14 Personality Tests You Should Know in 2023
14 Personality Tests You Should Know About in 2023
In 2023, there are thousands of Personality and self-development tests and assessments available. Completing these tests is now a common experience for students, corporate workers, and organizational leaders.
The goal of these instruments is monumental: Improve interpersonal relationships, communication, and self-awareness.
The tools on this list will never completely accomplish these goals. That’s impossible.
Instead, Personality Type and self-development assessments are a single step in a person’s journey of becoming more self-aware. When used correctly, these instruments can facilitate meaningful conversations that bring people closer together, and provide a clearer picture of who we are.
There are many assessment tools available that approach these goals in nuanced ways. This article was written as a resource to help anyone who is starting the task of finding tools that are designed for personal and professional development.
This article is broken out into the following sections:
Full disclosure, our organization represents and sells some assessments on this list. We will indicate which assessments we sell for transparency. We do not represent or benefit from listing the other tools in this article.
What do Personality Tests measure?
Personality assessments attempt to describe who we are.
It’s a formalized assessment for something that we do informally every day.
For example, we talk about how our new neighbor is very chatty. We might describe a co-worker as intense and controlling and our other co-worker as carefree and relaxed. We talk about how our new boss is quiet and reserved, while our last boss was outgoing and dynamic.
Trying to identify traits and one’s relationship with the world has been questioned for thousands of years. Humanity has survived due to our sociability. Being curious about traits and behaviors helps us to become more social.
In ancient Greece, Aristotle tried to make sense of personality by identifying four humors he felt managed our moods:
- Blood
- Phlegm
- Yellow bile
- Black Bile
It was thought that any sudden changes in our moods were due to an imbalance in the fluids of our bodies.
Today, because of advances in psychology we have a better understanding of ‘self’ and personality. While our biology affects our behaviors (i.e. being hungry), our personality is developed through our experiences and interactions.
The modern assessments that we are used to today were developed in the 1950s. Researchers seeking to understand how to identify what person would match certain positions found that certain clusters of adjectives created different personality types.
Personality types aren’t meant to pigeonhole; humans are complex, and our personality is constantly changing based on our life experiences. Instead, these tests offer a snapshot of our most pronounced and identifying traits. They describe who we are most like on any given day.
Some tests go further, primarily when used for employment/selection assessments, by measuring cognitive or thinking abilities.
These snapshots allow us to understand how the world sees us. Alternatively, it also helps us understand others around us.
Why are there so many different types of personality assessments?
- Openness to experience (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious)
- Conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs. extravagant/careless)
- Extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved)
- Agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. critical rational)
- Neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. resilient/confident)
This trait isn’t shown outright during a DiSC personality assessment.
Instead, it’s embedded in two different styles that include other traits. If a person has the i-Style, they are extroverted. If a person has the C-Style, they are introverted.
Most Popular Assessments in 2023
In 2022, we contacted assessment providers to learn which assessments are the most used. The list is weighted with the most popular assessments at the top. For assessments that we couldn’t find the amount of usage, we used Google Trends to identify interest.
- Used by over 2 million learners each year.
- Background: Created in the 1950s by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katharine Briggs.
- Used over 100 million times and is available in 30 languages.
- Background: NERIS Analytics Limited publishes the 16 Personalities test. This test uses the acronym format introduced by Myers-Briggs with an extra letter to accommodate the five scales based on the Big Five Personality traits.
Don Clifton created Clifton Strengths Finder. From the 1970s through the 1980s, Clifton developed selection assessments to identify a candidate’s core traits and match them to the needs of a given position and the organization’s culture.
In 1988, Clifton merged his assessment company, Selection Research Inc. (SRI), with Gallup which is when he changed his model from a selection assessment to a personal development assessment.
- Used by over 2 million people each year.
- Manager and Leadership focused development content
- Over 1 million people complete an Everything DiSC Profile each year.
- Everything DiSC is migrating towards a learning platform where learners continue to engage in their learning versus a single learning event.
Dalio wrote his insights into a New York Times bestseller called Principles. In his book, Dalio outlined how he sought to rely more on data for making management, organizational, and hiring decisions. PrinciplesUs is the finalized assessment product that any organization can use through a subscription.
- Over 1 million people completed the assessment within the first 8 months of it being released.
- The assessment is part of a platform that integrates with Zoom and other professional service software.
Hogan has a strong foundation in pre-employment screening and also leadership development.
- One million assessments are processed every year.
- The assessment is available in over 40 languages.
The Birkman assessment is primarily used for leadership and team development. There is a separate assessment for hiring and selection.
- Millions of people have used the assessment since it’s inception over 70 years ago.
- One of the few assessment providers to offer an assessment for neurodivergent populations.
The Caliper Profile is an assessment used to predict ‘on-the-job’ potential. Caliper was founded in 1961 by Herbert Greenberg and David Mayer when they were asked to help better select effective insurance sales agents.
Today, Caliper’s assessments can be used for the entire life cycle of an employee, including selection, development, promotion, team building, and succession planning.
- 4.5 Million assessments have been used since it’s inception.
Predictive Index was founded over six decades ago by Arnold Daniels. Daniels was a flight navigator, and the U.S. military was studying his unit so they could understand why their unit was so successful. This was Daniel’s first introduction to psychometric testing and it became a lifelong passion.
Predictive Index was founded in 1952 and has gone through 500 validation studies. Predictive Index began as a hiring and selection assessment, but today it now offers reports for talent development.
- Currently being used by over 10,000 organizations worldwide
PXT Select was started in 1991 under the name of Profiles International. In 2014, Profiles International merged with John Wiley & Sons. After the merger, Profiles International’s flagship product, Profile XT was re-developed as PXT Select.
PXT is different from other selection assessments that measure personality because it also measures cognitive/thinking ability.
- Millions of candidates have used PXT Select since it was since its inception.
*We are an authorized vendor for PXT Select.
Core Strengths is the original personality assessment that used colors to help people understand themselves and others. Over 5 million people have completed the assessment.
Today, the assessment is tied into a learning platform that allows additional learning opportunities.
EQ-i 2.0 is one of the top best-selling Emotional Intelligence assessments. Published by Multi-Health Systems (MHS), EQ-i 2.0 has been used by tens of thousands of individuals from every industry. Additionally, EQ-i 2.0 was mentioned specifically as one of the top assessments by Fortune Magazine for emotional intelligence.
A large part of our personality is not just how we behave, but why engage in our behaviors. The ‘why’ is answered when we discover our motivational index.
The Motivators assessment has been used by tens of thousands of individuals.
AQai is a new assessment that measures abilities, characteristics, and environmental factors that impact an individual’s success. This assessment sheds light on an area that is increasingly becoming more necessary; adaptability. This assessment has had tens of thousands of people complete an assessment. The assessment publisher has a goal of having 100 million people complete the assessment by 2030.