Description
Discover what truly drives you with our comprehensive 192-question personality test, designed to provide deep insights into your professional strengths, tendencies, and growth areas. Unlike traditional assessments, this test evaluates 19 essential traits across four workplace scenarios:
- On Your Own – How you approach tasks independently
- On a Team – Your role in group collaboration
- As a Leader – Your leadership style and decision-making
- With Your Boss – How you interact with authority
By analyzing your personality across different contexts, this test delivers nuanced, actionable insights—helping you better understand your strengths, improve decision-making, and make informed career choices.
100% Risk Free Guarantee
We’re confident that you will see the value in your test results and coaching reports. But if they don’t click or if you don’t discover actionable insights, contact us and we’ll refund every penny.
How It Works
- Fast & In-Depth – Takes just 25-35 minutes to complete
- Clear & Actionable – Receive a personalized, easy-to-understand report
- Backed by Research – A professional assessment built for meaningful insights
Upon completion, you’ll receive a detailed PDF report with:
- Executive Summary – A snapshot of your personality scores
- Brief Trait Report – Quick insights into how each trait influences your behavior
- In-Depth Personality Assessment – A comprehensive breakdown of your traits
- Coaching Report – Personalized growth strategies and career development advice
- Flury-Riedwyl Face – A unique visual representation of your personality traits
Whether you’re seeking career clarity, self-improvement, or a deeper understanding of your strengths, the Success Portraits Individual Test provides the insights you need to grow and thrive.
Frank K. – – Business SPPT For Individuals
I enjoy working in a team, and I value my teammates, their opinions, and the work they do. I’ve always know that my personality shines when I work with people who share my passion and vision. My SPPT results show there is truth to this, and I should bank on this trait to become better at my job.
But because Success Portraits wants me to see the whole picture, it’s showing me that, collaborative as I am, I need a strengthened sense of self and a discovery of my leadership style. The coaching report is really helpful!
Steve Walker – – Business SPPT For Individuals
It’s a great personality test! Extremely helpful to people like me who can be overly cautious with making decisions at work. I like that the Success Portraits Personality Test not only confirms this through my answers but also encourages me to take calculated risks and plan strategically to get projects done.
It’s the self-evaluation I didn’t know I needed. Because I work in finance, double-checking has become second nature to me. My SPPT results show that while this is a good thing, I should be efficient in urgent situations concerning projects and in leading people. It all makes sense now; thanks to the SPPT!
N. Robson – – Business SPPT For Individuals
Perhaps one of the best things, for me, about Success Portraits is the simplicity of the questions. They’re very basic and easy to answer. And the answers are interpreted in ways that allow me to understand my thoughts and behavior at work.
My job in customer service isn’t very easy. I have to ovecome different challenges every day. Through the SPPT, I’ve come to understand whether my actions and responses to situations are ideal or could use some improvement. As shown in my results, I’m very independent and can work without being closely supervised. I love how the coaching part explains why I shouldn’t be too comfortable in it. I’ll get started with the step-by-step action plan to improve myself.
Alex J. – – Business SPPT For Individuals
Success Portraits paints a clearer picture of my personality at work. I always knew that I am assertive, and the SPPT showed me that truly, I am! It also helps that this personality test explains in detail how scoring high in assertiveness can make me shine professionally but that I should exercise caution, as well.
I like how my SPPT results highlight situations where assertiveness could be a problem, such as when the phenomenon called “groupthink” occurs. It’s when team members would rather keep their opinions and thoughts to themselves than speak out and risk causing problems. I think it’s happened more often than I realize.
Being in sales management and working with a team, I like how this personality test really helps me navigate my journey better in terms of dealing with those around me.
Madison Brown – – Business SPPT For Individuals
I appreciate how Success Portraits made me gain fresh insights into how I am in different situations as an individual professional, on a team, and as a leader, and with my boss. Working in customer service, these scenarios are as real as they get!
A standout feature, I must say, is the SPPT’s comprehensive look at the many facets of the daily work of a professional. The test is quite lengthy, but I definitely enjoyed the answering the questions. I like how the test cites situations of me giving and taking orders, focusing on my task at hand, keeping my social skills in check, motivating others, and looking out for myself.
Looking at my results, I’m learning where I’m great and where I should work on improving. I can definitely use these to work on myself professionally, so I can become even better at what I do, contribute more to my team, and be ready to take on bigger roles.
Lucas Genova – – Business SPPT For Individuals
Success Portraits provided an insightful and eye-opening experience that helped me better understand my strengths and weaknesses in a professional setting. Through their service, I gained a clearer perspective on my role as a team player, a leader, and how I interact with a boss. The personalized feedback highlighted areas where I excel, as well as the aspects I need to improve. Specifically, I realized that I need to strengthen my need for cognition—approaching challenges with deeper curiosity—and build greater tolerance in high-pressure situations. Overall, the experience was incredibly valuable, and I highly recommend Success Portraits to anyone looking for personal and professional growth
Jany – – Business SPPT For Individuals
The questions were clearly structured and easy to follow. I really like the way it challenged me to think critically about different workplace scenarios. I also liked how they encouraged self-reflection on various professional situations. Some questions seemed repetitive, but I understood their purpose in assessing consistency. Overall, it was a great and valuable experience!
Nikko Genova – – Business SPPT For Individuals
Success Portraits provided an insightful trait report that truly resonated with my personal and professional journey. The report highlighted my strengths in teamwork, leadership, and working effectively with a boss—qualities that were essential when I started as an employee in the fast-paced restaurant industry. Reading the analysis reminded me of the long hours and challenges I faced while working my way up to becoming a business owner. It was a great reflection of how those early experiences shaped the leadership skills I now use to run my own company. I highly recommend Success Portraits to anyone looking for a deeper understanding of their professional traits and how they align with their growth.
Paul – – Business SPPT For Individuals
This test was thorough and gave me a new perspective on my personality. This was different from other tests i have taken such as Myers-Briggs. I am able to use the information presented to me to better position myself in a work environment on a team, with my manager, or as a manager
Andrew – – Business SPPT For Individuals
Very cool test! I feel like the descriptions accurately described me and give me additional insight into how I can integrate better in my various roles. Thank SP for the awesome test.
Marc – – Business SPPT For Individuals
Very interesting test, I was curious where it was going to go and it was cool to see the 4 different perspectives of questions and thinking about how I would react in various scenarios in the workplace. The results are thorough and very accurate! I recommend my peers to try this
Edward – – Business SPPT For Individuals
The test was quite cool reminded me of some personality test I’ve taken in the past but this one takes it to the next level and breaks down alot of parts in the results that most test don’t.
Stan Feinberg – – Business SPPT For Individuals
I found the summary reports to be rather detailed, in a negative way. Meaning, there was too much content to absorb, requiring a fair amount of time to review. For example, I didn’t feel the percentage graphs were that valuable or necessary. That said, the written explanations were helpful and an accurate assessment of what I believe to be my work personality traits.
I also didn’t find much value in visualizing the Flury-Riedwyl Face example.
Ben Johnson – – Business SPPT For Individuals
I was intrigued by the concept of this test, so I accepted Bill Dembski’s offer to take it for free if I provide a review.
Unfortunately, I found it hard to relate to many of the questions. Most of the test assumes the respondent has extensive experience in a corporate or government work environment. The questions are not tailored to other situations. During most of my career, I have owned a small business, which limits the range of my work experience. I have experience as a boss, but very little experience as a team member and minimal experience working under a boss.
I tried to overcome this obstacle by visualizing my (limited) experiences as a team member in volunteer organizations. I also experimented with interpreting the “boss” as someone like a customer or a client. These imperfect analogies helped a little, but there is still a problem with trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
I wanted to provide an honest self-assessment, but I struggled to find examples from my personal history that would enable me to figure out how to respond to most of these questions accurately. This might have been one of the reasons I frequently responded with “neutral” or “agree” and much less frequently responded with disagree or strongly agree/disagree. I would be curious to know whether responses to these questions end up following a standard curve, or whether in some cases the majority of the respondents will be clustered to one side or the other. Once you have enough data, I recommend studying these patterns to see if some of your questions need to be reworded or if some different sorts of questions are needed to elicit a full range of responses accurately.
I also wonder whether the sequence of questions should be randomized to avoid clustering of responses. Answering a long series of closely related questions could encourage respondents to get into the habit of giving roughly the same answer over and over, like “agree,” “agree,” “agree,” “neutral,” “agree,” “agree,”” agree,” “agree,”” agree,” without realizing their momentum is affecting their subsequent responses.
Most disappointingly, I was unable to glean anything useful from the summary of my personal test results. It felt a little like a mere regurgitation of my responses without being provided with any added value — I did not feel I learned anything interesting about myself.
It would be nice to see my numerical scores compared to population data. The example that came to mind is an SAT score, where you can see how your verbal and math numbers compare to each other, and to the broader college-bound population — or a personality test that informs you whether you are slightly introverted, very introverted, slightly extroverted, or very extroverted.
I assume the intent is to provide the test results to employers, but the same issue will arise in that context. Will you provide the employer with practical, actionable information, or is this just a lot of busywork without any real benefit?
Kate – – Business SPPT For Individuals
The questions were easy to understand and realistic. Some were a bit repetitive but that may be intentional to see if survey takers vary their approach to their work depending on if they’re working in a position of authority, in a team, or solo.
Success Portraits – – Business SPPT For Individuals
Thanks, Kate! We appreciate your insight—some repetition is intentional to capture how approaches change in different situations. Glad you found the questions clear and realistic!
Dr. James Barham – – Business SPPT For Individuals
Success Portraits Personality Test (SPPT)
The creators of the Success Portraits Personality Test (SPPT) are Fred S. Switzer III (b. 1953) and Jo Jorgensen (b. 1957).
Switzer obtained his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1975 from the University of Texas at Austin, his master’s degree in industrial-organizational psychology in 1982 from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, and his PhD in industrial-organizational psychology in 1988 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Right out of grad school, in 1988, Switzer was hired as a professor of psychology in the College of Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina.
Over the years, Switzer taught 20-odd courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including “Introduction to Statistics,” “Industrial Psychology,” “Personnel Psychology,” and “Selected Topics in Psychology of Judgment and Decision-Making.”
In 1998, Switzer, with three co-authors, published a ground-breaking article on the assessment of sales performance: “A Meta-Analytic Review of Predictors of Job Performance for Salespeople” (Journal of Applied Psychology, 83: 586–597).
Job performance is traditionally measured by either objective performance criteria (such as reaching targets) or subjective rating criteria (such as supervisor evaluation). It had long been assumed that the objective criteria were superior, due to the inherent unreliability of subjective evaluations.
However, Switzer and his co-authors found in their study of sales employees that objective sales performance evaluation criteria had a correlation of only four percent with general cognitive ability (a proxy for job performance), while performance evaluation by supervisors had a correlation of forty percent.
That is, it turned out—counterintuitively—that supervisors’ “subjective” evaluations were ten times more reliable than objective rating criteria with respect to general cognitive ability (and so as a predictor of job performance).
This study proved to be a landmark in several ways. For one thing, it launched a new line of inquiry into the use of general cognitive ability as a proxy for job performance. It was concluded that people with higher general cognitive ability learn more quickly and acquire more easily the knowledge they need to perform their jobs well.
The SPPT grew out of this important body of research.
After 36 years at Clemson, Switzer retired from teaching in 2024.
SPPT co-founder Jorgensen received her bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1979 from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, her MBA in 1980 from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and her PhD in industrial-organizational psychology in 2002 from Clemson University, where Switzer served as her dissertation adviser.
After taking her MBA, and before returning to graduate school for her PhD, Jorgensen worked in the corporate world as a marketing representative for IBM, where she worked with large computer systems. Jorgensen eventually left IBM to start her own company, which provided computer equipment to the accounting industry.
A little later, Jorgensen co-founded DigiTech, Inc., a software duplication firm which she ran for about ten years beginning in the 1990s. DigiTech, Inc., did about $2 million in business annually with companies such as AT&T and the NCR Corporation.
After selling DigiTech, Jorgensen embarked upon a career as a consultant, before deciding to return to graduate school to work for a PhD in industrial-organizational psychology.
After obtaining her PhD, Jorgensen joined the psychology faculty of Clemson University, as a colleague of Switzer, her former mentor. At Clemson, Jorgensen teaches a variety of ourses, including “Introduction to Psychology,” “Social Psychology,” and “Pursuing Happiness.”
In addition, Jorgensen has been politically active for many years as a member of the Libertarian Party, culminating in her nomination as the party’s candidate for President in the 2020 election, in which she obtained a little under two million votes.
Switzer and Jorgensen have developed the SPPT—which is debuting on this website in 2024—over a period of many years. In its present form, the SPPT is the result of extensive theoretical investigation and empirical research, including protracted trials with diverse groups of subjects.
The SPPT is a strikingly different type of personality assessment.
Like the CTS/Sales Profile, presented in the previous section, the SPPT is focused more on the test-taker’s suitability for his role in the commercial context in which he works than on his personal development as a human being—that is, as a social being, generally speaking.
But the SPPT takes this fundamental business orientation an important step farther and underscores the fact that personality traits and types manifest in different ways in different work scenarios.
What does this mean?
It means that the SPPT’s situational approach, together with its comprehensive range of traits, offers unique insight into how individuals adapt as a function of the varying positions they occupy and situations they encounter in their working lives.
More specifically, the SPPT measures the way an employee’s personality traits and types interact with the four main roles found in any commercial organization, namely, working . . .
Thus, the contextual understanding of personality the SPPT provides may empower management to make better hiring decisions, shape more effective teams, and foster leadership in ways that will positively impact the organization at all levels.
This contextual approach gives the SPPT a sounder empirical foundation than any of the other tests, in this reviewer’s opinion.
The SPPT costs $49.95. It takes about 25 minutes to complete.
This output is structured in 19 sections, representing Switzer and Jorgensen’s analysis of the 19 most-basic personality traits. Each of these sections, in turn, consists of four subsections representing the ways in which each trait in question interacts with the four work-roles just discussed.
The 19 fundamental personality traits posited by the SPPT (in italics) are the following (with explanatory glosses in parentheses):
The SPPT provides scores, or percentages, for each of these 19 basic personality traits.
For example, this reviewer scored highest in Dutifulness (83), Trust (80), Perseverance (77), Assertiveness (75), and Achievement Striving (73). Like the other personality tests discussed above, I have to admit that the SPPT pegs me pretty well as an individual.
However, where the SPPT differs markedly is by providing an analysis of the way that each of the test-taker’s personality traits interacts the four basic work-roles mentioned above.
Having worked in “cubicle hell” for many years earlier in my life, it was easy for this reviewer to relate to the business-orientation of the SPPT. On the other hand, I seldom worked as a team leader, so it was a bit more difficult for me to answer questions related to that specific work-role.
All the same, by using one’s observations of other people in their own work-roles—as well as one’s sympathetic imagination—I feel that anyone can usefully respond to the SPPT’s questions relating to any of the work-roles.
Nineteen traits multiplied by four work-roles yields 76 distinct traits-in-relation-to-roles. The analyses contained in the printed output march laboriously through all 76 of these combinations.
I confess that the resulting, copious booklet does not lend itself to consecutive reading. If one attempted to read the whole thing straight through, the repetition inherent in its structure would inevitably produce a feeling of tedium.
But if one takes a more selective approach to reading the output—by confining one’s attention to one’s most-salient traits or else by focusing on one’s primary work-role in relation to each trait—then the fullness of the discussions provided by the printout can be very helpful.
Thus, used with discretion, the SPPT’s results may provide many useful insights, not only into the test-taker’s own character, but also into how his basic personality traits interact with those of his teammates, direct reports, and supervisor.
Success Portraits – – Business SPPT For Individuals
Thanks, James! We really appreciate your thoughtful review. It’s great to hear that the SPPT captured your traits so well and that its business-oriented approach felt relatable to your experience. We love your insight on using the results selectively for the most value!
Nancy Recchia – – Business SPPT For Individuals
Test start time: 1:26 pm
Test end time: 2:06 pm
Introduction
I am currently a retired teacher. To answer the questions, I called to mind a range of experiences I have had in all four areas throughout my career, and in volunteer work where I continue to participate in teams and in leadership positions.
I took the test cold, not knowing anything about its creators or the reasoning behind their choice of characteristic traits and scoring methods. After taking the test and reading my results, I generally agree with the explanations for the score given on each item.
However, I may have been able to understand the questions better so that I could have been more confident of my answers if I had read the background information, trait definitions, glossary of terms, and author interviews before taking the test.
Test Credibility
This type of multi-dimensional assessment is sorely needed and is past due in the complex workplace today as it names and defines more nuanced traits and relationships.
In reading the brief explanation about the nineteen word/phrase choices on The Test page, under the About menu, I agree with the reasoning of the SPPT team to take a close look at the Big 5 Personality Traits as defined by the Myers-Briggs Test.
For example, the word, grit, defined as a positive-psychology trait by Angela Duckworth, meaning, “”perseverance and passion for long-term goals”, seems too trendy and carries a lot of baggage (like thinking of John Wayne).
Later, in reading the interview, I saw that Chloe also pointed out that grit is a questionable term that carries other connotations. I agree with the authors that ‘persistence’ is a more apt expression and includes all the qualities that ‘grit’ purports to define.
I also agree with Fred Switzer about why the SP test can be very useful. It is obvious to most people that we do behave differently when placed in different roles. I presume from reading the interview, that before the SPPT, there haven’t been any viable methods to differentiate a person’s capabilities in a work situation that can vary depending on the person’s role in the organization. The four situations are: as a team member, as a team leader, working alone, and working under the supervision of your boss. And it is clear that Fred and Jo have the background and experience to tackle such a huge undertaking:
Fred Switzer about psychologist Walter Mischel: “I may not have completely understood (or agreed with) everything he said, but he put the idea in my head that maybe we need to look at personality as a form of personal adaptation to various situations. If that’s the case, then perhaps traditional personality tests are missing an important point by asking you questions that are too generic.”
Jo Jorgensen: “The general population often thinks of personality as being fixed, such as someone who is shy or someone who is a slacker. Introducing people to the idea that they might act differently in different situations can drastically change their perspectives on how they act.”
My Test Results
My scores for On Your Own and With My Boss, I felt, showed a realistic picture of my work ethic. A good example is Dutifulness in which I scored 100% in both categories. One of the downsides of this high score is that there is a compulsive, perfectionist aspect, which causes one to procrastinate. This is exactly what is going on with this assignment of writing a paragraph about my SSPT experience! I took the test on May 18th and now it is June 9th. I have spent a lot of time on this project, reading and cross-referencing. This is my typical behavior for any writing assignment, acquiring much more information than is even necessary or needed.
Answering the Team Member and Team Leader questions caused the most difficulty for me. There are several reasons for this:
Personal:
Group Dynamics
My lowest scores were in the categories of On a Team and As a Leader, and I had a dismal score in Social Intelligence. This is due in part to the above personal reasons, but also because to answer each question I had to recall specific situations I had experienced in a team or as a leader. The questions posed were general, as they had to be to fit into the test model, yet finding the best answer was difficult because the nature of the teams was often very different depending on the reasons why they were formed in the first place.
The biggest problem I had was with the word, ‘mood’ that arose in questions several times. In one of the Leader questions, it asked if I could read the mood of my team. My first thought was that with adults most people sit with poker faces while the leader talks. Unless there has been an event which touched everyone, like the death of a beloved colleague or everyone receiving a big bonus, the mood is unknown. Of course, everyone is in some type of mood, but typically in a work or volunteer situation, it is hidden. For these questions I could only answer in the most neutral way. Perhaps a better word would be ‘read’, as in “can the leader read his team?” The word ‘read’ doesn’t carry the emotional baggage and ambiguity that ‘mood’ does.
There are other aspects involved in teams and team leadership that were not addressed in the test, and perhaps were not meant to be. They may be too ephemeral to quantify. Some questions that I would want answered regarding competent leaders are: Can the leader keep the group focused on the project and avoid going on tangents? How does the leader demonstrate fairness to everyone in the group? How does he handle a person discreetly who is out of line? How does he bring together disparate factions?
Many of the questions asked pertained to a person with stellar performances. Words and phrases like “the best, “always”, and “people speak highly of you”, were difficult to answer due to the variety of team types I’ve worked with:
Suggestion
I was disappointed that the test did not include a scoring rubric. I understand that the algorithms used to synthesize the results are very complex yet there was a very limited written description of the scores. For example, my husband, also took the SPPT. I noticed that we had the same exact summary to a particular trait and category, Agreeableness with your Boss, although there was almost a 20 point spread between our scores (75 and 58 respectively). Even allowing for a margin of error this gap is quite large. It would be helpful to have a chart. Because the test paints the personalities with such a broad brush, it may be hard to relate a particular recommendation from the summary with how one can make improvements.
If providing a chart is not possible, it would be helpful to include a brief explanation about how the numbers are generated to increase the test’s credibility and not appear too “magical”.
Reflection
Although I found the test itself helpful, I gained the most knowledge about current psychological studies by reading about the nineteen traits, why they were chosen, the glossary terms, and especially Chloe Dembski’s interview with the two psychologists, Fred Switzer and Jo Jorgensen, who were the primary developers of Success Portraits. Also, I was happy to be introduced to Daniel Kahneman and will be adding his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, to my reading list.
Success Portraits – – Business SPPT For Individuals
Thanks, Nancy! We really appreciate the depth of thought you put into your review. It’s great to hear how the test resonated with you, and we love that it sparked further curiosity about personality research. Hope you enjoy Thinking, Fast and Slow!