psychology of personality | the Wakefield Doctrine - Part 14 psychology of personality | the Wakefield Doctrine - Part 14

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 26, 2023 By

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

This is this week’s Doctrine contribution to the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop.

Founded by Lizzi R on Christmas Day, 1991, it, (the TToT, not Christmas), is the longest running bloghop with gratitude as a theme, and the Wakefield Doctrine as an original host. (I think Dyanne is the only other original hostinae still active. She types good for her age, don’cha think?)

We, on the other hand, have weathered the years like a good quality, cast iron skillet. As the years take their toll, an SOS pad and a good-quality cooking oil makes a world of difference.

In any event, below is our list of ten people, places and things that have engendered the state, experience and feeling of gratitude.

1) Una

2) Phyllis

3) the Wakefield Doctrine

4) the Six Sentence Story bloghop

5) Week One  Zombie Christmas Tree

A ‘tree’, a dog. …The Vigil begins

6) stuff

7) New ‘real’ world projects. The patio and walkway for the cottage (stay tuned! still trying to find the correct brick pavers*)

8) something, something

9) * you wanna know how much Life imitates Art that prevails ’round these parts? Most improvements such as a walkway and patio start with an idea, sometimes even a sense of the ‘look’ to be produced. The image Phyllis and I have in mind? The patio of the house on the East Side of Providence RI that Almira Ristani-Gulch lived in while her husband Sterling was in Europe at the end of World War I. …talk about walkin’ the walk!

10) Secret Rule 1.3 From the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) basically? “Put the grat for getting through to Number Ten at …Number 10!” ) …well, duh

music vids

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You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Re-Print Tewsdae -the Wakefield Doctrine-

February 14, 2023 By

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

First off, let us say, ‘Hey, this (reprint) it was written way back in, like only second-and-a-half year of writing this (or any!) blog’.

Second off, ‘We stand by the story.’

Third thing: ‘And that is the value of learning and applying the principles of our little personality theory’.

See, the thing is, we’re all experiencing the world around us and the people who make it up in one of three characteristic relationships:

  1. as the Outsider(clarks) relate themselves, apart from, non-definably different, and driven to learn what everyone else appears to know…while remaining (mostly) un-noticed
  2. the Predator(scotts) range the open world, chasing prey and being chased, living the day as much as possible with as little doubt or reservation (as possible)
  3. the Herd Member(rogers) while knowing that all they is experience is good and sufficient, there is a need to learn the Best Way and to share that at as many others as possible.

We act and react appropriate to the world we live in.

So to the ‘lesson’ at the top of this post.

As a clark, I would normally, (sans Doctrine), look at the old post and, while smiling in fond recollection of actually writing and posting it, cringe at the feeling, (you know, the tightening of the shoulders that comes when you realize others are watching), that maybe it was a little over the top, too childishly emotive and unsophisticated. The thought comes, ‘You’ve gotten so much better at your writing in the intervening 13 year… maybe keep looking for a different reprint’.

But the Doctrine, taken to heart, reminds me that there are other clarks in the world who would feel the same in a similiar situation. And, (the Doctrine), reminds us that, despite there being only ‘one actual reality’ I am heir to ‘the other two’. I then benefit by my reading and learning about the world (the relationship, if you will) the Predator and the Herd Member experience. How, if they were to come across an old post, they would experience it differently.

 

Outa time…. too bad, ’cause we were just about to tie it all together! oh well, guess you gotta keep readin’ and learnin’ and such

St Valentine was he a roger or was he a clark, the Wakefield Doctrine deals with the important questions of the day

February 14, 2012

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine ( the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers )( psst!  yeah, you!  anyone looking?  I’m supposed to be working on the Wakefield Doctrine book… I promised that I would stop with the nearly every day Posts so that I could apply what little energy I have to putting content down on paper. Long story, that’s not important now… what is important is today is Valentine’s Day!  And there is not a single person out there who writes a blog that can resist the obvious appeal of such a… a contrived, culturally supported, private interest initiated “holiday” as Valentine’s Day.  So a quick, totally self-indulgent Post and then back to work… if Ms. AKH or Molly asks… tell them you haven’t seen me….)

 

St Valentines is the worst, most contrived and cynical, gyno-centric guy-bait(ing), toy-with-the-emotions-of-innocent-bystanders, holiday on the whole damn calendar.  Of course we are all familiar with the origin of the holiday and the internet is positively turgid with countless blogs, and stories and articles that tell us all about Hallmark and the candy industry and the rest of the sordid tale of this day in February. I will not try to compete with these other more skilled and capable Commentators ( and -torinis), as I do not have the time or the ‘writing chops’ to do such a ripe topic justice. Instead, let me tell you about my most lasting memory of Valentines Day.

Third grade, parochial school (St. Imelda*) and a classroom of 25 students. The boys were required to wear blue shirts and blue ties with OLM printed on the front, fortunately ‘clip-on ties’ had been invented by this time, so easy-peasy; the girls wore the catholic school uniform, i.e. plaid skirts white shirt, socks.  damn, little did I realize at that pre-pubescent time of my life how potent that little Roman Catholic Church fashion dictates would become for me and countless other men at a later stage of life.  (In fact, I am feeling the tug on the cynical side of my writing-self, there is something about the whole, church-sexual-abuse-dress-the-children in outfits destined to become so hawt… lol sorry, again I lack the time or the writing skill to do justice to a topic like this… back to the story.)
So with much fanfare, Valentine’s Day arrives and we  9  year old boys and girls are told that in the afternoon, before the end of the school day, we would have time to deliver our Valentine cards to each other. ( The day before we spent ‘Art Period’ making little baskets out of construction paper and taping them to the front of our desks. These would serve as ‘mailboxes’ for the cards we would receive the next day).
The thing was, the horrible twist to this introduction to the world of love, relationships and rejection was that, the time when class stopped and we were allowed to get up and deliver our little cards was not the end of the school day! It was right after lunch… and it lasted 15 or 20 minutes…as in ‘ now return to your desks and we will continue with the afternoon’ classes’. To sit for 90 minutes staring at the contents of the container on the front of my desk… I will leave it to the Reader to decide the emotional landscape of that afternoon on a February 14th.

Anyone out there not comfortable with finishing the story, or satisfied with their conclusion of this little tale, write us a Comment! Regular Readers know that the rogers gave the biggest cards, the scotts received the most cards and the clarks delivered the most cards….secretly without the recipient ever knowing who the really fun card came from…

Now I better get back to work, before I get in trouble.

*who totally twisted my life… don’t ask

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Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

February 6, 2023 By

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

The music vid below? From the early days of this blog.

No, we’re not asserting that we were writing the Wakefield Doctrine in 1977! That’d be silly. Our typing skills were negligible, it would have taken forever to even get this far. (Not to mention, getting the bold fonts to work.)

That said, one could argue that the Wakefield Doctrine had been established. Seeing how we’d met the other two people in the photo at the top of the page.

Not posed with any intent to illustrate, demonstrate or hint at a mnemonic device, but consider the photo of the three gentlemen. We would hazard to bet that anyone with the slightest predilection towards understanding this little personality theory would be able to identify each by their predominant worldview, aka personality type. After-all, even the Doctrine term for each type provides intelligence of value in the effort to inferring how each are relating themselves to the world around them.

As would:

  • the Outsider(clarks) apart-from, seeking to learn what everyone else clearly knows about belonging, curious to a fault, relentless curiosity:  clarks think
  • the Predator(scotts) in motion while always in the here and now, the world is an adventure, a challenge and ultimately satisfying as the hunt never ends:  scotts act
  • the Herd Member(rogers) the center of wherever they are, they bind all by their capacity (and willingness) to be bound:  rogers feel

Hey, over the weekend we had the privilege of a conversation with one of the first Friends of the Doctrine, Cynthia. No, don’t ask how old she might have been when me and the Progenitors might have been listening to today’s music vid (not that we had music vids then).

In any event, I did manage to get her proper website address into the Link Roll on the home page. Art Funky. Talented lifeform? Need you even ask? Lots of good stuff in varied manifestations? I guess! a clark or scott or roger?

You’ll know.

(Bonus old insight into the early Doctrine: one of the first ‘rules’ we imposed on those who came to the Doctrine blog was simply that ‘no one has the power or authority to designate the predominant worldview of another’. It is always to the individual to decide. Not that we don’t speak about the worldview of others for learning opportunities. We do. It’s fun.

But one’s predominant worldview (whether they are a clark or a scott or a roger) is as personal as you can get. All of this, all twenty seven hundred posts are about finding a way to best appreciate ‘how we relate ourselfs to the world around us, and the people who make it up’.

Cynthia’s website again: ArtFunky. Do us a solid and go there, subscribe and tell her the Doctrine sent ya.

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Re-Print Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

January 24, 2023 By

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

Increasing frequency of writing. A good thing. (What appears counter-intuitive, at least at a surface level.)

Whatever.

The Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective on the world around us and the people who make it up. We are, all of us, born with the potential to relate ourselves to the world in three ways:

  1. as an Outsider(clark)
  2. as the Predator(scotts)
  3. as a Member of a Herd(rogers)

At an early age we settle into one, (and only one), relationship and begin to learn, be taught, practice and develop ways to survive and live, get by and thrive, in the world as we experience it. While this is only one of three ways of relating ourselves, we retain the potential to see the world as ‘the other two’ might experience it. This is the second benefit of learning the principles of this here personality theory here.

Read what you find interesting among the posts. Indulge your clarklike secondary aspect and enjoy the fun of ‘what if’.

With practice and reflection, study and …practice, you will enhance your ability to see the world as the other person is experiencing it. And you will begin to see the clarks, scotts and rogers in your world. (Warning: Once you see the clarks, scotts and rogers in your world, you may stop being able to not see the clarks, scotts and rogers in your world.)

That said, by appreciating the unique cost (and benefit) of how you relate yourself to the world around you, you’ll also be in a position to see  how the other person is experiencing, putting you in a position to know more about them than they know about themselves.

Pro Tip: Recommended technique for determining the personality type of the people around you? With a solid understanding of the primary behaviors associated with the Outsider(clarks) Predator(scotts) and Herd Members(rogers) and the subject in sight, throw out the ‘no fricken way!’ of the three. Then, (and this is both the most difficult and rewarding aspect of this thing of ours), imagine how they’re experiencing what’s going on from one (of the two remaining) perspectives. Then, from the remaining perspective. Just like your last trip to the optimist for your eye test: does the world make more sense from the perspective of (clark*scott*roger)? or (click) from the perspective of (clark*scott*roger). Repeat. Eventually one view will stand out as the ‘clearest’ the most sensible. That’s the person’s predominant worldview (aka personality type)

 

Hats and Understanding: the 3 personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine

July 6, 2011

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

For whatever reasons we are getting a lot of new Readers and Visitors in the last couple of weeks, so lets review the basic principles of the Wakefield Doctrine.

The Wakefield Doctrine, also known as the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers is a useful, unique and fun way to look at the behavior of the people in our lives. Everyone reading this has had at least one moment that they thought, “now why on earth would they go and act like that? I really thought I knew them better.”
Whether a spouse or a friend, a co-worker or a fellow student, there will always be someone in our lives whose behavior makes us wish we could ‘see inside their head’.   And as everyone reading this knows, there is a near endless supply of books and blogs and DVDs that promises to provide you with  ‘guides to understanding your spouse’, “do you really understand your lover?’ and ‘theories of personality and self-improvement’.

The Wakefield Doctrine is not quite any of those things. In fact, the Wakefield Doctrine is not like anything you have encountered before in your search for understanding others. And make no mistake about it, you have been searching for a way to better understand the people in your life, whether you are consciously aware of it or not.  This is true because everyone wants to be happy and even if you think that simply knowing:

  • what to say to that girl you are too shy to talk to, or
  • learning how to make your husband stop talking for 5 minutes or
  • trying to prepare yourself for a successful Job Interview

what you think/hope/know you need to learn is: how to understand another person.

Well, good news! The Wakefield Doctrine is a tool, a method, an approach…a theory that will let you ‘get inside the head of the other person’.  And the best part? It can be understood by almost everyone and can be effectively used (by almost everyone) real damn quick. All that it takes is a little flexible intelligence. What we mean by this is that while you do have to be pretty bright, the critical quality you need is to be willing to believe something   ‘just because’.
Ready?

The Wakefield Doctrine says that we all see the world in a certain context;  not just that you have likes and dislikes, or interests and attitudes, but that the world for you has (some) very basic rules.  Further, (the Wakefield Doctrine says) we all are born with the potential to see the world in one of three characteristic ways ( the context,we just mentioned). At an early age we (somehow) decide on one of three worldviews and we become clarks or scotts or rogers. These are the 3 personality types mentioned in the title.
But they are not really personality types though, are they?  (All the other personality theories) talk about interests and drives and attitudes, they give you tests to see what you are most like, what pattern you resemble, where you fit in their matrix.
The Doctrine is different. We say, ‘Hey! you are a clark or a scott or a roger. We know what the world looks like from inside your head. How about that!’

Sound like fun? Well, it is.  And it is useful.  You will know why the other person acts the way that they do and, as frickin huge bonus, you will know why it is you act the way that you do! If you want, you can learn to do things that were never even close to being possible, all because of the understanding that the Wakefield Doctrine offers.

OK, ok enough! This was supposed to be a brief  Summer Post! But just to make your introduction to the Wakefield Doctrine fun and enjoyable, look over at the Table of Contents, there are Pages listed that talk about each of the three personality types, how to identify them, that sort of thing. And these Posts, they are sort of  ‘a conversation’ about the Doctrine; read them in order or at random, should not really matter.

Final Tip: you have all three ‘personality types’ within you. You are predominately one, but the other two are alwaysthere. So if you read this blog, at some point you will say to yourself, ‘What the hell? Sometimes I am a roger, but then there are times when I must be what they call a scott!‘

Final, final Tip: this theory of clarks, scotts and rogers is gender and culture neutral. (If you need that explained to you then you probably need to wait (for one of us) to write ‘the Wakefield Doctrine For Dummies’.

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Re-Print Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

January 16, 2023 By

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

So the second coolest thing* happened the other day at the office. Initiating a conversation, an associate texted: what a roger!

I smiled and my pride in being the curator of our little personality theory increased just a bit.

(Full Disclosure: being a clark, I immediately chastised myself for the indulging in pride. Not as in the somewhat more famous religion’s admonition against such self-assessment, more in the ‘keep your feelings to yourself, nothing good could otherwise result’.)

Holy smoke! Being a holiday and all, let’s get all zen koan and say: the preceding post is sufficient for a talented Reader (and student of the human condition) to reconstruct the Wakefield Doctrine.

 

* first coolest thing? While it has not, to the best of our knowledge, yet happened, would be a person, with whom we have not had any contact, to say the above in our presence.

 

…ok, we admit it, feeling some guilt about hitting publish on a 180 word post.

 

… no! now wait just a darn minute!

I (re)-read the following, while scanning old posts for reprint:

The Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them.

damn! those words, they are correct!

When I engage the world through the lens of the Doctrine, it does not change me. And…. and! it does not change you.

What it does is make available to us an additional perspective on what is going on at this particular moment. Therefore, if our desire is to best relate ourself to the world around us, appreciating how you are experiencing the world is helpful. Doesn’t change you. But our relationship to you, at least in this particular interaction, will surely be different for accepting this understanding of you.

so, maybe it does change us.

but!! The use of the perspective afforded by the Wakefield Doctrine will do nothing, at least directly, to affect the other person. However, not only will we have added to our world by better understanding you, we will be altered. Since the Wakefield Doctrine maintains that while living in one, and only one predominant worldview (aka personality type), we are still possessed of the capacity to experience the world as do the other two, this acceptance moves us a tiny step forward to being the most we can be as people.

 

cool

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