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Guess my Sign

Let's play a game and learn about ourselves along the way

By Noah RodriguezPublished 3 years ago 8 min read
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Me at my altar of night (my desk)

Man, I may be a medical student (peep them anatomy flash cards), but I love me some mystical weird stuff. I've always liked the spirituality involved with meditation as well as the scientifically proven benefits of clarity and stress-relief. I'm intrigued by the reflective practice of Magick and how it can help people broaden their perspectives. I even regularly shuffle through my Wild Unknown tarot deck to reflect on where I am and where I want to be, though I can't say I believe in the divination part. So naturally, I have thought a lot about my zodiac sign, and I guess you can say I have an interesting relationship with it.

But Noah, do you align with your sign or not!? What are you!? What's your birthday!!??

Well, I could tell you all and write a beautifully crafted reflection about it, but I think we can do something more fun than that. So, how about you guess my sign?

While we all know our own signs, I want to create the ultimate experience of guessing someone else's. Here's how it'll work. I've made a public poll with each sign as an option that closes March 2nd at noon. Upon the poll's closing, I'll announce my sign on Twitter. If you turn out to be right, you'll get astrology cred! Alternatively, if you don't believe in astrology, you'll get to see how your own guess measures up to what everyone else thought. I want to create a community experience, and I think that can be interesting with a community like Vocal. Maybe we can start tweeting about it with the tag, #NoahsSign, to start debates!

It shouldn't be that hard to piece together a theory. After all, there are countless online sources from which you can learn about the zodiac and make educated guesses. I've also been writing on here like a madman lately, so you can even try to piece a guess together from that. Ah, but that's shameless self-promotion, and we can't have that.

So I'll make a compromise. To help you guess, and also to actually do some reflecting myself, I'm going to take 3 online, free, and scientifically reputable surveys and display the results right here. I'll even reflect on what I find to give you even more ammunition to use. Also, you'll get to learn about several great ways in addition to the zodiac to learn about and describe yourself! So what do you say? Wanna play?

Survey 1: The VIA Survey of Character Strengths

The VIA Institute on character is a non-profit that wants to bring the science of character strengths to all

Because each sign has its own set of strengths, the first survey I will be taking is the VIA survey of Character Strengths. It's a brief 15-minute survey that can be used to identify the intensity of 24 universal strengths. These strengths are based in positive psychology, which is a field that focuses on the graces of the human mind and experience rather than the lens of pathology in contemporary psychology.

I know, it's so exciting to be diagnosed with something besides anxiety or depression! Anyone who takes the survey can identify what parts of themselves they can rely on, and what parts of themselves they can work to strengthen. The survey itself is also free, and you can take it multiple times over the years to see if you change along the way. So, what does this survey have to say about me? What are my top strengths?

Makes a lot of sense to me

Overall, I completely agree with my evaluated strengths. My humor, even when coping with the morbid and dire, helps me to get through my days. Additionally, my creativity is essential to who I am; I can consistently discover new ways to think about things, and I enjoy sharing those ideas with others even when it makes me look crazy.

My gratitude helps me to really stop and appreciate things, like my future career and my relationships, and it makes life so much sweeter. But, when in doubt, my blind and rebellious hope keeps me afloat; I could watch the world burn and still hope to work towards a better tomorrow.

Finally, my perspective allows me to communicate well with others and really help them with whatever they're dealing with; anyone can lean on my shoulder.

Survey 2: The 16 Personalities NERIS Type Explorer

NERIS Analytics Limited has a free personality test that comes with optional paid follow-up materials

Beyond strengths, each zodiac sign is defined by its personality, and that's why I'm taking the NERIS Type Explorer available at the 16 Personalities website. The NERIS Type Explorer is actually a specialized version of the Myers-Briggs personality test, which classifies people on different intensities of different traits. In this case, the axis include introversion or extroversion, observance or intuition, thinking or feeling, and judging or prospecting. The NERIS version puts a spin on things by adding a 5th axis, which is assertiveness or turbulence.

Don't worry, I'll explain my own traits and what they mean so you don't have to research too much (unless you want to), so let's go to the results.

Oh my lord look at that feeling percentage

Once again, I am loving how much I can relate to these results. I don't particularly see myself as an introvert or extrovert, but it is true that I tend to prefer a nice quiet night in with the boyfriend.

As for the dominance of my intuitive side, I do tend to focus on the significance of interpretations over simply knowing what just is; I like novelty and manipulating information. As for my feeling side, there are no doubts that I put my relationships with others first, and that is deeply rooted in how I am guided by emotions in myself and others.

Regarding judging, it's true that I am decisive and enjoy predictability, though I like more spontaneity than these results depict. Finally that slight tilt to assertiveness shows that, while confident, I do have a slight nervous and sensitive side that makes me falter at times. However, I do feel I am a bit more sure of myself than what is depicted. But overall, these results say a lot that I can agree with.

Survey 3: The Big 5 Personality Test

The Open-Source Psychometrics Project aims to educate the public about various personality tests, and it provides many for free

Although the NERIS Type Explorer evaluates personality in one way and can help to inform your guesses, there is growing support for the Big 5 Personality Test being more consistent and true for individuals. Because of this, I am going to add it as the last survey. Like the NERIS Type Explorer, the Big 5 has 5 axis on which is evaluates individuals, but some of these axis are different.

In this case, they are extraversion, emotional stability/neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and imagination/openness. Also, the final scores are not based on a general percentage of one trait or the other, but rather based on the percentile, or where you score relative to others in each trait. Don't worry, this one is much more self-explanatory than the NERIS, so let's get right into the results.

Crap. I'm a people-pleaser with all that agreeableness

Oh no! There's inconsistency between these results and what was evaluated in the NERIS Type Exam! How could this one show me as so extroverted and emotionally stable!?

Well, this is what happens when different exams ask questions differently; There is a possibility that one exam was less thorough, or that the questions made it easier to answer one way or the other. Either way, I can reflect on these results and take them with a grain of salt. What I will say is that the NERIS Type Exam was longer and had more diverse questions, so I felt I could give more precise answers to what I felt. In this case, therefore, I think the Big 5 overestimated my extroversion. However, I do tend to feel more emotionally stable rather than neurotic, so I will say the Big 5 got that right.

As for agreeableness, I'm definitely a bit of a doormat at times because I just want everyone to get along, but I am getting better at drawing boundaries. I feel that the high conscientiousness is fair, considering that I time my studying and keep track of everything with Todoist and Google Calendar. However, despite that organization, I do have a creative side that is wildly open to new experiences, and I feel that comes through with my high imagination score.

The Debate is On!

I already know my zodiac sign, but I also know myself better now because of all these tools I have shown you. I'm empathetic and emotional, yet decisive and firm. I'm creative and open to new possibilities, and I use humor to navigate through the good and bad. However, it wouldn't hurt to use my zodiac sign to add more introspection to the pile. So remember, you can make your votes here and check back next Tuesday, March 2nd at noon here for an answer to the mystery. Also, I really do think it would be cool to make this a public discussion, so if you'd like, you can use the tag #NoahsSign to make your arguments. I hope you also take the opportunity to learn about yourselves more deeply relative to your sign. Oh and finally, for reading through all of this and possibly participating:

psychology
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About the Creator

Noah Rodriguez

A multiracial gay med student/writer and NYC native. I believe identity is something that is creatively built, discovered, shared, and transformed, and healing can come from that.

If you like what I write, follow me on twitter.

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