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Re: Survey of Tech Writing Personality Types

Subject: Re: Survey of Tech Writing Personality Types
From: Michele Marques <msmarques -at- rogers -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2002 11:29:23 -0400


Bruce Byfield wrote:
[With regards to the Meyers-Briggs test that Andrew is polling techwriters on]

In general, I score very close to the middle in all four scores. [...]

In addition, the inevitable assumption in most psychological tests seems
> to be that personality is relatively constant. Yet in Brigg-Meyers
> type tests, which pole I fall into can vary from day to day. From that,
> can only conclude that personality - or at least mine - is much more
> variable than such tests assume. Either that, or they don't measure
> personality so much as mood.

An alternative explanation is that if you score close to the middle on each dimension, then all it takes is a few points in either direction to change your score. These few points may vary with your mood, responses to recent events, or the specific questions being asked to determine your score.

For me, I score close to the middle on two dimensions, but am "moderate" on the other two dimensions. Thus, on two dimensions, I always see the same classifications, while the other two vary more.

Perhaps the classifications would be more useful if a "C" (for "centered")
were used for any score close to the center. For example, Bruce would be a CCCC, while someone else might be ENTC. As a predictor or guidance to you as an individual, it would tell you that you can operate in either manner... and that you can make choices about which tendencies to encourage, if you think it will help you achieve your goals. In research, when trying to categorize along certain dimensions, you would be able to discount people who rank C on that dimension - or would count that as a third possibility. For example, perhaps on the E/I dimension, managers are most likely to be "C".

The one area where I thought Andrew's survey could be improved would be to ask also how long people had been tech writers. For example, maybe most respondents with a particular classification happen to not be managers/team leaders not because of their personality type, but because they are fairly new to the field.

- Michele Marques
msmarques -at- rogers -dot- com
http://members.rogers.com/msmarques






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