Further to the June 1 occupation survey, you may use this thread for general discussion if you wish.
60 Replies to “SDA Mini Survey – Follow Up Discussion Thread”
Alas, Kelly, I shall not take the bait, my comments are on the record, I let them stand.
I’d be interested in knowing what the readers’ MMPI, Myers-Briggs, or Keirsey-Bates types are, and how our aggregation varies from the species norms as a whole. Anyone want to bet that we’re high on the NT side and low on the SF side?
Excellent point Vitruvius although somewhat ironic that it takes an engineer to see this. I’d forgotten about the Myers-Briggs personality inventory (MBPI) as this is a tool used by psychologists and we have our own ways of doing things in medicine;-) Lots of online tests available and my profile is ENTP. (Just as you predicted Vitruvius).
Nice thing about MBPI types is that there are only 16 of them and the proportions of the N. American population that fall into the various types are well known. If everyone who posted their occupation(s) also did MBPI, this would represent a very valuable chunk of research data. It’s clear to me that the population of individuals who contribute to/read SDA is significantly different than the Canadian population, but it would be really interesting to know quantitatively how they differ.
My gut feeling from perusing people’s occupations is that there appears to be a proponderance of individuals who have engaged in a greater number of lifetime occupations than one would expect from a randomly selected sample of the population. The educational level also appears to be quite high (as is obvious from the very high quality of the posts on SDA). I was going to try my own analysis of occupations tonight, but thanks to Vitruvius, I’m now researching MBPI. What I’m supposed to be doing is a medical legal report, but it’s much more intellectually stimulating here.
I’m ENTP too, Loki, though 30 years ago I was INTJ. My NT indicators have always been over 90% on both axes. My E, I, P, and J indicators have always been border-line, and over the years I’ve trended from IJ to EP, which as I understand it is normal, with age, for NTs. Or as you put it, “over the years I’ve developed a new set of wetware modes dealing with various aspects […]”.
I do find the personality inventory types concept interesting. I’ve taken Keirsey-Bates every few years (I have the book, and I know there used to be an on-line test, but I can’t find it now), more or less just for fun, yet as a result I’ve noticed some interesting phenomenon, such as the weak indicators varying depending on what sort of problems I was working on. Meanwhile, as I understand it, the taxonomy is principally subdivided by the middle two axes, which is why I mentioned NT and SF.
For those of you who are interested in this topic, you can start here – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator
Loki, do you have a URL link for an on-line inventory classifier?
We probably should not hijack this thread on this matter, but perhaps Kate may at some point introduce the topic, in which case having researched the issue one would be in a position to comment. For the record, I don’t think personality typologies are scientific, I think they’re interesting. You’ll have to decide for yourself.
I confess that it was me that was the “iberia=moonbat” imposter. I thought it was kind of cute at the time.
I’m not very well know here at ‘dead critters’ as I tend to lurk more than I post, but it’s still fun to be a part of this remarkable site of Kate’s.
I think I also figured out that “terrence” might be my uncle from the left coast!
Interesting that you were initially INTJ, Vitruvius, as this is the personality type most over-represented in engineers being 4.88 times more common than in the general population (from http://www.eng.monash.edu.au/uicee/worldtransactions/WorldTransAbstractsVo1No2/05_Capretz15.pdf)
I’m only a few hours into researching this topic and the MBPI does have the advantage of huge amounts of data and a long history, but I have thus far found no neurochemical basis for the personality types and even more worrisome, no data thus far on the stability of MBPI categories over time. My current area of interest is bipolar spectrum disorders and it would be very interesting if extraversion correlated with hypomanic mood. Psychiatry (at least the DSM4 version) tends to be categorical which means either you have a disease or you don’t whereas those of us in primary care medicine know that things are very rarely this clear cut (maybe the people we refer to psychiatrists are) and the MBPI is a type of continuous measure that might be usefull here. (Sorry Kate, I’ll stop here).
Like you, I’ve also noticed a seeming change from E to I depending on problems that I’m working on and when I’m heavily into a major programming project (far too infrequently now unfortunately), I might not talk to or see anyone for days at a time whereas if I’m stuck, I’ll take my laptop and head out to a bar to work. The last major programming project was the result of a touch too much extraversion where, at a meeting, I declared a particular problem to be trivial and that I could provide a working program in a week; I’m getting too old to survive on 2 hours of sleep/night for extended periods of time but I did manage to provide a crude but working demo within a week.
Now that we’ve got two MBPI data points, we need more data (subtle hint to Kate).
Well a final few points Yanni or John or whatever you are going to call yourself today.
1. You assume I am anti-American? Well ya know what happens when you assume. I have served with and alongside my American brethern for most of my time in the Navy and I have nothing but the greatest respect for them.
2. Someone (me), has the gall to disagree with you, therefore that person must be an asshole. Now THAT is a leftist trait.
3. Am I unhappy with my level of taxation? Is there someone out there happy with their level of taxation?
4. Brutal attack? That was brutal? Live in Disney Land do you?
5. Am I an ass/asshole? Not normally, but in situations like this I tend to work to the level of the competition.
End, out.
“I confess that it was me that was the “iberia=moonbat” imposter. I thought it was kind of cute at the time.
I’m not very well know here at ‘dead critters’ as I tend to lurk more than I post, but it’s still fun to be a part of this remarkable site of Kate’s.
I think I also figured out that “terrence” might be my uncle from the left coast!
Posted by: Eskimo at June 5, 2007 1:30 AM ”
Well. Thanks for the confession,as it is good for the soul(whooopppss..that was meant as non-religious 🙂 ), but you really didn’t have to post that. Most people here,IMHO, figured out lberia long ago. But why risk your rep by playing to his silly game by pretending to be him? Just asking.
Please add one Ph.D. scientist to your survey, Kate – me…
Add another real estate person to the mix, AND I’m a member of Mensa.
(I know, it’s kind of stupid, but I joined when I was 19 on a dare and I keep up my membership now because (1) they have very cool parties once in awhile and (2) it irritates my pagan friends no end when they look at my science degrees and my tested IQ AND my happily devout Catholicism.)
Alas, Kelly, I shall not take the bait, my comments are on the record, I let them stand.
I’d be interested in knowing what the readers’ MMPI, Myers-Briggs, or Keirsey-Bates types are, and how our aggregation varies from the species norms as a whole. Anyone want to bet that we’re high on the NT side and low on the SF side?
Excellent point Vitruvius although somewhat ironic that it takes an engineer to see this. I’d forgotten about the Myers-Briggs personality inventory (MBPI) as this is a tool used by psychologists and we have our own ways of doing things in medicine;-) Lots of online tests available and my profile is ENTP. (Just as you predicted Vitruvius).
Nice thing about MBPI types is that there are only 16 of them and the proportions of the N. American population that fall into the various types are well known. If everyone who posted their occupation(s) also did MBPI, this would represent a very valuable chunk of research data. It’s clear to me that the population of individuals who contribute to/read SDA is significantly different than the Canadian population, but it would be really interesting to know quantitatively how they differ.
My gut feeling from perusing people’s occupations is that there appears to be a proponderance of individuals who have engaged in a greater number of lifetime occupations than one would expect from a randomly selected sample of the population. The educational level also appears to be quite high (as is obvious from the very high quality of the posts on SDA). I was going to try my own analysis of occupations tonight, but thanks to Vitruvius, I’m now researching MBPI. What I’m supposed to be doing is a medical legal report, but it’s much more intellectually stimulating here.
I’m ENTP too, Loki, though 30 years ago I was INTJ. My NT indicators have always been over 90% on both axes. My E, I, P, and J indicators have always been border-line, and over the years I’ve trended from IJ to EP, which as I understand it is normal, with age, for NTs. Or as you put it, “over the years I’ve developed a new set of wetware modes dealing with various aspects […]”.
I do find the personality inventory types concept interesting. I’ve taken Keirsey-Bates every few years (I have the book, and I know there used to be an on-line test, but I can’t find it now), more or less just for fun, yet as a result I’ve noticed some interesting phenomenon, such as the weak indicators varying depending on what sort of problems I was working on. Meanwhile, as I understand it, the taxonomy is principally subdivided by the middle two axes, which is why I mentioned NT and SF.
For those of you who are interested in this topic, you can start here – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator
Loki, do you have a URL link for an on-line inventory classifier?
We probably should not hijack this thread on this matter, but perhaps Kate may at some point introduce the topic, in which case having researched the issue one would be in a position to comment. For the record, I don’t think personality typologies are scientific, I think they’re interesting. You’ll have to decide for yourself.
I confess that it was me that was the “iberia=moonbat” imposter. I thought it was kind of cute at the time.
I’m not very well know here at ‘dead critters’ as I tend to lurk more than I post, but it’s still fun to be a part of this remarkable site of Kate’s.
I think I also figured out that “terrence” might be my uncle from the left coast!
Interesting that you were initially INTJ, Vitruvius, as this is the personality type most over-represented in engineers being 4.88 times more common than in the general population (from http://www.eng.monash.edu.au/uicee/worldtransactions/WorldTransAbstractsVo1No2/05_Capretz15.pdf)
I’m only a few hours into researching this topic and the MBPI does have the advantage of huge amounts of data and a long history, but I have thus far found no neurochemical basis for the personality types and even more worrisome, no data thus far on the stability of MBPI categories over time. My current area of interest is bipolar spectrum disorders and it would be very interesting if extraversion correlated with hypomanic mood. Psychiatry (at least the DSM4 version) tends to be categorical which means either you have a disease or you don’t whereas those of us in primary care medicine know that things are very rarely this clear cut (maybe the people we refer to psychiatrists are) and the MBPI is a type of continuous measure that might be usefull here. (Sorry Kate, I’ll stop here).
Like you, I’ve also noticed a seeming change from E to I depending on problems that I’m working on and when I’m heavily into a major programming project (far too infrequently now unfortunately), I might not talk to or see anyone for days at a time whereas if I’m stuck, I’ll take my laptop and head out to a bar to work. The last major programming project was the result of a touch too much extraversion where, at a meeting, I declared a particular problem to be trivial and that I could provide a working program in a week; I’m getting too old to survive on 2 hours of sleep/night for extended periods of time but I did manage to provide a crude but working demo within a week.
Now that we’ve got two MBPI data points, we need more data (subtle hint to Kate).
I’m INTJ, is anyone surprised?
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
Well a final few points Yanni or John or whatever you are going to call yourself today.
1. You assume I am anti-American? Well ya know what happens when you assume. I have served with and alongside my American brethern for most of my time in the Navy and I have nothing but the greatest respect for them.
2. Someone (me), has the gall to disagree with you, therefore that person must be an asshole. Now THAT is a leftist trait.
3. Am I unhappy with my level of taxation? Is there someone out there happy with their level of taxation?
4. Brutal attack? That was brutal? Live in Disney Land do you?
5. Am I an ass/asshole? Not normally, but in situations like this I tend to work to the level of the competition.
End, out.
“I confess that it was me that was the “iberia=moonbat” imposter. I thought it was kind of cute at the time.
I’m not very well know here at ‘dead critters’ as I tend to lurk more than I post, but it’s still fun to be a part of this remarkable site of Kate’s.
I think I also figured out that “terrence” might be my uncle from the left coast!
Posted by: Eskimo at June 5, 2007 1:30 AM ”
Well. Thanks for the confession,as it is good for the soul(whooopppss..that was meant as non-religious 🙂 ), but you really didn’t have to post that. Most people here,IMHO, figured out lberia long ago. But why risk your rep by playing to his silly game by pretending to be him? Just asking.
Please add one Ph.D. scientist to your survey, Kate – me…
Add another real estate person to the mix, AND I’m a member of Mensa.
(I know, it’s kind of stupid, but I joined when I was 19 on a dare and I keep up my membership now because (1) they have very cool parties once in awhile and (2) it irritates my pagan friends no end when they look at my science degrees and my tested IQ AND my happily devout Catholicism.)