“Now if I retook the test holding my other ‘Split personality’ in mind I would score lower.”
In your case, I think that split personality may also be reflected in some discrepancy between your explicit philosophical beliefs and the implicit premises revealed in your actual feelings and behavior. (At one point I had thought of designing the test so as to produce separate scores for those different facets, but I finally decided that some people might find that too confusing.) Although your conscious philosophical thinking is caught up in the notion that you/we are inherently disconnected from reality, when you deal with concrete issues on this forum you seem to be more practical and hard-nosed, checking out the facts for yourself rather than taking anyone else’s word for anything. Some of the statements on the test probe those attitudes and behavior, which probably pushed your final score more in a POE direction too.
“You can get your point across in almost every case without hurting one’s feelings and in many cases were it would hurt ones feelings the truth is not necessarily all that important by comparison.”
More to the point, if you are tactless enough to raise someone’s hackles, you won’t be able to get your point across anyway. That’s a point to be kept in mind even by a POE-oriented person, whose ultimate goal would presumably be to communicate the truth. That Question #15 may need some rewording to include that nuance.
If the doctor had just discovered that you had a dangerous cancer, would you want him to come right to the point, or would you prefer that he try to break the bad news to you as gradually and gently as possible in order to spare your feelings?
That’s a good point about the percentile rankings. The percentile ranking for a given score will probably vary somewhat depending on when you take the test. I don’t know whether it would tend to go up or down, though.
BTW, based on the scores we see reported so far, do you think there is any kind of correlation between POE/POC scores and political opinions?
No, it just means that you have to ask someone else first, which of course is why you asked the question.
I was just waiting for someone else to ask the question. Maybe I really am a 51?
If the doctor had just discovered that you had a dangerous cancer, would you want him to come right to the point, or would you prefer that he try to break the bad news to you as gradually and gently as possible in order to spare your feelings?
I’m not a doctor but I suspect a good doctor would reveal the truth in a manor that was tactful and was “Varnished” toward the bright side. There is a difference between “You have a 1% chance of living” and “You’re 99% likely to die” Cup half full, cup half empty I suppose.
OTOH if my wife asks me “Do I look fat in these jeans?” I respond truthfully and as convincingly as possible “Honey, I am blinded by your beauty”
I would add that people typically use the word “reality” almost as an opposite to “perception”
That’s interesting because I would think people would think exactly the opposite “Perception” = “Reality”. I only say this because I think very few people actually truly examine their perceptions and just assume that their perceptions are indeed “Reality”.
IOW If I perceive that the object in front of me is a horse, then that IS that individuals reality. I doesn’t matter that the object is actually a rock and many, probably most, people won’t bother to “Step outside themselves” and look at the object from others perspectives to find out that indeed it’s a rock.
I’ll note that the above phenomenon is what I think is a good deal of societies “ills”.
BTW, based on the scores we see reported so far, do you think there is any kind of correlation between POE/POC scores and political opinions?
I’m going with no.
If I’m understanding the different meanings here we are talking about a person who looks at the world from a “Communal” perspective versus an independent perspective. The “independent” being more POE and the “Communal” being more POC. I suspect that a person who was completely “Codependent” might score very low as they grab most of their opinions based on the beliefs of others and how others view them. OTOH I suspect a person with some sort of very independent tendencies would rank higher on the scale as their views are drawn from the information they gather and how they feel about themselves.
The “Relationship” to politics is probably non existant as I think you have groups of both mentalities on both sides and aspects of each philosphy contain parts of POE and POC.
For instance “Democrat/Liberal” contains “Freedom”/independant thought were it pertains to societal functions like sexuality, drugs etc. However is also contains “Dependant” thought where it pertains to schools, roads, welfare.
The reverse can often be said of Republicans.
In short I would guess you have a mish mash of both in both parties and thus why there is often “in fighting” on certain issues with in the parties themselves.
“That’s interesting because I would think people would think exactly the opposite ‘Perception’ = ‘Reality.’ I only say this because I think very few people actually truly examine their perceptions and just assume that their perceptions are indeed ‘Reality.’”
Naturally, people think that reality is what they perceive it to be, but that doesn’t mean that they think the words “reality” and “perception” have the same meaning. After all, people (schizophrenics aside) frequently observe that their past “perceptions” may have been “out of touch with reality.” They also point to conflicts between other people’s “perceptions” and “reality.” So clearly the words aren’t being used as synonyms. We hope that our perceptions reflect reality pretty well–or at least that part of reality that is subject to our observation–but we also recognize that the words mean different things, and that’s reflected in our usage.
“In short I would guess you have a mish mash of both in both parties and thus why there is often ‘in fighting’ on certain issues with in the parties themselves.”
Actually, I was asking about political opinions, not about party allegiances. As I’ve frequently pointed out, the preeminent political issue of our time is freedom vs. statism, and in each of the major parties you have a mishmash of views on that issue. For that matter, there is a mishmash of views on that issue within each of the rather arbitrary conventional categories that we designate as “right wing” and “left wing.” If (as I suspect) there is a significant correlation between one’s perspective on freedom and one’s POE/POC orientation, then you would expect to find a divergence of orientations within each major party.
In fact, I think the conjectures that you make in your post about relationships between POE/POC and specific political issues would tend to support my hypothesis. It’s only a hypothesis, however.
In fact, I think the conjectures that you make in your post about relationships between POE/POC and specific political issues would tend to support my hypothesis. It’s only a hypothesis, however.
Leaving “Party allegiance” out of it I would agree and I would guess the POE/POC division align up pretty closely with the “non party” definition of “Liberal” and “Conservative”. Meaning a “Liberal” thinker would have the tendency to lean POE while a “conservative” thinker would lean POC. Assuming I’m using conservative and liberal correctly since those words have been so twisted that I’m not even sure what they used to mean anymore
In short a “Conservative” thinker will be more “Group think” and “Authoratarian”. What others think is important. Liberals lean toward more individuality and what the the indvidual thinks is more important.
“Meaning a ‘Liberal’ thinker would have the tendency to lean POE while a ‘conservative’ thinker would lean POC. Assuming I’m using conservative and liberal correctly since those words have been so twisted that I’m not even sure what they used to mean anymore.”
That’s pretty much what I was speculating, except that since the word “conservative” doesn’t stand for any clear political ideology, I would substitute the word “illiberal” instead. (Your term “authoritarian” works equally well.) I’m also interpreting “liberal” according to the dictionary definition of “liberalism,” with its references to “autonomy of the individual,” “political and civil liberties,” and an economics based on “free competition” and “the self-regulating market.”
Well, I know this is asking a lot of a rather POC-oriented person …but what do YOU think it means? After all, you just took the test. What do you think your responses indicated about yourself?
EDIT TO ADD: I also suspect that the LR, which probably has constituted most of the responses to the test so far, is an unusually independent group of folks, so that make make all the percentile rankings a little lower than they would be vs. the general population. Heck, if we all derived our values from the majority of the population, we wouldn’t even be triathletes.
"Maybe not yet, but it shows you have the potential to finally see the light. "
Even if I won’t reach enlightenment, at least the fact that I am not innately handicapped to accumulate wealth, cannot be used to scrutinize my socialist agenda!
That’s a good point about the percentile rankings. The percentile ranking for a given score will probably vary somewhat depending on when you take the test. I don’t know whether it would tend to go up or down, though.
BTW, based on the scores we see reported so far, do you think there is any kind of correlation between POE/POC scores and political opinions?
I actually started to add a point about that to the post, but then deleted it because I didn’t know if you wanted to go there at this point.
The short answer to you question is yes, I do.
I’m curious though, realizing the size of the sample is going to be pretty small, are you going to try to correlate the results being reported here with your perception of our political opinions?
Cup half full, cup half empty I suppose.