HYDERABAD: Are you an enthusiastic ENFP? Or an elusive INTJ? Maybe you’re a warm ENFJ. Confused what these cryptic abbreviations mean? These are part of the 16 personalities types, each possessing unique qualities, learning abilities and intelligence, that are based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test.
Psychometric tests are used by corporate giants and politicians for targeted advertisements, by employers to hire people based on their calibre and by dating sites for a perfect match. Many from the city who have tried psychometric tests are addicted to knowing more about themselves.
“I do the test every other month or at least once in three months to see fluctuations in my typology,” says Priyanka Mitra, a video game developer.
“It is beyond introversion and extraversion. Personality tests help us understand the way we think, the way we feel and learn. It also helps us understand how the other personalities react. Hence, many dating sites ask people questions to understand their personality and, to match it with the suitable other,” says Priyanka, who is an INTJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging) personality type. This type is considered as rarest and the most intellectually intelligent personality type of 16 MBTI types.
“I am considered to be the smartest when it comes to thinking. But I am poor at expressing emotions or at reading feelings. I am trying hard to work on my emotional intelligence skills,” she says,
Junaid Ahmed, a pharmacist, shares quite the opposite type, the INFP. Although he is introverted like Priyanka, he is highly emotionally intelligent. “I can read people’s faces instantaneously and feel what they are feeling. This has helped me create more satisfying interpersonal relationships,” says Junaid.
Personality tests are basically a series of questions that can help one understand the inner personality. “For instance, the most common test we use in clinical practice is Rorschach Inkblot Test, it contains a set of pictures, that look like abstract ink blots and asks the client what they see in the picture. If they say that they see a vampire or any other spooky creature in a nonsense image it is considered that the person has anxiety,” says Dr Venkat Subbaiah, a clinical psychologist working at the Institute of Mental Health Hyderabad. Corporate companies have been using these tests for a long time now.
Even the employability tests for job applications have some simple questions that can define personality. “Employability tests such as AMCAT, besides focusing on analytical abilities of an individual, also focus on personality. Some of the companies openly share their wants. For instance, if the company is looking for a secretary, they would look for a humble and polite individual who has the right skills to get work done,” says K Sreenidhi, an HR consultant working with a hiring firm in the city.
Dilip Malla, a motivational speaker and soft-skills trainer, says, “Even if we don’t do the tests, we try our best to understand the personality of the other person and deliver solutions. We use personality dynamics to serve our clients better.”
PERSONALITY TESTS