About Styles of Self
Styles of Self is a free, anonymous questionnaire for self-reflection. It shows which of the nine character styles in Nancy McWilliams' psychoanalytic model your answers match most, and describes each style in detail.
Who makes it
Styles of Self is an independent project. It is not a clinical service and does not offer therapy or advice. It is not affiliated with Nancy McWilliams or endorsed by her.
The model
Nancy McWilliams is an American psychoanalyst. In "Psychoanalytic Diagnosis", a book written for clinicians, she describes character not as a set of symptoms but as a lasting way of coping: with anxiety, with threats to self-esteem and with closeness to other people. The nine styles on this site are adapted from the character types in that book, for readers who are not clinicians.
How the questionnaire was made
The 63 statements were written for this project from McWilliams' descriptions, seven for each style. A psychologist reviewed the first version of the statements, and some have been reworded since. Every result is saved with the version of the wording it was scored with. A style's score is the average agreement with its seven statements, rescaled to 0-10, and the four bands are cut-offs chosen by this project.
What it is not
The questionnaire has not been clinically validated, and it cannot diagnose anything: a high score is not a diagnosis, and a low one is not proof that a style is absent. It is written for adults.
How the answers are used
Answers are anonymous, and we look at them only in aggregate, to check and improve the statements: how the answers to each statement are spread, and whether each statement agrees with the others of its style. The privacy page lists everything that is stored.
Contact
Questions, corrections and notes on a translation are welcome at hello@stylesofself.com.