We are all first-year freshmen here, and I'm sure most of us are still figuring out how to succeed in college academics. If you get the chance, read this article. If you know your personality type, you can then correlate it with a certain kind of learning style that would most benefit you as a student. Knowing the ways you learn best can have a very positive impact on your GPA, as well as your overall academic career. If you don't have time to read the article, I will outline some of the main points made here:
Most extraverted students will benefit from pairing off for homework assignments and group projects. This is because most extraverts like to think out loud, running their ideas by their peers and coming to conclusions that way. Introverts, on the other hand, will run their own ideas through their internal logic systems to determine whether or not they are correct. Introverts will, more often than not, opt to work alone on group projects because, to them, spending time listening to many other people's ideas is exhausting and takes too much time.
Sensing students will benefit from taking a hands-on approach to learning. These are the kind of students that like to do practice problems, like to go out into the field, and like to work through things themselves in order to learn. Also, Sensing students benefit from an organized, concrete approach to learning, where they are given evidence to support claims made by the teacher. Intuitives, on the other hand, are able to make connections based off of seemingly abstract concepts. These students may not benefit as much from real-world applications, but sometimes you can almost let them teach themselves. An intuitive will enjoy trying to connect different ideas together on their own.
Thinking students tend to learn better with numbers and other logical concepts. Thinking students tend to do better in classes such as math and science. Feelers like to orient their learning toward people, much like an extravert. However, feelers focus on the impact that things have on people. That is why feelers do better in subjects like English and sometimes Social Studies. Feelers many times are also better at putting their thoughts into words.
Judging students will benefit from concrete deadlines and set goals, as it will fit in with their regimented lifestyle. If a lecture or assignment seems like it is going nowhere, they will wonder why they are participating in such a dead-end task. Perceiving students, on the other hand, will benefit from progress checks and breaks in monotony. Perceivers like to gather information for a while before they complete tasks, so simple prodding to keep them on the right track will help them succeed.
After reading the article, I definitely see much of myself in a lot of the points made. Progress checks are the only thing that keep me from starting every assignment the night before the due date. Do these learning/teaching tips help you understand the way you learn? Do you agree with them? Comment below if you have anything to say about this subject.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Big Five Personality Test
The Myers-Briggs (which you can take here) isn't the only personality test that many people know about and live by. Another popular type indicator is the Big Five Personality Test. This test asks the user many questions until it comes up with percentages for each of the "Big Five" personality traits. These 5 traits include Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. These 5 traits are much easier to understand than the MBTI dichotomies because they are commonly used descriptors in the English language.
Openness: Openness is a person's willingness to accept new and abstract ideas into their way of thinking. People who score high here tend to think very philosophically and can be very creative. People who score low prefer to think about concrete ideas that they can see with their own ideas. Those who score low in openness are often more rooted in the real world and more cynical/practical.
Conscientiousness: This is, to make a long story short, a person's ability to force themselves to do things. For example, I am showing unusually high conscientiousness (for me at least) by getting this blog post done early. Those who are conscientious are able to stick to schedules better, have better time management skills, and practice good amounts of self-control. Those who score low may sometimes be unproductive and impulsive. People with low conscientiousness also may be more prone to addiction. However, a low score also correlates with more flexibililty and adaptive capabilities.
Extraversion: I hope you know what this means by now. Extraverted people are sociable, non-extraverts (introverts) prefer not being social a majority of the time.
Agreeableness: This percentage shows how well you get along with others. A high score in agreeableness indicates that you prefer to put others' needs ahead of your own. You like to please others, and tend to sympathize with their needs. Somebody with a low agreeableness score will often times be competitive, self-serving, and unsympathetic.
Neuroticism: Neuroticism is simply the tendency of a person to have negative. Someone who is highly neurotic will have many negative thoughts throughout the day, and vice versa.
You can take the Big Five Personality Test here. I believe this test is a good supplement to the MBTI, because it brings forth attributes that were not tackled by the test that this blog gets its name from. When I took the Big Five Personality Test just now, I got these results:
Openness: 90%
Conscientiousness: 25%
Extraverted: 75%
Agreeableness: 60%
Neuroticism: 62.5%
I definitely agree with the results I got. While I expected a high amount of openness and a low amount of conscientiousness, I did not know what to expect for Neuroticism and Agreeableness. The moderate results I got for those two categories, however, fits me perfectly. I encourage you to take some time out of your busy days to take the Big Five Test, as well as the MBTI. It will take 10 minutes tops, and, with some research, it will greatly help you understand the way your own mind works, therefore helping you understand yourself. Who doesn't want that?
Openness: Openness is a person's willingness to accept new and abstract ideas into their way of thinking. People who score high here tend to think very philosophically and can be very creative. People who score low prefer to think about concrete ideas that they can see with their own ideas. Those who score low in openness are often more rooted in the real world and more cynical/practical.
Conscientiousness: This is, to make a long story short, a person's ability to force themselves to do things. For example, I am showing unusually high conscientiousness (for me at least) by getting this blog post done early. Those who are conscientious are able to stick to schedules better, have better time management skills, and practice good amounts of self-control. Those who score low may sometimes be unproductive and impulsive. People with low conscientiousness also may be more prone to addiction. However, a low score also correlates with more flexibililty and adaptive capabilities.
Extraversion: I hope you know what this means by now. Extraverted people are sociable, non-extraverts (introverts) prefer not being social a majority of the time.
Agreeableness: This percentage shows how well you get along with others. A high score in agreeableness indicates that you prefer to put others' needs ahead of your own. You like to please others, and tend to sympathize with their needs. Somebody with a low agreeableness score will often times be competitive, self-serving, and unsympathetic.
Neuroticism: Neuroticism is simply the tendency of a person to have negative. Someone who is highly neurotic will have many negative thoughts throughout the day, and vice versa.
You can take the Big Five Personality Test here. I believe this test is a good supplement to the MBTI, because it brings forth attributes that were not tackled by the test that this blog gets its name from. When I took the Big Five Personality Test just now, I got these results:
Openness: 90%
Conscientiousness: 25%
Extraverted: 75%
Agreeableness: 60%
Neuroticism: 62.5%
I definitely agree with the results I got. While I expected a high amount of openness and a low amount of conscientiousness, I did not know what to expect for Neuroticism and Agreeableness. The moderate results I got for those two categories, however, fits me perfectly. I encourage you to take some time out of your busy days to take the Big Five Test, as well as the MBTI. It will take 10 minutes tops, and, with some research, it will greatly help you understand the way your own mind works, therefore helping you understand yourself. Who doesn't want that?
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
MBTI of your typical PSU student?
We have a pretty big campus here in Happy Valley. There's a decent amount of people, I'd say. The size of our student body is conducive to large amounts of diversity. This includes ethnic, ideological, personal, and many other forms of diversity. Despite this, I believe that, somewhere, there is an archetypal Penn State student. Naturally, I decided to run this archetype through the MBTI personality test. Here is a rundown of a typical Penn State student through each type dichotomy in the test.
Extraverted/Introverted
This one is pretty obvious. Penn State is an annual contender for the #1 party school in the nation, after all. We are known across the country as a very social school. Even in the cafeteria, almost everyone is eating with someone else, yelling, and having a good time. Obviously, this isn't to say that every single Penn State student is a social butterfly. It is just the prevailing stereotype among our students.
Intuition/Sensing
This one should have been difficult, but after a bit of thinking, the prevalence of Sensing as opposed to Intuition in our student body. Penn State is a school absolutely boiling in tradition. Our most famous employee, Joe Paterno, was head coach for 45 years, for God's sake. Also, from personal experience, Penn State students tend to live in the moment. This also ties into the party-school stereotype that we definitely hold. Many kids here will do anything to have fun, sometimes at the expense of future goals. An Intuitive, especially a strong one, would often be too caught up in the past or the future to be able to handle the party-every-day lifestyle that many lead here.
Thinking/Feeling
This dichotomy is probably close to an even split, but I think it may SLIGHTLY lean toward Thinking. While there is a prevailing athleticism that many students have here, which points more toward Thinking, some parts of our culture are steeped in emotion. For example, the death of Joe Paterno brought more than one man in my family to tears, men who I had never before seen cry. Despite our emotional attachments, I think that we as a school tend to be a little more rational and facts-oriented than people-oriented. This is showcased by one of our most famous departments, the School of Engineering. Engineers are almost exclusively Thinkers as opposed to Feelers, and the fact that engineering majors are so popular here points to the notion that we are more of a rational campus.
Judging/Perceiving
Can we revisit Penn State's athletic focus? Athletes are overwhelmingly Perceivers, and,since many students here either are/were athletes or are interested in sports, we can make a conclusion. Not to say that we don't have Judging characteristics; PSU kids are definitely hard workers when it comes down to it. I just feel like the majority of the student body tends to be a little more lax about things in their life, among other attributes, therefore preferring Perceiving over Judging.
After this step-by-step analysis, I have come to the conclusion that the archetypal Penn State student is an ESTP. This makes a lot of sense, since ESTPs are adventurers, partyers, and, overall, people who like to experience life through their senses. This description makes me think of a typical student here, especially many of the ones I have met. I've also taken into account that the people that I find in the honors courses I am in--including this one--do not represent the population as a whole. If you have any thoughts, or just flat-out disagree with me about the assertions I made about a regular Penn Stater's personality, shout at me in the comment section!
Extraverted/Introverted
This one is pretty obvious. Penn State is an annual contender for the #1 party school in the nation, after all. We are known across the country as a very social school. Even in the cafeteria, almost everyone is eating with someone else, yelling, and having a good time. Obviously, this isn't to say that every single Penn State student is a social butterfly. It is just the prevailing stereotype among our students.
Intuition/Sensing
This one should have been difficult, but after a bit of thinking, the prevalence of Sensing as opposed to Intuition in our student body. Penn State is a school absolutely boiling in tradition. Our most famous employee, Joe Paterno, was head coach for 45 years, for God's sake. Also, from personal experience, Penn State students tend to live in the moment. This also ties into the party-school stereotype that we definitely hold. Many kids here will do anything to have fun, sometimes at the expense of future goals. An Intuitive, especially a strong one, would often be too caught up in the past or the future to be able to handle the party-every-day lifestyle that many lead here.
Thinking/Feeling
This dichotomy is probably close to an even split, but I think it may SLIGHTLY lean toward Thinking. While there is a prevailing athleticism that many students have here, which points more toward Thinking, some parts of our culture are steeped in emotion. For example, the death of Joe Paterno brought more than one man in my family to tears, men who I had never before seen cry. Despite our emotional attachments, I think that we as a school tend to be a little more rational and facts-oriented than people-oriented. This is showcased by one of our most famous departments, the School of Engineering. Engineers are almost exclusively Thinkers as opposed to Feelers, and the fact that engineering majors are so popular here points to the notion that we are more of a rational campus.
Judging/Perceiving
Can we revisit Penn State's athletic focus? Athletes are overwhelmingly Perceivers, and,since many students here either are/were athletes or are interested in sports, we can make a conclusion. Not to say that we don't have Judging characteristics; PSU kids are definitely hard workers when it comes down to it. I just feel like the majority of the student body tends to be a little more lax about things in their life, among other attributes, therefore preferring Perceiving over Judging.
After this step-by-step analysis, I have come to the conclusion that the archetypal Penn State student is an ESTP. This makes a lot of sense, since ESTPs are adventurers, partyers, and, overall, people who like to experience life through their senses. This description makes me think of a typical student here, especially many of the ones I have met. I've also taken into account that the people that I find in the honors courses I am in--including this one--do not represent the population as a whole. If you have any thoughts, or just flat-out disagree with me about the assertions I made about a regular Penn Stater's personality, shout at me in the comment section!
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Shifts in Your MBTI type
A common problem people have with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is that you can get a completely different type each time you take the test. If you are receiving a different type sequence each time you take this online quiz, it is you who is answering the questions poorly or incorrectly, not the test that is broken. However, many find that their type sequence makes gradual changes over time, and this is very common. According to the theory, you are born with your type, since it is a temperament. However, the way you see yourself can change over the years, which will influence the way you answer questions.
When I first took the test, I received an INFP result, which I thought was very fitting. I used to be a LOT quieter. This doesn't mean I didn't have my naturally extraverted temperament; I was just too shy and self-conscious in middle school and early high school to go out and make a lot of friends. Later in high school, I broke out of my shell and became much more extraverted. Nowadays, I'll start conversations with randos all the time. After this shift, I started typing as ENFP. I know now that the Feeling temperament doesn't fit me as well as Thinking, but in high school I was much more emotional than I am now. This was probably due to the cocktail of hormones boiling within me just like every other high school kid. Now my emotions have settled down and I have started thinking more rationally, which led me to the ENTP temperament that I believe (at least, at the moment) fits me the best.
This shift in my typings, as well as many other people's, parallel personality theories made by prominent psychologists. Many psychological researchers firmly believe that personality develops over the entire lifetime due to certain events and occurrences. The MBTI covers this by having certain type-specific functions develop over time--functions which I will talk about in a later blog post. In short; while you are given a set of traits to work with at birth, your personality won't stay completely the same your whole life! If you believe yours to be bad in any way, there is still time to change it :)
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Choosing Your Career Using Some Stupid Personality Test
So guys, we're in college now. This means that we need to start making choices on what we're going to be doing for the rest of our lives. Scary, right? LUCKY FOR YOU, I've got one of the best indicators right here. That's right, many people use the MBTI test to give them some guidance in their career choices! Your type sequence strongly correlates with the types of careers that you will excel in.
The most obvious example would be the fact that Extraverts function best around people, whereas Introverts are better left alone at certain parts during the day. Now, this isn't to say that Introverts can't possibly work with people. Of course they can! Introverts just get the most benefit out of a work day that allows them to be alone an recharge their batteries. The opposite is true for Extraverts. If an Extravert is alone too long, they start to get restless and unproductive. Extraverts are energized by group projects and collaboration in the workplace. Again, this does not mean an Extravert can't work alone sometimes. They need breaks wherein they can talk to people and socialize.
When it comes to the S and N dichotomy, things get a little trickier. The best way to explain it is saying that a Sensor would prefer to do tasks that take place in the real world, i.e building things, keeping track of records, managing a workplace, all things medical, etc. An Intuitive, on the other hand, lives inside of their own mind, so they have better luck dealing with abstracts and theoretical things. Most scientists are Intuitives, as well as mathematicians, economists, and lawyers.
This next one is obvious. Thinkers love to deal with rational choices and decisions, and are better at dealing with numbers. Feelers, on the other hand, love working to improve other people's lives. While these trends aren't very strong, and there is always overlap, there are some professions that better suit a Thinker than a Feeler, and vice versa. For instance, your typical "ruthless" business man or woman will be high on the Thinking scale, whereas almost all therapists and social workers are Feelers.
In the world of Judgers and Thinkers, there is a lot of overlap. The only correlation I can think of is that, in a job that requires you to put your nose to the grindstone, being J would probably benefit you, whereas an occupation that requires open-mindedness would receive a Perceiver well. Your boss will almost always be a Judger, whereas your favorite musician or actor is probably a Perceiver.
The most obvious example would be the fact that Extraverts function best around people, whereas Introverts are better left alone at certain parts during the day. Now, this isn't to say that Introverts can't possibly work with people. Of course they can! Introverts just get the most benefit out of a work day that allows them to be alone an recharge their batteries. The opposite is true for Extraverts. If an Extravert is alone too long, they start to get restless and unproductive. Extraverts are energized by group projects and collaboration in the workplace. Again, this does not mean an Extravert can't work alone sometimes. They need breaks wherein they can talk to people and socialize.
When it comes to the S and N dichotomy, things get a little trickier. The best way to explain it is saying that a Sensor would prefer to do tasks that take place in the real world, i.e building things, keeping track of records, managing a workplace, all things medical, etc. An Intuitive, on the other hand, lives inside of their own mind, so they have better luck dealing with abstracts and theoretical things. Most scientists are Intuitives, as well as mathematicians, economists, and lawyers.
This next one is obvious. Thinkers love to deal with rational choices and decisions, and are better at dealing with numbers. Feelers, on the other hand, love working to improve other people's lives. While these trends aren't very strong, and there is always overlap, there are some professions that better suit a Thinker than a Feeler, and vice versa. For instance, your typical "ruthless" business man or woman will be high on the Thinking scale, whereas almost all therapists and social workers are Feelers.
In the world of Judgers and Thinkers, there is a lot of overlap. The only correlation I can think of is that, in a job that requires you to put your nose to the grindstone, being J would probably benefit you, whereas an occupation that requires open-mindedness would receive a Perceiver well. Your boss will almost always be a Judger, whereas your favorite musician or actor is probably a Perceiver.
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