Appreciating Differences - Jack Falt - Ottawa area, Ontario, Canada

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Game Review by Jack Falt

Response Consulting Australia Pty, Ltd. The Insight Game, Lutwyche, QLD, Australia, Author: Martine J. RoBards, Ph.D., undated, ISBN - none, 1 playing board, 36 question cards, 16 type description cards, administration & validation guide, 16 profile sheets.

The Insight Game is a simple but intriguing way to determine a person’s Jung/Myers personality type. It consists of a large laminated sheet of card-stock that has the eight preference letters on it. There are thirty-six playing-card sized cards that have a statement and a large preference letter on each side of the card. This gives nine cards for each of the four dimensions of behaviour (E or I, S or N, T or F, and J or P). The player is asked to choose between the two statements on either side of each card and then place the card on the board that matches his or her choice. After making a choice for each card, the eight piles are counted. Since there are nine cards for each of the dimensions, there can never be a tied preference; it is either E or I, S or N, etc. Now the player has a four-letter personality type code.

The next step is to present a description of the code to the player for self-verification. There is a set of sixteen larger sized cards with a brief description of one of the sixteen types on one side. As a further follow-up, there are a set of one page descriptions of the types to reproduce to give to clients.

Although this comes from an Australian company, it is the same game that was sold by The Leadership Dimension out of Louisville, Kentucky, 1996. According to them, the results were researched and compared favourably with Jung/Myers theory results. There is a computer version of this game that is essentially the same. Descriptions come up on the screen and the client chooses between the two statements. These are tallied on the board, giving a four letter type code. The client then moves on to read the type description and verifies his or her type.

The information sheets have several suggestions for use of the game. One is to send the game home with your clients as a souvenir of the experience. Then the game can be played by family members, etc. (I think I would pass on this idea. Clients going home with only a very basic understanding of personality type are not people I would want diagnosing family members about their personality.) A more productive suggestion is to have the client review the statements on the cards. This can help them understand their strengths and weaknesses as they relate to a specific dimension.

I can see the game being used with some young people. The game aspect would be a lot more intriguing that having to sit down with a paper and pencil test. Perhaps, even with some adult clients, the more casual approach to determining their psychological type would be appeal to them as well. Maybe there could be a card sort version of the regular Jung/Myers instrument. It would just need 93 cards. To reduce the chance of bias there could be symbols on the cards instead of the preference letters. Then the number of cards for each symbol would be converted to the eight preference letters and produce the usual type code. It might eliminate the test-phobia problem some clients have.

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