Subject:
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Re: Finally--a use of public funding that I can really get behind!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 18 Aug 2003 21:37:02 GMT
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Viewed:
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285 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Schuler wrote:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, David Eaton wrote:
> > In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Schuler wrote:
> > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1017505,00.html
>
> > Huh. Looks to me like a souped-up personality test indicating
> > 'decisiveness'. There's $1.2m that they coulda done for free.
>
> 8^) I don't give a lot of credence to interpretive personality
> assessments, such as psychoanalysis, palmistry, or Myers-Briggs tests, since
> such tests seem generally to reveal more about the expectations of the
> reviewers than about the actual psyches of the test subjects.
Heh, I guess I'd agree about the spin they put on the write-up. After all, see
how I called it "decisiveness"? You can take "decisive" either positively or
negatively. Up to you as the reader. But "fear", "aggression", and
"intolerance"? Those words are just begging to be interpreted badly.
Point of fact is that "fear" isn't necessarily a bad thing, and neither are
"aggression" or "intolerance". Someone who was pro-right-wing might say
"apprehensive", "proactive", and ... uh... some other word I can't think of for
"intolerance". Heck, for $1.2M I could find a better word. Anyway. I think
you're absolutely right insofar as the authors of the study obviously chose
their wording as to reveal their own opinion of their findings.
I guess it amuses me how oftentimes people who are supposed to be so good at
psychology can be so bad at it when it comes to themselves...
> > the very reaction itself of defensiveness is a great indicator of being
> > decisive itself, being a fear of something they didn't decide on for
> > themselves, or something they instinctively decided on differently.
>
> Here's a question for the gallery... In an argument, how does one refute
> this claim: "You're being defensive."
:)
As a comment, I think I'd try to ignore it, unless it was actually changing my
mind on the matter. If it actually makes me stop and think "gee, maybe I *am*
being defensive", then I might bother responding, but otherwise, it's a pretty
useless claim. I suppose in all likelihood you could accuse them of ignoring the
issues at hand. After all, if they had a real point, they could state it instead
of wasting time accusing you of being defensive. But that's likely to just let
it go from bad to worse. So unless you WANT to get into a name-calling debate,
I'd avoid it all together :)
DaveE
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