Posted by Hal on January 05, 1999 at 14:44:33:
In Reply to: My testresult - bewildered. posted by Rasmus, Sweden on December 28, 1998 at 16:20:22:
: I had a one day lecture on Enneagrams - in my own eyes I pin pointed myself down as a SEVEN. With quite alot of 8 and 4.
: BUT when dooing the TEST over the net I was surprised.
: Equal high marks at 1,3,5 and as close seconds 4,7,8 (only 20% lower). I am definitly not 2,6,9.
: I did the test three times with different attitudes towards the questions 1)Who I feel I am 2) Who I was two years ago 3) What i imagine people think of me.
: So if you know alot about enneagrams could you comment on my results.
: How good is the test??
: Why so many equal results?
: Rasmus - Sweden
: PS As an answer to a question asked to me earlier. Swedish people are generally very well educated, as a country we are liberal and as parents I would say quite consious when it comes to what uppbringing does with personality.
I recently had my mom and two of my brothers take the RHETI, and I was quite surprised by their scores. They came out with very few high scores, and quite a few low ones. When I have taken the test, I have a couple of relatively high scores and many middle-of-the-road ones; I only score below average in type 7. It seems that some people are very identified with only one or two types, while some of us really have aspects of many types in our personalities.
I find that the test can be a good guideline and starting point for determining your type, but it is not foolproof my any means. You can't automatically assume that your highest score is your type, for example. Reading the type descriptions, enneagram books, etc., and discovering things about yourself can help you figure out what your main motivations are. This is one area where the test has some problems--it's very difficult to ask questions about your motivations (and sometimes difficult to answer them) so many of the questions ask about behavior instead. Since the enneagram is trying to measure motivation and not behavior, it can't be entirely accurate this way.
From just your scores, it's difficult to say what type you are. As you've seen, you score highly in types that are quite different from each other. Learning more about the enneagram can help you understand how all the different type relate to each other, and introspection can help you see how all these aspects play out within yourself. If you keep searching, I'm sure you'll find some answers.
- Hal -