About Your True Self

Your True Self is a personality assessment platform built on one premise: accurate self-knowledge is more useful than a flattering generalization.

Most personality tools give you a label and a three-paragraph description that could apply to half the population. Your True Self uses eight distinct instruments to build a layered picture — not a type you fit into, but a profile that describes how you actually think, attach, conflict, communicate, and find meaning.

The instruments we use are drawn from peer-reviewed psychology research. Where validation evidence is strong, we say so. Where it is more limited — the Enneagram, Love Languages — we note that too. We are not in the business of overstating what a personality assessment can tell you.

The Eight Instruments

Each instrument is cited by source. “Clinically validated” below means peer-reviewed psychometric research with established reliability and validity evidence. Instruments marked otherwise are widely used and research-informed but have more limited clinical validation.

Big Five (IPIP-NEO)

Peer-reviewed

Measures personality across five dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), developed at the Oregon Research Institute. The most replicated personality model in psychology.

Attachment Style (ECR-RS)

Peer-reviewed

Measures attachment anxiety and avoidance across four relationship domains: romantic partners, family, friends, and peers.

Experiences in Close Relationships – Relationship Structures scale, developed by Fraley, Heffernan, Vicary, and Brumbaugh (2011). Based on Bowlby's attachment theory.

Personal Values (PVQ-40)

Peer-reviewed

Measures ten basic human values (Schwartz Values Theory): power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, universalism, benevolence, tradition, conformity, and security.

Portrait Values Questionnaire, developed by Shalom Schwartz. Cross-culturally validated across 70+ countries.

Conflict Style (TKI)

Peer-reviewed

Measures five approaches to handling disagreement: competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating.

Based on the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) framework, developed by Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann.

Love Languages

Research-informed

Measures how you prefer to give and receive affection across five categories: words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch.

Based on Gary Chapman's Love Languages framework. Widely used; note that peer-reviewed psychometric validation is more limited than the instruments above.

Enneagram

Research-informed

Identifies your core personality type (1–9) based on core motivations, fears, and coping strategies, including wing types and tritype.

Based on the Enneagram of Personality. Widely used in coaching and self-development contexts; peer-reviewed clinical validation is more limited than instruments like the Big Five.

Communication Style

Peer-reviewed

Identifies your primary communication pattern across four styles: expressive, driver, analytical, and amiable.

Based on the Social Style model developed by David Merrill and Roger Reid. Commonly used in organizational and interpersonal communication training.

Holland Codes (RIASEC)

Peer-reviewed

Measures career interest patterns across six types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional.

Developed by John L. Holland, published in 1959 and refined over decades. One of the most widely used career interest frameworks in psychology and career counseling.

How We Build Reports

Your responses are scored using the published scoring algorithms for each instrument. The scores are then used to generate a synthesized report using Claude (Anthropic's AI model), which connects patterns across instruments into a coherent picture of how your traits interact.

Every insight in your report is anchored to your actual assessment data — the model does not generate generic content. If a section describes your conflict style, it is drawing on your TKI responses. If it describes your attachment patterns, it is drawing on your ECR-RS scores.

Reports are a self-understanding tool. They are not clinical evaluations, psychological diagnoses, or medical advice. See our methodology page for more detail on scoring and validation.

What This Is — and Isn't

  • ✓A self-understanding tool based on validated psychometric instruments
  • ✓A starting point for conversations with a therapist, coach, or partner
  • ✓A way to put language to patterns you already sense about yourself
  • ✗Not a clinical psychological evaluation or diagnosis
  • ✗Not a substitute for professional mental health treatment
  • ✗Not suitable for use in hiring, legal, or clinical decision-making

Questions

Reach us at team@yourtrueself.app. For instrument methodology and scoring details, see the methodology page.