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by raverbashing 3716 days ago
> One problem is that the thing being measured can decide how it wants to be measured.

This is a problem in psychology regardless of the type of test. If it's a person asking questions they might be able to detect if someone is skewing the answers

> The claim "you have one of 16 personality types" is not falsifiable. Why does it have to be one of those types?

You have 4 variables, X0 to X4, and a measure of each (let's say between -1 and 1). Then you divide this space in 2 regions per variable. That's how you get 16 (2 ^ 4) types. You might pick 3 regions per variable and have 81 types, harder to work with though)

> The questions on the MBTI are supposed to correlate precisely to Jung's scales

I agree with this, but when measuring something with lots of variables you always have a certain dimensionality reduction (and noise).

And of course it varies with age and situation, but you will be hard pressed to have a INFP as a football coach

But of course you know all that ;)