From: backpack@access.digex.com (Stuart Reges)
Subject: Scoring Keirsey Temperament Sorter
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, Maryland USA
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1992 06:58:46 GMT

This message explains how to score the Keirsey Temperament Sorter.  I will
apologize in advance for the possibility that I will over-explain.  I don't
mean to insult your intelligence or bore you with unnecessary detail, but I
figure that it's better to err on the side of assuming too little than assuming
too much.

An intelligent person taking this test can't help but notice redundancy.  In
fact, there are only four kinds of questions being asked, each in slightly
different (sometimes not so different) ways.  The test cycles every 7
questions.  It is somewhat easier to score when you write your answers in ten
rows of 7 A's and B's (because then each column is for the same kind of
question), but as I mentioned when I sent out the test, I didn't want to give
away information about its structure, and I thought you were all smart enough
to see this if I had you record your answers this way.  One alternative for
scoring is to copy over your answers into the 10 rows of 7 columns, but I'll
suggest another way that I think works quite well if you wrote it in two rows
of 35 A's and B's, as I suggested.

Suppose your answers look like this:

    BBBBABABABBABABBBABABABBBABABABAABB

    ABBBABBBBBABAAABBBAABABAABABBBAABAB

Draw lines to separate each group of seven A's and B's:

    BBBBABA|BABBABA|BBBABAB|ABBBABA|BABAABB
           |       |       |       |
    ABBBABB|BBBABAA|ABBBAAB|ABAABAB|BBAABAB

Our goal is to determine four numbers that represent your placement in each of
four dimensions.  The numbers vary from 0 to 100.  If you answer all A's for
one of the categories, then you're at the 0% end.  If you answer all B's, then
you're at the 100% end.  If you answer with one-quarter B's, then you're score
is 25%.  Thus, for each category, we need to figure out how many B's there are
(as a percent).

The first category is E/I (Extrovert versus Introvert).  The first question in
each group of 7 is an E/I question.  Thus, go through each of the groups of 7,
crossing out the first A or B and counting how many B's you cross out.  Given
the sample above, you get:

    XBBBABA|XABBABA|XBBABAB|XBBBABA|XABAABB
           |       |       |       |
    XBBBABB|XBBABAA|XBBBAAB|XBAABAB|XBAABAB

I counted 6 B's as I crossed them out.  There are 10 A's and B's total, so 6
out of 10 is 60% (i.e., each B adds 10%).

The second category is S/N (Sensation versus iNtuition).  The second and third
question of each group of 7 are S/N questions.  So go through each group of 7,
but this time cross out 2 letters from each, again keeping track of how many
B's you cross out:

    XXXBABA|XXXBABA|XXXABAB|XXXBABA|XXXAABB
           |       |       |       |
    XXXBABB|XXXABAA|XXXBAAB|XXXABAB|XXXABAB

I counted 16 B's.as I crossed them out.  There are 20 A's and B's total, so 16
out of 20 is 80% (i.e., each B adds 5%).

The third category is T/F (Thinking versus Feeling).  The fourth and fifth
questions of each group are T/F questions.  As in the previous case, cross out
2 at a time from each group, remembering how many B's you cross out:

    XXXXXBA|XXXXXBA|XXXXXAB|XXXXXBA|XXXXXBB
           |       |       |       |
    XXXXXBB|XXXXXAA|XXXXXAB|XXXXXAB|XXXXXAB

That was 9 B's out of 20 A's and B's for a score of 45% (each B again adds 5%).

The final category is J/P (Judging versus Perceiving).  The sixth and seventh
questions of each group are J/P.  As before, cross out 2 from each group and
count the B's:

    XXXXXXX|XXXXXXX|XXXXXXX|XXXXXXX|XXXXXXX
           |       |       |       |
    XXXXXXX|XXXXXXX|XXXXXXX|XXXXXXX|XXXXXXX

That's 11 B's for a score of 55% (again 5% each).

To understand the results, you might want to imagine a graphic equalizer with
4 sliding scales:

Extrovert+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+Introvert
                                             |
                                            60%

Sensation+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+iNtuition
                                                         |
                                                        80%

Thinking +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+Feeling
                                    |
                                   45%

Judging  +-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+Perceiving
                                          |
                                         55%

These raw scores are converted into a personality type by seeing on which side
you fall for each dimension.  For the scores above, the person falls towards
the Introvert side, the iNtuition side, the Thinking side, and the Perceiving
side.  Thus, this person is an I-N-T-P (notice I'm using "N" for "iNtuition"
because "I" stands for "Introvert").

I just typed in a random series of A's and B's for this example, so it's not
surprising that the person ended up towards the middle on 3 of the 4 scales.
But this does point out a general problem with this simplistic way of
categorizing people.  Consider, for example, a person who gets 45/45/55/55
versus a person who gets 55/55/45/45.  The first is an ESFP by this scheme and
the second is an INTJ.  They appear to be opposites, yet in fact they are more
alike than they are to many people in their own group.  This is a fundamental
flaw with the system that I have lots of ideas about how to fix, but
unfortunately Keirsey and Bates did not have those ideas, so we're forced to
live with their system.

It's possible that you will get a score of 50 on one or more dimensions.  In
that case, the standard way to refer to that dimension is "X".  So if you're
50% between E and I and otherwise an NFP, you're neither an ENFP nor an INFP,
you're an XNFP.  The best advice the Keirsey book gives is to read the
descriptions for both and realize that you have elements of each.  Again, this
is a failing of the simplistic way of turning these raw scores into categories.
It's possible to get people who are XXXX's, in which case I suppose they are
supposed to read every personality description and understand that they have
elements of all of them.  :-)


Newsgroups: alt.psychology.personality