Highly sensitive persons are known for their rich and deep inner life. These 5 popular personality tests can give you an insight in your personality.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Why Taking A Personality Test Could Be Beneficial For You
Something that I have acknowledged to be helpful in my personal development, are personality tests. When you type ‘personality tests’ into the search bar on Google, you get thousands of search results. There are thousands of tests, so it might be tough finding a test that provides you with meaningful insights.
Throughout my management study, but also afterwards, I have learned that personality tests can be of great advantage. They can help you to discover further what people with your personality type usually like and dislike. Accordingly, you might discover new hobbies and interests that you have not thought of before. Also, they might give you insight into which career path might suit you. Lastly, they might provide an understanding of why you behave in a certain ways or dislike specific aspects in others.
So, knowing what the benefits of personality tests are, let’s check out some of the tests available for free on the internet. By now, you most likely already know that you are highly sensitive. If not, read this article to find out if you are. Below, I have listed 5 personality tests that I have taken in addition to the HSP self-test, which provided me with great insights.
The 5 Personality Tests
5. DISC-test
DISC stands for dominance, influence, steadiness and compliance. Dominance elaborates the way in which you deal with your problems, assert yourself and how you control situations. Influence considers how you deal with other people, your communication style and how you relate to others. Steadiness describes your temperament and considers your level of patience, thoughtfulness and persistence. And finally, compliance gives you insight in how you approach and organize activities, responsibilities and procedures.
It is useful when you want to work on your personal development, but it also can come in handy in relation to other people. It helps you to understand other people’s needs, to avoid conflicts, to value each other’s differences and to build up trust towards each other. There are certain free alternatives out there to take the test, but many of them require registration. On Openpsychometrics, you can take the test without registering.
The video below explains DISC-profiling:
4. Empathy Quotient
The empathy quotient-test is a 60-item questionnaire that measures empathy in adults. It provides you with insights into your level of empathy. As many highly sensitive persons are known to be empathetic, this test can be very useful to find confirmation about one’s empathetic skills. You might wonder why I am saying that it is useful to get this confirmed. Here’s why:
I speak from experience, and also from observing other highly sensitive (and empathetic) persons, when I say that it is important to be aware of one’s level of empathy. Empathetic persons have a tendency to attract people that need caring, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, every now and then, you might come across a person that abuses your empathetic character and that leaves you drained of energy after meeting them. Being more aware of your empathetic character can help you to be careful with who you invest your energy in and to not go into certain new relationships or friendships that are no good for your own health.
You can take the empathy quotient test on the website Psychology-tools.
If you discover that you are an empath, it is important to take good care of yourself through self care. This way, you can truly thrive in life.
3. Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (RHETI)
The Enneagram type test provides you with insights into your personality type. In total there are 9 different types; the perfectionist, the helper, the achiever, the romantic, the observer, the questioner, the adventurer, the asserter and the peacemaker.
The positive side of this test is that you receive a score on each personality type, meaning that you can read into each type and understand your strengths and weaknesses. The website 9types provides much information about the personality types. I can therefore highly recommend it to those who want to know more about potential underlying fears and challenges in relation to your character. It certainly was an eye-opener for me! You can find the test here.
2. The SAPA Project
Another test that is insightful to those who want to discover themselves and their personality, is the personality test from the SAPA project. This test is set up by researchers and provides you with two test results. You receive insight into 27 narrow personality traits. In addition, you receive a test score of the famous ‘Big Five’-test which is a well-known test in the psychological field.
I found this test to be of high significance for me and the test results are described in detail, which makes up for the effort that you have to put into getting the test results. You should consider that this test is not done within 5 minutes. On their website, SAPA states that the test takes 15-25 minutes, and I can confirm that. It took me 30 minutes, but the results and deep insights were worth it! If you have the time, you can take the test here.
1. 16Personalities
Of all the personality tests available, I and many other highly sensitive persons are fond of the 16Personalities-test. People who have taken the test, claimed that it is ‘freakishly accurate’, and I can confirm that. The test combines two celebrated theories in the psychological field, the theory from Myers-Briggs and the theory of the Big Five personality traits.
The test takes less than 12 minutes and you will have to answer a set of statements. At the end, you receive an extensive description of your personality type, both in relation to strengths & weaknesses, romantic relationships, friendships, parenthood, career paths & workplace habits. It is so extensive that you most likely at the end of taking this test will encourage others to take the test as well.
The quality of the test, in combination with the fun and up-to-date design of the website, make 16personalities a popular choice amongst highly sensitive persons when it comes to personality tests!
You can take this comprehensive test here.
Conclusion
So, these are five alternatives out there for free. Taking these tests has helped me greatly in my personal development and to understand my strengths and weaknesses, my boundaries in relation to people, and my wishes and needs when it comes to life. I am a big fan of self-reflection and psychological theories, and I am sure that you will enjoy some of these wonderful tests as well!
If you’d like to discover more about your personality, you may want to discover this: ‘The Highly Sensitive Person Real World Guide of Self Discovery 2 in 1: Use Empath & Enneagram To Uncover Your True Personality Type and Learn How To Survive and Thrive in Any Situation’.
Which of these tests did you like the most?
Could you relate to the test results?
Feel free to share your results with us in the comments.
