Weird Psychology Test

ynot · Apr 9, 2011

Weak Kitten said:
Ynot, just remember that you need to be very careful about how you word your "reading". There is an art to making it generic enough that anyone can see themselves in it. As this test demonstrates, if you are too specific you'll loose your mark.

Of course. I've seen good generic readings before but can't find one. Anyone have one?

Jeff Corey · Apr 9, 2011

As Barnum didn't say, "There's a sucker born every minute."

ynot · Apr 9, 2011

Here's a combination of a couple . . .

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary and reserved. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. You pride yourself on being an independent thinker and do not accept others' opinions without satisfactory proof. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety, and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. Disciplined and controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Your sexual adjustment has presented some problems for you. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a strong need for other people to like you and for them to admire you.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]People close to you have been taking advantage of you. Your basic honesty has been getting in your way. Many opportunities that you have had offered to you in the past have had to be surrendered because you refuse to take advantage of others. You like to read books and articles to improve your mind. In fact, if you're not already in some sort of personal service business, you should be. You have an infinite capacity for understanding people's problems and you can sympathize with them. But you are firm when confronted with obstinacy or outright stupidity. Law enforcement would be another field you understand. Your sense of justice is quite strong.[/FONT]

yy2bggggs · Apr 9, 2011

Trent Wray said:
I was actually thinking about this statement, and found it interesting to consider: that is all movies are, and pictures, etc. Shapes. Moving shapes.

Not true. There are no moving shapes in movies. You see moving shapes, but that's an optical illusion.

And yet people project their emotions and mental states onto art, movies, etc all the time. Even sunsets, sunrises, etc ....

What perhaps makes this test "bizarre" is that the shapes are not human or representative of anything "living" whatsoever (although Dan Brown might disagree ).
...
I would think this would be detrimental, if a person were ultimately unable to differentiate that a triangle is not "full of sin", or "unsafe", as opposed to a character on a movie screen portraying someone who is "full of sin" or "unsafe". However, if a person was fully aware that it's "just a triangle" ... but was able to project the same type of emotions and feelings onto it as someone allows themselves to do at a movie ... I wonder how that would effect a person's overall "perception" on the world?

Have you never seen the classic, "The Dot and the Line"?

Weak Kitten · Apr 10, 2011

Oh I love "The Dot and the Line"! One of the classics of UPA era animation and a wonderful exercise in minimalist animation! My teacher in college used it as an example of how timing and storytelling are the most important parts of animation.

But that short is also an example of how generations of artists have worked diligently to figuring out how an average person reacts to various colors and forms. The proper use of color and shape is the subject of countless books and lectures, graphic designers spend years studying to hone their knowledge of this subject.

This was part of what I found so strange about the test, it didn't seem to be using any of the standard graphic design tricks to evoke emotional responses. The closest they came was the use of the color red at certain points. And the horrible flickering background did nothing but cause me eyestrain.

fuelair · Apr 10, 2011

You are in a perpetual quest to find the new, the exciting. Emotionally volatile, you are known for sudden changes of opinion, of appreciation, and behavior. Following rules and established methods is difficult for you and the difficulties of higher education are usually quite daunting. Knowledge is best gained through an intimate association with the matter at hand. Usually driven by attitudes and desires of the group, you are talented in an established field of endeavor. Emotions come and go without a strong understanding of their causes. They are unexpected guests in an otherwise placid landscape. You live by your own codes of conduct, which can be noble or terrible depending on the individual. Authority is meaningless to you. You hate to be predictable, at all costs. Rarely verbally effusive, you can at times feel as if your feelings are too deep for words. You are very observant, but rarely express these observations to others.

As with most fortune telling, some is right, some is wrong, some is "huh???" Most of the patterns gave my hidden reptile mind no attitude at all so I chose randomly (neither looked like they could win OR defeat me, for example, and neither looked like it would betray me).

fuelair · Apr 10, 2011

And those who have read very many of my posts know I do not suddenly change my opinion - especially without a lot of very hard evidence. And I am not sure about the higher education thing - got a masters and most of a second (then my wife went for her PhD so I halted the 2nd and never had time or inclination to go back for it). Love the research at that level for many of my topics though.

Orphia Nay · Apr 10, 2011

bluesjnr said:
I got to Q10 and gave up. I could not make any correlation between the options and the shapes and was just hitting any old answer - which makes irrelevant any result, no matter how bogus, that may have resulted.

I'd like those 3 minutes back please Orphia Nay!

Sorry, bluesjr! I did try and warn you.

DevilsAdvocate · Apr 10, 2011

It appears that the code for the test (including the text for all of the possible results) can be found here:

http://pastebin.com/uxAFw9V2

Lucian · Apr 10, 2011

You have a poetic sensibility and an ability to see beyond the day to day. You often seem to be living in a higher realm, or to be not-of-this-earth. Occasionally you imagine interior lives for friends and associates that are near-complete fabrications based on your fears or hopes for the future. You are often not aware of your own feelings. You have a strong sense of right and wrong, and because of this are often disappointed. Despite what can sometimes be a destructive inward-turning anger, you are very gentle. You are sometimes a bit out of touch with the ebb and flow of modern life. If your behavior is out of synch with your moral values, a severe psychic disturbance can result. Because connectivity is so important to you, you can become quiet and sulky if you feel that others around do not understand your point of view.

"Higher realm" my posterior. I'd have been impressed if it had said "Your migraine's back." That would have been spookily accurate.

Orphia Nay · Apr 10, 2011

DevilsAdvocate said:
It appears that the code for the test (including the text for all of the possible results) can be found here:

http://pastebin.com/uxAFw9V2

Thanks for that!

So there are 16 possible results. Wow - this is 33.3% better than astrology!!!

The Norseman · Apr 10, 2011

I took the test and it just said I was a "cheeky fellow."

So, yeah. My test was dead on.

DevilsAdvocate · Apr 10, 2011

Orphia Nay said:
Thanks for that!

So there are 16 possible results. Wow - this is 33.3% better than astrology!!!

They represent the 16 types created by Myers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator

DevilsAdvocate · Apr 10, 2011

Here are how the results match up to the Myers-Briggs types.

DevilsAdvocate · Apr 10, 2011

Here are how the questions are scored.

DevilsAdvocate · Apr 10, 2011

So, Orphia, you are an INTP (Introverted Intuition Thinking Perceiving). I got the same result. It is dead right. Here I am enjoying myself alone puzzling over the logic of computer code to figure out the rules governing a psychology test while I put off taking out the garbage. Which is what I am actually doing.

Pup · Apr 10, 2011

I got the same as Dancing David:

Verbally and mentally fluid, you are refreshing and illuminating to those around you. This is occasionally somewhat discounted by the obvious pleasure that you take in exercising your mental acuity. Although generally peaceful you can often take a verbally aggressive tact in relations with the world, which can often be misunderstood by those around you. Innovative in the extreme, you can often think yourself right out of the correct answer to a given problem. Many times you are referred to as your own worst enemy. You tire very quickly of routine and so make poor clerks or administrative help. You also have no respect for authority and little patience for those you regard as inferior, most especially those in charge. Experimentation is your watchword and can occasionally lead to experience for its own sake and shallow decadence. Your thought can sometimes be scattered and disconnected.

It seems a pretty good fit, but I also notice it has the usual weasle words--peaceful but aggressive, smart but get answers wrong.

Most of the questions made sense in a weird sort of way, but starting around question 17 some went into lala land, with questions that didn't even refer to a choice between two objects.

Edited to add, from the list above: "How can you stop them lying about you" "Has the nightmare only begun?" "Is there another voice inside you?"

Those I could only answer randomly, and didn't even understand how they could be answered non-randomly.

It strikes me like the old pop-psychology quizzes decades ago in Readers Digest and similar magazines, where someone would come across some random psychology factoid and then just make up on the spot a quiz that supposedly showed whether you were like that. Like, I dunno, if some study came out that people who liked bright colors were more apt to be bipolar (I just made that up), there might be a quiz: Are you at risk of being bipolar? with questions about whether you liked the red car or the white car, the flower garden or the plain field, etc. I just had a sense that there was that same kind of mentality behind the design of this quiz.

DevilsAdvocate · Apr 10, 2011

I have no idea whether or not the scoring system for the questions is based on any real psychometrics. It looks like it could be possible. But even so, there aren’t enough questions to make the test reliable. With only 5 points for each dichotomy, and probably a low midpoint discrimination, it is fairly easy to get a false dichotomy, which would throw of much of the result.

If the scoring system has any actual basis, the test could generate a reasonable (but not high) degree of accuracy.

DevilsAdvocate · Apr 10, 2011

And now that you know what kind of person you are, you can find out what kind of God you are.

Orphia Nay · Apr 10, 2011

Thanks for all that intuitive, perceptive, thoughtful work, DevilsAdvocate!

I did a M-B test a while ago, and that's what it said (IITP).

I guess this test does work, if you can bear to look at the images and think about them. IF.

I should be folding the laundry, but I think I'll read some more.

Weird Psychology Test

Philosopher

New York Skeptic

Philosopher

Master Poster

Graduate Poster

Banned

Banned

Penguilicious Spodmaster

Philosopher

Illuminator

Penguilicious Spodmaster

Meandering fecklessly

Philosopher

Philosopher

Philosopher

Philosopher

Philosopher

Philosopher

Philosopher

Penguilicious Spodmaster