20 Minutes on UnderstandMyself.com

Summary

The speaker introduces 'understandmyself.com', a personality assessment website based on the Big Five model, developed by Dr. Colin D. Young and others. The test, consisting of 100 questions, aims to provide comprehensive and accurate personality reports. The script also discusses the 'self authoring' suite of programs designed to help individuals understand and improve their lives, with evidence of its effectiveness in academic settings. The speaker emphasizes the importance of self-knowledge and planning for personal growth and societal contribution.

Takeaways

• 📚 The speaker announces the launch of a new website called 'understandmyself.com', which offers a personality assessment based on the Big Five personality model.
• 👩‍🏫 The personality model was developed by Dr. Colin D. Young and others, and it measures traits like extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.
• 🔍 The Big Five Aspect Scale breaks down each of the Big Five traits into two statistically robust sub-components, providing a more detailed personality analysis.
• 📈 The personality reports generated by the website are comprehensive and detailed, covering each of the Big Five traits and their aspects at different levels of specificity.
• 📝 To complete the personality survey, individuals answer 100 questions derived from the International Personality Item Pool, which are designed to capture variations in human personality.
• 🔗 The questions are public access, but the reports and the comparison sample of approximately 10,000 people are proprietary, offering unique value to the users.
• 🤔 The personality test is intended to help individuals understand themselves better, particularly in comparison to others, and to recognize the deep differences in personality that exist among people.
• 💡 The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding personality differences in facilitating effective communication and dialogue, especially in political contexts.
• 📚 The speaker also mentions 'selfauthoring.com', a set of interventions designed to help individuals reconfigure their behavior and personality over time through writing exercises.
• 🌐 The 'Self Authoring' suite includes programs like 'Past Authoring', 'Present Authoring', and 'Future Authoring', which aim to improve mental health, increase conscientiousness, and help individuals plan for their future.
• 🔍 The speaker highlights the effectiveness of these writing exercises in improving academic performance and mental health, particularly for underperforming groups like ethnic minority males.

Q & A

What is the purpose of the 'understand myself calm' website?

The 'understand myself calm' website offers a personality assessment for individuals based on the Big Five personality model, aiming to provide a deep understanding of one's personality traits and aspects.

Who developed the personality model used by 'understand myself calm'?

The personality model was developed in the speaker's lab about ten years ago by Dr. Colin D. Young and Dr. Lena Quilty, with contributions from Dr. Daniel Higgins and Dr. Robert Peel.

What are the Big Five personality traits measured by the assessment?

The Big Five personality traits are extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

How many questions are there in the personality survey on the website?

There are a hundred questions in the personality survey that individuals need to answer to complete the assessment.

What is the source of the questions used in the personality survey?

The questions are derived from Lew Goldberg's IPIP (International Personality Item Pool), which is a collection of phrases that capture the variation in human personality.

How long does it take to complete the personality survey?

It takes approximately 15 minutes to complete the personality survey.

Why is it recommended to take the personality test only once?

The test should be taken only once to maintain the validity of the norms that the individual's results are compared against, which are based on the self-reports of 10,000 other people who also took the test only once.

What is the 'self authoring calm' and how does it relate to the personality test?

The 'self authoring calm' is a set of interventions developed to help individuals reconfigure certain elements of their behavior and potentially their personality over the long run, complementing the insights gained from the personality test.

What are the benefits of the 'self authoring' programs mentioned in the script?

The 'self authoring' programs can help improve mental health, decrease negative emotions, increase academic performance and retention, and provide a tool for personal development and goal setting.

What is the significance of the aspect-level differences in personality traits?

The aspect-level differences provide a more nuanced understanding of personality, showing that there are interesting variations within each of the Big Five traits that can affect how individuals perceive and interact with the world.

How does the speaker suggest using the results of the personality test?

The speaker suggests using the results to gain self-awareness, understand differences between oneself and others, and to organize one's life in a manner that is beneficial personally, helpful to family, and positively impacts society.

What is the future plan for the 'understand myself calm' website?

The future plans include a couples module to analyze similarities and differences between two individuals who have taken the test, and a high school version of the 'self authoring' suite to help younger individuals plan their lives.