When I became fascinated by the Enneagram theory of personality, I thought it
would be very helpful if I could develop an assessment tool that would measure
personality traits as well as Enneagram personality types. In
1995, I took it as a personal challenge to develop an assessment that would
objectively and consistently help individuals identify their personality and
behavioral strengths as well as their weaknesses or vulnerabilities. Over 1500
individuals have taken my assessment with 90% + agreeing that BETA accurately
identifies the type that they think is most like them (their Essence).
BETA consists of 288 items that describe strengths and vulnerabilities related
to each of the nine types. It is completed here on our website, and the results
are emailed to you in the form of a Report. The cost of the BETA Report
is $15 and includes the following:
- A graph illustrating your score for each of the nine types.
- A graph showing how you scored on the strengths of each of the nine types.
- A graph indicating how you scored on the vulnerabilities of each of the nine
types.
- A report on the type that matches your highest score (your Essence),
including:
- An overview of the type
- The Perceptual World View of the type (the “shoulds” that this type has for
self and others)
- The strengths of the type
- Your self-acknowledged strengths*
- How your strengths if overused can become your weaknesses*
- The weaknesses/potential vulnerabilities of the type
- Your self-acknowledged weaknesses/vulnerabilities*
- Life challenges or developmental issues on which you could work to keep
yourself functioning at a healthy level
*These items are unique to the BETA Report and not available with other
assessments.
The creation of an assessment to accurately identify an individual’s personality
type is a difficult and time-consuming task. When I created Butler’s Enneagram
Type Assessment (BETA), I wanted the instrument to be reliable--to
be consistent
in providing results over time. That is, if you take the assessment in January
and it is determined that your Core Type is Type One, your Core Type will still
be Type One when you take the assessment again six months to one year later. The
length of an assessment is related to the reliability of the results. The more
items there are that measure traits related to the type, the less chance there
is that responding to any item differently than you did the first time you took
the assessment will affect the overall results of the assessment. This is why a
professionally designed assessment will give you more accurate results than the
one you find in a magazine at the grocery store.
Furthermore, I wanted the assessment to be valid: to measure what it purports to
measure. That is, if the instrument is said to measure personality traits that
comprise a type, that is exactly what it measures. By analyzing the results of
hundreds of individuals that have taken BETA, I can determine if certain traits
do indeed consistently constitute a major part of a particular type. Any traits
that are not consistently being endorsed by individuals who are known to be a
given type can then be eliminated and replaced with items that provide better
results. I began the creation of Butler’s Enneagram Type Assessment in 1995, and
I continue to analyze the response tendencies of participants to specific items.
It is important to note that no assessment tool is ever 100% accurate. There
will always be some error in measurement, particularly in the assessment of
personality. Furthermore, no theory or model of personality perfectly describes
all aspects of an individual. Each of the nine Enneatypes is not intended to be
a rigid category or stereotype. This is why I always recommend that you consider
my assessment or any other assessment of personality type to be a starting point
for further in-depth exploration of who you are and why you behave the way that
you do.
top of page