Different personality test to try

[GeorgeParker]

I am not aware of personality tests being used with children. However, I only worked with children as a social worker not in the evaluation field. I took testing classes in the school psychologist program and none at the time involved these types of personality tests. I would be against using them with this population.

That's something else we agree on.

Things are probably different now than they were when I was a kid in the 1950s. But back then it was common for a teacher to sit down with each student one on one at some point and casually chitchat while asking questions like "If you could do this or that, which would you choose?" and "When you play with your friends at home, who chooses what you're going to do?" followed by "Why is that?" or a similar question. In retrospect, those were clearly personality profile questions. I'm not saying there was anything sinister about it, but they were definitely profiling us and classifying us with the intention of "fixing" whatever they decided was "wrong" with us.

This song Harry Chafin wrote in 1978 seems appropriate:



BTW in the 1950s "in loco parentis" was the absolute rule. Whatever an elementary school teacher would have done with her own child under any given circumstance was what they did. That was good most of the time, because they would mother us or discipline us appropriately, including the occasional light spanking. But sometimes students would complain bitterly about a teacher having stricter rules or less sympathy than their parents, and when they did their parents would tell them "Her house, her rules." So then they'd complain to all their classmates about both the teacher and their parents, and we would all nod sympathetically.

[rosarugosa]

ISTJ-A Logistician for me.

[happystuff]

ENFJ-A Assertive Protagonist for me.

[ApatheticNoMore]

A running joke among low-level employees is that the real reason potential employers give you a personality test is because they figure if you're not smart enough to give them the answers they want, you're too dumb to hire.

yea it is low level jobs that do personality tests for the most part (though I've encountered exceptions). Probably why I learned very early on I wasn't suited for low level jobs. I mean that sounds a bit much, but other than one job which was okay, I was neither good at getting nor keeping low level jobs.

[Teacher Terry]

People that are smart usually don’t do well at low level jobs because they are so bored. My siblings were in school during the 50’s and IQ tests were routinely used. Ugh!

[GeorgeParker]

My siblings were in school during the 50’s and IQ tests were routinely used. Ugh!

Here is an IQ test question that is no longer used:

"Two of these things belong together. Which two are they? Cup, Fork, Spoon, Saucer."

Most of the poor kids in early grades (which also meant most of the minority kids) got that question wrong, and their wrong answer was usually cup and spoon. Even though those kids had probably heard of saucers, neither they nor anyone in their neighborhood used them because saucers cost money. So obviously a cup and a spoon to stir it with was the logical answer.

IOW the traditional IQ tests were mostly a test of how much knowledge of white middle-class American culture a child had acquired compared to typical white middle-class kids of the same age, so poor kids and minority kids routinely scored lower than non-poor kids. And it took decades for the powers that be to recognize/admit the IQ tests were biased and remove questions like that.

IIRC it was said at the time that if a boy growing up in New York City and an Iowa farm boy each created an IQ test and gave it to the other boy, they would both fail miserably. IMHO the same would have been true (at least in the 1950s) if a girl and boy living a few miles apart did that, because they would be living such different lives and have such a different knowledgebase.

[Teacher Terry]

That question is infamous. A lot of research, money, etc have went into testing to prevent those types of biases.

[iris lilies]

I remember reading Ruby Payne’s test about being poor from her book A Framework for understanding Poverty.

It was a test targeted to middle-class teachers and social workers who work with poor kids to open their eyes about that life in low income families. There were questions like: do you know which thrift store has half-price day and when? Do you know how to entertain your friends with your personality? ( no one has any money for restaurant, bars, etc.)
I know that it opened my eyes quite a lot 30 years ago.

[GeorgeParker]

That question is infamous. A lot of research, money, etc have went into testing to prevent those types of biases.

We hope.