Hello World
We all ask the question, Why?, more so if some misfortune happens. One aspect of our lives that attracts most questions is where and how we deal with other people. Why? (you see there you go asking questions) It is probably because it has the most impact on us as individuals. Questions like: -
- Why do I have problems dealing with certain individuals or my children?
- Why don’t I get on with someone in my family?
- Why do I like a certain person but not their friend?
- Why can I relate to one parent more than the other?
- Why? Why? Why?
The list of questions is endless because you are continually meeting people and having to interact with them. The study of human behaviour can be found in any of the ancient civilizations of Greece, Egypt, Persia, India, China, Japan, etc. The question has always been asked and probably will always be asked “What makes a person tick“? Psychology has tried to answer questions regarding human behaviour and it is only in the last 100 years or so that psychometric testing has been developed.
Psychometric Tests
The ‘psycho’ part means it’s to do with your brain and the ‘metric’ part means some form of measurement. These ‘tests’ or measurements quantify your mental and cognitive abilities - such as reasoning, behaviour, knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits.
Some people seem to put a lot of store in these psychometric tests because they appear to consider them as an exact science while disregarding other systems from older times as having no scientific credibility. I believe that people who think that way are totally wrong. Kyu Sei Ki, for example, has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years and has been continually validated through constant use and direct positive feedback.
Compatibility and Dating Sites
Dating web-sites will tend to offer so called ‘free’ personality profiles to encourage people to sign-up and pay for the dating service. I have checked several of these sites and I would have to say I am not impressed.
One of the market leading sites gave me a compatibility result that matched me on 25 points that included language, height, body type, diet, politics, hair, eyes and ethnicity even though I never stated a preference on any of these issues. Another site that gave me a ‘free’ report stated in their Terms that once I became a member and paid I would get the actual ‘real’ report which would be about 80 pages long.
A Drawback of Psychometric Tests
All of these ‘free’ compatibility profiles are claimed to be based on psychometric tests and are supposed to match me with ideal partners. I was so intrigued with this that I did some extensive research and found that “no general (accepted) theory of interpersonal compatibility has been proposed in psychology” and, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_compatibility as well as several eminent publications, “existing concepts are contradictory in many details“.
It is difficult though to do psychometric tests and find out if you are compatible when it’s someone you are acquainted with or have just met unless you were introduced through a dating service or matchmaker. Also, how do you profile a member of your family or a work colleague where there is no question of ‘dating’ or offering employment?
My Conclusion
I suppose that you can gather that I am not a big fan of psychometric tests when it comes down to finding out about interpersonal relationship compatibility. I don’t think that there are many people who could do one of these tests and not think “what are they looking for with that question?” and then tailoring an answer to what they think is expected. I have even done that myself!
Psychology profiling, in my opinion, is best described as ’self reporting’. It is only as accurate as your answers, your current mental state and the professionalism of the interpretation of the results. As I have said before, I have done several of these tests and I always have problems picking the answer I want from the limited multi-choices. Most of the time the answer I want is not there, so I end up putting a tick against the closest answer and subsequently feel that the test is not entirely accurate. That is just my feeling.
Psychometric tests have their place when it comes to explaining individual human behaviour but I do not see it taking into account human interaction and influences. I believe that there are more viable alternatives out there when it comes to determining the personal compatibility relationship between two people.
Thank you for reading my Blog and I do hope that you will bookmark and share it with others. In my next Blog I will look at the compatibility between one or two celebrity couples so if you want to make suggestions I would be happy to consider your requests.
John