Psychology and the Church, part 2

The following is from Chapter 10: Popular Personality Tests from the Book The Four Temperament by Martin & Deidre Bobgan

It may be a little heavy but remember that this research on these psychology testing tools and the language will be according to the research. Notice the history and the origins of these personality test. Did they have the Bible as there foundation to make "psychology" decisions?

Personal Profile System (PPS) and
Biblical Personal Profiles (BPP).
Like the MBTI, the Personal Profile System is a
personality inventory based on Carl Jung’s theory of
psychological types. However, in addition to Jung’s
theory, the PPS is based upon a book by William
Marston, Emotions of Normal People. The PPS
provides the following four scales:
D — dominance
i — influencing of others
S — steadiness
C — compliance (to their standards)13
To better understand the PPS, we obtained copies
of it and of the Biblical Personal Profiles (BPP). The
24 groups of words used on both tests are identical.
Therefore our comments about the PPS apply equally
to the BPP. After reading the two tests and all the
other materials we received from Performax Systems
International, Inc., we looked at the academic sources
for evaluations and reviews. We found very few references
in the academic literature for the PPS and none
for the BPP.

In the Performax Product Catalog is a listing for
The Kaplan Report: A Study of the Validity of the
Personal Profile System. We obtained a copy of that
report. It says:
Since 1972 the PPS has been widely employed.
The market for this product is said to be growing
daily. Hence, in 1982, PSII [Performax Systems
International, Inc.] contracted with
Kaplan Associates of Chevy Chase, Maryland
for the conduct of a study to establish how the
PPS compares as an assessment instrument
with highly researched and valid psychological
measuring instruments.14
Please notice that Performax, the company that
owns and markets the PPS, contracted with a firm,
Kaplan Associates, to conduct this study. We have read
the report and have concerns and questions about it.
It definitely does not establish the necessary validity
for the PPS.
One of the most important volumes on tests is the
Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY). There is no
mention of the PPS in the MMY until The Tenth
Mental Measurements Yearbook. In that volume, the
PPS is evaluated. This recent evaluation occurred
years after The Kaplan Report. We quote from that
review:
A serious concern with this instrument is its
lack of reported research. While the authors
state the instrument shows good reliability and
validity, they provide the user with virtually
no data to support these claims.15
The reviewer goes on to refer to and then challenge
studies that are provided in the PPS manual. In
conclusion, the reviewer says that “the clear lack
of data to support this instrument should
preclude its use.”16 (Emphasis added.) We did a
literature search on the PPS and found other reviews
that substantiated the MMY recommendation.
Because the PPS and the BPP are related to
Jungian theory, the same remarks made in the MBTI
section would apply. These are not tests that Christians
should be involved in or promote. The PPS and
the BPP are also quite frank about the relationship
of the DiSC and the four temperaments. As we quoted
earlier, its test material says:
The Greek words “Choleric,” “Sanguine,”
“Phlegmatic,” and “Melancholic” are synonymous
terms to the DISC and used by some
Christian writers to identify the differences in
behavior. Most known is Dr. Tim LaHaye.17
As mentioned earlier, the PPS and the BPP have
the same 24 groups of words to which the test taker
responds. In contrast to the test’s brevity (one page),
the number of pages devoted to the number of
patterns that can result from the test is amazing.18
In the BPP there are over 30 individuals listed from
the Bible (from Abraham to the apostle Paul) with
their accompanying patterns.19 To think that responding
to merely 24 groups of words in three minutes
(the time it took us to complete the test) could yield
that many patterns and be applied to that many
individuals in Scripture does stretch the limits of
credulity!
The PPS and the BPP are featured in Ken Voges
and Ron Braund’s book, Understanding How Others
Misunderstand You: A Unique and Proven Plan for
Strengthening Personal Relationships, which we
discussed earlier. In view of the foregoing information,
it is obvious that the title’s implied promises are
not scientifically defensible and that the admitted
relationship to the four temperaments should, for biblical
reasons, prohibit Christians from participating.
The director of Christian Financial Concepts is
Larry Burkett. In his materials catalog there is a listing
of the PPS which says:
This is the self-scoring version of the DISC
instrument that Larry Burkett began using
years ago to determine a person’s basic
personality profile. With it you can identify
your primary and secondary motivations and
begin to understand the strengths and weaknesses
of your personality. You can also learn
to appreciate how others have different motivations
and see how each profile has a most
desired and most efficient work environment.20
The implied promises in this and other such listings
are wholly incompatible with the facts.
Our recommendation for the PPS and the BPP is
the same as for the MBTI. For both biblical and
scientific reasons those two instruments should not
be used to evaluate individuals for Christian service
or for personal understanding


Spiritual Gifts Inventories.
Perhaps worse than the two areas of testing that
we have discussed (personality and temperament) is
the idea that a test or inventory would reveal a
Christian’s spiritual gifts. The “Spiritual Gifts Inventory”
and its accompanying guide “Understanding
Spiritual Gifts” comprise just one of numerous inventories
and tests used to discover one’s spiritual gifts.29
The idea behind the inventories is the same as
behind career tests—personality traits and types
match certain activities and preferences. Line up the
traits, preferences, and activities and you end up with
a possible career choice. Such tests reduce spiritual
gifts and service in the Body of Christ to career interest
inventories and a job in the marketplace.
Since those who create and promote such tests are
copying the business world, they at least ought to
follow the academic guidelines for validation. In none
of these inventories have we seen anything resembling
the minimum requirements needed for a
statistically valid instrument. People are looking to
an unproven, extrabiblical instrument to determine
God’s will and God’s call to service. However, the lack
of statistical validity is not the most serious problem
with using spiritual gifts inventories.
In essence such inventories deny Paul’s declaration
that he was “made a minister, according to the
gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual
working of his power” (Ephesians 3:7). Was he made
a minister “according to the gift of the grace of God
given unto me by the effectual working of his power”
or by his natural personality traits?
If people are following career-choice types of
inventories to learn how to fit into the Body of Christ,
they may be serving from the wrong power base (personality
“strengths”) and their own self-interests,
rather than from the “effectual working” of God’s
power and from obedience to His will and plan.
While God may indeed use a person’s natural
talents for His service, He is not limited to that. Nor
is He limited to using His children according to any
pagan temperament type. He is sovereign and may
sanctify natural talents into spiritual gifts. He may
also curb the use of natural talents to prevent pride
from swallowing the soul. He may also endue people
with power that goes far beyond their natural abilities
and inclinations. While people like to think that
God used Paul because of his natural talents, Paul
counted all that he was and had according to the flesh
“dung.” He knew the power of the resurrection of
Christ indwelling him for service.
How did the Church throughout the ages, from its
inception, ever function without these inventories?
Very well! Spiritual gifts were recognized and exercised
totally without the help of the modern-day testing
movement and the penchant to worship numbers.
The gifts are spiritual, not mathematical! They cannot
be identified by psychological instruments except
in the most superficial and erroneous way.
Although we mention one of the spiritual gifts
inventories by name, we are not singling that one out
as any worse than the rest. We are opposed to the use
of all such tests and inventories that purport to identify
spiritual gifts. While the Bible does not speak to
the issue of such tests, it does warn us about following
“philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of
men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after
Christ” (Colossians 2:8). Rather than using the ways
of the world to identify spiritual gifts and callings,
the New Testament believers resorted to prayer and
guidance by the Holy Spirit.
Pastors have told us that spiritual gift inventories
are useful to get their people to serve. They use
the devices to motivate people to serve. However, to
use an instrument that purports to identify spiritual
gifts when there is a high probability for error, since
there has been no validation of results, is dishonest.
Truth is too important an issue in the Body of
Christ. Furthermore, what happens when an inventory
gives someone the idea that he can (yea, should!)
serve in a particular way that would be detrimental
to the Body of Christ? What if the person hold a particular position based
upon his test performance? Getting a high score on
any gift is no reason for a person to be placed in a
particular ministry, since there is no proven validity
to the results.
Spiritual gifts inventories may lead people not only
to serve in the flesh, but also to depend upon their
natural “strengths” rather than on the Lord in the
process of serving Him. There is also the danger of
focusing on self and self’s gifts rather than on the
Lord who is the Giver of gifts. For both biblical and
academic reasons, we strongly recommend against the
use of all such spiritual gifts inventories.


Personality Tests in the Church.
The use of various personality tests is becoming
prolific among Christians. Those preparing for the
pastorate and missionary work are often required to
take such tests. As a result of such tests, many have
been rejected from such service. However, we find
nothing in the research literature that would warrant
such a conclusion.
In his article “The Trouble with Testing,” Martin
Lasden quotes George Dudley, a test researcher and
president of Behavioral Science Research Press of
Dallas:
Testing is a way to get at the truth sideways,
and if you believe that the only way to get at
the truth about another person is to administer
a test, then you’re not only fooling yourself,
but you’re also demonstrating a very negative
view of mankind. You’re saying that truth
cannot be determined by asking the subject,
or those who know the subject, but only by asking
a testing expert.30
Dudley believes there should be more humility about
testing.
Consider a man preparing for the mission field
with a well-known and highly respected missionary
organization. He was given one of the well-known
personality tests. On the basis of the results, he was
rejected from service. This is one of thousands of
examples of personality testing at its worst. While
one can only speculate, it does raise a question as to
what would have happened to the great missionaries
of the past if they had been subjected to taking
personality tests before going to the mission field. God
only knows! No one should ever be rejected from the
pastorate or from missionary work on the basis of a
personality test score or even on a battery of personality
tests.

NOTES
13. “The Personal Profile System.” Minneapolis:
Performax Systems International, Inc., 1985, p. 7.
14. Sylvan J. Kaplan and Barbara E. W. Kaplan. “The
Kaplan Report: A Study of the Validity of the Personal
Profile System.” Kaplan Associates, Chevy Chase, MD,
p. 3.
15. Ellen McGinnis, “Review of the Personal Profile
System.” Tenth Mental Measurements Yearbook. Jane
218 Four Temperamets, Astrology
& Personality Testing
Close Conoley and Jack J. Kramer, eds. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1989, p. 623.
16. Ibid., p. 624.
17. “Biblical Personal Profiles.” Minneapolis: Performax
System International, Inc., 1985, p. 20.
18. “The Personal Profile System,” op. cit., pp. 14-19.
19. “Biblical Personal Profiles,” op. cit., p. 20.
20. Christian Financial Concepts materials catalog,
Gainsville, GA.
21. “Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis Profile,”
Psychological Publications, Los Angeles, 1967.
22. Robert Taylor and Lucille Morrison. Taylor-Johnson
Temperament Analysis Manual, 1984 revision. Los
Angeles: Psychological Publications, Inc., p. 23.
23. Letter on file.
24. Paul McReynolds, “Review of the Taylor-Johnson
Temperament Analysis.” Tenth Mental Measurements
Yearbook. Jane Close Conoley and Jack J. Kramer, eds.
Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989, p. 813.
25. H. Norman Wright, Christian Marriage Enrichment,
Summer 1985 conference announcement.
26. Tim LaHaye. Why You Act the Way You Do. Tyndale
House Publishers, Inc., 1984, p. 126.
27. American Educational Research Association, American
Psychological Association, & National Council on
Measurement in Education. Standards for Educational
and Psychological Testing. Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association, 1985.
28. LaHaye, op. cit., pp. 365-366.
29. Gary Georgeson and Randy Fowler. “Spiritual Gift
Inventory” and “Understanding Spiritual Gifts.” Inter-
Varsity Christian Fellowship, April 1988.
30. George Dudley, quoted by Martin Lasden in “The
Trouble with Testing,” Training, May 1985, p. 83.