How To Choose from the Top 10 Personality Tests

Who’s the best and why? – the top 10 Personality Tests Compared with one clear winner!

Buckle up for a comparative overview of the newest online personality test, trait inventory, and skills assessment — the highly accurate Authentic Behavior Contrast (ABContrast.com) versus the top 10 most popular personality test models. The ABContrast easily and clearly distinguishes itself by focusing on authentic behavior across six key dimensions (areas), providing a flexible and tailored approach for individuals, teams, and coaches. Let’s compare it to these major models:

1. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

• • Focus: MBTI divides individuals into 16 personality types based on four dichotomies: Introversion/Extroversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving.
  • Strengths: It’s a popular tool for understanding how people make decisions and interact with the world.
  • Limitations: MBTI often feels rigid, reducing complex human behavior into static categories.
  • ABContrast Comparison: ABContrast offers 49 total personality types derived from the pairing of its five main types. This structure provides more granularity than MBTI’s 16 types, offering a more dynamic view of behavior across various contexts, with a focus on just how communication and influence play into relationships and teamwork ​(Authentic Behavior Contrast)​.

2. DISC Personality Test

• • Focus: The DISC model categorizes people into four main traits: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness.
  • Strengths: Highly practical for workplace communication and team-building.
  • Limitations: Oversimplifies complex behavior by focusing on only four main types.
  • ABContrast Comparison: While DISC uses four sets of behavioral traits, the ABContrast system stems from five primary personality types (each are combinations of the 4 Authentic Behavior directions), resulting in 49 total types in each of the 6 areas. This broader spectrum allows for a deeper understanding of behavioral nuances, making ABContrast more comprehensive for both personal and professional insights.

3. Big Five Personality Traits (OCEAN)

• • Focus: The Big Five framework assesses personality across five dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.
  • Strengths: Well-researched and empirically validated.
  • Limitations: Primarily used for academic or research purposes rather than practical team-building.
  • ABContrast Comparison: ABContrast builds on the concept of five core types plus pairings, creating 49 unique types through the interplay of these traits, allowing for a more detailed and practical application in both personal and professional settings ​(Authentic Behavior Contrast). It offers actionable insights for teams, coaches, and individuals, which the Big Five lacks in its real-world application.

1. 4. Enneagram

• • Focus: Divides people into nine types, each based on core fears, desires, and motivations.
  • Strengths: Deeply introspective, focusing on inner motivations.
  • Limitations: Less structured and harder to quantify in practical terms.
  • ABContrast Comparison: ABContrast provides a more structured approach with its 49 types, which are combinations of its 4 directions, to cover widely ranging behaviors and motivations across six areas of personality testing. It balances the heart of the introspective nature of Enneagram with actionable, practical insights, particularly around how communication and influence are demonstrated in our relationships and teamwork efforts.

5. StrengthsFinder (Clifton Strengths)

• • Focus: Identifies a person’s top strengths across 34 themes, useful for professional development.
  • Strengths: Helps individuals focus on their strengths and leverage them for career success.
  • Limitations: Does not address weaknesses or other key behavioral traits.
  • ABContrast Comparison: ABContrast provides a more holistic assessment, exploring both strengths and shortcomings for improvement through its 4 directions, 5 main types, and 6 areas. It goes beyond merely identifying a person’s advantageous tendencies and traits, offering a broader understanding of behavior and how it affects communicated influences in relationships and teamwork ​(Authentic Behavior Contrast).

6. FIRO-B

• • Focus: Assesses interpersonal needs in terms of Inclusion, Control, and Affection.
  • Strengths: Helps improve team dynamics by understanding social interactions.
  • Limitations: Narrow focus on just social interactions, without covering broader personality traits.
  • ABContrast Comparison: The 6 areas of the ABContrast incorporate the identification of broader behavioral patterns across communication, influence, relationship, and teamwork collaborations. This makes it more versatile than FIRO-B in family, social, and professional contexts.

7. HEXACO Personality Inventory

• • Focus: Expands on the Big Five model by adding a sixth dimension, Honesty-Humility.
  • Strengths: Provides an additional moral dimension to personality.
  • Limitations: Primarily academic, with limited practical application in coaching or teamwork.
  • ABContrast Comparison: ABContrast provides not just an additional trait but a comprehensive 4 direction, 6 area, 49-type system that balances academic rigor with real-world application. Its practical use in coaching, team-building, and leadership development sets it apart from HEXACO ​(Authentic Behavior Contrast).

8. 16 Personalities

• • Focus: A simplified version of MBTI combined with the Big Five, offering 16 personality types.
  • Strengths: Free and widely accessible, making it a popular choice for casual users.
  • Limitations: Based on MBTI, it inherits similar critiques regarding its oversimplification.
  • ABContrast Comparison: The ABContrast system expands personality to 6 areas, each with 49 types, offering more nuanced insights into behavior, especially when it comes to how communication and influence unfold in relationships and teamwork. Its flexibility in team-building and professional applications makes it a better tool for in-depth assessments compared to the 4 x 4 grid of types from 16Personalities.

9. Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)

• • Focus: Primarily measures traits related to workplace performance, with a strong focus on leadership.
  • Strengths: Excellent for professional development and predicting job performance.
  • Limitations: Focuses mainly on work-related behavior, with less emphasis on personal development or interpersonal relationships.
  • ABContrast Comparison: While Hogan is specialized for the workplace, the ABContrast’s “49-types in each of 6 areas” system extends well beyond just professional behavior, offering insights into both personal and work-related dynamics. It is equally useful for leadership, team dynamics, and individual growth ​(Authentic Behavior Contrast).

10. TAT (Thematic Apperception Test)

• • Focus: A projective test that uses ambiguous images to explore a person’s underlying motives and emotions.
  • Strengths: Offers deep psychological insights into a person’s unconscious mind.
  • Limitations: Requires professional interpretation and is time-consuming.
  • ABContrast Comparison: ABContrast is more user-friendly and accessible, offering a data-driven, structured approach that doesn’t mandate professional analysis, although there’s high value added in this approach. As described vs. the other top 10 personality tests, it provides actionable insights into behavior and motivation, making it a practical alternative for personal and professional use.

Conclusion: A Holistic and Practical Approach by the Authentic Behavior Contrast

ABContrast.com offers a highly comprehensive and flexible framework with 49 total personality types, derived from five primary types and their pairings. Keep in mind that each of these types is its own unique combination of the Authentic Behavior Contrast directions (Forward, Reserved, Practical and Interpersonal), and that the ABContrast outpaces all other personality tests with its accuracy focused data collection method and 6 application areas (Contemplation, Connection, Command, Cooperation, Closeness and Contribution). Compared to traditional models like MBTI, DISC, and the Big Five, the ABContrast provides more detailed and actionable insights, especially in the realms of communication, influence, and interpersonal dynamics. This makes it an excellent tool for both personal growth and professional development, offering a level of depth and usefulness that many other personality models lack.

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ABContrast.com is the brainchild of Adam L. Janowski, a specialist in personality assessment and behavioral analysis. His work focuses on understanding human behavior through a scientific lens, and his methodology is based on a concept he calls “AUTHENTOLOGY.” This approach studies authentic human nature, individual preferences, and personality perspectives.

Janowski’s system goes beyond traditional personality models by offering a deeper, multi-dimensional understanding of behavior. His 49-type framework stems from five core personality types and their pairings, offering a more granular view of human interactions than traditional models like MBTI or DISC. His vision is to provide a tool that balances rigorous scientific inquiry with practical applications in personal growth, team dynamics, and leadership coaching.

By creating ABContrast, Adam L. Janowski has made his unique approach to personality assessment accessible to a wide range of users, from individuals seeking personal development to organizations looking to enhance team cohesion. His system offers a structured yet flexible platform that adapts to the complex nature of human behavior, making it more versatile than other longstanding personality test models.

Janowski’s belief in the value of exhibiting authenticity and his dedication to a truly innovative framework set the ABContrast apart from traditional personality assessment tools, making it a valuable resource for anyone looking to understand themselves and others at a truly deep level.