Testing the Waters of PLNs with Personality Tests

Professional and personal learning networks, also known as PLNs, can be an invaluable source of connection and growth for anyone in any field. As a KidSpace Associate in the field of library science, I decided it would be fun to explore how my PLN cultivates growth. Additionally, we'll explore the nuanced ways that my PLN intersects with my personality. Before diving into the insights and pitfalls of personality tests, let's examine the broader benefits of PLNs, showcasing why PLNs are invaluable in the first place.

4 Growth Pathways in PLNs

Dr. Torrey Trust, Professor of Learning Technology at the University of Massachusetts, discusses four distinct pathways of growth. These PLN benefits include social growth, affective growth, cognitive growth, and identity growth. Of these four categories, I resonated most strongly with affective growth. In Dr. Trust's words per her video on affective growth, affective growth empowers educators to "feel emotionally supported when they are able to learn and connect with others, which then leads to them feeling more confident in taking risks in their classroom, trying new things, soliciting feedback from others, and repeating that process of trial and error and learning and innovation." In my field of library science, I feel more connected to my work when I'm connected with innovators and changemakers, granting me fresh perspective on the how and why of my work. With the emotional support of PLNs, I can build a stronger foundation in my career and feel more fulfilled in my career.

The importance of emotional resonance in my work goes hand in hand with my personality. How does my personality intersect with my PLN? Let's dive into three personality tests - along with one bonus round test - to explore which personality traits I bring (and don't bring) to my PLN spaces.

Personality Test #1: 16 Personalities

My first test, 16 Personalities, uses a framework called the NERIS explorer. At first, I'd assumed that the test was the Myers-Briggs test. Upon further research, I learned that the NERIS model uses elements of the Myers-Briggs test, but scraps particular Jungian concepts in favor of integrating the Big Five Personality Traits (we'll dive deeper into The Big Five in Personality Tests #2 and #3.) In case you're looking to learn more about this first test, I'd recommend checking out this article on the test's framework. As for my own personality test, I received the personality result of The Advocate (INFJ-A).

Image Source: 16 Personalities

Does this test capture my personality? The answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no. The assumption behind this personality test (and personality tests at large) is that each person taking the test has a single concrete personality behind a single concrete identity. So what happens when someone taking this test has fluidity in identity? As someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder, also known as D.I.D., I've found this test fascinating in the sense that different alters in our system have tested differently in particular categories. Although I consistently test as INFJ on this specific test, the other primary alter in our system consistently tests as ENFP. The intuitive and feeling categories stay relatively consistent, while the judging/prospecting and introverted/extroverted traits may shift between alters. Identity - and personality, by extension - shapes our PLNs based on the circumstances of the outer world (such as which PLN we're participating in) and the circumstances of the inner world (such as who is fronting).

Does this make the test useless? On the contrary, I'd argue that it's incredibly useful. By developing greater knowledge of the personality traits of unique alters, we as a system can better interact and engage with our PLNs. We have a high degree of adaptability in navigating variable social spaces due to our internal experience of variability. For example, I tend to be more of a planner, while my fellow co-host alter is more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pantser. If something happens that doesn't go according to plan, this fellow alter may end up fronting - or at least, offering helpful suggestions on how to handle unexpected situations. By having an internal team of sorts as our norm, we also greatly enjoy working on teams and genuinely love hearing out others' perspectives. PLNs are a great way to seek out collaboration, perspectives, and ideas, providing affective growth externally that is already experienced internally as a system.

Furthermore, knowledge of my own personality traits as an individual alter empowers me to bring my best to PLNs and to be mindful of my areas of growth. My INFJ results noted tendencies of perfectionism, burnout, and reluctance to open up (all of which I agree with). Although these tendencies can certainly be applied to our system as a whole, knowing my own tendencies can help me catch myself when I'm acting in a state of perfectionism or guardedness. By catching myself, I can self-correct, gently shifting into a state of mindfulness and authenticity. Authenticity in professional spaces isn't always feasible, and I'd highly recommend Jodi-Ann Burey's Ted Talk on this topic. Nonetheless, it is entirely feasible to carve my own path for authenticity in PLNs.

Personality Test #2: Five-Factor

For my next test, I took the Five-Factor Test, which measures five key traits of human personality, inspired by the "Big Five" researched by Goldberg in 1993. These five traits include openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Image Source: Psychologist World

So how does my personality fare? After taking the test, I received the following results.

Image Source: Text from Psychologist World, collage created in Microsoft Word

I'd agree that I can often be open to experiences, although the way that this test measured openness to experiences struck me as biased toward certain types of experiences. For example, three of the questions related to art, and one question to poetry, indicating an openness to particular forms of creative expression, rather than openness to new experiences as a whole. Since I love art and poetry, this test indicates that I am extremely open to new experiences. Although this openness is often the case, I also know that I'm a big fan of routine, resisting experiences that fall too far outside my comfort zone. I can be open to new experiences in practice, but not always in mindset (in personality). For example, I am currently serving as Elgin's Poet Laureate, leading to a whole new PLN of writers, artists, and community builders. Writing poetry comes naturally, and you can probably infer how I answered the following question:

Image Source: Psychologist World

Although writing poetry is inherently enjoyable, performing poetry can be incredibly intimidating, especially when it comes to performing in crowds. I have made the choice to be open to these experiences in practice, even when my brain throws a fit before performing in a crowded venue - as was the case when we performed a poem celebrating my library's 150th Anniversary. Even with a more extroverted alter performing the poem, our heart was thudding in our throat. Still, we performed, and we are confident that we performed well. These small successes help shift our system personality into being more open to uncomfortable experiences. Joining a PLN can be uncomfortable and overwhelming at times, but growth is hardly ever easy. Hence, we choose to lean into that discomfort, growing in ways that we could only accomplish by resisting our own resistance to change. Of note, we still must balance growth with stability. Pushing ourselves too hard can lead to burnout, and we are definitely prone to burnout, particularly when we have some neurotic tendencies. However, we trust in our process of striking that balance, and of adjusting our approach when our balance gets thrown off.

Personality Test #3: FiveThirtyEight

In a similar vein as the previous test, FiveThirtyEight likewise measures five traits based on the big five. In this case, the five traits include openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness, negative emotionality, and extroversion. I found it interesting that the previous test used the framework of neuroticism, while the FiveThirtyEight test used the framework of negative emotionality. In my opinion, neurotic describes a person's personality, while negative emotionality describes a person's experiences with negative emotions (perceiving the person versus perceiving the behavior). I don't have a preference between the two terms, but I find the subtle differences in connotations to be intriguing. I was also intrigued by the subtle differences in my test results below.

Image Source: FiveThirtyEight

While some of the previous test's questions seemed hyper-specific (such as a question about poetry), some of these test's questions seemed incredibly vague. For example, one prompt noted:

Image Source: FiveThirtyEight

The answer to this question can be circumstantial. For example, if I'm at work, I tend to be very focused on my work, leading to a quieter disposition. However, when my coworker asked if I'd been playing any new games, I dived into a lengthy discussion about my playthrough of God of War III, leading to a far more extroverted disposition. Many neurodivergent people, myself included, are cast as introverts, but can express much more extroverted traits when special interests are involved. I have a high social capacity, with a limited range of social topics, meaning there can sometimes be a disconnect between how much I talk and how much I want to talk. Bringing it back to PLNs, I find that aligning my PLNs with my interests leads to a higher degree of participation and socialization in learning networks. I can set myself up for success by discovering PLNs that suit my passions and that welcome my neurodivergent way of being.

With any of these three tests, I suspect that they weren't designed to account for identities outside of personality - not only neurodivergent identity, but also cultural identity, socioeconomic status, and much more. When it comes to PLNs, knowing yourself can help you bring your best self to a learning network, but personality tests can only take you so far on that journey. In my perspective, the results are not a definition of who you are, but an opportunity to redefine who you are and what you want out of your career.

Bonus Round: Theory of Monotropism

If these three personality tests don't account for neurodivergent identity, are there tests that do take this factor into account? Allow me to introduce the Theory of Monotropism. As discussed in an article by the British Psychological Society, "In a nutshell, monotropism is the tendency for our interests to pull us in more strongly than most people. It rests on a model of the mind as an ‘interest system’: we are all interested in many things, and our interests help direct our attention. Different interests are salient at different times. In a monotropic mind, fewer interests tend to be aroused at any time, and they attract more of our processing resources, making it harder to deal with things outside of our current attention tunnel."

Monotropism is not exclusive to autism, nor is it required to be autistic; having said that, many autistic and neurodivergent individuals report high scores on monotropism assessments. In my case, I scored quite highly on the self-assessment for monotropism. 

Image Source: Monotropism Questionnaire

Image Source: Monotropism Questionnaire

What does this mean for my PLN? For me, it means that the right PLN is one that provides a good fit for my monotropic traits. Although identity can vary in our system, our monotropic traits translate across every alter in our system. Learning how to navigate our monotropism can be crucial to learning how to navigate PLNs, providing a space where we can grow and help others grow - whether that's social growth, cognitive growth, affective growth, identity growth, or a combination of these pathways of growth. PLNs can provide spaces to reflect and encourage people to reflect on their work and themselves, making them invaluable when an individual (or a system) is connected with the right PLNs for their personal and professional growth.