I Have Great Personalities

Thinking about the authoritarian personality the other day led me to surf the net for info on personality tests. This site has quite a few, and I took some of them for fun: http://similarminds.com/ In the famous person test, I scored as an Abe Lincoln, much to my horror. He was a pretty nice guy except for the bloody civil war thing. In the famous movies test, I scored a “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. I was surprised that I came off as adventurous, what with being such a boring homebody and all.

I was struck by the structure of the tests and the results in that facets of personality were set out as extremes, in either/or fashion. You are either messy or organized, spontaneous or rigid, abstract or concrete, theoretical or real world, and so on. I reckon that I am sometimes organized and sometimes messy, sometimes spontaneous and sometimes rigid. Also, a lot depends on whether I am medicated. And my personality has changed over time and is different in different contexts. I’m not the same person at a party as I am in a business meeting.

Some of the questions seemed to me to require a context. For example, if you ask me whether I am suspicious of people, my answer would depend on whom you mean and in what circumstances. If they are politicians, I am suspicious of them always. If they are hanging out by the ATM at night, I might be suspicious of them. If you ask me whether I am impressive, my answer depends on to whom you are referring. My dogs think I’m great. My nephews are often awestruck by my skills. To most other folks, I’m not so much impressive.

The tests are based on self reporting, and they probably reflect what I wish I was like more than what I am really like. Perhaps I should ask my wife to take the tests for me and provide objective answers.

The Personality Disorder test was fun, albeit disturbing. I have a “disorder” because I am too rebellious and troubled by authority. Is there a cure for this?

I sometimes think that I am not the same person all the time. There is “night guy” who likes to stay up late and drink too much on a school night and who makes plans to get up early and go to the gym. Then there’s “morning guy” who declines the honor of getting up early and who resolves to give up drinking and to exercise in the evenings, only to be thwarted by “night guy”. Maybe these two guys should take the same tests and see how similar they are.

I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I ever developed even one personality. A lot of really good looking people never do.