How bored are you? Take this test.
Holy crap, we’re not that bored!
Boredom, it turns out, is adaptive as a transient state, but dangerous as a chronic condition. In 1986, psychologists designed a test, known as the Boredom Proneness Scale (BPS), as a way of distinguishing between those who suffer transient boredom from those who suffer chronic boredom:
The statements to follow can be answered using a 7-point scale — from ‘1’ (highly disagree), to ‘4’ (neutral), to ‘7’ (highly agree).
1. It is easy for me to concentrate on my activities.
2. Frequently when I am working I find myself worrying about other things.
3. Time always seems to be passing slowly.
4. I often find myself at “loose ends”, not knowing what to do.
5. I am often trapped in situations where I have to do meaningless things.
6. Having to look at someone’s home movies or travel slides bores me tremendously.
7. I have projects in mind all the time, things to do.
8. I find it easy to entertain myself.
9. Many things I have to do are repetitive and monotonous.
10. It takes more stimulation to get me going than most people.
11. I get a kick out of most things I do.
12. I am seldom excited about my work.
13. In any situation I can usually find something to do or see to keep me interested.
14. Much of the time I just sit around doing nothing.
15. I am good at waiting patiently.
16. I often find myself with nothing to do, time on my hands.
17. In situations where I have to wait, such as in line, I get very restless.
18. I often wake up with a new idea.
19. It would be very hard for me to find a job that is exciting enough.
20. I would like more challenging things to do in life.
21. I feel that I am working below my abilities most of the time.
22. Many people would say that I am a creative or imaginative person.
23. I have so many interests, I don’t have time to do everything.
24. Among my friends, I am the one who keeps doing something the longest.
25. Unless I am doing something exciting, even dangerous, I feel half-dead and dull.
26. It takes a lot of change and variety to keep me really happy.
27. It seems that the same things are on television or the movies all the time; it’s getting old.
28. When I was young, I was often in monotonous and tiresome situations.
To find out your own proneness to boredom, add up the total of the scores you gave each question. The average score is 99, and the average range 81-117. If you scored above 117, you become bored easily, and if you scored below 81, your boredom threshold is very high.
Anatomy of Boredom by Maria Popova in Brain Pickings.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
June 28th, 2012 at 08:25
Don’t you think the test is a bit flawed?
The interpretation of the results seem to indicate that people with higher scores are more prone to boredom. However some statements give me the impression that a higher score would be indicative of being less prone to boredom.
“It is easy for me to concentrate on my activities.”
“I have projects in mind all the time, things to do.”
“I find it easy to entertain myself.”
“I get a kick out of most things I do.”
“I am good at waiting patiently.”
“I often wake up with a new idea.”
“Many people would say that I am a creative or imaginative person.”
“I have so many interests, I don’t have time to do everything.”
High scores for most of the statements above, for example, seem to point towards being less prone to boredom.
Of course, I’m no psychologist and this is just my opinion, but it really does seem that way.
In any case, I think I’m high average – maybe borderline chronically bored – at the least.
June 28th, 2012 at 12:22
Trick questions for takers who assume they know the trend for the “correct” answers (a.k.a. “Nagmamarunong”). There are no correct answers.
June 28th, 2012 at 14:46
@lastdodobird
I absolutely agree with you. It’s flawed.
July 6th, 2012 at 01:11
Based on this test, I got a whopping 134 – whoopiee. Plus I’m an introvert, so there’s no help for me. I need a cat.