Self Assessment

Self-Assessment Resources

Self-assessments and screening tools are not a substitute for actual professional advice. These tools do NOT provide a diagnosis. Please contact a qualified healthcare professional for any needed care and advice. Neither Louisburg College nor the suppliers of the self-assessments accept any responsibility for decisions made based upon the use of these tools.

Self-Assessment Tests
Additional Online Resources
Mental Health Websites

Self-Assessment Tests

These free tests all range from self-diagnostic psychiatric screening tests to academic research projects gathering data online. Other tests are enticements to pay for further services (books or web site memberships) and some are labeled "for entertainment only." Listed below are the free online tests I consider the best (or, in a few cases, most revealing of common problems in test construction). Each includes feedback about how to interpret results. No personal data is recorded by these sites unless otherwise indicated.

Addictiveness: Phelps-Nourse Addictiveness Test
Interesting. Starts out asking about sugar intake and moves on to signs of depression of alcohol abuse, ends up giving you a score which indicates your addictive potential.
Alienation Test
By C. George Boeree. 30-item test measures a person's sense of meaninglessness and estrangement from work and society.
Anxiety: The Computer Anxiety Scale: Cohen & Waugh
This is a good example of a test which is very "transparent"...the items are so very straightforward that one could probably ask a person "Do computers make you anxious?" and get an equally valid result.
Anxiety: State Anxiety Inventory by Spielberger
A test used in much research by Spielberger, an ex-president of the American Psychological Association, and others. Like the previous few, it is transparent, but it is aimed at assessing a person's current state, not a lasting trait, therefore ostensibly it is more useful for before-and-after comparisons in therapy research.
Attachment Style Questionnaire
"Experiences in Close Relationships" questionnaire diagnoses your attachment style. After completing the test you get a good discussion of its implications with links for finding out more. They collect some personal data like age, marital status, ethnicity and nationality, so this data might be used in research, but they do not ask for names or other detailed identifying data.
Defensive Pessimism Questionnaire: Julie Norem
"Defensive pessimists lower their expectations to help prepare themselves for the worst. Then they mentally play through all the bad things that might happen. Though it sounds as if it might be depressing, defensive pessimism actually helps anxious people focus away from their emotions so that they can plan and act effectively." Quick checklist verifies your self-diagnosis.
Depression: Goldberg Depression Inventory
"This scale is not designed to make a diagnosis of depression or take the place of a professional diagnosis." But it does tell you the extent to which you report symptoms typical of depression. Like the other screening tests on this page, it is transparent.
Depression Screening Test: National Mental Health Association
A quick, confidential, totally transparent test for symptoms of depression.
Emotional Intelligence: Turknett Leadership Group Emotional Intelligence Quiz
Interesting. Asks about how you relate to others and your organization, then gives you feedback about your virtues or how you might have to adjust your behavior in leadership situations. Compares your results to group averages.
Homophobia Scale from PBS
This is a test for irrational hatred of homosexuals. It has been used in research and is accompanied by a discussion of the issue.
IQ Test Lab
This 15 minute multiple-choice test can only be taken once from a particular computer, requires personal information, and uses a password to give your results.
Locus of Control: Rotter
This is based on classic work, but I am including it here mostly as a negative example. The test requires forced choice decisions when the truth might be "in between." (For example, are bad grades deserved, or are tests unfair? The most accurate answer would be, "It depends on the situation.") Most free online tests have not been subjected to validity testing which can justify test design by showing the results match well with independent ways of measuring the same thing. Absent such evidence, a better way to capture people's true opinions is to use Likert scales (multi-point rating scales, e.g. asking for ratings on a 5- or 7-point scale) because one can take the middle position as a compromise between opposites.
Mania Inventory - Goldberg Mania Inventory by Ivan Goldberg, M.D.
This is a transparent test for the manic phase of the bipolar disorder.
Morality Test
"...Assesses your moral attitudes, particularly as they relate to your religious and cultural background. By "moral" we mean those aspects of thought and behavior that relate to commonly accepted notions of right and wrong, and to selfish and unselfish actions." Appears aimed at determining whether conventional religiosity correlates with moral positions as defined by the test-maker.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Screening
Another transparent screening test, this one for OCD...basically a list of symptoms.
Personality Inventory Survey (Big Five)
Get a personality profile using the "big five" traits found to be most discriminative of personality differences. By William Revelle. Well done, efficient, with good feedback. Most items drawn from IPIP but some "experimental" ones added.
Personality: IPIP-NEO (International Personality Item Pool) (Big Five)
This site offers both the original (40-60 min) and shortened (15-25 min) versions of a test aimed at profiling your personality using the big five personality traits. Adapted from Goldberg's IPIP by John A. Johnson, PhD. Compare the results to Revelle's test for your own validity check.
Personality: Kiersey Temperament Sorter
Based on Jungian personality typology; requires registration, e-mail address for password to take test
Personality: Sheldon's Body Types
A test based on the 1940ish theory by Sheldon relating body type to three personality types: viscerotonia, somatotonia, and cerebrotonia. By C. George Boeree. This is just for fun; Sheldon's theory is no longer taken seriously.
Personality Type A/B: Jenkins
A "modified version of the Jenkins Activity Survey" from 1971. Find out whether you would be rated a Type A or Type B personality, or somewhere in between. Alas, they do not tell you the original type A/B construct fell apart when later research failed to replicate the original findings linking Type A to heart attacks. (Cynicism proved more predictive than time-urgency or activity level.) Therefore this test, while fun, illustrates the dangers of reification...treating a psychological construct as concrete and real, just because you can construct a test to measure it, when the "thing" being measured may not even exist as a meaningful psychological trait.
PersonalityQuiz.net
"Gain insight into your personality the fun way! A variety of short personality tests that attempt to analyze your personality by interpreting your reactions to various events."
Shyness: Henderson/Zimbardo Shyness Questionnaire
Find your "ShyQ" or how shy you are. Results are provided immediately and compared with aggregated data from web participants.