Sorry, the blog today reaches late, Dear Regular Readers. Was a little busy the whole day. But better late than never, right? Let us today talk of the "to know your real (inner at that) self" tests that the internet abounds with.
If you do not take them seriously, they are great fun. Generally they go like this. "Look at this picture. What do you see first?" In a way, it is a psychologically valid point, too. Our perceptions do indicate in a way the inner core of the personality.
Yet there are a lot of points that are curious and problematic about these tests. To begin with, they are the "yes/no" variety which is a huge problem because our selves never are/have such mutually exclusive patterns. There is always a lot of fluidity, especially given the contexts, and the people we are dealing with. If we are with people who we know (through vast experience with/due to them) do not at all mean well by us, we would be on the defensive, and such tests do not map such ambivalences.
Another huge problem with such tests is that they are absolutely West-oriented. One test, for example, asks you if the image you see is that of a tree covered in frost. Now, if someone does not know what a frost is, the image would never click with him/her! Obviously, the conclusions can never be correct.
Still funnier is the fact that such tests can interpret you differently if you choose, just for the fun or the heck of it, different answers. One of my research students once was a little insistent that I take one such test. Just to humour her, I did, and proved to her that different answers can be given each time, and individuals can thus be interpreted differently, as if they suffer from multiple personality disorder!
In brief, the basic problem with these tests is that they are objective tests with multiple choice questions/answers. Such neat compartments can never capture the complex amorphous fluidity called human personality, which is context-dependent, moreover!
Pratima@The best way to know yourself is constant self-reflexivity! Thus canst thou 'know thyself'!
No comments:
Post a Comment