<H4>Psychological profile tests? Through a mirror, darkly, at best</H4>

Here’s my two cents of caution, introspection and insight on psychological profile tests, including this blogosphere-memetic one in which I participated.

First, including for people such as Majikthise who normally come off as scientifically and philosophically skeptically-minded, let me say that I take such tests with a grain of salt. Perhaps they don’t invoke the number of psychologically-based versions of fallacious reasoning as, say, astrology, but I think they certainly involve a fair amount of projection.

I especially take the Five-Factor test that is part of the meme, the IPIP-NEO, with a bigger grain of salt after taking it.

This test offers both short and long versions. The long version is theoretically more in-depth, but, as its name would imply, can take twice as long or so to complete.

I took the short form first, then the long one.

Perhaps influenced by some sort of psychological priming, my long test scores differed greatly in some areas. For instance, my very low short-test score in the main factor area of Agreeableness was three times higher on the long test. (Short-test scores are the ones on my blog.) Yet, I did that while scoring a tad lower on cooperation and modesty. Why? My altruism subfactor was much higher and my morality subfactor six times higher. I believe that alone should cast a pretty harsh skeptical light on such tests.

I was also twice as neurotic on the short test, yet slightly more open to new experiences.

Having been primed by the short test, I was even more introspective on the long test, but didn’t have my short-test scores memorized, nor was I, consciously at least, trying to improve low grades in areas that might be deemed socially undesirable.

So, remember, such tests are mirrors, but as Paul said in I Corinthians 13, “We see but a dim reflection (Greek ainigma) in a mirror.”

For my money, the only way to really get accurate heterophenomenal (thanks, Dan Dennett) understanding of the accuracy of these tests is for them to be administered by neuroscientists who conduct fMRIs on the test-takers during the tests.