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(see chapter 9) and provides extensive interpretations for the laymen.
The book provides the test, the scoring, understanding of the scales,
and help in making use of the Myers-Briggs scores for personal insight,
planning, and changing. It does not compare your self-description with
other people's opinion. It may be a little more difficult to understand
and use than the Berkeley, but the Myers-Briggs is a longer and more
reliable test and perhaps more psychologically sophisticated. The
Myers-Briggs is taught in Schools of Business and used widely by
personnel departments and others in industry.
Where can you find and take other psychological tests? There are
several collections of brief mental health and personality tests which
measure a wide variety of factors: anxiety, depression, anger,
introversion, risk-taking, assertiveness, self-esteem, attitudes towards
others, even your unconscious, and many other traits. I recommend
Cormier (1993) and Janda (1996), but other good books are by
Oldham & Morris (1990), Cohen & Gladstone (1994), and Fensin &
Ryan (1990). Greene and Lewis (1983) test your aptitudes and hidden
talents in 8 or 9 areas, such as speed and accuracy of thinking,
learning a language, scientific thinking, problem solving, artistic
ability, social skills, etc. They also advise you about what kind of work
you would do best. DuBrin (1989) has a self-sabotage questionnaire,
followed by suggestions for handling self-defeating behavior on the
job. A psychiatrist, Christ Zois (1992), has written a book that focuses
more on measuring your unconscious defenses, i.e. the ways you hide
buried emotions from yourself (psychological defenses are described in
chapter 5). He then helps the reader see how to use that information
in order to solve some of his/her problems, with a special emphasis on
Short-Term Therapy.
Tests can, sometimes, also be obtained by talking to a school or
mental health counselor. Scholastic aptitude and interest tests, of
course, are routinely given in schools. These tests are easily
interpreted. You should realize, however, that many counselors would
be reluctant to assist you obtain personality tests because most
personality tests are restricted to "professional use only." Many of
these psychological (pathology or personality) tests would be difficult
for a non-professional to interpret. Furthermore, most counselors
believe the interpretation of test results to the testee should involve
extensive discussion or therapy with a professional, which they may be
unwilling to engage in. These are valid objections. My
recommendation, if you are really interested in taking some tests, is to
approach a counselor and ask if he/she would be willing to administer,
score, and interpret for you the tests that you want. This will cost you
$200 to $500 or more, however.
Some of the "professional" tests available from a psychologist
would be quite understandable after a few hours of reading the test
manual. For example, the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule is
easily understood and measures the relative strength of 15 of your
needs, such as achievement, submissiveness, nurturance, succorance
(being taken care of), heterosexuality, hostility, and so on. The
