性格测试到底靠不靠谱

    那么，转行从事其中某一项职业是否会让我获得更大的成就感？心理学家大卫•皮滕杰认为不可能，原因在于，“目前还没有证据显示MBTI测试出的性格类型和某种职业的成功之间存在正相关关系，也没有任何数据显示，在从事特定职业的人群中，具备特定性格类型的人士比其他性格类型更有成就感。”皮滕杰建议：“把MBTI测试当作一种职业辅导工具时，应该‘慎之又慎’。”那么，MBTI测试为什么这么受欢迎呢？它的成功主要是由于“像星座那样总结性格类型具有很大的迷惑性，再加上持续不断的营销”。

    每当我向实施MBTI测试的职业顾问、教练和培训师一一列举各类批评性研究结果时，他们总是指出，这项测试的设计宗旨并不是让人们与其理想职业实现对接。然而，他们中的许多人对大量证据视而不见，继续进行这种测试，这样做的典型原因在于，他们依然相信，它是一项性格类型指南。但我怀疑，有时候是因为MBTI测试为他们的建议披上了一层合法性。

    个性测试有它自身的用途，就算它们并没有揭示出任何关于我们的科学真相。如果我们陷入一种混乱的状况，这类测试或许能够给予我们巨大的情感慰藉。它们还提出了一些有助于我们自我反省的假设：在我接受MBTI测试之前，我肯定从来没有想过IT领域会给我提供一个光明的未来（顺便说一下，我的性格类型显然不适合当一位作家）。

    然而，MBTI测试并不是一个神奇的药丸，它无法为我们铺设一条通往理想职业的隐秘路径。明智的职业咨询师应该审慎对待这类测试，仅仅把它当作众多探索人类奥秘的方式之一来采用。有些咨询师甚至采取了更加理性的步骤：彻底放弃这类测试。在他们看来，人的性格无法规整地划入16种或任何其他具体数量的类别之中：我们是比心理测试所能揭示的更为复杂的生物。

    如果我们不应该依赖性格测试，我们怎样才能探索到一个充实的职业生涯呢？我们不需要追溯至测量颅骨的时期。相反，我们应该重新聆听亚里士多德早在两千多年前就提出的一些有用建议：“你的职业，位于世界的需求和你自身才能的交汇之处。”

    本文作者罗曼•克里兹纳里著有《如何找到理想工作》（皮卡多出版社出版）一书。他是“生活学校”的一名教员。（财富中文网）

    译者：任文科

    Would a change to one of these careers make me more fulfilled? Unlikely, according to psychologist David Pittenger, because there is "no evidence to show a positive relation between MBTI type and success within an occupation … nor is there any data to suggest that specific types are more satisfied within specific occupations than are other types." Pittenger advises "extreme caution in [the MBTI test's] application as a counselling tool." Then why is the MBTI so popular? Its success, he argues, is primarily due to "the beguiling nature of the horoscope-like summaries of personality and steady marketing."

    When I cite the avalanche of critical studies to career counsellors, coaches, and trainers who administer Myers-Briggs tests, they often point out that the test is not designed to match people to ideal careers. Yet many of them ignore the evidence and keep on handing them out, typically because they are still believers in it as a guide to personality types, but sometimes -- I suspect -- because it gives their advice a veneer of legitimacy.

    Personality tests have their uses, even if they do not reveal any scientific truth about us. If we are in a state of confusion, they can be a great emotional comfort. They also raise interesting hypotheses that aid self-reflection: Until I took the MBTI, I had certainly never considered that IT could offer me a bright future (by the way, I apparently have the wrong personality type to be a writer).

    Yet MBTI is not a magic pill that offers a secret path to a dream job. Wise career counsellors should treat such tests with caution, using them as only one of many ways of exploring who you are. Some even take the sensible step of avoiding them altogether, recognizing that human personality does not neatly fall into 16 or any other definitive number of categories: We are far more complex creatures than psychometric tests can ever reveal.

    If we shouldn't rely on personality tests, how can we find a fulfilling career? Let's not go back to skull measuring. Instead, start with some useful advice that Aristotle offered over 2,000 years ago: "Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation."

    Roman Krznaric is the author of How to Find Fulfilling Work, published by Picador, and is a faculty member of The School of Life.