3 Different Types Of Psychological And Personality Tests Used Among Scientists

Having a quiz that will reveal the ultimate truth about yourself is very popular. Tests have been on the market for a while but they have been spread and embraced through the magazines. Long before the internet made access to all kinds of information easy, printed magazines would have a couple of personality tests in their weekly edition. The audience became familiar with them and they opened the road for other personality tests. Today we will have a look at 3 unique types that are not so common and that have made their appearance over the years.

1. You are expected to make priorities
   At this point, the test provides a list of options to the participant and expects you to put things in the order that seems right for you. Each option represents a different sector. A common test uses doors of different colors and asks for the person to choose which door will open first.
   Each door hides a different life sector, like career and friends depending on the color. The door you will open first shows what you prioritize at the moment in your life. In other cases, a list of activities is being suggested and the person again decides what they will do first. The participant always has the option to not select something at all which means that they would rather avoid that thing in their life at the moment.
2. You are challenged to build a whole story
   Another popular type of test uses an interesting structure to make conclusions about the individual’s personality and psychological condition. The test creates a certain background where the participants put themselves in and act as the leading characters of a video game. The set is ready but the choices are not.
   The scenery usually reminds of fairy tales since they are connected with the culture of most people and they can find obvious connections with them. For example, you can be asked to imagine that you are in a forest and describe how the forest is. If the person’s imagination is poor you can help the participant create an image by leading their imagination. You can ask questions like ”Does it have tall trees?” and so on.
   Once the question is answered the character moves on to the next step. For instance, you may ask the person who takes the test to close their eyes again and imagine they walk into the forest. Your next question would be something like ”Now, imagine you have found a vase, describe its size, material, etc.
   Each step of the process gives an amount of information about how the person thinks, whether they are optimistic, sensitive, sad, etc. This type of test gives a lot of space in the person’s imagination and they are considered to have an advantage over the old-fashioned multiple-choice test.
3. Answers based on visual material
   Long before psychological tests were in fashion psychiatrists were seeking to find a way to evaluate whether someone is flirting with schizophrenia or any other severe mental disorder. At the time the ”illnesses of the brain and soul” were not thoroughly examined and there is still a long way to go until science finds a way to figure out what is going on deep in a person’s soul. Having very few tools to try and make sense of the chaos that was dominating at the point, scientists came up with images.
   The idea was to show to the patient especially designed images and ask them to say what they see in them. The images were quite abstract and they could remind of either peaceful or chaotic situations. For example, a sane mind could see the image and say that they look at two bears dancing while a sick mind would see two people trying to kill each other.
   The images were intentionally abstract to leave space in the person’s imagination and allow them to reveal their subconscious thoughts. These paintings were used for a while at some point, when the internet expanded anyone could find them on the web. Right now the interest in them is very low since it only gives a raw evaluation of whether someone is sick and they do not give any particular assumptions about the participant’s personality.