Thursday's Psychology Trivia: Is Twitter a Reliable Personality Test?

Thought for the Day: What do you think could your personality be interpreted from your tweets? Will Twitter analysis replace the Rorschach, TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) & MMPI (Minnesotta Multiphasic Personality Inventory) personality tests? Could a computer offer reliable information about you and your personality from just 200 of your tweets? That's just 28,000 characters, not words you have written in shorthand! 

     To a degree, it makes some sense since you need to speak your mind in very limited bits of information. It requires creativity and forethought to craft good tweets, but will it create a true portrait of the tweeter? Dr. Michelle Zhou, IBM researcher at the Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA believes she can decipher your personality from just 200 tweets.  She has developed a program which analyzes 200 tweets and prints out an elaborate personality profile. 

    Since I use twitter to let people know about my book, it would be fascinating to see what her program would say about me.  What do you think the computer would say in response to a sampling of my most recent tweets:

1. .@StevieWonder #JoseFeliciano .@RonnieMilsap Santa Inspires Blind 2 Reach4TheirDreams #News #HolidayHumor http://ow.ly/rLTtf
2.  @WakeUpDreamNow Tue's #Psychology Tips: How to Stop a #Cyberbully http://ow.ly/rQk2p An answer 2 a .@HealthTap Question 
3. .@BarackObama "I commend Santa on his yrs of dedicated service & wish him well in his new endeavors." http://ow.ly/rGI2y #Humor 
4. Help Santa Fulfill His Dream: A Modern Version of Up On A HouseTop #Funny #Video via @youtube http://ow.ly/rMus9 
5. #NewsFlash #Anchorman2 nixed using Santa's press conf, couldn't prove Santa was real. You B the judge http://ow.ly/rT4P1 .@SteveCarell 
6. @WakeUpDreamNow Miraculous Mon: Can Writing a Letter Save a #Marriage ? http://ow.ly/rNZvU #therapy #Psychology
7. Elf's Union Support Santa's Decision2Step down from sleigh Knew he was suffering, but kept his secret http://ow.ly/rGnn2 #Holiday #Humor 
8. @WakeUpDreamNow Wed's Words of Wisdom: John Dryden on #Bullying http://ow.ly/rSX5W #Blog.@DennyCoates TY4Sharing #Quote   

       I'm afraid to venture a guess at what the computer might say about my personality! Perhaps, it would be concerned that I could have an obsession with Santa Claus or an elf fetish! Hopefully, it would find that I am creative author and psychologist with a sense of humor, trying to help good causes. I may try to get my personality analyzed from my tweets & get back to you on the results!

Tuesday's Psychology Trivia: Does Facebook Change Personality?

*Photos from PinPhoto.com

Thought for the Day: I had a busy day yesterday & posted my Motivational Monday post late last night. This morning I had a wonderful comment from a psychologist in Australia responding to my request for help. It only shows that online, it may never be too late to post somewhere in the world! I hope you will take a peek at Monday's post since I need some help as I try to understand how to make my posts suit your needs & interests better. In keeping with my attempt to understand how social media impacts on my readers & our modern world my trivia question relates to how Facebook impacts on our lives & personalities. How does your profile reflect on you, your personality & your relationships? What do you think? Here's the question:

            Facebook & Facebook profiles, photos & posts have been found to change our personality by:
                   a) Predicting a couple's happiness
                   b) Contributing to breakups of relationships
                   c) Impacting on Self Affirmation
                   d) Increasing narcissism
                   e) Increasing extroversion
                   f) all of the above
                   g) b), d), & e)

What do you think the answer is? I hope you will come back on Thursday for the answer & my reflection on the answer.

*Photos

Man (top left)
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/73630031@N02/7312448950/">DannyGetz</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">cc</a>
Woman (bottom right)
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/werkunz/4601782906/">Werner Kunz</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
Woman Taking Photos (Right top)
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrosimoes7/8398478080/">pedrosimoes7</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">cc</a>
Couple (bottom left)
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/adam_jones/3794424224/">Adam Jones, Ph.D. - Global Photo Archive</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
Facebook (top)
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/westm/4690323994/">west.m</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">cc</a>