predicting human behavior | the Wakefield Doctrine - Part 78 predicting human behavior | the Wakefield Doctrine - Part 78

TMT Tuesday the Wakefield Doctrine ( ‘no, I’m quite sure Jen said she wanted to ‘look up our…sleeves‘ so I guess it’s alright)

November 5, 2013 By

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

thepiano-1024x683

Today Jen has left it to us, no direction or requirements, no task .. as a result, I had not a clue what to write and that’s where things got….familiar.  Late yesterday I sat down and started with a smartass Title and then sat back waited for songs to gather around this idea of: being examined or articles of clothing.

(ed Note: it is 6:53 am Tuesday morning) the songs did not flock to my mind!  I thought, “good going, Clark… that clever title really made this Post happen!”  So instead of presenting a coherently written TMT Tuesday Post with songs that flow from one to the other, what follows is, instead my Contribution to this week’s bloghop. Sorry  Jen and Kristi,  I’m afraid all I can do this week is try to describe the process I experienced as I went from a Post Title to finally hitting ‘Publish’.

 

mixtape jenkehl 200

This week’s topic for Twisted MixTape is Dealer’s Choice! If you ever wanted to jump on the bandwagon this would be the time! You choose your topic, but let’s not get crazy folks. I listen to every one of your mixes, so keep it as close to 5 as possible!

(My efforts started, last night, with the phrase; ‘look up our sleeves’. ok…most of you will get the fairly sexual overtone there, but I liked it! Unfortunately  nothing about clothing and (or stripping) came to mind. Instead, what starts playing in my mind but frickin Kenny Rogers and ‘the Gambler’!… (you know, cards up the sleeve?) Try as I might, I couldn’t find any version of the song that didn’t sound like a badly done Lyle Lovett cover. I gave up and focused on the word ‘The’ in a song Title,  maybe that would be the bridge and who do I get but Simon and Garfunkle??! Don’t get me wrong, I liked them, I heard them live doing Scarborough Fair. real pretty (but I was teenage boy in the 60’s! all kinds of beautiful harmony and it took 3 notes from Led Zeppelin to totally forget S&G).  anyway… the first song in my list is the one S&G that I have always liked.

The Boxer – Simon and Garfunkle

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

…more songs with a Title starting with the word ‘The’ ?  no! I am certain there are thousands of songs out there, all I got for search results were TV commercials and Trailers from low-budget adult movies! I was starting to get pissed off… and who comes to mind?  (of course!)

One Step Closer – Linkin Park

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmUTBDuUGz8

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

…this next transition is a lot harder to reconstruct. I know that I was enjoying the 90s and shifted my ‘focus’ away from sleeves to see what comes from thinking about the outrageous end of the musical spectrum. First stop was ‘Willie the Pimp’, which was a Captain Beefheart tune from the Zappa album ‘Hot Rats’. (Loved the line: ‘Man in a suit with a bow-tie neck, Wanna buy a grunt with a third party check‘) but the song came in at 9 minutes plus. I jumped to one of Zappa’s more accessible tunes and so:

Peaches En Regalia- Frank Zappa

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

…but after that, I found myself stuck in the 70’s! (I don’t know about anyone else, but when I try to follow a musical trail like this one today, a big part of my mind/emotions/thinking finds itself re-living the era of the music being played. Now without going into any un-necessarily prurient detail, suffice it to say that I was in college for half of the decade… Anyway,  I’m thinking sexual innuendo and next thing I know, I get the following:

You Can Leave Your Hat On – Joe Cocker

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(still with me? lol) Believe it or not, as I watched Mickey and Kim I started thinking, ‘what a clark Mickey Rourke is!’  (one of the three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine often associated with self-consciousness and introversion, not qualities that would come to mind in a scene like the one backdropping Joe Cocker’s song.) In any event, once the Doctrine gets in my head, I’m all…’well hell! lets find a song that is a clear musical representation of the other personality types! The quality of ‘stage presence is totally associated with the  scottian personality type, meaning you can not only see a person who illustrates the personality type, but their music itself reflects this quality as well.
We all know Joe Walsh. He is a scott. Not just in stage presence, but his lead playing… he finds the perfect notes for ‘guitar as penis’! (lol… should I have said  phallic instrument?  sorry…. but growing up in that era, we all knew that that’s why you spent the time and money to try and be the lead guitar player in the band.)  But as you watch this video you see that Joe does it so well, a very few notes…maximum impact… totally guitar as an extension of the person, not a virtuoso instrumental performance. What is not to like?

Funk 49 – Joe Walsh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3lEqVAroX4

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So this is my twisted-so-twisted mix Tape for November 5th

Share
Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: , , , , ,

easy to follow directions are implied in the following: the Wakefield Doctrine ( ‘…a tool, a toy, a trial’)

November 4, 2013 By

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

terra-cotta-pieces

Lets start with the Title of today’s Post. Regular Readers of the Doctrine will immediately spot that ‘three thing’ that is so pervasive around this blog.  While it certainly doesn’t hurt, there was in this case, and in most, but not all other instances, no deliberate effort to come up with three contrasting, complementary and/or worldview-appropriate examples.

But, this being Monday, we will set aside the intriguing inferences and simply ideal with the issues at hand:

  • what is this Doctrine thing
  • what good does it do me, the first time Reader
  • ….and hey!  Doctrine dudes, watcha got in mind for this here coming week here?

a) the Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective on behavior, a way to categorize personality types and most importantly, it is a way to better understand how we all, as individuals, relate ourselves to the world around us. Using the Wakefield Doctrine as a tool, you will be better able to see the world as the other person is experiencing it. What you will find is that what many label, ‘personality type’, is simply the appropriate response to a world that may (or may not) be the same as the one you are experiencing. the Wakefield Doctrine will help you through this moment of frisson, that stomach-touching realization that maybe, just maybe, the world itself is…to a certain degree, an individual affair. Once you have gotten through that moment (and, if you are still reading it, then you have), the Wakefield Doctrine will say to you: “cool. you believe that it is possible that reality itself is a personal thing. don’t worry about it being chaotic or out of control, everyone living in a different world and such! we got ya covered. this being an issue of individual reality, we will step up and say, ‘not to worry! there are only three characteristic worldviews that will account for the people in your life. and no, we will not be trapping you in an infinitely self-nesting quote loop’…”).
Here you go: clarks are the people who grew up learning about the world as Outsiders. they are kind and fearful, creative and overly private, and they dress funny and mumble; scotts are the personality type you get if you totally focus on the coping skills of a person who lives life as a Predator would, they are action-oriented and totally impulsive, they are quick to act and slow to think, they are great friends and will hit on anything with a pulse, they dress hot and talk loud; rogers are who you would want to be if you could imagine the world as being a quantifiable place, with common sense being real and impulsivity being anathema, they are the reason you have a computer to read this on and they are the reason that when you go to work today, you probably will not tell everyone what you read here, they are warm and they will burn you at a convenient, well-constructed stake…if necessary.

b) nothing today… check back here tonight. If you do, then the work can begin. Provided you remember to come back here and leave a Comment. Then,  then the fun begins. Only if you don’t pass this off as ‘man! that was odd’, then after the Comment you can begin to learn the really cool stuff and then it will be almost too late to stop. If that is a concern, write yourself a note right now and tell yourself that what you think you read here wasn’t really what you thought you read….

c) blogtalk radio on Friday…sometime, maybe.  TMT Tuesday here tomorrow.  More of this kinda stuff

 

y’all come back now, yeah?

Share
Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Simply Sunday TToT 22.5 the Wakefield Doctrine “of line dances, bicycles and blogs”

November 3, 2013 By

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

005ef038-7f7e-4ec2-923a-14ef06bd1e1c

Item A: I’m grateful for receiving the following Link  to answer Stephanie’s Question on yesterday’s Post. She was asking about Lou Reed:  Raised on Radio Post by Lance Burson   That I could provide this ‘response’ is a very good example of how cool the internet is. When I realized that I did not feel up to giving Stephanie a proper answer, I thought to myself, I thought, ‘well, who do I know that not only knows music but writes good?’ So I reached out to Jen Kehl and Linda Roy, who reminded me that they have a blog, Raised on Radio that they publish with Lance (and… and! ‘our own’ Richard Rumple).  How virtually cool is that?

Item B: Line dances. No, I’m not grateful for line dances, per se, I ‘m grateful to Lizzi for mentioning them in her Comment last night. It totally triggered a flashback to when I played in a band that worked the ‘Wedding Reception Circuit’ back in the 70s.  The band’s name was ‘Brass Tacks’ (‘when you’re ready to get serious about music, it’s to get down to Brass Tacks‘  pretty long for a tagline! ) We were a 5 piece band: keyboards, bass, guitar (moi), drums ( he did most of the vocals) and a sax player (which is why we were playing weddings and not bars..lol). Anyway, Lizzi’s Comment about line dances brought it all back. The gigs we played had two objectives: line dances. Actually we played music for people to eat to and immediately thereafter, played music for the ‘hey this is the Bride and Groom’ sort of stuff. Then came the drinking and the dancing… ” hey play Green Dolphin Street!!!”…  “play ‘Misty’ for me”  we did a standard set of covers including the theme to the Rockford Files (?!?… it was a TV show  here listen). Towards the scheduled end of the evening is where we made our money, as a small group would start to demand the ‘Hully Gully’ and other dances for slightly drunk people and the chance for the clarks to get lucky music. We almost always get someone to give us as much for the overtime as we got for the gig.    The only regret I have is that I didn’t save the shirt!  Flowered! Polyester!!! Colorful!!! I would stand there all flower-shirted and play guitar into the evening and early morning.

Item C: last night’s Wakefield Doctrine Saturday Night Drive Cyndi and Denise were on the call… and it was everything that a call-in is intended to be, good conversation…catching up with the latest about work and blogs and such from the week past and like that.

Item E: looking forward, (in principle), to the coming work week. Huge frickin challenges ( hey, since we’re talking about how old a person can be and still type for more than 40 minutes in a row)… I ‘was there’ when they started screwing with the language, at least when they came out in the open and said:  “hey! the word, ‘problem’  lets use the word ‘challenge’ instead…then you won’t get so intimidated and bummed out and such”  There were a lot of ‘advancements in the late 70’s and early 80’s  in the area of shaping the message.  I thought I had a longer, more interesting Item here… apparently not!  lol

Item M: glad that I am comfortable just totally abandoning what little structure I thought I had for today’s Post.  I will say at this point, there are 10 things in my Post today that I am either: grateful for, look forward to or hate like hell

Item G: grateful for whatever came over me last week to make the conscious effort to get back to Doctrine in my blogging. Not that I don’t reference it in virtually everything I right, but I have of late found myself spending more time writing about the Doctrine somewhat… obliquely, usually in the context of a bloghop. Which is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. But there is something, and this may be part and parcel with having a niche blog (as opposed to a personal blog), that makes the writing more… risky?  exciting?  something.  Bloghops will always be part of what I enjoy, but the Wakefield Doctrine and the effort to present it effectively to as many people as I possibly can, will always be the reason I am out here in the blogosphere. And that I am grateful for (…and the hope of acquiring skills at this ‘writing thing’. What’s the deal with the more I seem to try and learn, the more deficiencies I can find in my own writing? what the hell?)

Item 9: I suspect, but hope not, that I have lost Dyanne and Christine… their input, as good students of the Doctrine will attest to, is distinctive, valued, difficult to appreciate at times… (now, if the Doctrine is worth anything, they will somehow pick up the scent again!  lol… no! Christine…that’s a compliment.

Item J: Lizzi’s Comment this morning was very, very… helpful?  useful? valuable?  something-able. …no wait a minute! I do know what that quality is.. it is a demonstration of possibility. Most clarks hate the word ‘potential’, at least when used in the context, ‘but clark, why are you being that way? you have such potential’.  Ayiiee!! arrgg  (Warning: the following will not only not makes sense to Readers who live in the scottian or rogerian worldview, it may piss you off.)  How many time have we clarks, heard that admonition, ‘but you have so much potential and talent, you’re working against yourself. Why do you have to wear those clothes, hang around with those people, listen to that music, spend so much time by yourself, slouch so much, ignore what we are saying, we are doing this for your own good, must you always be so…. that way.

yes, yes we do. That is not the same as saying that clarks are totally satisfied with what we do, think, try and hope for, but we are trying. Lets put it this way: you’re a scott or a roger, ok? You want certain things, be happy, not be sad, have a family, be loved, earn a living, live a good life…right? And left to your devices you will try and get these things, you will look around you and do what everyone else is doing and get on with it.
…suppose, when you look for ‘the first step’ you saw a hundred, a thousand… a million different sets of foot prints?  And this is not really what I am trying to describe, we clarks don’t really see the path to our lives laid out as a myriad of footprints leading into the future…that would  be too damn easy.  No, what we have to contend is two things: a) it’s always possible that (fill in the blank) and 2) the fact (in our reality) that we are apart from the world, that we are, in fact, Outsiders and the belief that the ‘answer’ lies in something we don’t know/haven’t thought of yet/totally missed and if we ever do find the missing information, then we can be real people.

Number 10: you Readers

 

Ok  need to edit this a little but it’s time for the Video Brunch!!!

 

Ten Things of Thankful

 

 Your hosts


Share
Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: , , , , ,

the Third Part of the 3 part series… the Wakefield Doctrine ‘first you laugh, then you grimace, finally you smile.’

November 1, 2013 By

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

Big-Brother-August-18-350x233

This is the 3rd of our Three Part Series: ‘You and that Wakefield Doctrine‘

In recognition of the fact that today is Friday* lets  talk about what we covered this week and what exciting things we have in store for you in the coming days, ok?  But before we start, let me just say,  “I’m glad you could join us in this, our semi-annual ratings sweep week!”

In the course of the Week Past, we’ve learned that:

  • the Wakefield Doctrine is a tool to help understand the behavior of the people in our lives
  • there are three personality types, clarks (you know one of them, you just can’t recall their name), scotts (they are such great fun! if only they weren’t so… grabby, ya know?) and rogers (where would we be without them!)
  • this is a personality theory in the same way that saying gesundheit is a sound medical practice, i.e. it works and it makes us feel good and people respect us for it
  • these personality types are simply the label for the sum total of the strategies we have all developed in order to cope with the world that we find ourselves in, this is all about how we relate ourselves to the world around us
  • these worldviews? (the Outsider, the Predator and the Herd Member) that give rise to our three personality types?? they are real and you have one (plus you have the potential of the other two…!)
  • this is all brainiac sounding shit sometimes, but it’s fun!  hey scott you want to know about what’s in the closet of the girl you are hitting on? we got you covered. excuse me, Mr. roger?  you jostle for position in the herd all day at work, if you could get the inside scoop on some of your fellow rogers…think that will enhance your contribution to the group?  no problemo!!  and clark… never mind you’re already reading the Posts you know that this does not have to replace or compete with your own ‘system’, right?  welcome to our little group of outsiders

Coming up Next Week!

first things first! TToT is on every Saturday and Sunday. (For you non-blogwriters) this is a bloghop with a difference. A lot of people participate in the TToT, but that’s not so un-common. What is..is the amount of activity and conversation and give and take and such. Stop in… I’ll put you on the Guest List! Just tell Lizzi that ‘the Doctrine sent ya! and it’s ok for you to read and Comment and all like that, this one weekend only.

second things second! Wakefield Doctrine Saturday Night Drive Call-in and the Wakefield Doctrine Sunday Morning Video Brunch.  one of these is a call-in and Cyndi usually calls in! (depending on where her hotspot is! haha) and is great fun to discuss the Doctrine and get answers to your questions and all… 8 to 845 EDT  (1-218-339-0422  access code: 512103 #), the other is a video chat, usually 9-ish to whenever  Come join Michelle and Denise and Lizzi for a fun conversation from around the globe

third things third in the course of the week, there will be 3 and 2 part series on the use and abuse of the Wakefield Doctrine

finally:  blogtalk radio is back, check back here for the time of next week’s show!  we will be getting a tour-lette of Singapore the weekend after next!! check you Doctrine listings!

 

* Friday is traditionally the ‘Day of Test/Quizzes’ and Friend of the Doctrine Sally, posed the question yesterday, ‘which of the three is/are/am better at taking tests?‘
Now, all the DownSprings should be jumping up raising their hands and shouting, “everything one time or another!! everyone one time!!!”

They are, of course, referring to the dictum, “everyone does everything, at one time or another”.
Meant to remind us that things are not ‘scottian‘ or ‘rogerian‘, one personality type does not have exclusive domain over certain occupations, avocations or situations.  We all:  take tests, study hard, make friends when we move to a new school, have ambitions, fear for our happiness, trust our parents, love that girl from afar, wish that he would stop hanging around, know that the new manager really hates us, lies in bed afraid of the coming day, wondering if we can measure up.  But the Wakefield Doctrine it says to us, it says, “sure but if you live in the worldview of the Outsider, i.e. you are clark, then ‘taking a test’ is a breeze!…  because you know things…lots of things, taking tests for a clark is a lot like the classic tale of don Juan! We know we do it well, we enjoy doing it, we are confident doing it…as to who we are doing it to (which test we are taking) and the outcome of our ‘test taking’…that’s an entirely different matter. Sometimes it does not end so well, with the ‘test’ expecting much, much more from us, but, we do not care about that! We know things and have answers! It is what we do and there is always  ‘another test’ that we can take if this one does not end so well.  or… if you are a scott, then for you, a test manifests as an awful thing, you do not enjoy it! and do you know why?  of course you don’t!! because you have not heard it directly from me!! as a scott the world is to be dealt with directly! we wrestle with the people and places and things in our daily lives, we don’t send these puny ‘answers’ to do our work for us!! a scott is a Predator…one who meets the other person directly and challenges for dominance… no multiple choice ‘answer’ will carry the force of the scottian personality!

 

Share
Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: , , , , , ,

‘Life imitating art’1 and the three worldviews of the Wakefield Doctrine…if you don’t believe yourself, who can you believe?

October 30, 2013 By

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

Rene-Magritte-The-Lovers-1928

You knew this wasn’t going to be a simple, conventional, easy to ‘get’ approach to understanding the behavior of the people in our lives, didn’t you?

To recapitulate briefly:

the Wakefield Doctrine maintains that we live our lives in one of three worldviews (personal realities). That what others refer to as personality types are, in actuality, reflections of our efforts to contend with the world as we relate ourselves to it. Further, the Doctrine would allow that,  if we correctly infer which (of these three worldviews) the other person is experiencing, we will know more about them than they know about themselves. The Wakefield Doctrine is intended to be used as a tool to aid us in these efforts, meant as a perspective (on) the lives and behavior of the people around us that, correctly employed will lead to a greater understanding of why people do the things that they do.  Unlike most other personality systems and ‘theories’, the Wakefield Doctrine offers nothing that you can directly impart to another person. Your use of the Doctrine can only lead to a better understanding of the other person, the Wakefield Doctrine  will not serve you in any efforts to:  convince another person to act differently, treat you better, stop that annoying habit, know you for what you really are, quit smoking, have more frequent sex, show the world the side that you know is there, get ‘A’s, eat less, lose weight, get a better job and, finally start helping around the house. The Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them.

If you learn and apply the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine to your own life, then you will be in a position to not just improve your life and circumstances. You will be able to improve yourself. As a person. A person who must interact and deal with people who: you work for, who work for you, those you love and those you would love, those you hate and those you would rather not be distracted by, family, friends, the man in the car at the gas pump ahead of you and the girl who delivers the mail. They are all a part of your world today and that is what the Wakefield Doctrine is intended to be used on. And….and! the best thing about using the Wakefield Doctrine as a tool in your efforts to self-improve yourself is: you do not have to do anything that you are not capable of all along.

So, first step:  read up on the worldview of the Outsider (clarks) and the Predator (scotts) and the Herd Members (rogers), now what? Now, the fun. Observe the people in your life. Fact of the matter, if you are still reading, it is a pretty safe bet that you get a kick out of ‘people watching’. Pay special attention to interactions between people. Find one person in your daily life and start with them. You have three personality types to choose from… go ahead and throw out the one you know they are not!… ok! now keeping the characteristics of the 2 remaining worldviews in mind, which seems to be more consistent with the behavior of the person. Don’t worry about getting the answer fast…they are not going to change their worldview. The more you observe them, the simpler the choice will be, no… the more inevitable the choice will be! This is the fun part. Put yourself in their head…go ahead, they won’t know!

  1. does the person seem distant…un-emotional when they should be emotional, emotional when they should not be, do they seem to shy away from attention, do they mumble when you know they are quite capable of speaking clearly, does their fashion sense seem a bit… conflicted?  boots and mini-shirts…too much jewelry, is their posture really poor, are they funny in a quiet surprising way?
  2. no way! they are quick and seem to be everywhere but they won’t know what you are doing, relax…do they seem to probe and challenge constantly? are they funny and aggravating and do they always seem to push it just a little too far? when you imagine ‘being them’ do you feel envious and then excited but at the same time, glad that you are not them?
  3. always have an answer…not in the form of new information, in the form of ‘the last word’, very comfortable to talk to, seem to always be listening, attentive without any curiosity, do they seem to be looking for the right way to act when regarding others or the wrong way to act when others are the center of attention, they nurture without warmth, are seductive without excitement

That should be enough for Part 2.

 

 

 

1) Anti-mimesis is a philosophical position that holds the direct opposite of Aristotelian mimesis. Its most notable proponent is Oscar Wilde, who opined in his 1889 essay The Decay of Lying that, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”.
The philosophy holds that art sets the aesthetic principles by which people perceive life, and does not imitate life. What is found in life and nature is not what is really there, but is that which artists have taught people to find there, through art.

Halliwell asserts that the notion that life imitates art derives from classical notions that can be traced as far back as the writings of Aristophanes of Byzantium, and does not negate mimesis but rather “displace[s] its purpose onto the artlike fashioning of life itself”.
In George Bernard Shaw‘s preface to Three Plays he wrote, “I have noticed that when a certain type of feature appears in painting and is admired as beautiful, it presently becomes common in nature; so that the Beatrices and Francescas in the picture galleries of one generation come to life as the parlor-maids and waitresses of the next.” …His…understanding that “the real world does not exist…men and women are made by their own fancies in the image of the imaginary creatures in my youthful fictions, only much stupider.”  ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imitating_art)

Share
Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: , , , , , ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »