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Most personality tests I've done online leave a lot to be desired. For starters, personality is not set in stone, people act differently at different times and under different circumstances, and asking people to objectively assess themselves is really asking too much. What I mean by the last statement is this: Some tests ask you point blank if you like order, get angry easily, are responsible, fear the worst, want to be in control, if you keep your promises, etc. To answer these fairly abstract and decontextualized question, you're supposed to objectively go over many situations (at home, at work, with friends vs strangers, when in good mood vs bad mood, little promises vs big ones, different kinds of promises, past and present, etc) and then draw a conclusion and decide whether that's somewhat/moderately/very true. That's asking a lot.

So I wonder if there are tests where you're given a scenario which is more specific (e.g. you're out with a close friend and she tells you a secret about another close friend of yours, something that is about to happen that won't harm but will very much embarrass the second friend. Will you keep your promise and not share that secret?). I just made this up, and I don't know what it measures, so just see it as an example of what I meant by "scenario".

I think this will be easier to answer and will reflect your personality, better than you having to evaluate whether "I keep my promises". Of course I'm also aware than depending on the situation given, it might introduce elements that will reduce validity of the answer, so I imagine the scenarios have to be fairly short and as neutral as possible. But I am interested in such tests, if they do exist.

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    $\begingroup$ Perhaps check out "situational judgement tests" $\endgroup$
    – Jeromy Anglim
    Commented Nov 17, 2016 at 2:57

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The Kolbe tests have questions like "If I believed something important could be made to help humanity I would:" with a set of 4 responses where you choose one as most likely and one as least likely. These responses might be "Investigate it; Design it; Sell or promote it; Build it"

The purpose of the test is to find your action style and their internal research indicates a high degree of reliability over time.

I will need to do more research to find it, but there is a test used to help pair up college dorm mates that relies just on a series of groups of photos where the individual just chooses one from each group.

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  • $\begingroup$ The photo based tests are from a company called Traitify: traitify.com/assessments These are not so much a scenario where you indicate what you would do but rather photos of scenarios where you choose "Me" or "Not Me". Something like this is being used by Connectidy which is a dating app that uses IBM Watson services to create your personality profile. They mix photos and questions in their assessment. $\endgroup$
    – GregJarm
    Commented Nov 16, 2016 at 18:43
  • $\begingroup$ thank you for your reply. I can't find any useful info on the Kolbe test's validity though $\endgroup$
    – Jlente
    Commented Nov 17, 2016 at 21:33
  • $\begingroup$ kolbe.com/downloads/research-and-validity/… $\endgroup$
    – GregJarm
    Commented Nov 27, 2016 at 1:06
  • $\begingroup$ kolbe.com/downloads/research-and-validity/… These are on their site I realize. There are some references you can find searching with Google Scholar too. The validity of a measurement of theoretical constructs is difficult but these links provide some data on predictive ability in things like job success. $\endgroup$
    – GregJarm
    Commented Nov 27, 2016 at 1:20

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