If you scored in the low range, you're scoring similar to people who often report being intolerant of others. Perhaps you feel this way because you've been "stung" by other; things have happened to you which have caused you to lose faith in people and become disillusioned about them. This lack of tolerance and acceptance of others may reflect, as Dr. Fey discusses, a lack of self-acceptance. Other test available to you in The Mind Test may help you sort out that part of your personality. However it's caused, a lack of acceptance of others can make for an empty life. That kind of a problem, if it does indeed exist for you, calls for continued self-examination.
If you scored around the average for the test, your life is likely to be a mix of caution and acceptance of others. If you've been hurt by others, it may have resulted in a cautious approach to certain people or certain types of people. But even with caution, you probably have close friends and the desire for close relationship. You are just likely to be choosier than high scorers.
High scorers are reported to be a pretty happy group. They generally accept others, feel accepted by others, and tend to be accepted by others. Now, you may have scored in this range yet feel like saying, "But others don't seem to accept me." Quite possible, according to Dr. Fey's research. He points out that people who are high both in self-acceptance and acceptance of others - "the prototypic well-adjusted person" - may not be well liked. He writes, "Perhaps the average person cannot identify easily with the overt paragon of emotional good health. Such a person may not appear to 'need' friendship.... It may be that his very psychological robustness is resented." Even if this predicament shows itself for you, you no doubt have the self-confidence and support from meaningful relationship to weather any rocky times.
About the ScaleOne of the most popular of modern psychologists, Dr. Carl Rogers, has based his approach to understanding human concerns on those problems that stem from our difficulties in accepting ourselves the way we are. Other psychologists have taken his interest in self-acceptance and studied the relationship between how well we accept ourselves and how well we are able to accept others. Dr. William Fey developed the Acceptance of Others Scale for this specific purpose. His review of available research suggested that psychologists need to study acceptance of self and acceptance of others as a personality combination. His work found that attitudes of self-acceptance and acceptance of others tended to go hand in hand for most people. Thus how you answer the questions on a test such as this one may reflect, to some degree, how you feel about yourself. It is also interesting to note that psychologists feel that whether or not you are accepted by others is partially determined by this interrelationship between your attitudes toward yourself and your feelings toward others. According to Dr. Fey, "It is quite possible that the genuinely self-accepting person truly accepts others, that he does not threaten them and is rewarded in turn by their acceptance." |