
The weekly What Is… Insights Into Psychology series explores the meaning of a wide range of terms that come from the field of psychology, psychiatry, and other related areas.
Here’s an alphabetized list of terms covered so far, with the following tags to make things easier to pick out:
- (cognitive bias/heuristic)
- (diagnosis)
- (personality trait)
- (therapy)
A-C terms
- Addictive personality (personality-related)
- Alexithymia (personality trait)
- Amnesia
- Anal triad in psychoanalytic theory (personality traits)
- Anosognosia
- Asocial vs. antisocial, antisocial personality disorder (diagnosis)
- Anxiety vs worry
- Assertiveness
- Attachment theory
- Attention
- Attribution theory
- Autonomy
- Behavioural experiment in CBT (therapy)
- Boundaries
- Burnout
- CBT for pain (cognitive behavioural therapy) (therapy)
- Codependency
- Cognitive biases (cognitive bias/heuristic)
- Cognitive remediation
- Compassion
- Compassion-Focused Therapy (therapy)
- Competitiveness (personality trait)
- Conformity
- Conspiracy theories — the psychology behind them
- Constructs
- Consumer culture
- Containment
- Conversion disorder (diagnosis)
- Conversion “therapy”
- Critical thinking
- Cuteness—why we react the way we do to cute babies
D-G
- Dark triad/tetrad: psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism (personality traits)
- DARVO: Deny; Accuse; Reverse Victim and Offender
- Defense mechanisms
- Deindividuation
- Diathesis-stress model
- Double depression (diagnosis-related)
- Dreaming
- Dunning-Kruger effect (cognitive bias/heuristic)
- Ego dystonic & ego syntonic thoughts/feelings/behaviours
- Emetophobia (diagnosis)
- Emotion
- Emotional Abuse
- Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
- Emotional intelligence
- Enmeshment
- Enneagram (personality-related)
- Euphemism treadmill
- Exposure and response prevention (ERP) (therapy)
- False pregnancy (pseudocyesis) (diagnosis)
- Folie à deux (shared psychotic disorder) (diagnosis)
H-L
- Herd behaviour
- Heuristic (cognitive bias/heuristic)
- Histrionic personality disorder (diagnosis)
- Hope/hopelessness
- Hypnotherapy (therapy)
- Illusory truth effect (cognitive bias/heuristic)
- Imposter syndrome
- Inner child
- Insanity
- Intergenerational trauma
- Invalidation
- IQ (intelligence quotient)
- Jealousy & envy
- Judgementality
- Just world fallacy (fallacy of fairness) (cognitive bias/heuristic)
- Kleptomania (diagnosis)
- Learned helplessness theory of depression
- Libido
- Locus of control
- Love
M-P
- Malingering
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
- Melancholia (diagnosis-related)
- Memory
- Moralization
- Motivation (intrinsic & extrinsic)
- Motivational interviewing (therapeutic communication)
- Munchausen by proxy (factitious disorder imposed on another) (diagnosis)
- Myers-Briggs personality types (personality)
- Narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder (diagnosis) (personality trait/disorder)
- Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)
- Neuroplasticity
- Neuroticism (personality trait)
- Nonsuicidal Self-Injury (NSSI)
- Obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) (diagnosis) (personality trait/disorder)
- Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) (diagnosis)
- Paranoia and paranoid delusions (diagnosis-related)
- Perfectionism
- Personality trait vs. disorder (diagnosis-related) (personality trait/disorder)
- Philosophical razor (e.g. Occam’s razor)
- Pluralistic ignorance (cognitive bias/heuristic)
- Pop psychology
- Psychoanalytic theory
- Psychodynamic psychotherapy (therapy)
- Psychological testing
- Psychology of advertising
- Psychology of tyranny
- Psychology of war atrocities
- Psychomotor retardation
- Psychopathy (personality)
R-S
- Reactance
- Reading—how it’s affected by psychology
- Recovery (psychosocial)
- Repression and suppression
- Resilience
- Rumination
T-Z
- Trauma vs PTSD (diagnosis-related)
- Trolling
- Type A personality (personality trait)
- Ultra rapid cycling in bipolar disorder (diagnosis-related)
- Unconditional positive regard
- Window of tolerance
- Wounded healer (Jungian archetype)

A good question can get you thinking about yourself in ways that never might have crossed your mind before. A psychological test can promote self-reflection and may help you gain insights into your mental health patterns over time. This page includes a range of tests related to mental health that will hopefully help get you thinking.
How to use & interpret psychological tests
Psychometric tests are used for a wide variety of purposes. Some scales are used mostly in research, while others might be used regularly in mental health practice.
What sets scientifically developed tests apart from a quiz you take on a random internet site is the validation work that’s gone into it. Validation involves administering the test to relevant population groups, and checking things like whether the test actually measures what it’s supposed to and whether scores are consistent when you recheck people a short time later. There’s more on this in the post on psychological testing.
This post consists mostly of scientifically validated scales, with a few exceptions. That means they’re not designed for ease of use, and may not calculate scores for you. However, for personal use, scores are far less relevant than the cues they can provide for self-reflection.
Screening tests
Screening tests are intended to cast a wide net and capture people who might have a condition. They put you in a general ballpark, but they can’t, nor are they intended to, get any more specific than that.
Psychological tests can’t diagnose you
Psychological tests capture a snapshot of a particular aspect of you at a given point in time. Diagnosis of an illness requires far more context and nuance, but the snapshot can serve as a jumping off point. The key is to be open with your treatment provider. The better they can understand what you’re going through, the more accurate an assessment they can make.
Other places to find mental health tests
As mentioned early, being really user-friendly isn’t what the tests listed here are necessarily aiming for. Here are a few places you can go to find tests that are designed with you, the user, in mind:
- HealthyPlace: screening tests
- Mental Health America: screening tests
- PsychCentral has quizzes related to a variety of mental health topics
- Greater Good Magazine from UC Berkeley has quizzes on topics like gratitude, mindfulness, empathy, and altruism.

Psychological tests
- Chronotype: Circadian Energy Scale (CIRENS): measures whether you’re a morning or a night person
- Control:
- Desirability of Control Scale: looks at how much you want to feel in control of what’s happening in your life (links straight to a .doc file download)
- Levenson Multidimensional Locus of Control Scales
- Locus Of Control Scale: measures how much influence you believe you have over your life
- Spheres of Control Scale (SOC-3): measures personal, interpersonal, and socio-political control
- Grit: Grit Scale – researcher Angela Duckworth defines grit as the “combination of passion and perseverance for a singularly important goal”
- Identity: Aspects of Identity Questionnaire (AIQ-IV): looks at personal, relational, social, and collective identity orientations.
- Internet Use: Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire: click on “run a demo” to take the test
- Mindfulness: Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire: identifies five aspects of mindfulness – observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging of inner experiences, and non-reactivity to inner experience
- Obsessions & compulsions: Obsessive Compulsive Inventory short form (OCI-R)
- Procrastination: Procrastination Cognitions Inventory
- Resilience: ER-89 Ego Resiliency Scale: this looks at longer-term trait resilience as opposed to state resilience at the present time
- Scrupulosity: Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity (PIOS): measures psychological discomfort arising from the belief that one is sinful
- Self-efficacy: General Self-Efficacy Scale
- Sleep–related thoughts: Anxiety and Preoccupation about Sleep Questionnaire (APSQ) looks at problematic thoughts that may be interfering with sleep
- Stigma: Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Inventory (ISMI)

Tests Related to Psychiatric Diagnoses
Addictions
- Processes of Change Questionnaire: scales specifically for alcohol, drugs, and smoking that measure experiential and behavioural change processes
- Self-Efficacy Scale: scales for alcohol, drugs, and smoking related to self-efficacy, the belief that one is capable
- Situation Temptation Scale: measures temptation in the areas of negative mood, social/positive situations, cravings, and physical concerns, with scales for alcohol, drugs, and smoking
Anxiety
- Generalized anxiety disorder screener (GAD-7)
- Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A)
- Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ)
- Severity Measure for Agoraphobia – Adult: track agoraphobia symptoms over the past week
- Severity Measure for Panic Disorder – Adult: track panic disorder symptoms over the past week
Social anxiety
- Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE)
- Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS)
- Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS-R): measures private and public self-consciousness and social anxiety
- Shyness Scale: shyness is a personality trait, not an illness (read more here), although there may be some minor areas of overlap with social anxiety
- Social Anxiety Questionnaire for Adults (SAQ-A30)
- Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS)
- Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN)
Borderline personality disorder
- Borderline Evaluation of Severity over Time (BEST): 15-item scale with three sections: thoughts/feelings, negative behaviours, and positive behaviours
- Borderline Symptom List (BSL-23): 23 items, used for tracking fluctuations in symptoms over time
- Borderline Symptom List (BSL-95): longer, 95-item version; link is to a PDF download
- DBT Ways of Coping Checklist (DBT-WCCL): looks at strategies that you’re used recently to cope with stressful situations
- Reasons for Living Scale (short form and long form): this tool developed by Marsha Linehan isn’t actually specific to BPD; it looks at things that might stop you from acting on thoughts of suicide
Depression
- Clinically Useful Depression Outcome Scale (CUDOS): questions are a close match to the DSM-5 symptoms of depression
- Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS): measures both depression and anxiety
- Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D)
- Patent Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9): this screening test is part of the PRIME-MD screening tool that was developed by Pfizer
- Quick Inventory of Depression Symptomatology Self-Report (QIDS-SR)
Tests Related to Avoidance & Coping Behaviours
Avoidance
- Avoidance Strategy Questionnaire (ASQ): looks at how you would respond to an unwelcome request from your partner
- Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ): the focus is on avoidance related to pain
- Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (MEAQ): broken down into several scales — behavioural avoidance, distress aversion, procrastination, distraction & suppression, repression & denial, and distress endurance
- Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination (SAFE): this scale looks at avoidance behaviours in social situations
Coping
- COPE Inventory: measures different approaches to coping, including both constructive and destructive
- Coping Self-Efficacy Scale
Cognition, Thinking Styles
- Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ): measures the frequency and degree of belief of automatic negative thoughts about the self
- Clance Imposter Phenomenon Scale: measures imposter syndrome
- Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CFS)
- IQ test: the Open-Source Psychometrics Project has a full scale IQ test (i.e. covers each of the distinct scales that make up a full IQ test)
- Need for Cognition Scale: measures the tendency to pursue and enjoy thinking
- Rational Experiential Inventory (REI): measures intuitive and logical thinking styles
- Ruminative Responses Scale: rumination is a common thinking pattern in depression
Emotions
- Alexithymia: refers to a difficulty describing emotions, which can be a personality trait or it can occur as part of an illness like depression
- Anger: Clinical Anger Questionnaire: click on “run a demo” to take the test
- Defeat: The Defeat Scale: measures defeatedness
- Emotional intelligence:
- The Greater Good Science Center has an interesting twist on testing emotional intelligence; it looks at whether you’re able to recognize the emotions displayed in a photo of a person’s face
- PsyTools offers a modified 33-item emotional intelligence test
- Emotional intensity: Affect Intensity Measure (AIM): strength/weaknesses of emotional experiences
- Emotional regulation: Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS)
- Entrapment: The Entrapment Scale: measures both internal and external entrapment
- Guilt and shame: guilt = I did bad; shame = I am bad
- Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale
- Other As Shamer Scale: focused on how you think others see you
- The Shame Inventory
- Happiness & positive emotions
- Oxford Happiness Questionnaire
- The Fear of Happiness Scale
- Types of Positive Affect Scale: gives scores for three different types of positive emotions: active, relaxed, and safe/warm
Interpersonal
- Attachment:
Measure of Attachment Qualities (MAQ) is a short 14-item scale on attachment styles
- Cooperativeness/competitiveness: Cooperative/Competitive Strategy Scale (CCSS)
- Comparison
- Social Comparison Scale: rate yourself in comparison to others on a number of different attributes
- Strive to Avoid Inferiority Scale: measures secure and insecure striving, and fear of losing out, being overlooked, or being rejected
- Disagreement: Tolerance For Disagreement Scale (TFD)
- Loneliness: Loneliness Assessment Scale (UPLAS): click on “run a demo” to take the test
- Pleasure in social interaction: Social Safeness and Pleasure Scale
- Put-downs: Sensitivity to Put-Down: measures anxious/distressed and angry/irritable responses
- Reactivity: Interpersonal Reactivity Index
- Rejection: Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (RSQ): asks about situations that might typically come up for a college student
- Social intelligence: Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS): measures social information processing, social skills, and social awareness
- Solitude: Preference for Solitude Scale: links straight to a .doc file download
- Submissiveness: The Submissive Behaviour Scale
Personality
General personality tests
- IPIP-NEO: a free test based on the International Personality Item Pool, it’s available in a short a 120-item version and a full-length 300-item online test. The IPIP-NEO breaks down the neuroticism score into six facets: anxiety, anger, depression, self-consciousness, immoderation, and vulnerability.
- Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI): a 57-item test that measures the domains of introversion/extroversion and stability/neuroticism.
- 16PF Questionnaire: Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors, which has 164 items
- Synthetic Aperture Personality Assessment (SAPA): a 250-item test that covers domains including temperament, abilities, and interests. The results include scores on 27 narrow personality traits as well as the “Big Five.”

- Big Five personality tests:
- Big Five Inventory: this version comes from the Fetzer Institute
- The Open Extended Jungian Type Scales is a 60-item test based on Carl Jung’s theory of personality, which served as the basis for the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory.
- Fisher Temperament Inventory: this 62-item test is based on the theory that behaviour is influenced by four key neurotransmitter systems, involving dopamine, serotonin, testosterone, and estrogen
Specific personality traits
- Dark triad: a group of personality traits (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) that are associated with antisocial behaviour. Related tests include:
- Short Dark Triad Scale
- Mach-IV test for Machiavellianism
- Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI-16): measures subclinical narcissism, which doesn’t meet the threshold for narcissistic personality disorder
- Histrionic traits: Brief Histrionic Personality Inventory (BHPS)
- Introversion/extraversion: Multidimensional Introversion–Extraversion Scales
- Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5): measures a number of personality traits that could potentially be related to personality disorders
Self-criticism & Self-esteem
- Self-compassion:
- Fear of Compassion Scale: measures compassion towards and from others, as well as self-compassion
- Self-Compassion Scale (SCS)
- Self-criticism:
- Self-worth: Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale – measures how much self-worth is dependent on various factors; some of the questions are specifically about school, but many of them are more general
