Get to Know Yourself Through 5 Free Online Personality Tests

April 22nd, 2019

By Katelyn Elrod

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who casually mentions that they are an ENFP or Type 4, causing you to wonder if they were speaking in code? Or maybe you are the person who constantly lets people know that you are a Pioneer and a 92% on the Extraversion scale. No matter the category you fall in, check out these five free online personality assessments that can help you better understand yourself. And if you’ve already taken them, send your pals a link to this blog post so they know what you mean next time you tell them about how much of a Feeler you are.

16 Personalities

This personality assessment wins the award for Most Likely to Be Mentioned in Someone’s Instagram Bio or Used in an Icebreaker Game. If you offhandedly ask people their personality types, it is likely they will give you their 16 Personalities type.

16 Personalities is distinctly rooted in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, but unlike the authentic Myers-Briggs test, the 16 Personalities test is free to take. The Myers-Briggs assessment was created by mother-daughter duo Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, and it is largely based on Carl Jung’s theory of psychology. Originally, the test was crafted in the 1940s by Myers and Briggs in order to help women decide what type of work would be fitting for them during World War II.

The 16 Personalities assessment reveals your preferences in Mind, Energy, Nature, and Tactics.

Here is a brief, simplified summary of each of the divisions:

Mind (Introversion/Extraversion): drained vs. energized by social activity
Energy (Sensing/Intuition): focus on concrete reality vs. imagination and possibilities
Nature (Thinking/Feeling): prioritize logic vs. emotions
Tactics (Judgment/Prospecting): prefer organization vs. spontaneity

This assessment offers more free information and analysis than any other test on this list. On your results page, you can find strengths and weaknesses, relationship dynamics and workplace habits as they relate to your personality type. You can even see which celebrities and historical figures share your personality type. If you finally want to be able to confidently offer a sacred four-letter combination to describe you in conversation, this is the test for you.

The Big Five Personality Test

Maybe you’ve heard of the Big 12, but have you heard of the Big Five? This isn’t an athletic conference but the most widely accepted theory of personality today. Seriously, the Big Five model is the bread and butter of personality research right now.

The Big Five model, or five-factor model, was created by a team of psychologists from 1961 to the 1990s. It came to be through empirical process and rigorous reliability testing, so many other personality assessment systems use the Big Five as a basis.

Instead of typing people, the Big Five Personality Test assesses where you land on a continuum of five specific personality traits. The results of your test give you a percentage for each trait, revealing if you possess the trait more than, less than, or at the same amount as most people. Your results can help you understand your own thoughts and behavior.

Here are the five traits measured in the Big Five Personality Test:

Openness: enjoyment of art, abstract thinking, creativity and intellectual curiosity
Conscientiousness: tendency to organize, focus, plan and create structure
Extraversion: reliance on company of others for stimulation and energy; sociability
Agreeableness: consideration of others and their needs; level of compassion and trust
Neuroticism: reaction to psychological stress and unpleasant emotions; emotional stability

5 Voices

The number five seems to be a trend in the world of personality assessments (and blog posts about personality assessments). The 5 Voices personality assessment, created by GiANT Worldwide, a company dedicated to developing healthy leadership in companies, focuses on a person’s voice of leadership. Everyone communicates differently, so learning how you communicate with your colleagues and peers, as well as how they communicate with you, creates a more cohesive and effective team.

GiANT created the 5 Voices assessment because many people are not aware of how they communicate as a leader, and many who are aware of their leadership voice do know how to develop it. The 5 Voices test helps you understand what it’s like to be on the other end of your leadership, or even on the other end of a conversation with you. The results of your assessment will rank the prominence of the 5 Voices in your personality, revealing what Voices come naturally to you and which Voices are areas of growth.

Here is an overview of the 5 Voices:

Creative: strives for innovation and generating ideas; restless, imaginative
Pioneer: values progress and gaining new knowledge; competitive, intense
Guardian: relies on procedure and proven success; rational, loyal
Connector: treasures relationships and networking; energetic, enthusiastic
Nurturer: seeks relational harmony in a group; compassionate, committed to values

Keirsey Temperament Sorter

Here we are dealing with four temperaments — and not Hippocrates’ theory that every human demonstrates one of four temperaments based on their levels of bodily fluids (blood, bile and phlegm, to be exact). Keirsey’s four temperaments may have roots in Hippocrates’ theory, but don’t worry, his assessment isn’t based on bile.

David Keirsey’s conception of temperaments began in the 1940s, when he carried around a psychology book everywhere he went as a fighter pilot in World War II. A few decades and some schooling later, he introduced the Keirsey Temperament Sorter in 1978. The Keirsey Temperament Sorter shares similarities with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and it even includes MBTI types within the four temperaments, but the Keirsey types focus more on behavior than thinking and feeling.

The Keirsey assessment separates people into four temperament types based on observable characteristics such as communication style, behavior, talents and values. Simply put, the Keirsey Temperament Sorter categorizes you based on words and actions, and then it uses your temperament to help you understand more about yourself, such as what motivates you and how you gain self-confidence.

Here are the four temperaments:

Artisan: unconventional, optimistic, focused, spontaneous, bold
Guardian: factual, cautious, helpful, humble, hardworking
Idealist: imaginative, sensitive, kind-hearted, authentic, empathetic
Rational: pragmatic, curious, independent, analytical, innovative

Enneagram – Eclectic Energies

The Enneagram is all the rage right now in the realm of personality quizzes. Churches love it, businesses love it, college girls who should be doing homework at midnight but absolutely need to know their Enneagram types love it (yes, I am calling out myself).

The symbol of the enneagram can be traced back to philosopher Pythagoras, who did all of his philosophizing over two thousand years ago. However, the Enneagram of Personality did not hit the personality type scene until the 1960s, when teacher Oscar Ichazo began teaching his system to others in Chile. In Ichazo’s system, the nine points of the enneagram represent nine personality types, and many aspects of the Enneagram are derived from ancient Greek philosophy, Christianity, Buddhism and other world religions.

In essence, the Enneagram allows you to investigate the root of who you are and how it influences what you do. The Eclectic Energies Enneagram assessment ranks your demonstration of the nine types, offering you your top type, as well as other options that consider your wing. Your wing is a type that lies adjacent to your main type, and you exhibit many of the characteristics of your wing. Your results also delve into the healthy function, unhealthy function, strengths and weaknesses typical of your type.

Here are concise descriptions of the nine Types:

Type 1 (Reformer): seeks constant improvement and perfection; makes order out of chaos
Type 2 (Helper): finds identity in giving to others; love is most important ideal
Type 3 (Achiever): values the pursuit of success; seeks validation and recognition
Type 4 (Individualist): enjoys being different from others; feels emotions strongly
Type 5 (Investigator): finds solace in own mind; independent and withdrawn
Type 6 (Loyalist): tends to worry and distrust; extremely loyal and skilled at troubleshooting
Type 7 (Enthusiast): searches for next best thing; excited by new adventures
Type 8 (Challenger): fears being controlled by others; decisive and tough-minded
Type 9 (Peacemaker): avoids conflict in order to maintain harmony; protects peace of mind

Though many love Enneagram assessments, others promise that the best way to discover your Enneagram type is to research them and decide the type with which you most strongly identify. Personally, I would recommend both, but always go with the type that feels most like you. And that can be said for any personality test! Personality assessments are fun, but remember: no one knows you better than you.