Deep within all of us lies an undiscovered self, waiting to be revealed. Uncovering our true personalities can be an insightful journey of self-discovery that leads to greater self-awareness, more meaningful relationships, and an empowered sense of who we are.
In this article, we’ll delve into personality psychology and provide you with the tools to get to know your authentic self through a comprehensive personality assessment.
By taking the time to thoughtfully complete this personality test, you’ll gain new perspectives on your strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and how you interact with others.
This knowledge can then be applied to improve your daily life, whether that means choosing a more fulfilling career path, strengthening interpersonal bonds, or simply living in greater alignment with who you truly are at your core. So, are you ready to unlock your inner potential? Let’s get started!
Part 1: The Big Five Personality Traits
The Big Five model is one of the most widely accepted and empirically validated tools for assessing personality in modern psychology. At its heart, the Big Five identifies five broad factors or domains that are believed to encompass major facets of human personality:
- Openness to Experience
Describes one’s willingness to try new activities, appreciate art and experience, and consider novel ideas and values. High openness indicates curiosity, creativity, and unconventionality. - Conscientiousness
This reflects a tendency to be organised, disciplined, diligent, and dedicated to achieving goals. High conscientiousness relates to reliability, punctuality, and achievement orientation. - Extraversion
Measures the quantity and intensity of interpersonal interactions, activity level, energy, and positive emotionality. Extraverts tend to be outgoing, assertive, and experience positive emotions readily. - Agreeableness
Indicates a tendency to be compassionate, cooperative, trustworthy, and considerate towards others. Agreeable individuals are typically altruistic, modest, and empathetic in nature. - Neuroticism
It refers to the degree of emotional stability and impulse control. High neuroticism is linked to frequent negative emotions like moodiness, anxiety, jealousy, and depression. Those low in neuroticism are calm and resilient.
Take a moment to consider where you believe you fall on each of these five spectrums. Do you see yourself as open to new ideas or set in your ways? Organised and dutiful, or more relaxed? Outgoing, social, or reserved? Kind, cooperative, or competitive? Emotionally stable or prone to distress? Reflecting on these core traits can offer profound insights.
Part 2: Discover Your Personality Type
Beyond the Big Five, another widespread model categorises people into discrete personality types based on tendencies in how we perceive the world and make decisions. Specifically, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assesses:
- Extraversion (E) vs. Introversion (I)
- Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N)
- Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
- Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)
Combining one quality from each dichotomy creates 16 unique personality types. Take this short quiz to determine your type:
- Do you tend to focus more on the external world of people and things than your inner world of ideas and impressions?
- When making decisions, do you rely more on logic, rationality, and objective analysis than empathy, compassion, and subjective values?
- Are you more comfortable obtaining information through your five senses, concrete experiences, intuition, and abstract theories?
- In your daily life, do you prefer a planned, organised approach or loose agendas and flexibility?
- Do you identify more as quiet, reserved, and driven internally or outgoing, energetic, and driven by external stimulation?
Tally up your answers—mostly Es or Is? Ts or Fs? Ss or Ns? Js or Ps? Your four-letter code reveals your personality type profile, including preferences, strengths, and growth areas. Understanding your type can give you insight into your motivations, decision-making, communication style, and more.
Part 3: Career and Relationship Compatibility
Now that you have a grasp of your predominant traits and types, you can apply this self-knowledge towards optimising important life areas. Two areas where personality commonly makes a big impact include careers and relationships.
In terms of careers, some types are naturally well-suited for certain fields due to matching interests, values, and work styles. For example:
- ENFPs often thrive in creative careers like writing, art, or teaching that allow expression and impact others.
- ISTJs find satisfaction in structured jobs like accounting, engineering, or healthcare with clear responsibilities and standards.
- ENTJs excel at leading projects and teams as managers, entrepreneurs, or executives where they can strategize and achieve goals.
Take your top traits into consideration when exploring or switching paths. Understanding occupational fit could help you find work that inspires you every day.
Personality is also hugely influential in your close relationships. Your natural tendencies impact how you show love, handle conflict, communicate needs, and more. Just as in work, compatibility often depends on balancing or complementing traits. For instance:
- Extraverts tend to pair best romantically with more introverted partners who can provide quiet recharging time.
- Thinkers have smoother dynamics with feelers who can help ensure objective analysis doesn’t undermine empathy.
- Judgers work well with perceivers when both respect each other’s different approaches to schedules and tasks.
In relationships, applying self-knowledge fosters patience, compromise, setting healthy expectations, and meeting each other’s core needs. Overall, personality awareness facilitates choices that nourish your well-being.
Part 4: Action Plan for Growth
While personality traits are fairly stable, you still have the power to direct positive development in areas that don’t come naturally. The goal isn’t to force drastic change against your nature but rather to strengthen weaker traits situationally through committed practice. Consider addressing these areas:
Weak Traits
Look for opportunities to challenge yourself with growth activities tied to lower traits. For example, push your limits with new social or cultural experiences if you score low in openness.
Limiting Beliefs
Identify perceptions that hold you back, like thinking oneself incapable of patience or organisation. Counter negative thought patterns with affirmations and small wins.
Relationships
Make efforts to understand different personality types and find a balance between meeting each other’s core needs through open communication and validating feelings.
Careers
If unfulfilled in your current path, thoughtfully investigate options where your highest traits and interests align better with core job functions and culture. Consider retraining.
Stress Management
Develop coping strategies according to your profile, whether exercise, making time for solitude, prioritising fun with friends, or scheduling time for stress relief through hobbies.
Personality assessment is an invaluable first step, but real empowerment comes through self-guided evolution. By leveraging insights constructively, you can gain higher self-awareness and live more purposefully in sync with your authentic self each day.
Conclusion
Unlocking the fascinating depths of your innate personality provides a lens for understanding who you are at your core—your motivations, values, talents, and areas for growth.
With self-knowledge comes clarity, empowerment, and the ability to design your optimal life path according to your true nature. Though personality is enduring, awareness facilitates growth that nourishes the soul and spirit.
We hope you found this blog insightful. Now go apply what you’ve learned to thrive as your most authentic self!