Just what you all wanted to know...

All about my psyche! Yeah. Having calmed down some after my appointment, I thought I might share with you all some of what has been shared with me about my psychological frame of mind. If you'll remember from a few weeks ago, I took a battery of psychological tests including the MMPI-II, the Campbell's Strong Vocational Interests Test, the California Personality Inventory, a proverbs test, a vocabulary test, and an adjective checklist in which I was to check off the adjectives I believed were true to me. We then sent those tests away to be analyzed. Thursday, I went to see the clinical interviewer in order for her to tell me what I said about myself. I had been pretty nervous about it because you never know what a professional is going to think of you, regardless of how stable you think of yourself. So, I went up there and she gave me a copy of the report the psychologist had prepared. It is an interesting document, to me at least.

The first two pages or so of the report that talk about me are just about what I put down on the personality background papers they sent me to have filled out before I took the tests. Because the report is going to the assistant to the bishop for my synod, they put my self-reporting stuff down in order to refresh the assistant's mind. She's met me before, but I'm sure she is in contact with a lot of people and can't remember all about each person she meets. I know there are at least five other people who are at about the same place I am within my synod. So, that was no surprise. At the bottom of the second page is where they got into the actual analysis. But, I'm not going to bore you with ALL of the details of the report. I'm going to try to hit the highlights...

The first thing of interest which allowed me to breathe a big sigh of relief and elation states, "The profile of scores that results from the applicant's pattern of responding to test items is well within the normal range for the general population of Euro-American females of her age, education, experience, and vocational aspirations." Can we say WOOHOO!!!? Upon reading that sentence I was glad the interviewer stepped from the room because I was so happy I felt myself turn bright red. The report also states that I have an about average ability to cope with the stresses and strains of everyday living, and that I thrive on affirmation and support. Additionally, I learn by doing, and I have a strong need for emotional self-sufficiency and independence. Here's a big surprise: "Test data indicate that the applicant is an individual who would be sensitive to rejection and being discounted by others." (If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know that I have a tendency to care too much about what others think of me.) But anyway, I digress... One thing I found to be INCREDIBLY interesting is that my results show that I have a mild distrust of people who are in authority. I had NO idea, and this is not sarcasm here. I honestly did not realize it. Now that I think about it, I can see that I probably do have a mild distrust, but it's fascinating to me that that came across in the results of my test. I don't really recall questions that would clue them into something like that. I guess that's why they are the psychologists and I am not. Anyway, that's probably long enough for now. I might put a little bit more about my psyche on here later, but I don't want to bore you all to death with the entire report typed out verbatim. So, you all have a fantastic day.