This issue of #WellActually doesn't focus on an Internet article, it focuses on the subject of the article. I have to switch it up on you now and then to keep you on your toes.
You should probably read this before we begin. It's an article about how the Myers-Briggs test is total and utter bullshit. It is so because it is based off of what I can only assume were the results of a long, relaxing day of Carl Jung smoking the finest marijuana he could find. Carl, who frequently hooked up with Freud in the early, heady, drug-fueled days of psychology, was influential in laying the groundwork for psychology. He and Freud had many, many great and interesting ideas that no one takes seriously anymore. The Id, the Ego, the Super-ego, the universal subconscious, the archetype; these are all crazy ideas that sound cool, but are completely unscientific. I believe in them because 1. it's fun and 2. if you really dig deep into their theories, you know, really roll around in them, you can see the possible truths that lie within. This is fine, this is America and we are all allowed to believe in anything we want. That's what Abraham Lincoln fought that Bear on the top of Mt. Rushmore for (note: I have an incomplete understanding of American History.) Freud and Jung's teachings are to me what Astrology is to others; they make sense in respect to how I view reality, both consensual and personal. Does this make it true? Of course not. Does this greatly influence what I'd tell someone who is going through psychological turmoil? Of course not. But as a psych nerd it's still fun to think about.
You should probably read this before we begin. It's an article about how the Myers-Briggs test is total and utter bullshit. It is so because it is based off of what I can only assume were the results of a long, relaxing day of Carl Jung smoking the finest marijuana he could find. Carl, who frequently hooked up with Freud in the early, heady, drug-fueled days of psychology, was influential in laying the groundwork for psychology. He and Freud had many, many great and interesting ideas that no one takes seriously anymore. The Id, the Ego, the Super-ego, the universal subconscious, the archetype; these are all crazy ideas that sound cool, but are completely unscientific. I believe in them because 1. it's fun and 2. if you really dig deep into their theories, you know, really roll around in them, you can see the possible truths that lie within. This is fine, this is America and we are all allowed to believe in anything we want. That's what Abraham Lincoln fought that Bear on the top of Mt. Rushmore for (note: I have an incomplete understanding of American History.) Freud and Jung's teachings are to me what Astrology is to others; they make sense in respect to how I view reality, both consensual and personal. Does this make it true? Of course not. Does this greatly influence what I'd tell someone who is going through psychological turmoil? Of course not. But as a psych nerd it's still fun to think about.
Which
brings me to the reason I've gathered you all here; the Myers-BriggsTest. It's incredibly popular, and you see people everywhere using
its results to define themselves. People often ask if I've taken it
or what letters I am, and I have nothing to tell them. I also judge
the hell out of them, but that's to be expected. I thought I'd never
taken the test because I'm lazy and it's a long damn test but in
reading the article above I realized that I've had nagging doubts
about the test from when I first heard about it that I never put into
words. I went to school for Psychology (twice) and as hard as I
apparently tried not to, I did learn some things. As an undergrad at
Rutgers I had several professors repeatedly beat me about the head
with lectures on what is and is not science. I had to take several
classes about quantitative methods, statistics and other utterly
horrifying numerical crap. The upside to all of this is I now have a
very highly tuned and sensitive bullshit detector. The MB Test sets
it off on all levels.
Also, I'm a Sagittarius
The
first thing that bothered me was the unnerving lack of statistical
data backing up the tests results. Nothing about validity or
reliability, no research method, none of that. I thought the thing
was a BuzzFeed internet quiz along the same lines as “Which
Horsemen of the Apocalypse is Your Mother-in-Law (mine is Plague.) I
didn't know it was a thing that people were basing important life
decisions on. I was shocked (Shocked!) to learn that corporations are
using this test to weed out prospective employees. It's neither
reliable in that it does not give the same results with repeated
testings, nor is it valid. The number one problem with any self-report test is that we
as humans are unwilling and unable to report negatively about
ourselves. It's called the Social Desirability Bias and it colors all self reports to some degree. At times people will give more accurate answers under the
protection of anonymity, but even then there is no guarantee of
transparency. Humans operate under a number of cognitive biases that
color how we see ourselves and the world around us. In psychology it
is recognized that, whether by design or self-delusion, we are
horrible at giving accurate representations of ourselves and equally
terrible at accepting representations of ourselves that don't match
what we want to believe. That creates Cognitive Dissonance, and we
hate dissonance. So right there the MB Test is fucked up, and
everything that springs from it thereafter is similarly fucked up.
Why do people believe in this test so much with absolutely no evidence to back it up? Because the people
who take this test WANT it to be true. As the article points out,
there are no negative outcomes to this test. Look at the comments on the MB Test link I put above; everyone is happy with their results. As a bonus the site shows them which famous people share their type. Everyone likes to be told they have something in common with a famous person they have nothing in common with. Who wants to take a
statistically sound personality test that may tell you that you're an
antisocial narcissist with sadomasochistic tendencies and a vicious
Hentai addiction (this doesn't exist yet, so calm your fears Hentai
lovers.) We are far more likely to take a test that tells us that we
are what we want to be, which is exactly what the MB Test is; it
excels at telling us what we want to hear. Like pop psychologists,
talk show doctors, fortune tellers and astrologists, there is plenty
of wiggle room in the conclusions these tests make to make us feel
better about the decisions we make and the personality traits we
display. Not only does having a test tell you that you're an
introvert (for example) excuse you from trying harder to interact in
social situations, but it also gives you a sense of belonging.
Belonging is a basic human need, right after Physiological Needs and
Safety (See Maslow's Hierarchy of needs for more details.) If you
want to become rich and famous, find a new way to tell people that
they belong to a misunderstood group, and that all of their problems
are related to being a part of this misunderstood group. Bonus points
if you can also make people feel like they are victimized and
oppressed by belonging to this group. If you can find a way to make
straight White males not seem like the most privileged group in
America, you can retire and sleep on a bed made of solid gold
helicopters, which is the embodiment of the American Dream.
I'm an Introvert
If you know me you know
that I hold Life Coaches and the like in pretty low esteem. As a
person who is drowning in student debt in order to give people
professional advice, I don't have time for people who one day decide
that they're fucking great at fixing people. That would be like me
deciding that I'm great at spinal surgery and taking a knife to
someone's spinal cord. The results would be just as damaging. That
being said, I really can't be mad at people who figured out how to
charge exorbitant amounts of money to tell a bunch of high strung
executives how to “relax” and be more productive.
Life Coaches are an extension of the “Everybody Wins” mindset that has taken over child rearing practices. I'm not a “spare the rod spoil the child” type, but I do believe that people need to experience e real disappointment and defeat in order to become stronger individuals. Always being told you're good enough, you're smart enough, and people like you creates a society where everyone feels entitled to more than they've worked for. This is why all of us think our opinions are valid when in reality 90% of people who believe strongly in something need to keep their opinions to their self. They're human Rorschach tests, becoming what the viewer wants to see but not actually providing real direction or intent. It's therapy for those who really don't have problems; what we call First World problems. You never see people in the hood employing life coaches, and not just because of the exorbitant prices they charge for their services. A life coach has no answers for institutionalized racism and inter-generational poverty. No, these people excel at selling people what they want to hear. The Myers-Briggs Test is a personality assessment form of the Life Coach. Pretty, but ultimately meaningless.
Life Coaches are an extension of the “Everybody Wins” mindset that has taken over child rearing practices. I'm not a “spare the rod spoil the child” type, but I do believe that people need to experience e real disappointment and defeat in order to become stronger individuals. Always being told you're good enough, you're smart enough, and people like you creates a society where everyone feels entitled to more than they've worked for. This is why all of us think our opinions are valid when in reality 90% of people who believe strongly in something need to keep their opinions to their self. They're human Rorschach tests, becoming what the viewer wants to see but not actually providing real direction or intent. It's therapy for those who really don't have problems; what we call First World problems. You never see people in the hood employing life coaches, and not just because of the exorbitant prices they charge for their services. A life coach has no answers for institutionalized racism and inter-generational poverty. No, these people excel at selling people what they want to hear. The Myers-Briggs Test is a personality assessment form of the Life Coach. Pretty, but ultimately meaningless.
As well.
People are putting faith
in a test that it's creator said was basically spitballing some new
ideas. Briggs and Myers were basically life coaches who hooked up
with an HR Manager to make a predictive test with none of the tools
one would need to create a predictive test. The results change
according to what mood you're in. Pseudoscience is the greatest way
to describe this test; sounds good enough to be science so people run
with it. Also you can take it on your lunch break at work.
Pseudoscience works well because it has great promotion by people who have an air of authority. Real science is promoted by people who are so bad at interacting with the general populace that they became scientists. It's fine to take this test and tell everyone the results as if they're the truth; people do it with astrology all the time, and it's more or less harmless. It may be a good way of explaining yourself to others, which is also fine. When people use this test to make employment or relationship decisions, that's when the crazy hits the fan. There are plenty of more reliable ways to create order out of the chaos of human behavior.
Pseudoscience works well because it has great promotion by people who have an air of authority. Real science is promoted by people who are so bad at interacting with the general populace that they became scientists. It's fine to take this test and tell everyone the results as if they're the truth; people do it with astrology all the time, and it's more or less harmless. It may be a good way of explaining yourself to others, which is also fine. When people use this test to make employment or relationship decisions, that's when the crazy hits the fan. There are plenty of more reliable ways to create order out of the chaos of human behavior.
