RISE Blog | What Makes You You

By: Presley Black, Outreach & Marketing Graduate Assistant
February 24th, 2023

As students enter college and gain some independence, students may want to expand their idea of what makes them unique and what makes them happy.

Students entering this new phase of life may find that their personality and interests have changed since they were younger. It's important for students to determine these changes and see what it means for their lifestyle.

However, determining these new changes and finding what makes a student unique and happy may be difficult. Luckily, there are several resources, such as personality tests, dimensions of wellness, and assessments of strengths, that can help students determine what makes you you.

What Makes You Happy?

According to a study by Huang and Yang (2022), many people find happiness from personal growth, achievements, intellectual activities, physical fitness, and being social. Focusing attention on these aspects may help you feel happy.

Happiness can also come from your own mindset. When people don't feel good about themselves, it may feel like it's hard to change and that their mindset is unfixable (Davis, 2022). However, self-compassion towards yourself can help in changing this mindset. Self-compassion is the idea that you should be kind towards yourself, even if you feel like you don't deserve it.

When looking at personal happiness, it may be helpful to look at RISE's Dimension of Wellness. The eight dimensions of wellness are physical, emotional, occupational, social, spiritual, intellectual, environmental, and financial wellness. When all of these dimensions are getting attention and energy, it may be easier to achieve happiness.

It is also important to look at what makes you specifically happy. Does alone time help you recharge and feel better? This may be a sign that you are introverted and find more happiness in alone time. Using personality tests, we are able to better gauge the ways that make you uniquely happy and uniquely you.

Personality Tests

Personality tests allow us to better understand ourselves and can help us look at changes in personality (Cherry, 2022). There are several personality tests that are commonly used in psychology studies. Some of these studies include:

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)- The MBTI assigns individuals to one of sixteen personality types based on how people perceive the world and themselves. This test assigns a personality value from four categories: introversion or extraversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, and judging and perceiving.
Big Five Inventory (BFI)- The BFI includes what is considered the five basic dimensions of personality. These five traits are extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. The BFI tells you where on a continuum you fall on these traits and can help you better understand yourself and others.
Enneagram of Personality- Enneagram tests assign personality descriptions based on nine primary personality types. While this test is often used in personality psychology and personal assessment, it's important to recognize that it lacks some academic support.

When taking a personality test, it's important to be yourself and try to be as authentic as possible in order to receive the most accurate results. When you receive the result, research what your personality type means to gain insight about yourself.

Career Personality Tests

CliftonStrengths for Students is a popular career and personality test used to identify student strengths rather than weaknesses. This test measures thirty-four research-validated talent categories. After measuring these categories, it guides the development of these talents into strengths (CliftonStrengths, 2022).

This test is separated into four large categories: strategic thinking, relationship building, influencing, and executing. Each category gives students a way to describe what they naturally do best or places where they may need help from others to succeed.

The CliftonStrengths test is one of the many career assessments that you can take for free at the University Career Center. The University Career Center also offers the official MBTI personality assessment. A career counselor can also talk to you about your results and walk you through them if you need help understanding the results.

What's next?

Using personality tests and understanding the information can be the first step in the process of getting to know yourself and what makes you happy. With the information you've gathered from these tests, you're now on the way to understanding yourself a little better and what makes you happy.