Customer Reviews

Psychologist's Book Of Self-tests: 25 Love, Sex, Intelligence, Career, And Personality Tests Developed By Professionals To Reveal The Real You

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

For many years I have enjoyed (and studied, to some degree) personality and psychological tests of various kinds. If you like the idea of getting a whole batch of different psychology tests in ONE book-- rather than having to buy a separate book for EACH test-- then this may be the book for you.

Louis Janda's book is divided into five sections, each containing five tests, under the general headings of "Getting Ahead" (intelligence, work and life experience); "Getting it Together" (Self-esteem and self-image); "Getting Along" (Your intereaction and social style); "Getting Together" (Your relationship styles) and "Getting it on" (Your sexuality and intimacy preferences). There is only the briefest of introductions on how to use the book and the metrics of psychological tests, and at the end of each test Janda includes only a few VERY brief statements about the development of each particular test, and the meaning of your results.

These 25 tests were, indeed, developed by psychologists and researchers, and they certainly have the potential to teach you a thing or two about yourself. However, the nature of this "book of tests" also means that there simply isn't any significant room left over for interpretation of test scores, nor for helping the reader *apply* the information to their own self-growth. As such, I would be happy to recommend the book for someone who's already familiar with psychological testing-- however, if you're just getting *started* on the concept of psychology, I expect this text would leave you with the thoughts "OK, so these are my results. Now what???"

Final thoughts: Recommended (7.5 out of a possible 10 bookmarks), but mainly for those who already have some familiarity with psychology and testing.

This book has some interesting tests to take-- how romantic are you? How much do you know about Sex? How aggressive are you?
I was hoping to learn more about myself by taking these tests. The results on some tests are difficult to calculate. But once you muddle through and find your score - you are not really given a good explanation of what your results mean. It tells me very little about myself that I scored with the top 10 percent of those taking the test. I was hoping for explanations of what my answers say about me. This book lacks any deep thought-provoking explanations about your answers. I was hoping for it to say something about my personality. I was looking for more explanation into who I am based on the results of the tests. This book lacks the "that's interesting" factor from your test results. I was a bit disappointed by that. I took the tests and it seemed to reveal very little about the real me.

This book lacks insight and details. After a given test the author gives you his personal view of the test you just took but doesn't give you an interpretaion of your score results. For instance, who cares if you came in the 85th percentile on the "How Romantic Are You?" test when the author fails to point out whether that means that you are an extreme romantic or an extreme nonromatic. Or if that's a good thing or not. I would not recommend this book to anyone looking to learn more about themselves. The book is mostly fluff with no meat.

Talk about self-responsibility and self-accountability. Here it is folks, a book of tests used by accredited psychologists to help you discover everything, well almost everything about yourself. These personality tests allow you to score or rate yourself and then guide you on how to change what you don't like. It's a step in the right direction and might give your career and love life a much needed boost. There are 25 tests. After you finish this book,look at "How to Master Change" by Mary Carroll Moore and "35 Golden Keys to Who You Are and Why You're Here" by Linda Anderson. Each book is a fine addendum to the other. No excuses now, let's put forth the effort and start getting our lives in order.First the self-tests, then action and transforming ourselves. Success and contentment are within our reach.

I really enjoyed the tests. I work as a freelance consultant in project and change management in Germany and I have taken a lot of tests and seminars around the fields of communications, psychology and so on.

The tests in this book focus on the process of job seeking and general personality traits related to jobs, and - in regard to previous reviews - the tests do not focus on specific content of various jobs (for specific job recommendations I strongly suggest the "MAPP Motivation Appraisal of Personal Potential", which I took in 2003 and 2008 - for comparison reasons).

Janda chose tests from the public domain, which are almost as good or even better as expensive proprietary tests. And there are many tests we never heard of (please search inside for table of contents). Have you ever heard of an "Assertive Job-Hunting Survey"? And this test is very practicable if you use it the other way around as a list of actions recommended to improve (I bought the book 2 months ago, and results are going to come). After each test the score compares your result to the percentile of the population, and Louis Janda gives a balanced and reflected view on how to interpret the test.

I highly recommend Janda's tests! After working Janda's book "Psychologist's Book of Self-Tests: 25 Love, Se, Th: 25 Love, Sex, Intelligence, Career and Personality Tests Developed by Professionals to Reveal the Real You" through I also bought Janda's "Career Tests". Who do not like these tests probably score high on a "TRI Test Reluctancy Inventory", a "FAQ Feedback Aversion Questionnaire", or a "SSS Self-Sabotage Scale" (just kidding).

Tests such as these aren't for everyone. My own wife balks at the very existence of such things, and will not listen to anything I have had to report about my own results--even when they support things she has insisted are true about me! I suggest that anyone seeking to take these (or similar) tests do so 1) privately and 2) with the understanding that they are merely introductions to various aspects of ourselves. Janda regularly offers encouragement for improvement in areas in which we do not place well, and just as regularly cautions against being too proud of a low or high score.

If I had one chief complaint (other than the sometimes obnoxious self-scoring system, what with its reverse-scored questions and all), it is that Janda's explanations are too simple. Referrals to further reading, or more descriptions concerning the included tests, their origins and those of their creators, would help sheath the tests in a veneer of professionalism. As it stands, this book is accessible to people with little familiarity with psychology but not particularly rewarding for those who have subsequent questions.

(Excerpted from my blog review, which can be read in its entirety here: [...]