21 Questions and a Ballpark: Take the Temperament Snapshot

Let's take that temperament Snapshot. Here are the simple instructions:

Take the Snapshot when you're not tired or stressed out. It's not all that big a deal, but your frame of mind can color your responses. Ideally, you should be relaxed when you pick your answers. The phrase "shoes-off self" comes to mind. Also-and this is important-keep in mind that there are no right or wrong answers here, only your answers. Don't think about your answers. Pick the one that appeals to you first. Don't go back and change your answers once you've made a choice. That's it.

Scoring: Follow the simple A-B-C prompts on the answer sheet.

By the way, print out the answer sheet and make a few copies. Someone else (mom/dad/brother/sister/dog/gerbil) may want to take it too.

NOTE: When answering the questions, assume the perspective of a college student. Check "a" or "b" in the appropriately numbered column on the answer sheet (next page), then score your results.

1. You're doing an experiment for your freshman physics class. As you work, do you
   1. feel more comfortable executing each step in proper sequence, or
   2. want to skip the preliminaries, forge ahead, and maybe work in some shortcuts?
2. Your roommate asks you to read a short story s/he has written for a creative writing course. After reviewing it, do you first
   1. point out those areas that need to be improved, or
   2. mention those parts that you liked?
3. Based on the way you approached other major projects in high school, how would you characterize your approach to your college application process? Did (will) you:
   1. organize your tasks, make a schedule, and mail everything on time, or did (will) you
   2. put off a lot of the work until the last minute, maybe even enjoying the pressure?
4. You go to the campus art museum and encounter a large wall covered by many small, individually hung paintings. As you look at them, at first, do you
   1. examine many details of each, noticing their subjects, colors, and brushstrokes, or
   2. ponder their arrangement on the wall, noticing the display's balance and symmetry?
5. You are a member of your college's student disciplinary council. The latest case involves a student who claims the damage he did to his room was due to a self-defense struggle he had with an unidentified assailant. There were no witnesses, but the student tells a convincing story. During council deliberations, do you tend to give more weight to
   1. the fact that school regulations have been violated, or
   2. the student's apparently extenuating circumstances?
6. Your Anthropology professor has been promising your class a reading list and schedule of assignments since the classes began two weeks ago. Due to this lack of planning information, do you
   1. feel unsettled and off balance, or
   2. indifferent ("No problem. When he gets it done, he'll give it to us.")?
7. You face a tough decision about an important senior-year project you're working on. In making your decision, do you rely more on
   1. your past experience in situations similar to this, or
   2. your hunches about what is the best thing to do?
8. In deciding which elective courses to take in order to fulfill your degree requirements, are your final choices influenced more by
   1. which ones appear to best serve your career goals, or
   2. which ones you seem to like best?
9. One of your Speech Communications course requirements is to choose and deliver (in front of your class) one of two types of five-minute presentations. Do you prefer
   1. the one that allows for advanced planning, or
   2. the improvisational one, where you make it up as you go?
10. You're the campaign manager for this year's heavy underdog in the race for student-senate president. Would you say that the vast majority of your strategies will be
    1. sensible, realistic, and practical, or
    2. inspired, clever, and imaginative?
11. In your senior year, you work as a teaching assistant for your psychology professor. On the day that a critical class report is due, one of your freshman Intro to Psychology students, a local commuter, tells you that his report isn't ready because he was up all night at his dying grandmother's bedside. Is your first instinct to
    1. apply some kind of grade penalty for lateness and give him a revised deadline, or
    2. understand his plight and ask him when he could have the report completed?
12. Several weeks before moving to campus for your first year of college, you have a chance to meet your new roommate. S/he asks you to tell him/her a little bit about yourself. Would your description more likely include words such as
    1. structured, orderly, decisive, controlled, or
    2. spontaneous, open, going with the flow, somewhat indecisive?
13. While trying to decide whether or not to take a graduate-level course in your junior year, do you give more weight to
    1. the actual amount of work involved, or
    2. the possible advantages of taking it?
14. You've been asked to serve as a student representative on your college's fundraising committee. When volunteering for specific subcommittees, do you prefer to
    1. be a strategist and devise and analyze the best fundraising plans, or
    2. offer insights about who might be the best people to approach for contributions?
15. As far as showing up for your classes is concerned, do you find yourself
    1. arriving early most of the time, or
    2. dashing in at the last minute, sometimes late, or ocasionally not showing up at all?
16. You and your roommate are discussing which of two movies to go see. Do you cast your vote for
    1. the historical documentary, or
    2. the science-fiction fantasy?
17. You've heard the campaign speeches of your class's presidential candidates. One candidate is very charismatic and likeable, but her platform is weaker than that of her opponent, whose personality is less agreeable. Is your vote influenced more by
    1. the relative reasonability of the candidates' platform promises, or
    2. your personal reaction to their respective personalities?
18. Yesterday, your chemistry professor instructed your lab partner to select an appropriate semester project for you two. As for your partner's selection process, do you want to
    1. get the show on the road and have him choose a project now, or
    2. wait and see what might turn up, keeping the options open?
19. You and a classmate are discussing the successes and difficulties you've both experienced in a tough calculus course so far this semester. As you talk about your own performance, does your assessment emphasize
    1. your actual test-score average to date, or
    2. your prediction as to your possible future results?
20. Three of your friends, with whom you were planning to go to the football game, change their minds at the last minute and now say they want you to go on a road trip with them. Do you
    1. ask, "Why the sudden change in plans?" or
    2. agree to go with them rather than causing a fuss?
21. In thinking about how your dorm friends, classmates, and professors view you, would you say that they might describe you with words like
    1. task-oriented, somewhat driven, planner, and scheduler, or
    2. procrastinator, open-ended, tentative, flexible, and adaptable?

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