Personality Profiling

Usually, I don't like the idea of personality profiling - I mean, profiling my personality. Go ahead and profile yourselves all you want. But I'm not into "getting in-touch with my inner self". The only way I know how to get in-touch with my inner self is to undergo invasive surgery. This attitude was solidified the other day when I attended a time-management seminar. Lo and behold, one of the exercises we had to do was to do a personality profile test, the purpose of which was to determine what type of worker you are (go-getter, instruction-taker, people person, perfectionist etc).

What did this personality profiling involve? Well, there was a list of questions and four possible answers for each question, one in each of four columns. We had to rate each answer, the higher number being your first choice of answer and the lowest number being your last choice of answer. Then we had to add up each column. After that we filled out another table, did some multiplication, addition and a few magic tricks and then, walla, we had our answer. The final numbers in this table were supposed to tell you how much of each personality type you are.

Well, I think that this test really worked. The results were really spot on. And you would think that this is a good thing. But it's not. Let me explain.

It's a bit like a fancy card trick where the magician gets you to pick a card and then you put it back in the pack. The magician does his hocus pocus and returns to you the card that you chose. And, of course, you knew that he would.

In other words, The fact that this test "worked" meant that I could tell that the results were correct because I already knew what the right answer was. If the test had said something other than what I anticipated then either a) the test is bunkum; or b) I have spent the 32 years of my life not paying attention to myself.

Perhaps I'm being cynical. Perhaps in one short blog I have just ridiculed decades of scientific research into the psyche of the human being. Perhaps. Or perhaps through superior logic and air-tight arguments I have exposed personality profile testing for the scam it really is.

Either way, it's a sensational way to end this blog.