confused by the questions, Shoemaker says the answers need to be thought of in a certain way.
"The best way to think about the questions is, when you have an opportunity to choose your environment and its surroundings, what do you behave like?" Shoemaker says.
To start, refrain from taking the assessment when you're at work because that is not how you behave naturally. Also, your first response to a question is often your most natural and the expectations others have of you shouldn't influence your answer.
Shoemaker also says that assessments like "Focus" can not only help students find their ideal work environment but also how they prefer to receive information so they'll be less frustrated communicating with people.
Still don't know what major to declare?
"Do What You Are" is another assessment tool the University Career Center offers that is specifically designed to show college students their strengths, blind spots and how to make their college experience more satisfying. Shoemaker says the questionnaire is used most frequently by the career center because of its thorough career report, which teases out possible job titles specific to each personality type: "Do What You Are" uses the same four-letter personality types as the MBTI, so Shoemaker suggests that professionals like herself administer the assessment to give additional explanation.The assessment is available for $15 at the University Career Center and for $10 more, students can receive an additional career assessment that identifies career choices based on their interests.
Story continued on page 12
September 18,2008
11