SELVE - Personality Assessment System

Live: selve.me
Status: Production (Deployed Dec 19, 2024)

SELVE is a personality assessment platform measuring 8 scientifically-validated dimensions. Built on 2M+ psychological test responses with an average reliability of α = 0.861 (Excellent).

What's Inside

• Frontend (Next.js 16): Assessment UI, results dashboard, authentication
• Backend (FastAPI): Assessment engine, scoring algorithm, PostgreSQL database
• Notebooks (Jupyter): Data validation, psychometric analysis, dimension extraction
• Data (2M+ responses): Big Five, HEXACO, 16PF datasets from Open Psychometrics

The 8 Dimensions

Dimension	Measures	Reliability
LUMEN ✨	Social Energy	α = 0.897
AETHER 🌫️	Emotional Stability	α = 0.872
ORPHEUS 🎵	Empathy	α = 0.837
ORIN 🧭	Organization	α = 0.821
LYRA 🦋	Openness	α = 0.804
VARA ⚖️	Honesty	α = 0.900
CHRONOS ⏳	Patience	α = 0.937 ⭐
KAEL 🔥	Assertiveness	α = 0.821

Average: α = 0.861 (Excellent by psychology standards)

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Redis is required for backend progress tracking. See Redis Setup Guide

Frontend

cd frontend
pnpm install
pnpm dev  # http://localhost:3000

Backend

# Start Redis first
docker compose up redis -d  # or: brew services start redis

cd backend
source .venv/bin/activate
uvicorn main:app --reload  # http://localhost:8000
# or: make dev

Notebooks

cd notebooks
jupyter lab
# Open: 01_big5_validation.ipynb (start here)

Tech Stack

Frontend: Next.js 16, TailwindCSS, Clerk Auth
Backend: FastAPI, Prisma ORM, Neon PostgreSQL
Deployment: Vercel (frontend), AWS EC2 (backend)
Data Science: Python, pandas, numpy, Cronbach's alpha analysis

Key Features

• ✅ 8-dimension personality assessment
• ✅ Clerk authentication (Google, LinkedIn OAuth)
• ✅ Personalized results dashboard
• ✅ Anonymous assessments (no login required)
• ✅ Mobile-responsive UI
• ✅ Friend/family assessment invitations
• 🚧 Adaptive testing (temporarily disabled)

Validation

All 8 dimensions validated across 2,086,821 responses:

• Big Five IPIP: 1,015,341 responses (5 dimensions)
• HEXACO-60: 22,786 responses (VARA, CHRONOS)
• 16PF: 49,159 responses (KAEL)

Methodology documented in /notebooks/README.md.

Deployment

Frontend: Auto-deploy via Vercel (push to master branch)
Backend: AWS EC2 instance with FastAPI + Uvicorn
Database: Neon PostgreSQL (serverless)

Environment Setup

Backend

cd backend

# Install dependencies
make install

# Start server
make dev  # http://localhost:8000

# Run tests
make test

Frontend

cd frontend
pnpm install
pnpm dev  # http://localhost:3000