The Mismeasure of Man

" Psychology's preoccupation with classifying personality may obscure larger questions about human nature

Cult of Personality:
How Personality Tests Are
Leading Us to Miseducate
Our Children, Mismanage
Our Companies, and
Misunderstand Ourselves
By Annie Murphy Paul

Review by Howard Gardner

When we hear about someone, we are likely to say "What's she like?" or "Tell me about her." We may expect to hear about the stranger's background, appearance, or intellect. But in all probability we really want to know about the individual's personality---is she friendly, funny, or fickle? Will she remind us of Hilary Clinton, Julia Roberts, or Martina Navritilova? Is she a cross between Annie Hall and Erin Brockovich? Or is her personality unique?
   Taxonomies of personality are scarcely new. In classical times, physician Galen devised a theory of bodily humors that classified people as sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, or melancholy. In the 19th century, phrenologist Franz Josef Gall attributed differing personalities to varying configurations of skulls. In the 20th century, psychologists tried to place the study of personality on firmer scientific footing.
   In an original, absorbing, and provocative book, Annie Murphy Paul relates the stories surrounding the creation of the major tests of personality. She focuses on the four most famous instuments: the Rorschash Test, a set of inkblots that subjects must interpret; the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, or MMPI---several hundred true-false questions about the subject's beliefs and behaviors, including a scale tht purportedly ferrets out liars; the Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT, where subjects are asked to invent stories about 20 ambiguous depictions; the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, a set of forced choice questions that yields 16 personality types. Paul spices up her account by intoducing such current exotica as www.Emode.com, a website where one can take almost 200 online personality tests and be matched with one's optimal date ,  "
True Colors"

where each person can be identified with a particular color; and the race to locate personality through brain imaging. Finally, she describes the most recent "vogue", the claim to have discovered the "big five" factors: extoversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness.
   The popularity of the major tests is extraordinary. The MMPI is used by 86 percent of clinical psychologists and administered to 15 million Americans each year, and drawn on in 94 percent of child custody cases. The Myers-Briggs test is given to 2 [and a half] million people a year and used by 89 of Fortunes's largest 100 companies. The Rorschach test is used by 80 percent of clinical psychologists and administered in almost half of child custody evaluations. Sixty percent of clinical psychologists use the TAT, and its assessment center process is implemented by thousands of American companies. These tests infiltrate schools, the workplace, the therapeutic chamber, and the courts of our land.
   Paul provides ample reason to be skeptical about the tests. There are five factions, each with its own approach to interpretiing the Rorschach. Expected patterns of response for the MMPI were originally established on white Protestant Minnesotans of Scandinavian descent. Employess have successfully sued companies for misusing the MMPI---for example, forcing them to participate in rehabilitation if their profiles suggest addiction. The Educational Testing Service dropped the Myers-briggs test in 1975.
   Moreover, none of the aforementioned tests fares well among scientifically trained
psychologists. Their use is a matter of faith. More than half the people who take the Myers-Briggs more than once emerge as a different type on subsequent administrations; hence the test is not, technically, valid."

More later. I can't help but notice how nicely this test administration and obsession with labeling and classifying ourselves dovetails with the Matrix Control System's meanderings and targeting of unplugged people; pop psychology, a knowing air, as mentioned by freebird in a General Discussion thread, is often used to intimidate and threaten any statements made outside this claustrophobic mind game. This gets me thinking about ways to use this to nip many problems in the bud. This gives an idea just how much credence people give to these outdated and discredited memes of measurement.