Photo of woman sitting on chair taking self growth test on laptop. — Tests to deepen your self-understanding

The self growth journey

I remember when I really wanted to work on self growth, but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. I wish I’d understood then that self growth was already happening, but sometimes it can be hard to recognize progress! One of the first really meaningful ways I found help early in my self growth journey was through self growth tests like those I’m going to share in this article. I remember taking the Myers Briggs test and thinking, “Oh, I’m not abnormal or somehow wrong or defective; this really helps me to understand myself better.” I was fairly obsessive about it after that, and had many friends take the test and tell me their personality types. Once I knew my friends’ types, I would try to guess people’s types from observation or having them answer a few questions. I actually got pretty good at it!

Now, no personality type can describe everything about a person, but tests like this can be really helpful on the self growth journey. These self growth tests can help you learn new things about yourself (which makes them great for shadow work), confirm things you already know about yourself, and bring together a series of disconnected ideas about who you are. All of these things can be incredibly helpful for self growth! Personality tests are also a fun way to get started with self growth because they’re pretty easy to take and the results can be surprising and even comforting.

Tests for self growth

Here are a few tests that I’ve found helpful for self growth.

Enneagram Test – When you take the Enneagram, you’ll be placed in one of 9 personality types based on the desires and fears that drive you. The Enneagram can help you identify fundamental fears and desires which is helpful for self growth. Perhaps even more helpfully, it also describes ways that you’re likely to respond when stressed (what the Enneagram calls moving toward disintegration) and how you can mature and develop over time by moving in the direction of integration and developing a more well-rounded personality. Once you’ve taken the test, there are plenty of Enneagram resources out there to learn more about your Enneagram type and how you can use your Enneagram type to encourage self growth. I’m a fan of the Enneagram Institute’s resources and The Enneagram in Love and Work: Understanding Your Intimate and Business Relationships by Helen Palmer.
Attachment Style Quiz – This attachment style test is designed to help you understand what your attachment style is (secure, anxious, avoidant, or disorganized). Your attachment style describes how you approach relationships with other people largely based on your early life experiences with caregivers. If relationships are quite difficult or stressful for you, it’s possible your attachment style is anxious, avoidant, or disorganized. Through self growth, you can change your attachment style later in life; and understanding your attachment style is a great first step towards working on more stable and fulfilling relationships. My attachment style was disorganized and knowing this helped me immensely on my self growth journey as I learned how to develop secure attachment. If you want to learn more about attachment theory, take a look at Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find - and Keep – Love by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller.
Myers Briggs Type Indicator – There are 16 Myers Briggs personality types. Your personality type is determined by identifying whether you show a preference for introversion (I) or extroversion (E), intuition (N) or sensing (S), feeling (F) or thinking (T), and judging (J) or perceiving (P). The test at the link is great, but in my opinion the descriptions of the personality types are a bit negative. Once you know your Myers Brigg type, I recommend checking out the descriptions of each personality type here instead. If you want to read about a book Myers Briggs types, take a look at Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type by Isabel Briggs Myers and Peter B. Myers.
Locus of Control Test – The locus of control test will help you explore your beliefs about what is within your control in life and what is outside of your control in life. If you’re interested in learning more about how your locus of control impacts you on your self growth journey, read Choice or Chance: Understanding Your Locus of Control and Why It Matters by Stephen Nowicki.
HEXACO Personality Test – The HEXACO personality test gives test takers a score in 6 broad areas: honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. When you take the HEXACO personality test you’ll also receive a score in 25 facets within the broader 6 dimensions; this includes scores on sincerity, creativity, aesthetic appreciation, and gentleness among others. I just took this one and I found the 25 facets in particular rather interesting.
Emotion Regulation Test – This test will help you evaluate how well you regulate your emotions. Regulating your emotions is the process of effectively responding to emotions as they arise. Not that long ago, I had zero idea that I was not regulating my emotions well. I definitely thought that regulating my emotions meant stuffing them down and not bothering other people with them or causing a scene, and I could effectively do that; however, I was not actually feeling my emotions or helping myself through them. When I learned how to regulate my emotions instead of suppressing them it was life-changing. I wish I had realized sooner that I didn’t know how to regulate my emotions, so I’ve included this self growth test that’s designed to help you evaluate how well you’re regulating emotions. If you’re interested in learning more about emotional regulation, check out The Somatic Toolbox: Guidebook, Exercises & Deep-Dive Workbook Activities with a 28-Day Program to Increase Self-Awareness, Heal Trauma, Release Pent-up Emotions & Stress in Just 15 Minutes a Day by Ashley Wellspring and Samantha Jones.
Big 5 Personality Test – The Big 5 personality test evaluates degrees of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. This is a classic scientific test with a lot of research to back it up, so it’s worth taking to help understand yourself better on your self growth journey. If you want to learn more about the Big 5 personality test check out The Oxford Handbook of the Five Factor Model by Thomas A. Widiger.
Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors (16PF) Test – This personality test for self growth will give you a score on 16 different personality traits: abstractedness, apprehension, dominance, emotional stability, liveliness, openness to change, perfectionism, privateness, reasoning, rule-consciousness, self-reliance, sensitivity, social boldness, tension, vigilance, and warmth. If Cattell’s personality test is helpful to you, check out his book The Scientific Analysis of Personality.
Kiersey Temperament Sorter – When you take the Kiersey Temperament test you’ll be identified as an artisan (composer, crafter, performer, or promoter), guardian (inspector, protector, provider, supervisor), idealist (champion, counselor, healer, teacher), or rational (architect, field marshal, inventor, mastermind). The Kiersey Institute also has helpful resources for understanding your temperament type once you know it. If you like this test for self growth, you can learn more by reading Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence by David Kiersey.

I hope these tests are a fun and meaningful tool on your self growth journey and that you’ve found a test for self growth that spoke to you as much as the Myers Briggs Type test spoke to me on my self growth journey!

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