An Online Personality Disorder Test
Written by: June
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Are you concerned you may have a personality disorder? Or do you think that a friend, family member, or ex-spouse may?
There are many comprehensive tests that have been designed for detecting personality disorders. Unfortunately, few are available for online use by the general public.
A couple of weeks ago, I found an online personality disorder test and spent some time examining and experimenting with it. Knowing what I’ve learned about personality disorders, I can see the point of a lot of the questions on the test. So at first glance, it seems like a genuine effort and not a joke or half-brained effort.
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Testing the Test
Based upon taking the test and varying the answers according to people I know fairly well, I think it comes up with some reasonable estimates of the probability of a person having one or more of the 10 personality disorders discussed in DSM-IV, the mental health professional’s guide to diagnosing mental illnesses. So I’d say that this test could likely give an idea of what kinds of personality disorders, if any, might affect a person.
I answered the questions honestly as I perceive myself. The results were that I have a low probability of having any personality disorder. I’m so perfect, and the test shows it!
(That’s mock narcissistic humor, in case you hadn’t noticed. 😉 )
How a Person Affected by an Abusive Relationship May Score
Next, I asked a friend of mine to take the test a few different ways. He’s a troubled guy, not because there’s really anything wrong with his personality but because of the effects of a really bad marriage that turned into an even worse divorce.
When my friend took the test and answered thinking about how he has been impacted due to the problems with his ex, he scored “low” for all personality disorders except for “high” for paranoid personality disorder. Looking at his answers, I can understand why he has trouble trusting people and is suspicious of their motives. His ex gave him plentiful reasons to think that way, from affairs to false allegations to parental alienation to criminal behaviors. She continues to do so even after their divorce.
Then I asked him to take the test again, this time thinking about his family and friends excluding anybody “touched by the evil ex.” This time he scored “low” for all personality disorders. Apparently he’s not so paranoid about people who haven’t been influenced by his ex.
Keep in mind that this test doesn’t attempt to assess Axis I disorders at all, just Axis II personality disorders. He’s depressed, traumatized, anxious, and uneasy a lot of the time, especially when his ex is on the attack. I’d venture that most people would feel similarly given the circumstances, and that also tends to indicate that even though he’s conscious of being very worried about what his ex will do for her next stunt that he’s probably not really a paranoid person.
How an Abusive Person as Viewed By His/Her Victim May Score
He’s of the opinion that his ex has one or more personality disorders. From our discussions, I suspected she could be diagnosed with one or more of Borderline, Antisocial, Paranoid, Narcissistic, and Histrionic personality disorders. He agrees all of those are possibilities, but thinks the Borderline Personality Disorder is the most likely from his experiences with her over the years. He characterizes her as a pathological liar who has abandonment issues and is very manipulative and deceitful, but is good enough at it that he didn’t find out how skilled at deceit and manipulative she is until after many years of knowing her.
As I mentioned, my friend has a few Axis I disorders. They appear to originate from being abused and traumatized and would probably dissipate if his ex were to drop off the face of the planet. Unfortunately for him, even though he thinks she’s a Borderline, he doesn’t think she’s one of the “acting in” types and so thinks she’s not likely to end her life by suicide. Instead, she’s an “acting out” type who drives people around her crazy by playing on their emotions, picking fights, blaming, projecting, and engaging in distortion campaigns complete with false allegations to law enforcement. So he’s likely going to have years more trouble, especially until their children are adults or they turn against their mother as many children of mothers like her are apt to do.
Next, I asked him to take the test answering the questions as if he was his ex. This is where it got really interesting. Here is what the results looked like:
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In discussing these questions and results with him, he pointed out that his ex probably wouldn’t see herself as he does. He thinks she’s in denial about her mental illnesses. So I asked him to try to answer the questions as he thinks she would. Here are the results:
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He realizes she doesn’t see herself as he does, and that’s reflected by the differences in the two sets of results. This points out that any kind of psychological testing is highly dependent upon objective answers. It’s particularly interesting how his perception that she has BPD is very high yet his perception of what she thinks of herself is that she doesn’t have BPD. Maybe this is a sign of why diagnosing BPD is so difficult to do without input from other people beyond the patient.
Testing Accuracy
Well-designed psychological tests are set up to make it more difficult to answer without showing some kind of high score on an inconsistency or dishonesty index. This test doesn’t appear to have enough questions to provide any such integrity checks. Having taken professional psychological tests in the past, it’s clear that having only 99 questions is on the short side for a broad psychological assessment test. Part of the reason for that is the integrity checks and multiple ways to ask similar questions attempting to elucidate fine differences in meaning and perception.
So don’t take this test as gospel, but it’s definitely worth something if you’re trying to figure out whether you or a person you know may have a personality disorder. It’s best to consult a qualified mental health professional (or a few of them — it’s sometimes hard to know which ones are truly qualified without a few sessions to judge) for further evaluation if you suspect there may be a problem.
Even though you cannot get a reliable diagnosis from this test, that should not stop you from using the insights you gain. Combine them with some reading about how to heal yourself from such problems or to better deal with such people and you’ll make some progress at improving your situation whatever it may be.
Further Reading
Detecting Borderline Personality Disorder to Begin Treatment
Link to online test said was not available. Would like to take test as I approach a divorce from a 47 yr marriage only recently learning why I was so miserable feeling being married to him. He refuses tx for BPD or any thought he needs professional help so I have to divorce him to survive. I am 68 yrs old.
Hi June.
I worked for many years for a leading Food and Bev who were very progressive on self-awareness, emotional intelligence and the like. I therefore have done extensive batteries for psychological assessments, profiling and senior executive development. I was blessed with a good IQ and have pushed and challenged and developed my brain and fed it.
I am absolutely convinced that the exposure makes you super alert to even the smallest nuance or shift in a question and in most cases where and how it will impact your score. You are right that 99 questions is probably 10x too small a sample. Even then, I have found it incredibly easy to read the intent and even notice the “test” / “verification” / “check” questions used to tease out your real nature and even to determine if you are deliberately manipulating the results.
Again, rather easy to see the “Narcissist” traits come out in my response. There is one problem though, I was with my heart on my sleeve and am full of empathy and genuine love and affection for family and close friends.
This test particularly if answered purely from a cold clinical with the first intuitive (definitely ntot cerebral) response will undoubtedly prejudice victims of abuse and score them as more “dysfunctional” when its more likely they have no real bias for a PD, but have suffered at the hands of one or more. Very, very unfair bias. Test probably developed by a Narcissist. LOL.
I have recently been shattered by the love of my life and mother of my heart and soul (son). My disorder is Co-dependency whilst she as I recently discovered to my shocked, breaking, suicidal central nervous system.
Oh yes, she is a pathological sociopath. Sexually abused as a child, most likely completely devoid of “true” emotion, and without remorse. She abandoned my son with her mother. Never said goodbye or “it’s over” and left. It took me 5 days and police to find where he was. i was then told I could not see him until the court date where she had accused me of physically and mentally abusing one my greatest blessings and my absolute love. For the last 2 weeks before she left I was looking after him 16 hours or more alone! I have seen him 12 hours in total in the last 16 weeks combined.
There are some scary scary individuals. I did believe I was way to intelligent to be so manipulated, used and betrayed. I have attempted to exit once already and have done extensive research regarding methods with the highest rates of success.
1. The loss and mourning / grief for someone
2. We had made love on average 10 -15 times a week and had done so until the day she left.
3. She wrote me notes including the day before she left.
4. She never once paid for anything and I didn’t care because I loved her and he is my boy.
5. She was stealing from me and others which I found out after people came threatening me to repay her debts.
6. 4 years and she didn’t even end it… walked away… my logical brain and tiny heart cannot fathom, understand nor reconcile the absolute and complete mastery and I am in awe, disbelief and in shock. Insomnia, I have lost 14kg in 16 weeks. I am scared to go outside and havent left the house in almost a week. I drink a bottle of whiskey every 2 days. And I cry every single night.
@John
Hang in there man. You’re son will realize what has happened as he gets older and you can have this conversation with him. Take the time and get yourself feeling better, and remember they are not all like that out there.
No test available at least from what I can see. 🙂 I recently, (past year, to present was manipulated by a narc gaslighter all the time while I was horribly ill and struggling. I took it to be neighborly concern initially. No, she began to manipulate me from the very start and me, thinking I personally would be too sharp for such manipulations, fell prey! I’m shocked, hurt and traumatized. Being so sick, she threw me under the bus with no concern for my well-being. It wasn’t until another pointed out she was gaslighting me and discussed it with me and I then researched and grew more horrified at how she preyed on my emotions time and again! I did have a psychologist who agreed and was appalled at my treatment and voiced my concern with another savvy person. I contacted a mediator for the ‘community’ where I live as gossip was being spread that I was mentally ill, when I was just fighting for my life…that was hurtful and devastating …it took it’s toll for sure. The mediator was ‘meh’, she did try and gather some folks together to speak up for me and discuss boundaries, but the person who was the direct perpetuator of gaslighting me rather convinced her that her actions were “showing concern” This gaslighter is adept at appearing sweet and benign but I have seen her show her ‘fangs’ with other people also. The mediator does not live around her so only sees what the gaslighter wants her to see. I’m frustrated..perhaps it is ego to want someone to validate that I was preyed up and also to make others aware of this woman’s actions and if a complaint is made they will have information that yes this gaslighter operates in this manner and will be able to intervene on a potential victims behalf with that knowledge. It still haunts me event though I understand what she did to me..I still wrestle with’what’ was done to me. I know I’m compromised due to illness so that impressed the gaslighter’s actions upon my psyche even deeper and I can’t shake it and it doesn’t help me to be stressed over it when I’m struggling to get better. I’ve been housebound for a year due to my illness and rather ‘bound’ due to allowing this gaslighter to enter my life and home and berate me, sweet talk me, state things that don’t make sense and turn it around and tell me “It is your perceptions that are off”. She is like a dark cloud hanging over me and I’m at a loss besides ‘no contact’ what to do to let myself heal from this and make sure no one else is harmed if I can!!!