Frequently Asked Questions
What are archetypes? What does it mean that I have a certain archetype?
How can I get in touch with you to share my comments and suggestions?
Our Answers
What are archetypes? What does it mean that I have a certain archetype?
Archetypes are inner images, present in the unconscious mind . . .universal images like "mother", "hero", "goddess", "witch",and "trickster". These images populate our myths, folklore, literature and dreams. The gods and goddesses are not presented here as objects of worship, but as universal forces in the human psyche that influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Recent interest in archetypes blossomed after the publication of Jean Shinoda Bolen's best-selling "Goddesses in Everywoman" that expanded on the work of the famous psychologist Carl Gustav Jung in asserting that once we learn to recognize these forces within ourselves, they can be called forth to empower us.
By nature we each have a certain temperament, certain inborn characteristics. Your archetype is the god who exhibits most closely a temperament like yours. Your major archetype represents this disposition, which is evidenced in how you behave, how you think and feel, and how you relate to others. Since the god and goddess stories that are passed on in the mythology of human cultures embody the expression of female character types, they provide us with a rich and fascinating way to gain access to the personal archetypes that are active in our own lives.
Does personality change? What's the difference between personality and temperament? And what does this have to do with archetypes?
Each one of us is born with an inherent temperament that predisposes us to develop as one of a number of archetypes. These " gifts" reveal themselves at an early age and remain fairly constant throughout our lives. They influence how you learn and think, how you decide and act, who you select as friends and mates, even where your talents lie - in short, everything that makes you unique and guides the direction of your life. This gift, your personal archetype, is your favored, most trusted style in dealing with the outer world.
Think of your personality as being made up of two different aspects--your temperament and your character. Your temperament is a set of predispositions you were born with, the result of your neurological "hard-wiring" and is not very changeable. Think of your temperament as a strong tendency of see or do things in a certain way, the style that usually seems most natural to you. For example, whether you feel more comfortable being a "talker" or a "listener" when around strangers is a matter of temperament.
Your character, however, develops from your experiences and how you interact with your environment. It is essentially a set of characteristic ways you have of dealing with things, a set of habits that you've learned. Character is more changeable over time. Your life situation challenges you to develop your character to survive/succeed in your environment when your experiences (or the roles you play in life) aren't good "matches" for your natural temperament. By exercising these other, less natural, sides of your self, you can gain psychological flexibility and some degree of personality change.
As archetypes, the gods reflect both temperament and character. Consequently, the Archetype Quiz and your Archetype Report take both factors into account.
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If archetypes are universal and present in all cultures, why are all the gods at the web site all Caucasian, and mostly Greek?
Good question!! The Greek and Roman gods and goddesses are typically used to represent the archetypes, presumably because they are the most widely known. The archetypes themselves are actually universal, appearing in all eras and across all cultures (even though their names and stories differ).
As this site grows we will be including gods and goddesses from other cultures as well as the ones that are featured currently. Check out the information at Goddesses Across Cultures if you're interested in learning more about goddesses and how they correspond to the ones on the site.
How will knowing my archetype enhance my life?
Without a doubt, your personality is the most important factor that drives the success of your career, your relationships, your health and happiness. To harness the tremendous potential of your personality, it is important to first recognize it and then to gain insight into how it influences your life.
Archetypes function as predispositions in the personality, driving our motivations, beliefs, values, emotions and behavior. Archetypes are also a source of spiritual wisdom and authenticity that, when activated, give us a sense of meaning in our lives.
The results of the quiz presented in your Archetype Report will tell you what your goddess personality type is and can be used as a guide to your personal growth. It will reveal how your type reacts to situations that involve friends, family, intimacy, work, stress and health. Acting like a mirror, it can help you see and understand the underlying reasons for the patterns of your life.
Each archetype has both strengths and weaknesses. When you know your archetype, you can capitalize upon those strengths and guard against the weaknesses (your underdeveloped traits). The more you function within the strengths of your inherent archetype, the stronger and more confident you will become, the more control you have over your life, and the better prepared you are to make the choices that create the life you want.
Understanding your archetype can provide valuable insights into the preferences, needs, and desires that you bring into all you relationships.
When we encounter people whose god or archetype matches our own, people with similar traits, we usually feel "at home" with them and often make them a part of our social circle. This is not surprising . . . they tend to think like you, have similar interests, treat you as you treat others, and are easy for you to communicate with. You feel comfortable and energized when you are with them.
When you spend much time with someone of an opposite
type, you may feel drained of energy if it becomes a struggle to find common ground. Other types truly see the world through different
eyes and approach life from a very different perspective. But e
The personalized Archetype Report also offers an in-depth view of our most intimate relationships, how our archetype influences the way we form our relationships with our loved ones. . . our mates, our parents, and our children.
Understanding the different archetypes provides a positive framework for managing the natural differences between people, differences that so often end in disappointment or conflict. Honoring these differences is the key to success in our relationships. After all, it is the incredible diversity that makes life so colorful!!!
Whether or not you feel there is anything wrong in your life or with your personality, an archetype analysis can be beneficial when you begin to seek insight or understand in the patterns of your life. It can help you to identify the authentic you. We all, at times, wear masks--a face we show to others. And sometimes we find ourselves wearing them so often that they seem to have "grown" onto us and become permanent.
The masks we wear represent who we feel we are expected to be, who we have been coerced to be from our family of origin and/or our partners. Often our behavior is a facade, a way to protect us from feelings of disappointment, rejection, loneliness, fear, guilt, and/or shame. We may try to protect ourselves using angry outbursts, by manipulating others, becoming overly dependent or self-sacrificing, by becoming depressed, or by simply withdrawing. This only increases feelings of isolation and loneliness and builds barriers that prevent true intimacy in our relationships.
Only change brings growth, and positive change emerges from a seed of truth. Your archetype will make it easier to accept your "goddess-given" nature, warts and all. Each of the goddesses is quite wonderful, but each also has some pretty striking flaws! Once you accept yourself for who you really are, you can begin to honor your true self by giving yourself permission to be that person. You can finally feel strong and confident enough to take off the mask and to fully embrace the uniqueness that you bring into this world.
Your archetype impacts every aspect of your life, including your health and sense of well-being. In fact, recent research suggests a direct link between personality and illness.
Your
Our thoughts and emotions are deeply intertwined. Negative thoughts provoke negative feelings that rob the body of the energy it needs to remain in healthy balance, leaving us susceptible to illness. You can enhance your well-being by knowing the ways your type functions under stress and the characteristic thoughts and behaviors that put your type "at-risk".
Just as your archetype impacts the way you think and learn, it also greatly influences your life at work. When your goddess-given strengths and patterns of behavior have become habitual, certain jobs or careers will be more "natural" for you. The Archetype Report will identify where you stand on a number of work-related traits and provide a listing of fields that women of your type usually find fulfilling. When your job allows you to capitalize on your archetype, it is interesting and energizing, almost fun.
So if you're about to select a career or enter the job market, use you knowledge of your archetype as a guide to selecting an ideal position that is a good match for your archetype. Or use your new understanding of your characteristics, your strengths and limitations, to improve your performance and satisfaction with the job you already have.
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What can you tell me about the Goddess Quiz? I want all the details.
The results of the Archetype Quiz will tell you which archetype shares your personality type. Using his story, your report reveals how your personality type reacts to situations that involve family, friends, career, intimacy, and stress. Your 20 + page Archetype Report highlights the strengths of your personal archetype as well as hislimitations. It also identifies the other gods present in your personality that are available, as allies, to help you find ways to make your life more meaningful and authentic.
How does the Archetype Quiz compare to the hundreds of other tests I see online?
Many of the other personality tests offered on the web are not serious tests, weren't developed by psychologists, and provide you with little useful information. Often they're offered for free and are used as "teasers" to sell a book or seminar.
Many of the tests we've seen offered are just a bit too "skimpy". Honestly, just how much can they possibly tell you in a 5 to 10 page report!
We've even found a few "Discover Your Goddess" quizzes floating around on the web. We'll be the first to admit, they're a lot of fun!!
Also out there are a fair number of well-respected, widely used, and scientifically sound tests that do offer helpful information, but they tend to be more costly. We've seen prices ranging from $25 - $200 for similar services, with the "typical" price running around $50.
What we at Goddess Path are trying to achieve is simple--to bring you the best of both worlds--to offer you an extensive, helpful report based on your responses to a scientifically sound questionnaire. By using the archetypes as a motif, your analysis is presented in a way that will make it both fascinating and fun to read. We think you'll agree that we've managed to do just that!
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Is the Archetype Quiz scientifically sound?
The Archetype Quiz is based on material having a stamp of professionalism and credibility that is unrivalled in personality testing. Items in the test were developed by scores of experienced psychologists, statisticians and specialists in personality theory. Each item has been subjected to large scale validation studies.
The questions in the Archetype Quiz were chosen from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP-NEO) that measures normal differences in personality on 30 different personality domains. Over 200,000 people have taken the test online and thousands more as participants in various research studies throughout the world. The items have proved to have high reliability and validity (i.e., accuracy). We've carefully selected and tested 100 questions measuring 25 different personality factors that were the best indicators for the specific personality types that were represented by the various archetypes.
Experts in organizations worldwide are using tests derived from the IPIP, including psychologists in private practice, governmental agencies, universities, and human resource departments.
As far as we've been able to determine, we're the only site that offers a scientifically based assessment with reports rendered in terms of the archetypes.
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People are so different. How can it be accurate to try to classify people by assigning them to a small number of categories?
Many personality assessments widely used today assign personality "types" on the basis of a small number of factors (e.g., 4-9) and try to fit everyone into categories without noting how the actual individual might differ from the overall "type". At Goddess Path, we take your assessment another step further, providing you with information on 25 key personality factors. We admit that this degree of personalization is not as unique as you really are, but pretty close to it!
Additionally, many of the tests work by assigning you to one of two possible "camps" on the basis of those small number of factors. You're either an extravert or an introvert, for example. There's nothing in-between. This often explains why someone feels their results weren't very accurate or "true".
One of our friends (who can be described as an extremely well-balanced individual) recently got his results from taking one of the most widely used and respected tests. Having scored neither high nor low on any of the factors it measured, he read his report and said, "Well, I guess I just don't have any personality!" That's certainly not a problem with the Archetype Quiz which looks at 25 different factors and lets you know how you compared to others of the same sex who are in your age group.
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Does the personal archetype revealed by my Archetype Quiz relate to other personality types derived from taking other tests such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)T, the Kiersey Temperament SorterT, or the Riso-Hudson Enneagram (RHETI)T ?
We aren't aware of any studies of individuals taking two of the tests to see whether the results would correspond, but would expect them to show at least a modest degree of similarity. Strictly on the basis of logic, for example, we would expect someone who is an ESTJ on the Myers-Briggs test to demonstrate a strong Athena archetype on the Archetype quiz. Although the Archetype Quiz and these tests are very different, there is some overlap in the results since they are all measures of specific important aspects of personality.
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How accurate can I expect my Archetype Report will be? What if something it says doesn't feel "right" to me?
There are three common reasons this happens:
Testing errors--the person makes a mistake while taking the test and either "misreads" the question (usually trying to read too much into it) or accidentally checks off the wrong answer.
The factors that are measured on personality tests are fairly stable, meaning that your results usually don't change much over time. But it is possible to get a score that you are not expecting because of current factors affecting your life. For example, someone who had just been "laid off" from his job might score much lower on the self-confidence factor than he normally would have. For this reason, it may be best to postpone taking a personality test when you are in the midst of major life changes. (Unless, of course,you're wanting a picture of how you're doing at that time.)
There are some individuals, more commonly represented in some archetypes than others, who have problems in seeing themselves accurately because their sense of self is relatively undefined and they tend to identify strongly with others, especially those they love and admire. Consequently they tend to answer the questions in a way that reflects how they "wish they were" instead of how they really are or give answers they feel are more "socially desirable".
Obviously, the reliability of any quiz depends on the accuracy of the responses. While some may not want to admit aspects of their self either to themselves or to anyone else, it is obvious that the feedback from any test of personality can only help to the extent that those receiving it are willing and able to look at themselves with openness and honesty.
What can I do if I want to confirm my results on something in the Archetype Report?
Most people take a personality quiz hoping to better understand themselves and are understandably disappointed if they find themselves in a single category that doesn't match the way they see themselves. This is where the Archetype Quiz differs from many of the other tests you'll find online. We recognize that each of you is truly unique and give you a thorough and in-depth look at a large number of dimensions of your personality.
But please do not accept the results of any personality test as being the absolute truth. No test is 100% accurate (85+% is usually considered to be a "good test" by the experts).
You should always check results out by comparing them with how you actually behave in your everyday life. Since it is difficult for most people to examine themselves very objectively, you might wish to discuss your results with a close friend you trust and ask for feedback on how they see you.
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Who will see my report or my answers to the Archetype Quiz?
Your privacy is our highest concern. Your responses to the quiz are separated from any personal identifying information within a few seconds after you click the submit button, and your report is not stored once you close your browser. Only those with whom you choose to share this information will have access to it. Read our Privacy Policy to get more information.
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Can I get a refund after I've taken the Quiz?
Since your report is personalized it is not possible for us to honor refunds. For more information about policy, please see our Terms of Service.
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How can I get in touch with you to share my comments and suggestions?
That's easy. Just email us by clicking here. We love feedback!
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