Personality Test

[W.I.F.T.S.]

This is a personality test called the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale. I'm going to post it in sections, have a go. The results were quite surprising to me.

For each of these statements say whether you Agree Strongly, Agree Slightly, Neutral, Disagree Slightly or Disagree Strongly. You should answer how you feel most of the time and not think too much about your answer.

1. Criticism will obviously upset the person who recieves the criticism.

2. It is best to give up my own interests in order to please other people.

3. I need other's approval in order to be happy.

4. If someone important to me expects me to do something, then I really should do it.

5. My value as a person depends greatly on what others think of me.

I'll post the results tomorrow, plus the next set of questions.

Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.

[pips]

Thanks for that.

Ooops I agreed a bit much me thinks! LOL

Take Care,

Love Pip's X X

Pippa.

[W.I.F.T.S.]

Write down your answers and I'll give you a way of scoring it tomorrow, plus the next section.

Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.

[net]

that was good but scary
i was like pips i think i agreed too much

looking forward to next section

netty


the dreams of the future are better than the history of the past

[Coni]

Yep, I agreed with them all too! Looking forward to the next part.

Coni X

[W.I.F.T.S.]

Ok, so with the previous set of questions, for each one that you said Agree Strongly score -2, Agree Slightly score -1, Neutral 0, Disagree Slightly +1, Disagree Strongly +2. Add you score up. For example mine was -2+0-2-2-2= -8.

Results: The first five attitudes on the DAS test probe your tendency to measure your self-esteem based on how people react to you and what they think of you. A positive score between zero and ten indicates you are independent, with a healthy sense of your own worth even when confronted with criticism and disapproval. A negative score between zero and minus ten indicates you are excessively dependent because you evaluate yourself through other people's eyes. If someone insults you or puts you down , you automatically tend to look down on yourself. Since your emotional well-being is exquisitely sensitive to what you imagine people think of you, you can be easily manipulated, and you are vulnerable to anxiety and depression when others criticise you or are angry with you.

Next set of questions, again answer agree strongly, agree slightly...etc.

1. I cannot find happiness without being loved by another person.

2. If others dislike you, you are bound to be less happy.

3. If people whom I care about reject me, it means there is something wrong with me

4. If a person I love does not love me, it means I am unloveable

5. Being isolated from others is bound to lead to unhappiness

let me know how you scored. I guess we're all roughly the same.



Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.

[net]

i got -9

is the scoring the same for the second one cos if it is i got -8

netty


the dreams of the future are better than the history of the past

[Coni]

I got -10 first time and -9 for the second one. Is that good or bad?

Coni X

[W.I.F.T.S.]

There are about 6 sections all together. Just score them the same and try to be honest. I included a 'results' section in my previous post which explains what your score for the first set of questions means.

Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.

[W.I.F.T.S.]

Ok, Hope you're following this. Here are the results for yesterday:

The five questions assess your tendency to base your worth on whether or not you are loved. A positive score indicates that you see love as desirable, but you have a wide range of other interests you also find gratifying and fulfilling. Hence, love is not a requirement for your happiness or self-esteem. People are likely to find you attractive because you radiate a healthy sense of self-love and are interested in many aspects of living.

A negative score indicates you are a "love junkie". You see love as a "need" without which you cannot survive, much less be happy. The closer your score is to minus ten, the more dependent on love you are. You tend to adopt inferior, put-down roles in relationships with people you care about for fear of alienating them. the result of this, more often than not, is that they lose respect for you and consider you a burden because of your attitude that without their love you would collapse. As you sense that people drift away from you, you become gripped by a painful, terrifying withdrawal syndrome. you realise you may not be able to "shoot up" with your daily dose of affection and attention. You then become consumed by the driving compulsion to "get love". Like most "junkies", you may even resort to coercive, manipulative behaviour to get your "stuff". Ironically, your needy, greedy love addiction drives many people away, thus intensifying your loneliness.

That is me to a t. I scored -9 on this section!!! here are the next set of questions:

1. If I am to be a worthwhile person, i must be truly outstanding in atleast one major respect.

2. I must be a useful, productive, creative person or life has no purpose.

3. People who have good ideas are more worthy than those who do not.

4. If I do not do as well as other people, it means I am inferior.

5. If I fail in my work then I am a failure as a person.

Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.

[Coni]

Oh a big yes to all of these!!!

Coni X

[W.I.F.T.S.]

Results for yesterday:

Your score on the previous quaetions help you to measure a different typ of addiction. A negative score indicates you are a workaholic. You have a constricted sense of your own humanity, and you see yourself a s a commodity in the marketplace. The more negative your score, the more your sense of self-worth and your capacity for joy are dependent on your productivity. If you go on vacation, if your business slumps, if you retire or become ill and inactive, you will be in danger of an emotional crash. Economic and emotional depressions will seem identical to you. A positive score, in contrast, indicates that you enjoy creativity and productivity, but do not see them as an exclusive or necessary road to self-esteem and satisfaction.

I scored -9 on this section. The frustrating thing for me is that I'll go into work at 2 pm and the people there will tell you that I'm lazy rather than a workaholic! Although, they don't know that I get up at 7.30 am or earlier and go swimming, that I spend my mornings and weekends volunteering or that my energy and motivation is severly depleted because I'm depressed. I do definitely base my sense of self-worth on achievement- if I'm not in the process of advancing my status or gaining some experience to add to my cv then I'm wasting time!! I say to myself "I'll be happy when I achieve this" or "I'll be more confident when I've done that".

Here's the next set of questions. By the way, keep a track of your scores. It seems like we're all getting very negative scores in all of these sections so far and that is probably the biggest reason why we're depressed.

1. If you cannot do something well, there is little point in doing it at all.

2. It is shameful for a person to display his/her weaknesses.

3. A person should try to be the best at everything he undertakes.

4. I should be upset if I made a mistake.

5. If I don't set the highest standards for myself I am likely to end up a second-rate person.

Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.

[W.I.F.T.S.]

The previous set of questions were about Perfectionism. Here are the results:

A negative score indicates you are hooked on finding the holy grail. You demand perfection is yourself - mistakes are taboo, failure is worse than death, and even negative emotions are a disaster. You're supposed to look, feel, think and behave superbly at all times. You sense that being less than spectatular means burning in the flames of hell. Although you drive yourself at an intense pace, your satisfactions are meagre. Once you do achieve your goal, another more distant goal instantly replaces it, so you never experience the reward of getting to the top of the mountain. Eventually you begin to wonder why the promised pay off from all your effort never materialises. Your life becomes a joyless, tedious treadmill. You are living with unrealistic, impossible personal standards, and you need to reevaluate tehm. Your problem does not lie in your performance, but in the yardstick you use to measure it. If you bring your expectations in line with ability, you will be regularly pleased and rewarded instead of frustrated.

A positive score suggests you have the capacity to set meaningful, flexible, appropriate standards. You get great satisfaction from process and experiences, and you are not exclusively fixated on outcomes. You don't have to be outstanding at everything, and you don't always have to "try your best". You don't fear mistakes, but you see them as golden opportunities to learn and to endorse your humanity. Paradoxically, you are likely to be much more productive than your perfectionist associates because you do not become compulsively preoccupied with detail and correctness. Your life is like a flowing river or geyser compared with your rigid perfectionsit friends who appear more like icy glaciers.

I scored -8. That really does describe me exactly!

the next section is called Entitlement.

1. If I strongly believe I deserve something, I have reason to expect that I should get it

2. It is necessary to become frustrated if you find obstacles to getting what you want

3. If I put other people's needs before my own, they should help me when I need something from them

4. If I am a good husband (or wife), then my spouse is bound to love me

5. If I do nice things for someone, I can anticipate that they will respect me and treat me just as well as I treat them

Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.

[net]

i got a plus
nearly fainted with shock

it was only a +1
then i got -2

netty


the dreams of the future are better than the history of the past

[Ross]

A) -1
B) -10
C) -10
D) -1
E) +5

Seems I am bit of a mixture with these results.


------------------------------------------------
Is There Really Gravity, Or Does Earth Just Suck?

[W.I.F.T.S.]

Two sections left!

Here are the results from the last section:

Entitlement: A negative score indicates that you feel "entitled" to things- success, love, happiness etc. You expect and demand that your wants be met by other people and by the universe at large because of your inherent goodness or hard work. When this does not happen - as is often the case- you are locked in to one of two reactions. Either you feel depressed and inadequate or you become irate. Thus, you consume enormous amounts of energy being frustrated, sad or mad. Much of the time you see life as a sour, rotten experience. You complain loudly and often, but you do little to solve problems. After all, you're entitled to have them solved, so why should you have to put in any effort? as a result of your bitter, demanding attitudes, you invariably get far less of what you want from life.

A positive score suggests you don't feel automatically entitled to things, so you negotiate for what you want and often get it. Because of your awareness that other people are unique and different, you realise there is no inherent reason why things should always go your way. You experience a negative outcome as a disappointment but not a tragedy because you are a percentage player, and you don't expect perfect reciprocity or "justice" at all times. You are patient and persistent, and you have high frustration tolerance. As a result, you often end up ahead of the pack.

Next questions:

Omnipotence

1. I should assume responsibility for how people feel and behave if they are close to me

2. If I criticise the way someone does something and they become angry or depressed, this means I have upset them

3. To be a good, worthwhile, moral person, i must try to help everyone who needs it.

4. If a child is having emotional or behavioural difficulties, this shows that the childs parents have failed in some important respect

5. I should be able to please everybody

I scored -6 on entitlement, although the description again seems to sum me up perfectly and I got -7 on the set of questions that I've just posted.



Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.

[net]

i got a -1 for that

netty


the dreams of the future are better than the history of the past

[W.I.F.T.S.]

Results- The previous questions measure your tendency to see yourself as the centre of your personal universe and to hold yourself responsible for much of what goes on around you. A negative score indicates you often make the personalisation error. You blame yourself inappropriately for the negative actions and attitudes of others who are not really under your control. Consequently, you are plagued by guilt and self-condemnation. Paradoxically, the attitude that you should be omnipotent and all-powerful cripples you and leaves you anxious and ineffectual.

A positive score, in contrast, indicates you know the joy that comes from accepting that you are not the centre of the universe. Since you are not in control of other adults, you are not ultimately responsible for them, but only yourself. This attitude does not isolate you from others. Quite the opposite is true. You relate to people effectively as a friendly collaborator, and you are not threatened when they disagree with your ideas or fail to follow your advice. Because your attitude gives people a sense of freedom and dignity, you paradoxically become a human magnet. Others often want to be close to you because you have relinquished any attempt to control them. People frequently listen to you and respect your ideas because you do not polarise them with an angry insistence that they must agree with you. as you give up your drive for power, people repay you by making you a person of influence. Your relatiosnhips with your children and friends and associates are charaterised by mutuality instead of dependecy. because you don't try to dominate people, they admire, love and respect you.

This makes sense to me too, especially with relationships. I can be very dependent and I blame myself if my girlfriend is in a mood. If something gets stolen, I feel quilty even though I know that I didn't steal it! I scored -7 for this section.

Final set of questions:

Autonomy

1. I cannot expect to control how I feel when something bad happens

2. There is no point in trying to change upsetting emotions because they are a valid and inevitable part of daily living

3. My moods are primarily created by factors that are largely beyond my control, such as the past, or body chemistry, or hormone cycles, or biorythms, or chance, or fate.

4. My happiness is largely dependent on what happens to me

5. People who have the marks of success (good looks, social status, wealth or fame) are bound to be happier than those who do not

Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.

[W.I.F.T.S.]

Here are the final set of results:

Autonomy- this refers to your ability to find happiness within yourself. A positive score indicates that all your moods are ultimately the children of your thoughts and attitudes. You assume responsibility for your feelings because you recognise that they are ultimately created by you. This sounds as if you might be lonely and isolated because you reallise that all meanings and feelings are created ultimately in your head. Paradoxically, however, this vision of autonomy frees you from the petty confines of your mind and delivers the world to you with a full measure of all the satisfaction, mystery and excitement that it can offer.

A negative score suggests that you are still trapped in the belief that your potential for joy and self-esteem comes from the outside. this puts you at a great disadvantage of course because everything outside is ultimately beyond your control. Your moods end up the victims of external factors. Do you want this? If not, you can eventually free yourself from this attitude as srely as a snake sheds it's skin, but you will have to work at it. When it's finally your turn to experience the transformation to autonomy and personal responsibility, you will be amazed- or awestruck- or pleased- or delightfully overwhelmed. It's well worth a major personal commitment.

How did you get on? Here's my scores:

Approval -8
Love -9
Achievement -9
Perfectionism -8
Entitlement -6
Omnipotence -7
Autonomy -7

I guess the idea isn't to score perfect tens, but to move towards the positive end of the scale. I know for sure that perfectionism, love (dependency) and achievement are major issues for me.

Obviously, I scored very badly in all of the categories, so no wonder I'm depressed. I've found it very enlightening because it's helped me to pinpoint faults in my thinking. Using techniques discussed in the 'Feeling Good' book by David Burns I hope to try and put them right.

It's a good read and thoroughly recommended.

What does everyone think of the test?

Ships in harbour are safe..but that's not what ships were built for.