Personality and Style

Meryl Multiple IntelligencesI took child psychology in my sophomore year of college. The one thing I’ll never forget about that class is taking Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for the first time along with other personality and learning style tests. The result? ISTJ (Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging). And I’ve tested ISTJ every time since then.
Even my daughter is into the personality test and came close with her guess that I was an ISFJ. She probably thought we were opposites since she’s an ENTP (Extroversion, iNtuition, Thinking, Perceiving). Introversion and extroversion don’t mean you’re shy or outgoing. Instead, they represent where you draw more energy from. Check out the 16 type descriptions. If you don’t know yours, this might give you a clue.
“The Secret to Helping Your Child Excel in School and in Life” at Lifehack introduces another test where you can learn more about yourself and multiple intelligences. This shows what areas we tend to easily understand and what areas are harder. The website explains, “For some of us it is relatively easy to understand how a flower grows but it is immensely difficult for us to understand and use a musical instrument. For others music might be easy but playing football is difficult.”
I test strong on intrapersonal and logical. Zilch on musical (no surprise). The only surprise is the linguistic score. These results reveal your stronger and weaker learning styles. For a good explanation of the intelligences, visit Family Education.
All of these assessments help us understand ourselves better and how you can better work with others once you figure out what they are. “The Secret to Helping Your Child Excel in School and in Life” gives an example of a teacher discussing the topic of  “the law of supply and demand” and how the teacher can best reach a child from each of the different intelligences.
Fascinating stuff. Here’s another to check out: True Colors.
Have you ever taken a personality or style assessment? What was it? What did you learn?
And now for your weekly links …
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5 thoughts on “Personality and Style”

  1. Hi Meryl, I have taken the MB test a few times and come out right on the border between INTJ and INTP. What I’ve found most helpful about these tests is what they can tell you about someone else. We used them within work teams a couple times to help team members get a better idea of where their co-workers were coming from.

  2. Brad, I think teams is a great use of these tools especially when they’re struggling. Good thing I took it so I know how to deal with myself 🙂

  3. I heard about Myers-Briggs about five years ago. Now my son and daughter are taking them in school (10th and 8th grades). I think the first and best lesson is that people can be different without being worse or better. I usually test INTP but other letters have emerged.
    For a real hoot, google-image your type with “poster” (as in motivational posters) such as … http://images.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=ISTJ+poster

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