Re: CHAT: Conlanging and Myers-Briggs tests (was Re: Profile of a Conlanger)

>===== Original Message From Constructed Languages List
<CONLANG@...> =====
>   Date:         Thu, 13 May 1999 22:44:01 +0300
>   From: Dan Sulani <dnsulani@...>
>
>   Hi  everybody.
>       I'd never heard of the Myers-Briggs test, but out of curiosity,
>   I went to the web-site and started to take the test that was there
>   (called the Keirsey Temperment Sorter II ). I _gagged_ after the
>   first four questions and couldn't continue! I'm sorry, but I don't
>   happen to see the world in terms of black or white: there's a lot
>   of black _and_ white out there (not to mention a whole lot of
>   gray!)!
Dan:

You may not be familiar with the technique of "forced choice."  Designers of
surveys have found that it is often a useful technique to present people with
a forced choice between alternatives, and multiple questions on the same
issue.  The hope is that if the person *really is* "in the middle" on an
issue, he or she will scatter answers in one direction as often as another,
and when it's all added up, the person will come out "in the middle."  Whereas
if somebody has a small tendency in one direction or the other, when forced to
choose, they will choose in one direction somewhat more than the other, even
though if they had been given a middle choice they would have selected it.

It's frustrating to take such a test but they're very effective in teasing out
subtle factors in surveys.

I don't know if this was the motivation for the structure of the Kiersey test
you took, but it strikes me that it might be a factor that angered you
unnecessarily.

Ed

--
Ed Heil * edheil@atdot.org
      "When you get your Ph. D.
      How happy you will be
      When you get a job at Wendy's
      And are honored with 'Employee of the Month.'"
       -- Bare Naked Ladies, "Never Is Enough"