Personality Tests

This morning (well, last night, but I read it this morning), a friend of mine posted on his blog about how he'd done the Meyers-Briggs test for several of his characters. I thought it sounded like fun, so I decided to give it a try with the main characters in my Berstru Tales series.

As a note for those of you who don't know, the Meyers-Briggs test asks you seventy-two questions. Then it gives you a four-letter result, which is some combination of:
1. E (Extroverted) or I (Introverted)
2. N (Intuition) or S (Sensing)
3. T (Thinking) or F (Feeling)
4. J (Judging) or P (Perceiving)

Rachelle Firhirt is an ESFJ.  She's decidedly (89%) extroverted, a moderate (50%) tendency of sensing over intuition, a moderate (38%) preference for feeling over thinking, and a very small (1%) tendency of judging over perceiving. I'm slightly surprised she didn't get 100% extrovert, since she's one of the most outgoing characters I have in any of my stories. Other than that, I wasn't very surprised by any of it.

Dustin Firhirt is an ESFJ as well, just barely. He's pretty much balanced between extroverted and introverted, but a tiny bit (1%) more extroverted. He has a moderate (50%) tendency of sensing over intuition, a moderate preference of feeling over thinking (38%), and a strong preference (89%) of judging over perceiving. He surprised me more than any other character . . . until I actually looked up the difference between judging and perceiving. I discovered that "Judging" doesn't mean "judgmental" and "perceiving" doesn't mean "perceptive." According to what I found, judging people prefer order and organization, and tend to plan more, while perceiving people tend to like being flexible and keeping their options open, and tend to act spontaneously. In that case, Dustin is definitely more of a judger.

Hunter Firhirt is an ESFP. He has a distinctive (67%) tendency towards extroversion over introversion, a moderate (38%) preference of sensing over intuition, a definite (62%) preference of feeling over thinking, and a slight (11%) preference of perceiving over judging.  So, no real surprises.
          
Gwen Alyron is an ISTJ. She's more introverted than extroverted (56%), has a minimal (1%) preference of sensing over intuition, a distinct (75%) tendency towards thinking over feeling, and a strong (78%) tendency towards judging over perceiving. Overall, what I expected her to get.

Ariana Nernathon is an INTJ. She has a slight (11%) preference of introversion over extroversion, a strong (88%) tendency of intuition over sensing, a moderate (38%) preference of thinking over feeling, and a strong (89%) preference of judging over perceiving. I thought she'd tend more towards thinking, but otherwise, no surprises. As a note, she's the only one of the characters I tested who had a preference of intuition over sensing.

Deanna Alyron is an ESFJ. She's slightly (11%) more extroverted than introverted, has a slight (12%) preference for sensing over intuition, a small (12%) tendency towards feeling over thinking, and a decided (100%) preference for judging over perceiving. Like Gwen, there's no surprises there.

Jared Alyron is an ESTP. He has a strong (78%) tendency towards extroversion, almost as strong (75%) a preference for sensing over intuition, a slight (12%) tendency towards thinking over feeling, and a distinct (67%) tendency towards perceiving over judging. The fact that he's a thinker rather than a feeler caught me off guard; Jared is very much one for spur-of-the-moment decisions. However, after further thought, it made sense. While he is very much ruled by his emotions, he also doesn't make major decisions on a whim. He thinks about them- not always as much as he should, but somewhat.

Finally, Emma Alyron is an ISFJ. She's completely (100%) introverted- no surprise there. In all my writing, there's only one other character who's as quiet and withdrawn as Emma. She has a decided (75%) preference for sensing over intuition, a moderate (38%) tendency for feeling over thinking, and a moderate (56%) preference for judging over perceiving. Once more, pretty much what I expected.

Overall, I had a lot of fun doing this, and I think I got to know my characters better through it. I'll definitely keep these results in mind when I return to work on Destinies and Decisions, my current Berstru Tales WIP. If you're a writer, I'd definitely encourage you to try it with your own characters.

Thanks for reading!    
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)