You know I’m a big fan of the 5 Love Languages (1) Even if it’s just to give an indication of what someone needs to feel loved, it’s a good start.
I have people close to me whose language is Words of Appreciation which means they like to hear positive words like “Thank you”, “You did a great job”, etc. Although we all have words of appreciation to a certain extent, it’s not my natural one – mine is Acts of Service and Quality Time, so I have to consciously make an effort to use words of appreciation.
Sometimes people don’t like personality tests because they tend to box people into labels and can be therefore rather restrictive. I can understand as we are way more complex than that.
However, what I like about these little personality tests / quizzes is that it shows us what else is out there. We often believe other people think and see the world in the same way that we do, however, these tests open up our minds to alternative viewpoints and characteristics. Some of the more famous ones would be the Myer Briggs test (2), Kolbe test (3), 4 tendencies (4) and plenty of others.
When I have done these tests, I’ve found it helpful to understand myself better, it’s often putting in words something I have known myself but not said out loud. It also helps me to understand my nearest and dearest too.
What do you think about these tests?
Footnotes