How Do You Compare?

By Andrew N. Williams

This collection of 12 scientifically devised personality tests developed by professional psychologists allows readers to evaluate every facet of their personality-and how their results compare with others. Featuring self tests in: Intelligence Creativity Relationships Love Sex Happiness Mood Motivation Best of all, if readers are dissatisfied with the results, How Do You Compare'offers

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399529519
• ISBN13: 9780399529511
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Perigee Trade
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.7" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

How Do You Compaer is Beyond Compare

This is a fun, facinating, easy-to-read book. The author, a psychologist with 20 years of expertise in measuring people's behavior, took me on a tour of my own personality. We started with a tough, but interesting, intelligence test, then moved onto two very different creativity quizzes before moving on to "social skills" - my strengths and satisfaction with personal relationships. I guess good relationships lead to great sex, because the tour quickly gets into some very sexy tests that both my husband and I enjoyed taking. Then the book discusses happiness and makes you really think about the meaningful things in life that make you happy. The 12 tests round off with motivation and a all-round assessment of your personality. The tests led to insightful conversations with my husband. In some ways our relationship and sex life has improved based on the discussions we had about this book. It doesn't judge you as good or bad, but makes you consider parts of your personality and contains lots of suggestions for making life more enjoyable. This book is factual and witty, not dry and analytical. The cartoons are a hoot. How Do You Compare is not like self-help books - it is fun to take the tests, see how you score and then, like the title says, you can see how you compare to hundreds of people who have taken the same tests. The way it is laid out would also make for fun games at parties. I'd recommend this book to anyone with an interest in psychology, personalities, or someone who just wants to understand people better.

Interesting and challenging

Ordinarily, I don't read and review self-improvement books. I've read quite a few them in the past and found most of them wanting. Sure, now and then a decent self-help book will come off the press and even I have found it helpful. Most of them, however, are too much the same and intended to either make the author a lot of money or create a new fad, with some self-promoting guru raking in the fame and fortune. So, when I was offered the opportunity to review "How Do You Compare?", I was hesitant. I wasn't sure I'd be interested in what still another author had to say about improving oneself. But my curiosity was peaked when I learned that the book included twelve simple tests which were based on more complicated tests which had actually been developed and tested themselves by experts in the field of experimental psychology. Since I have a background in testing, evaluation, and quantitative analysis, plus have taken a number of courses in psychology at both the undergraduate and graduate level, I decided, what the heck, I'd read the book and maybe even write a review about it. "How Do You Compare?" is a very readable book and, in addition to the twelve tests provided, contains a lot of interesting information about the nature, history, and development of various types of evaluation, including intelligent tests, creativity tests, social skills tests, and personality tests in general. Spaced throughout the book, and making the adventure more enjoyable than usual for books in this genre, are cartoons related to the discussion at hand and textual tidbits providing the reader with little-known facts such as the relationship between Graham crackers and sexual behavior. I knew about that one, having heard about Dr. Graham many years ago, but I'd bet most people aren't aware of that peculiar, practically useless, yet very interesting, factoid. The structure of the book is very simple: get some background information about a part of your mind, take a little test to learn something about yourself, and then compare yourself to thousands of others who have taken the test. The tests are divided into three main sections and a final "big picture" questionnaire with the title, "How satisfied are you with your personality?" The first section includes a brief intelligence test and a test for creativity. The second section includes four tests or sets of questions to check up on your social skills. The third section, which deals with the subject of motivation, includes tests about happiness, cheerfulness, peak experiences, locus of control, and even, -- wouldn't you know it? -- a cheerfulness test for a friend to complete about you. Most people who take tests such as these are interested in three primary points: How did I score on the test?; What do my answers mean?; How did others score on the test? The author goes into some detail to help the reader, or in this case, the test-taker, deal with these questions. He raises a number of issues related to one's personalit

Interesting and fun book

A fascinating trip into the world of psychology and relationships, "How Do You Compare" is a joy to read. The text examines several areas where we tend to compare ourselves with others. Some of the areas include intelligence quotient, creativity, healthy relationships, ability as a lover, and even if how happy we are. Included are several short tests to help you understand where you stand in each of the areas followed by an analysis of how you then compare to others in the general population. Each section also contains the results of various research projects. These projects answer questions like whether there is a relationship between tall stature and intelligence? What about a relationship between racism and intelligence, or wearing glasses and intelligence? Can music help you fall in love? "How Do You Compare" is a highly recommended an interesting read.

Toward a brighter world

For me, this book started off on dangerous ground but handled it well. You see, I'm in Mensa (the High IQ Society) and there are some problems with how we are often portrayed in movies or written about in books and periodicals.And so I'm a little edgy when someone starts talking about intelligence. When Chapter One started talking about Mensa and I saw the subhead, "Are Mensa Members Narcissistic?," I thought, "Here we go again. More negative stereotyping." But, it wasn't that at all. It was actually a solid piece of writing that left the reader accurately informed. This whole book is like that. Williams is a researcher, and everything in the book is backed by something other than the opinionated blather that seems to dominate publications today. And that something consists of--well, you can read the book to see what I mean.Not to dwell on Chapter One, but I have quite a bit of interest in this subject and if I tell you about how well Williams handled Chapter One you will get a feel for the overall quality of the book. Inside Mensa, we geniuses debate all the time about what intelligence is and what genius is. The standard intelligence tests basically address only 7 areas of intelligence--primarily those involve in information processing and reasoning ability. This is a bit myopic.Why is this myopic? For example, consider an elite athlete.I'm very much into climbing. After you reach a certain level of conditioning (the hardware), everything else is mental (the software). So, as you climb you become more "intelligent" at climbing.Michael Jordon was perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time. This was not due to his physique, good as it was. Ditto for Muhammed Ali, Dan Gable, Bruce Lee, and many other stars of the athletic world.If this example of the athlete is not enough for you, consider people who amaze us with their creativity or other talents despite not being known for their math or reading skills: * Painters: Rembrandt, for example. * Actors and actresses: Meryll Streep and Cher have given riveting performances that few others could ever achieve. * Race car drivers: Try one of those race care simulators, and you'll see this job requires some elite brainpower rather than ordinary intelligence. * Salespeople: Why are some so successful and others not? It's literally all in their heads! * Craftspeople: Journeyman electricians, stone masons, sheet metal fabricators, tool and die makers, and machinists are geniuses in their trades.It takes years to become proficient--that is, to develop the intelligence to do these jobs correctly.The list goes on and on. The point is there are many areas of intelligence our standard tests don't even look at. Just because you don't get a score of X on some standard test doesn't mean you aren't very, very smart. Williams brings this point out and helps readers to really see where they are smart and perhaps why.Williams takes this same approach in subsequent chapters, addressing such things as how creativ

Informative, entertaining, and eye opening

Like many, I've often taken those pop quizzes in magazines - How smart are you?, Do your friends enjoy your company? Are you a good lover? But they always fall short of what I want to know, and I often wonder at the end "So who made up this test and what makes them the expert?" Not anymore. This refreshingly humorous book consists of 12 tests to take that are not only fun, but are actual documented scientific research. I felt I knew myself better and had the tools to change what I didn't like or better yet, decided that compared to everyone else, I kind of like just who I am. Besides the fact based tests, there are a lot of interesting fun facts about human nature, and great cartoons scattered throughout, making the book witty easy reading. I highly recommend this fascinating and enjoyable read!