Month: March 2015 | the Wakefield Doctrine

Moanday -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘a fifth below or a fourth above’

March 16, 2015 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

( courtesy of zoe and her friend )

Now we’re getting ‘old school Doctrine Post writing’. Today’s subtitle? On the way in to my office, the local college radio DJ was describing an Ella Fitzgerald ‘record’ (Ella sings Duke or something, I’ll try to find it and play it), and as he was reading the liner notes, he said, ‘…she sings a part that is a fifth above (the melody line) or a fourth above.’ I have no explanation why that phrase ended up as today’s Post Title… part of being a clark, I’ll assume.

…speaking of being a clark, of late I’ve been wandering in the wilderness a little, post-writing-istically speaking, wondering if I still had the energy and enthusiasm and all. But then, at the end of last week, a flurry of Comments and Replys relating to the vidchat and the Dark place (of clarks) and this followed up on the weekend with a conversation with a clark who, though he never heard of the Doctrine, picked up on the principles totally without hesitation (yeah, it’s almost axiomatic that clarks take to the Doctrine like a dog after a duck). In any event, these events brought home to me what I have known all along (but tend forget), and that is, the key to writing Posts is/are the Readers. To be a little more specific, the key is my understanding and appreciating the Readers that are out there (with questions and curiosity and enthusiasm for the fun and uses of this rather cool perspective on the behavior of the people in our lives) when I remember that this Wakefield Doctrine is for them, not just me, then I feel the fun and excitement that’s been a part of this blog thing from the very first Post.

ya know?

…now I gots to find that Ella Fitzgerald tune so the subtitle can make sense to the rogers out there (clarks are creative in terms of music, but when it comes to technical virtuosity… you really need to find yourself a roger.)

So, with Post number 1301, I believe I will start with the basics and see where that takes us.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: psychology of personality, relationships, self-development, the Wakefield Doctrine

TT-o-(synchronici)ty -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 14, 2015 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Christine has written that she intends to engage in the A-Z something-something blog Challenge, this May (or maybe it’s April). The hook is that participants write a Post every day (with Sunday’s off…presumedly to prevent the non-blogger members of the family from moving to a different address, “someplace where the people are flesh and blood, you know?”) but, the subject/topic (is there a real difference in these two words, I mean, really? “the subject of my paper is…” or “my paper’s topic is” hey!! I guess they are the same!) Anyway… this week’s TToT Post will be A-Z Practice (sort of)

(Saturday am: went over to glance at C’s Post… ok, if spring is the dominant thought on the minds of TToT(eers)

S ( er Something! this different letter thing is not as easy and I thought. But let’s try again) Spontaneity. While not necessarily linked to spring in the minds of most, the notion of spontaneity is associated, (in my mind), as a natural by-product of the increased energy that seems to come with the warming weather. There is that sense, (during Spring), that it’s not as necessary to conserve energy and, in fact, there is a sense of activity for the sake of activity…. in a Spontaneous manner… I am grateful for spontaneity (my god! nine more of these?!!?)

P Patience. alright, this one did impinge on my day, this last week. I’m not saying that I’m grateful for being patient, but there were moments this week that I made the choice to simply wait and the outcome was clearly better for my non-action. While Patience tends to be a quality more associated with clarks than ‘the other two’, the ‘patience of a clark‘ is not necessarily a deliberate, conscious choice. clarks tend to appear patient, because the alternative has a higher level of exposure to criticism and subsequently, clarks will take a chance and wait. Patiently. now, scotts…. patient? yeah, absolutely!

R rogers (lol…. no, I haven’t given up on the A-Z letters of the season as the template of the 10…. ) rogers are all about the Springtime. no, seriously! The whole cycle of rebirth, the end of the enforced quietude of Winter, predictable and repeatable and reliable, those are qualities that hold the highest value for a roger. Whether a carpenter or a cook, homemaker or choreographer, rogers live in a reality where the world is quantifiable, understandable and reliable. the life of rogers is, (in part), a search for those qualities in their lives

I I was going to go for Inspiration or Insight (hey, did you know that one of the ‘test characteristics’ useful when trying to infer the worldview of a person, is to note the use of personal pronouns? Well it is! clarks tend to use the plural impersonal pronouns, we, they, them… scotts tend to not use so many personal pronouns ( other than ‘Hey!’) and rogers….( this is where it gets interesting), ‘I’ and ‘me‘ are huge with our Herd Member friends.)

N er? othing? no! wait!! Seagulls!! the photo of the non-flying, semi-aquatic cow(-of-the-week) above? that was in Narragansett!!! N cha ching!

G Garden! ok… this one is totally appropriate…. someone, (well, actually, a lot of people on the internet), was recently talking about gardens and gardening. I enjoy the idea of a garden, but it tends to take too long.. what the better word…. process, yeah, that’t it! the process is too long (and deferred). the best gardener among the three personality types: rogers!

T he dark place. (very much a quality/feature of the clarklike worldview. it need not be explained to clarks and cannot be described to non-clarks)

I Identification. This one I am totally grateful for, in concept, if not in practice. To identify with another, is to, on the basis of a common experience, know how a person feels or thinks, at least in certain situations. I’m not doing an overly good job of defining this form of reality-sharing, but it is one of the single most remarkable things to come out of the Wakefield Doctrine blog. Not identification, of course! that’s always been there, a potential among people. Rather, I’m talking about the benefits of identification among clarks…
Now scotts and rogers identify with people in various capacities and contexts, but they are also able to relate to people, in a manner that’s pretty darn direct. (for example: right now Dyanne is smiling and thinking about typing….. ‘you better believe it!’ and her elbow is moving, as if on it’s own in a phantom poke to my ribs for making such a statement) lol it’s just that for clarks, the ‘commerce’ of relating to people can be difficult (‘commerce’ is not to imply any negative, it’s simply the give and take of most interpersonal exchanges). for clarks, as Outsiders, it’s not always easy or comfortable to make the assumption of the right to engage in emotional commerce with another person.

M as in Man! are you serious with that last Letter Entry?!? yes, yes, I am! Something tells me that I might want to wait another year before taking on the A-Z Challenge!

E End? my god! if anyone needs me to document my gratitude at hitting this one, you clearly have been skimming this Post! lol

(apologies to the A-Z and other lets-impose-a-theme-and-see-what-people-write contingent hey, wait a minute!! that’s us too!) lol

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Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: personality types, the Wakefield Doctrine

Friday -the Wakefield Doctrine- of pop quizzes and bulletpoints

March 13, 2015 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Don’t Forget! This Evening… Vidchat at Seven! (‘An Evening at George and Jane’s‘) stop by! it’s hosted by clarks, so that means what it lacks in social status, (“I can’t believe you missed it last Friday!! oh man! everyone was there!!!!”), is compensated by odd conversations, funny in an interesting way and (sometimes) totally outrageous!

I trust you all know that we’ve found the Wakefield Doctrine to be useful to (any) effort to self-improve oneself. I (further) assume that everyone recognizes that the Doctrine is ‘three things to three people’. (And) that, it’s not even necessary that you determine which of the three you are, prior to trying to using our little personality theory to help you in your efforts. Start wherever you are right now. After all, ‘you can’t break it and, you can’t get it wrong‘. Yep, we still maintain that assertion about the use of the Wakefield Doctrine.

You do know, don’t you, that we can tell which of the three you are, purely on the basis of which of the three you initially say you are…. lol (Hey! New Readers! We have a Rule about identifying one’s predominant worldview. It’s your worldview, so no one can say, ‘By Power of the (fill in something relating to your own worldview) I declare that you are a ….!’ Well, they can say it, and you can even ask them to say it, but no one has any authority to impose their opinion of your worldview (dominant, secondary or tertiary aspects). Doesn’t mean we’re not all willing to share our understanding of the characteristics of the three worldview that are critical to understanding and identifying a person.

For example: one of the more difficult ‘calls’ to make: attractive male person who appears very confident, even to the point of aggressiveness, is he a scott or a roger? You might think, ‘Very aggressive that must mean scott!’ ok… but you want to go deeper than that*
they’re being aggressive, fine! …with/at/towards who? Are they ‘playing to the room’ or are they focused on one person.
Now… (here’s a critical question), is it about them or the person they are focused on? What happens when they are rebuffed and/or told to go jump in a lake? Do they laugh or do they seem to be taking it personally?
another very common situation (more often when a person seeks to determine their own predominant worldview): you see a clark, i.e. the poor posture, the mumbling, the odd, (but interesting), fashion choices, but then this very same person, for a moment, holds the attention of the entire room…. you’re thinking, ‘maybe this is a combination type part clark and part scott‘! You’d be right…but with the wrong conclusion. We all have one predominant worldview, but also the potential to see the world from the perspective of ‘the other two’. For some of us, this ‘secondary aspect’ is so significant that we develop some of the behaviors and strategies and coping mechanisms of this ‘other worldview’…. and these behaviors come to the surface at times usually at times of stress or duress, ( ‘hey! I want ‘cha ta meet someone!! these are my two cousins, Stress and Duress…. aint’ they hot?! you ever wanna to have a wild night lemme know!).
so… bottom line on identifying a person’s dominant worldview: we’re merely trying to infer how that other person is ‘relating themselves to the world around them’. know this and you know them

OK! end of Post. Don’t forget to join us tonight.

….sure! there’s got to be something I can say that will change your life (or have an effect for even just a single moment in your weekend)….

clarks: keep in mind this little fact that is shared by clarks alone…. more often than we allow, ‘it’s them, not us! If you walk away from a surprise conflict (is there any other kind for us?) feeling bad with a tinge of guilt that it was your fault? it’s them not you
scotts: yeah… your gut on this one is right and even though you almost can’t imagine how that family member can believe something so wrong about themselves…. it’s true and….and, chances are they’re used to it, so you don’t need to do anything immediately but, definitely know that they will appreciate whatever you try to do, even if it is ineffective
rogers: give yourself a break…. no, really. while finding and living ‘the Right Way’ confers to others nearly as much benefit as it does to you… they’ll survive if you take the weekend off, hell, they’ll enjoy it and you’ll have a re-energized feeling afterwards

7:00 pm

EDT

* the process of identifying a person’s dominant worldview is a lot like an optometrist eye test. you start looking at the person through the lens of two worldviews (you always throw out the obvious ‘no way’…. in our example above where we said, ‘attractive….confident…aggressive’? the ‘no way’ is a clark which leaves you with scott and roger. From here, you go for more and more intrinsic characteristics and you’ll find that one of the views becomes less clear as the other becomes more and more focused.**

** this same process is used when you identify your own worldview

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: clarkscottroger, personality types, psychology of personality, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine

TH -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘this is half the Post that was in my mind when I woke this morning…’ (to be con’td)

March 12, 2015 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

We’re going to talk about change and self-improvement for a little bit.

One of the original ‘teaser statements’ of this blog was, ‘with an understanding of the Wakefield Doctrine, you need never again hear yourself say, “how could they do such a thing? I really thought I knew them better than that!” ‘.
We stand by that statement to this day. An understanding and application of the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine, will allow you to know more about the other person than you have any right to know. The Doctrine is very, very useful in the effort to better understand the people in our lives. (Provided, of course, that we have a desire to better understand the people in our lives! Sometimes people take up with personality theories and the like, simply because they want another way to make the other person act differently. Sometimes that is a worthy goal, say, when the other person is trapped in some self-limiting or even, self-injurious behavior and other times it is a selfish ambition, when you hope to make another person conform to what is best for you. In neither case will the Wakefield Doctrine be of any use.

We have a saying, ‘the Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them’ which means that there is nothing you might learn and/or understand about the Wakefield Doctrine that will make the other person change.* All we promise about the Wakefield Doctrine is that you will have one more perspective on your world, one more way to better understand what the other person might be experiencing, (that accounts for their particular behavior). But you can’t make ’em change (“oh honey? I know you hate to go to my family’s barbecues… it says here that you need to be more rogerian!! honey?! you’re not listening again, are you? yes, I know you can repeat every word I just said… but, but oh my god!!! It just dawned on me!! you’re…..a……clark!!!”)

that last little italics passage? that’s the Wakefield Doctrine.

the other people in our lives do not always share a like (or a dislike) in everything that we do
while it is natural to want the other person to share the things that we find enjoyable, it does not always happen…
trying to make another person view a thing positively, as opposed to negatively…. especially the interpersonal things family and friends and such, is almost always futile
understanding how the other person in our lives experiences a situation is 90% of understanding why they behave a certain way
when you use the Wakefield Doctrine to better understand the people in your life, it is a certainty that you will learn more about yourself

So we know that we can’t make people change how they behave… let me rephrase that, until we can experience the world as the other person is experiencing it, there is no way we’re going to be able to influence that person’s behavior. The Wakefield Doctrine is a way to be able to ‘see the world as the other person is experiencing it‘, and when we can understand how the other person is relating themselves to the world around them, only then will their behavior make sense. Not more to our liking, necessarily, but more understandable.

So, if you’re still reading, you are one of those people who have a desire to understand the world more, rather than less. Hell, I’ll go even further! You’re the type who enjoys imagining things that may, or may not actually, technically be…real. But the real quality that I’m finding in the Readers of our little personality theory that makes all the difference and, sets you even further apart from the masses is this: to have the confidence-in-self, the self-assurance that creates stability as opposed to insecurity, to be able to imagine that the other person is experiencing a different reality. You may or may not be surprised at how difficult that is for most people. ‘yeah, we were both standing there and she said it didn’t bother her‘ ‘I know how well I explained my I had to leave the situation, and he still wants to know why I can’t understand why he yelled at the waiter‘ ‘no matter how often I explain to them that there is nothing to be afraid of, she still refuses to enjoy going to school‘

Congratulations on making this far in a rather… ramblistic Post.

* actually there is… it’s just way, way beyond the scope of this Post or, for that matter, my ability with the written word to describe…. ask me a direct question and I might give it a shot

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: personality types, psychology of personality, relationships, the Wakefield Doctrine

-the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘I almost cut and pasted a post…*’

March 11, 2015 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

(* whats the word for, when you take some famous saying and change it slightly, not paraphrase… parody…nah, not quite that anyone?) Well, now that I’m walking out on stage, suppose I better start with something more enticing than this!! I will resist the urge to go full-on stream of consciousness, though it seems almost unavoidable these days when writing Posts. I should not be so surprised. It’s not just that our (collective) understanding of the Doctrine is constantly evolving and developing, but my personal perspective on this ‘writing of a blog’ changes as well.

change there it is! The Word of the Day. ( “I know you want to make a statement and you’re creative, but if you want to get that job today, don’t you think you should change…maybe a little less metal on the face and head?” “No, I understand but why is it me that has to change?” “I’ll change somehow, I’ve got to, this can’t go on like this forever….can it?” “no, don’t leave, I’ll change! but you have to tell me what it is you want that’s different.” “no, keep the change” “The results are in and there’s been a disturbing change…” “the tests are back and there is no change’ I’m sorry” )

(whew!! while that last was fun, for a second I was staring at the screen and thinking…. ‘these people know so much about the three personality types, what can I tell them that is new and therefore will further enhance their understanding and use of the Wakefield Doctrine (lol thank you Kristi for not spitting your coffee out at the screen at that last statement! rogers and clarks are a little bit apart when it comes to the inherent value of the novel)

I’m feeling the tugging (and, paradoxically a ‘pushing from behind’) of my workday demands, so I better hurry up and complete this Post. The Doctrine maintains that ‘everyone does everything at one time or another’, which simply means that there are no (or very few) things in life that are of the exclusive domain of one of the three characteristic worldviews. Put more directly: anyone can be a Teacher (or a Plumber or a Prostitute or a Politician, for that matter)… it’s just that ‘how these occupations manifest’ in each of the worldviews is where we should direct our attention. a clarklike Teacher will clearly perform his or her job differently than would a scottian or rogerian Teacher. And that’s simply because in the world of the Outsider, the role of Teacher represents something entirely different than it does in the world of the Predator or Herd Member. (now, before someone can say, ‘well sure! everyone is different and these worldviews are interchangeable’ lets keep in mind while anyone can do anything, some worldviews result in a manifesting of the occupation/interest/avocation/whatever…. better than others! So, to use our original examples:

Teacher a clarklike teacher will tend to be be suited/resonate best/bring their fullest self to the job if they are teaching elementary grades (that is, if they’re clarklike females… clarklike males will tend to gravitate to the older end of the student demographic)…. rogerian Teachers: middle and high school; scottian Teachers …wherever their appetite takes them**
‘Successful’ Plumbers are often rogers, because the worldview of the Herd Member includes the fact that things fitting together in a consistent and reliable way is the Highest Good
Politician: here you want to bet on the roger…. not that scotts don’t make good leaders (they don’t, but for a different set of reasons than apply here), but scotts lead by their individual attractiveness/charisma, while rogers lead by causing other people to believe that they (the Politician) is the best representative of their most valued…. er Values.
…. we don’t have to tell you who the ‘best’ Prostitutes are, do we? lol

What’ all this got to do with ‘change’? Simple:

clarks see change as hope and they fear it as being proof that whatever they have acquired or earned (through their efforts to become like the people they believe they are not) is not deserved
scotts view change with suspicion… living on instincts and understanding (of their world and the prey and other predators that make it up), they will adapt when necessary… because it is part of the simple life of surviving and thriving
rogers… the only good change is the predicted change a change that has no precedent is anathema and will be shunned or ignored… maybe attacked (if it affects enough of the local herd) change that is predicted… that will be embraced and honored and offered (by example) to anyone who interacts with the herd

Hey!!! before I go!! Friday the 13th Vidchat!!! (yeah, I know!!!) I personally invite you, the Reader, to join us for a fun and informative evening of stimulating….something 7:00 pm EDST Write us a Comment and ask us, if you do not know how to join us. Lizzi will be there and Ivy (tbfkaz) and Denise and Michelle and a bunch of others….

Lets go old school and stick in a music video in this scrabbled eggs of a Post: