Have you always wanted to know what personality type you are or what secret character disorders you might have? Then take the colour pyramid test designed by the Swiss psychologist and dance choreographer Max Pfister-Terpis (1889-1958). Our volunteer Lodewijk found the test in the collection of historical objects of the former study and vocational guidance service of the Sisters of Our-Lady-of-the-Spines in Eeklo.

How does the colour pyramid test work?

The pyramid test consists of a picture of an empty cube pyramid which the test person has to fill with coloured square pieces of paper. The test person does this exercise six times and receives for each new pyramid an accompanying assignment, such as “First make a nice pyramid”, “Now make an ugly pyramid”, “Fill the pyramid as you like”, …

Personality scores based on colour and shape

After filling in the six pyramids, the test person receives certain scores on the basis of the colours you have used or whether or not you have laid and pasted the paper shreds symmetrically. For example, according to this test, a lot of red indicates an extroverted character and stands for a sensitive person, whereas a lot of blue chips indicate a rational personality. The use of green indicates self-confidence. Such people have strong relationship skills.  Artists’ souls use mostly dark purple. And those who use the national colours in their pyramid do not like individuality and want to “escape into the collectivity”. In short, very fascinating, but from a scientific point of view probably to be taken with a large grain of salt 😉 .

Lodewijk at work

The colour pyramid test belongs to the historical object collection of the Our-Lady-of-the-Spines educational institute in Eeklo. This collection is kept together with the school archives in the Heritage Cntre. Our volunteer Lodewijk has been diligently describing the collection for a few weeks now. He takes a picture of each object. Afterwards, it is given a number and Lodewijk fills in a description sheet.