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Personality Psychology Pro
November 29, 2004
Personality Psychology Pro, or PPP for short, is a collection of psychology tests you can take on your Palm OS handheld. That may not sound like much fun (the student in me says no more tests!), but after taking just one of the tests I was completely hooked! There are five different sections, each with seven tests. Part A covers Introversion/Extroversion, with tests on activity level, sociability, impulsiveness, responsibility, etc. The next section covers “Emotional Stability” with tests on self-esteem, happiness, independence, etc. “Mastery/Sympathy” follows with seven more tests, then “Sexuality” with four and “Social & Political Attitudes” with another seven tests. Each test is presented as a series of approximately 30 questions, to which you answer “yes” “maybe” or “no.” After you answer all the questions, you get immediate results, which is certainly more fun than counting up your answers and scoring a magazine survey. As you would expect, PPP gives your score, as well as a chart that shows how you measure on the continuum of personality traits just tested. Press the “Details” button and you’ll also learn more about the trait and what a particularly high or low score could mean. Tap on “Statistics” and you’ll see how the scores stack up for all of the tests you’ve taken. Once you’ve finished all of the tests in a section, tap on the small yellow “Sum” icon at the top right corner of the statistics screen. That’s where you’ll find out (or confirm) that you’re an introvert or extrovert, whether you’re emotionally stable, etc.
If that were all, Personality Psychology Pro would be a fun little program and a good value. But go back to the “Home” menu and select “Fun/Games” and you’ll find even more tests. There are three different types here: graphical and textual tests, plus interactive stories. The graphical tests are really quick, relating to your favorite colors and what they say about your personality. The image test is a cool way to get to know more about someone without having them go through all of the standard tests in the frst part of the program. The textual tests are similar, asking you to put a series of events in order to see what your priorities are, choose favorite animals and colors, etc. The third area of Interactive Stories is quite extensive. Some of them are multiple choice, while others lead you to fill in the blanks. About half of them are about your views of sex/libido, though you can’t tell which ones those are from the titles of the stories.
The third area of the application is the birthday analysis. There’s not a great deal of depth here, just some information regarding your personality based on birthdate (perhaps from the standard horoscopes). The two “tests” here are based on “What tree you fell from” and “birthday color codes.” Interesting and amusing stuff, and might be a good ice breaker in party or social situations. At the bottom of the “Home” menu the “Profile Statistics” area provides a quick way to get back to the statistics for all of the personality tests you took in the first part of the program.
One of the nicest details is the fact that you can have three different “profiles” set up for use with PPP. You can take all of the tests yourself, then give your handheld to your best friend, significant other, or spouse and have them take the tests without losing your own results. A great deal of the appeal of this application is in using it to learn more about your friends and family, and it just wouldn’t work right if you had to erase all of your personal data in order to do that. It would have been nice to include the ability to directly compare the results for each test— scores, if not the answer to every question. Perhaps that feature will be available in a future version.
In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed Personality Psychology Pro, and can’t wait to share it with some of my friends. It’s surprisingly deep, and I found that most of the results were exactly what I expected them to be (I’m somewhat addicted to personality tests and magazine surveys!). Obviously this application can’t take the place of a detailed analysis with a counselor or therapist, and it isn’t meant to do so. But as a source of personal insight and fun, Personality Psychology Pro definitely fits the bill without incurring any actual debt beyond the quite reasonable price of $16.95. If you want to get your own copy, or a free demo, head on over to the CrazySoft web site.
PocketGoddess Rating for Personality Psychology Pro: 
