Ever give your characters personality quizzes?

[Xitra_Blud]

Do you ever give your characters personality quizzes like the Jung Typology tests or things like that? Just for fun. I do it all the time just to see what kind of answers they get and I was curious if anyone else does to. If so, what kind of personality types have your characters gotten?

Here's a link to one if you want do it: Personality test based on C. Jung and I. Briggs Myers type theory

 

[Brian G Turner]

Not so sound a downer, but personality isn't character, but an expression of it. For writing strong characters, you really need to be clear on their main motivations and sources of conflict.

 

[WooHooMan]

At one point I tried to give characters a "what D&D alignment are you quiz". Stuff like this is fun, I guess but I don't see any practical use to it.
I think Brian G Turner is completely right. The character's conflict (internal or external) is more important than their expressed personality.

I tried giving my antagonist the quiz you posted and he got extroverted/intuitive/thinking/judging personality with "marginal or no preference" for everything. I think that means either he's extremely boring or I didn't read the questions very carefully. Both are pretty likely.

 

[WogglebugLove Productions]

I once first took a "what famous literary character are you" quiz for myself (as a female) and then did it again and changed the answers for my main character (who is a male).

My results were I am Galadriel from "Lord of the Rings." And I did the quiz three times for my main character as I felt multiple answers would suit him. The results were all quite accurate actually. He's like Peter Pan, Sherlock Holmes, and Superman. A hero of childhood, an intellectual hero, and an astutely moral superhero. I can actually draw even more hero types from this pattern on my own!

I agree with Brian G Turner though that there is so much more to character personalities than this. But doing quizzes for them is still fun, I agree. I admit I never tried the Jung Typology quiz, though. I might.