Signal Patterns’ Personality Patterns Service – Let’s Play 20 Questions, Or More

Lately, I’ve been researching things like personality traits/worldview and their effect on how we connect with one another. Mashable’s always pimping site invites so this morning I decided to check out a site called Signal Patterns. Signal Patterns claims to be “passionate about helping you learn more about yourself”. Signal has a couple different assessment services. One service is for personality and one is for music. Today I’m focusing on the Personality Patterns service which is also available as a Facebook application.

Personality Patterns take you through a battery of questions to arrive at conclusions about you. How many questions? When I finished the first question the status complete percentage showed 1%, when I finished the second question I noticed 2%, same with the third question – 3%. Can you determine a pattern here? That’s right…there were 100 questions in this personality assessment. I know there are reasons for the number of questions, but it’s not so bad when you consider an assessment like Myers-Briggs or Keirsey. I wonder how accessible a 100 question test is for use in the social space when most people want “instant”. If an examination of your personality would uncover that you have no patience, you’re likely never to find out with a lengthy battery, because you’ll quit before you finish. I think I just amused myself a bit…

After answering all the questions you’re presented with a nice little graph that shows you some “at a glance” insights. From my assessment:

The “More About You” selection produced the following:

Assertive

You behave in a confident and forceful manner, take charge of the situation, raise your hand in class, stand up for what you think is right, and lead others.

You are not interested in fading into the woodwork, leaving everything to fate, taking more time than necessary to accomplish a task, or avoiding confrontation.

Among those who have a high score on the “assertive” trait, many have jobs in which they are valued for their organizational skills as well as their talent for supervising others.

Innovative

You come up with a lot of ideas; if one doesn’t work out, there’s always another waiting in the wings. You often have interesting solutions to difficult problems. You’re practically a one-person brainstorming session.

You are less interested changing the world than in dealing with things as they are. Unlike those who spend all their time trying to solve problems, you prefer to zero in on things that work and
stick with them.

Creative

You are good at solving problems, coming up with original ideas, and seeing connections between things, connections that most other people miss.

You do not shun abstractions and concepts in favor of the concrete and tangible.

People with a high score on the “creative” trait often are employed in such fields as finance and scientific research, and enjoy avant garde and classical music as well as literary fiction and scholarly non-fiction.

Astute

You are a quick study. You generally don’t need to have things explained to you more than once. When presented with a problem, you will often have an instant understanding of where to look for the solution.

You do not take your sweet time when presented with a new task to complete or problem to solve. You don’t avoid assignments that require you to learn new skills.

Intellectual

You are thoughtful, rational, and comfortable in the world of ideas. People find you interesting to talk to. You’re the living embodiment of the saying “You learn something new every day.”

You do not avoid abstract conversation, experimenting with new ideas, or studying new things. It bores you to stick to the straight and narrow of what you already know.

In general, those with a high score on the “intellectual” trait are employed in such fields as teaching and research, and are enthusiastic about reading, foreign films, and classical music.

Accessible

You’re comfortable expressing yourself in words and actions, with no self-censorship. You believe that if someone doesn’t like what they see it’s not your problem, but theirs.

You don’t see the need to keep your thoughts to yourself, or to have a zone of privacy that encompasses only yourself and a small circle of friends and relatives.

A high score on the “accessible” trait suggests that you have a lot of friends, socialize often, and enjoy rap/hip-hop music.

Optimistic

You are a “glass half-full” kind of person, always on the lookout for the silver lining. Your happiness is contagious, which is why others like to be around you.

You do not feel that the world is an intrinsically depressing place; you are not the kind of “realist” who thinks that only fools find joy in life.

Competent

You strive to master everything you undertake. You tend to learn quickly and do not shy away from challenges.

You are not a “que sera sera” type of person, nor do you go easy on yourself when attempting to master a new skill or get a job done.

Empathetic

You are in touch with your own feelings, which helps put you in touch with the feelings of others.

You don’t buy the logic that your happiness comes ahead of everyone else’s because unless you’re happy you’re incapable of making anyone else happy.

Organized

You like to think a task through before you embark on it. If it’s the slightest bit complicated, you make a list (even if it’s only in your mind) and methodically work your way through it. When you have a goal in mind, you’re not satisfied until you reach it.

You are not one of those people who ignore the details, and you don’t understand how anyone can get anything accomplished without thoughtful planning ahead of time.

I’d love to see the negative corollary provided too – you know, the presentment that services like this won’t tell you outright. That would be a hoot! “Lazy, co-dependent, prone to compulsive behavior…”

Anyway, you can also get a stylish (bah) badge to embed on your own sites.

Personality Patterns is one of a handful of social personality assessments starting to surface. I’m banking on seeing more uptake of these services in the coming months and years. There’s an obvious benefit you can add to the social graph heading down this road. I’ll be blogging about behavior and recommendations and their effect on the social graph shortly.

I’ll take a look at Signal’s Music Personality service soon. For now, I’m gonna relax after celebrating these united States’ birthday due to copious BBQ and Jack Daniel’s.

Take the assessment and share your results in my FriendFeed Visualizations room.