# Is there a personality/psychology test that just tells you everything?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-personality-psychology-test-that-just-tells-you-everything/716943
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 6, 2015, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-personality-psychology-test-that-just-tells-you-everything/716943 "2015-04-06T04:50:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2015, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-personality-psychology-test-that-just-tells-you-everything/716943/1 "2015-04-06T04:50:58Z")
to be frank, I really just want to figure all this shit out so I can have like a baseline knowledge of myself and who I am and move on with my life. I have ADD and depression for sure but am I anxious too? Introverted? Extroverted? Am I good with my hands? Am I honest? Am I normal? Am I abnormal? What are my strengths and weaknesses?
I swear it’s like you know yourself and then you’ll have conversations with people about the past and get completely thrown off so I basically want to do some sort of metal battery and just figure everything out. Any real legitimate personality tests out there that tell me that kind of thing? Ideas?
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### Author:  [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2015, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-personality-psychology-test-that-just-tells-you-everything/716943/2 "2015-04-06T05:13:42Z")
Just an oblique observation:
Fire worship was not the worst idea to occur to humans.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-personality-psychology-test-that-just-tells-you-everything/716943/3 "2015-04-06T06:20:53Z")
Online? No.but if you’re willing to go to a neuropsychologist, maybe.
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### Author:  [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-personality-psychology-test-that-just-tells-you-everything/716943/4 "2015-04-06T06:25:07Z")
Most online political compass are not that accurate so such thing like this would not be accurate.
Too many variables.
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### Author:  [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2015, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-personality-psychology-test-that-just-tells-you-everything/716943/5 "2015-04-06T07:13:34Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> Online? No.but if you’re willing to go to a neuropsychologist, maybe.
I accompanied someone once who went to a nueropsychologist for the type of comprehensive battery the OP seems to want. Afterwards I “debriefed” him about what had gone on in there. (I had to wait outside, and it took hours). I concluded that however comprehensive it had been, it was still of necessity subject to its own methodological bias. They clearly were looking for specific things, and not others.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2015, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-personality-psychology-test-that-just-tells-you-everything/716943/6 "2015-04-06T07:35:21Z")
> [@guizot](#):
>
> I accompanied someone once who went to a nueropsychologist for the type of comprehensive battery the OP seems to want. Afterwards I “debriefed” him about what had gone on in there. (I had to wait outside, and it took hours). I concluded that however comprehensive it had been, it was still of necessity subject to its own methodological bias. They clearly were looking for specific things, and not others.
That’s true, but what specific examples do you mean?
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2015, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-personality-psychology-test-that-just-tells-you-everything/716943/7 "2015-04-06T07:57:51Z")
Ask your friends.
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2015, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-personality-psychology-test-that-just-tells-you-everything/716943/8 "2015-04-06T14:07:21Z")
> [@guizot](#):
>
> I accompanied someone once who went to a nueropsychologist for the type of comprehensive battery the OP seems to want. Afterwards I “debriefed” him…They clearly were looking for specific things, and not others.
What sort of things were they looking for (and not looking for)? E.g. were they mostly looking for sexual problems? Phobias? Anger issues?
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### Author:  [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2015, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-personality-psychology-test-that-just-tells-you-everything/716943/9 "2015-04-06T15:27:55Z")
The most commonly used test of this type is the [Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Multiphasic_Personality_Inventory), although it’s designed primarily to measure pathology. All such tests should be taken with a grain of salt, however.
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### Author:  [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-personality-psychology-test-that-just-tells-you-everything/716943/10 "2015-04-06T18:57:49Z")
One method is to keep a journal about what you’re thinking/feeling throughout the day, and review it the next day, at a time when you’re feeling especially clearheaded and confident. This lets you analyze yourself with a bit of emotional distance.
For any single trait, there’s probably dozens of articles out there about how to tell if you have it. Unfortunately, that’s useless for identifying traits you don’t know you have.
And forget about “normal” vs. “abnormal” there’s a too much emotional/social baggage attached to those labels, and, afaict, almost everybody is “normal” in some things and “abnormal” in others.