psychology of personality | the Wakefield Doctrine

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 29, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

Quick reprint post from 2015.

But first a little contemporaneous Doctrine:

Remember: clarks think, scotts act and rogers feel.

The friend who is easiest to talk to?

they’re a clark if all you want to do is reveal a secret that must never reach anyone else’s ear (Price: well-intentioned advice, on the plus side, easily ignored)
they’re a scott if all you want to do is something fun, outrageous, sorta crazy, when you want to be reminded life is only today (Price: whatever the bail money set)
they’re a roger if you want to believe that someone understands and feels as you do (Price: a lot of others will be given the opportunity to understand)

Here’s the promised reprint

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

Seeing how, of late, we’ve been all studious and learning the use of the Wakefield Doctrine to self-improve our own selfs, lets kick back and have a mid-week break! You all deserve it*.

Lady Godiva took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering grievously under her husband’s oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband, who obstinately refused to remit the tolls. At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would strip naked and ride on a horse through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word and, after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair. Just one person in the town, a tailor ever afterwards known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her proclamation in one of the most famous instances of voyeurism. In the story, Tom bores a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass, and is struck blind. In the end, Godiva’s husband keeps his word and abolishes the onerous taxes.

Most of you will not need me to tell you whats going on with this most…. civic of fairy tales (cautionary tale?… fable? morality play?… whatever). I will, however, address the New Reader.

New Reader? The fun (and real value) to be found in the Wakefield Doctrine lies not in being able to immediately identify Lady Godvia as a roger, her, kind-of-a-jerk, husband as a scott and …and poor Tom as a clark. It does not. The real fun (and value to ourselves, as people trying to better understand the people in our lives), lies in accepting that we have the qualities of all three of the characters in this story. ( One would represent our predominant worldview, and ‘the other two’ as our secondary and tertiary aspects, which, of course, our potential to be better (or worse) people.)

(While the more experienced Readers giggle in the back of the class and compose their smart-assed, but nevertheless perceptive interpretations of this Tale, lets review the three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine):

clarks are the ‘personality type’ that results from growing up as ‘the Outsider’. Through no fault of their own (though, they will go through life suspecting that there was something that was their fault…but that’s a whole ‘nother Post), clarks seek to learn how to live the best life possible, they place their stock in understanding the world, and believe that what they think is missing (in their lives) is knowable and rational. They are very creative, funny and (they) see the rules of social order as just another interesting thing about all the real people around them

scotts are identified by the coping strategies that have allowed wolves, lions, dogs and other predators to thrive through history. scotts are impulsive and decisive, mercurial and sentimental, for them the world is very simple: wake up… eat, protect the pack, be alert to threats and opportunity in the day, reproduce (of course! metaphorically as well as literal! knucklehead!) and sleep. scotts are the first pick for captain …of the other team (lol…. no, think about it a little….) (if you’re reading this you were in the other team… not the first team) they are great best friends and scary adversaries

rogers are the people who grow up and develop their coping skills knowing that they are ‘a part of’, they belong. rogers live (and thrive) in a world that is quantifiable, understandable, predictable ( in an unpredictable way) and above all has Rules…. rogers live searching for the Right Way (to do things) and will go all out to help others engaged in this task… the Yearbook Committee? pretty much all rogers (with one clark or so to do the stupid work)

ok.

You now know what is necessary in order to understand why we are identifying our three main characters as we are….lets open the Post for Comments.

(New Readers? the real fun lies in what is really required to successfully identify another’s worldview, i.e. you need to see the world as the other person is experiencing it. So…. Lady Godiva’s husband? so he says, ‘sure, I’ll lower taxes if you ride naked through the streets of town’…. bet that guy had a supply of banana peels, seltzer bottles and whoopee cushions around the palace and, that naked part? And Godiva? issue a proclamation (aka a Law)… that she would ride naked (implying that she would be exposed to all) but then say…. ‘you can’t look’ god! how many times in high school did we have to deal with that kind of behavior! … Tom? clark…clark…clark oh man, dude! you don’t have to make things so difficult for yourself… she doesn’t care!)

* did we mention how the Doctrine is predicated on reality being personal? that last sentence is the perfect example of what we mean by personal reality.

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

RePrint Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 28, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

Question: is there any concern about repetition or otherwise lacking the ‘oh boy! another Wakefield Doctrine post?’

Answer: no.

Question: what’s the most surprising thing about writing this blog.

Answer: did you not read the first question and answer?

(ha ha)

The reason for this is, coincidentally or not, at the heart of the Wakefield Doctrine itself. While the Doctrine offers three personality types, complete with a depth of characteristic behaviors, traits, tropisms and peccadillae that not only serve as a guide to identify the three types, the central tenet of this thing is not a simple list of behaviors. The central tenet, (and ambition), of the Wakefield Doctrine is best expressed as, “Increasing our awareness of how we relate ourselves to the world around us and the people who make it up”. (We always comment here that, we did not say, ‘how we relate to the world, etc’ we said, ‘how we relate ourselves to the world’)

The basis for the three personality types, (of the Wakefield Doctrine), and the primary strategy for its use as a tool to self-improve oneself, is grounded in (our) relationship(s). To the world, to the people and to ourselfs.

The process of writing these blog posts, or, for that matter, reading these posts, benefit from this unifying statement. It’s akin to saying, ‘Hey! You’ve talent for painting. Everyday I want you to do a self-portrait. And, then a year later, three years later… come back and show us the true self-portrait’.

enough with the metaphyics… on with the reprint.

here from way back in 2017

It has long been my ambition to write the Perfect Wakefield Doctrine post. (One might argue about that adenoidial descriptor, it has always been my ambition, since the very first post, hell, before the very first post). In any event, I’ll give it a shot today, Monday.

The definition of perfection? A post that a total stranger, (to this blog or, for that matter, a person who has not come into contact with anyone who knows of this personalty theory), can read…once and apply it to their own life right then and there. They will look around and they will see the clarks and scotts and rogers.

As a personality theory, the Wakefield Doctrine is more the key a song is played in than it is the song. It is not a definition of a set of established behaviors, tendencies, drives and tropisms, rather it is a way of looking at (the) behaviors, tendencies, drives and tropisms that everyone you encounter today will exhibit. Including yourself. Unlike most of the personality theories that we all come into contact with, the Wakefield Doctrine is not concerned with establishing where, in a pre-established matrix of behavior, you fit best. The Wakefield Doctrine is not concerned with behavior. The Wakefield Doctrine is concerned with ‘how you relate yourself to the world around you’.

Quick set of assumptions and predicates: reality (the world around us) is, to a small, but certain extent, personal; we are, all of us, born with the capacity to experience the world around us in one of three characteristic ways: as an Outsider (clarks), as a Predator (scotts) or as a Herd Member (rogers); finally, although we all, (all of us), settle on, settle into one of the three worldviews, we never lose the capability to experience the world ‘as do the other two’.

Even though the Wakefield Doctrine is concern with relationships, it helps to have labels and definitions (provided that we do not ignore Korsybski’s famous statement, ‘the map is not the territory‘.

Hold on. Enough with the Wikipedia citations and the excessive use of semi-colons!

I think I’ll settle for a quiz that’s as close to a personality assessment as you’re going to encounter here at the Wakefield Doctrine):

When you woke up this morning, did you feel good/scared/confident that today would be a good day in ‘the world out there’? If that sounds at all reasonable, go stand over there… no, there are others already in that section of the gym, you’ll see them when you get there.

When you woke up this morning, did you get up? ok… amuse yourself while I deal with the last group of personality types. Sure, anywhere will be fine.

When you woke up this morning, (well, lets rephrase that to ‘when you transitioned from quiet concern to active concern), did you feel that although you might describe yourself as confident, you will swear in a court of law that the world makes sense if you just work hard enough at understanding it. If you don’t find that description of the start of the average day totally un-reasonable, don’t go anywhere… stay here in the middle of the crowd of participants

There you have it! The three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine!

How do you know which you are?

Up at the top of the post, I wrote ‘how you relate yourself to the world around you’. That is how you know. Even at the Doctrine, where words are viewed as either those colored semi-candy things that you sprinkle on desert or, the yellow and black Cliff Notes that serve as badges of ‘success at any cost’ in school, sometimes we mean exactly what we say. When we say, ‘how you relate yourself to the world around you’, we do not mean, ‘how you relate to the world around you’. It is about you and your relationship to the world that the Doctrine is concerned. So read some posts, read some pages that describe the characteristics of the three worldviews. The perspective ( as an Outsider or as a Predator or as a Herd Member) through which the world is least blurry, that’s your predominant worldview, your ‘personality type’.

Congratulations! You’re a clark (or) a scott (or) a roger.

Lots more to tell you* stop by anytime!

*self-grading of attempt at the perfect Post: C+ … ok a B- (seeing how you’re a clark and clarks are nothing if they’re not willing to do most things to help the other person feel better).

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

Reprint Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 21, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

We went back to March 2010 for today’s reprint.

A few yellow-highlights:

Mimi hit the nail on the head, (of course!), with her observation yesterday, vis-à-vis, rogerian expressions causing one to laugh. The oddly explosive laughter that follows one’s encounter with a true rogerian expression is their signature identifyer.
the Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them
today you’ll be in the midst of clarks, scotts and rogers (To be a bit more precise: you’re surrounded by rogers, should stay alert to any nearby scotts and are, in all likelihood, a clark)
on with the reprint!

(title: ‘on with the hats’)

There is much to talk about but first, the fun of fashion, Doctrine Style. Envy the owners of the scottian heads that will soon be adorned by this fine hat.

A fine hat for your own damn scottian head.

Look on this, and feel the desire grow within your heart on behalf of your un-hatted head. Pretty nice, you say? Damn right is pretty nice. Maybe even too nice!

The lucky two with these hats (Ms. AKH and Ms. Pixieblonde) are both fortunate and deserving of your envious thoughts, you should accept that you must earn such fashion. There will be new opportunity for both Men and Women of the clarklike, scottian and rogerian varieties, to earn such headcoverings.

Alright, enough with the hats already. They have theirs and you can get yours if you really want to, but we are not here, writing this to sell hats.

We are here writing this to sell* the Wakefield Doctrine (aka the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers).
And by *sell we mean present to as many as qualified** people as possible the principles and practical applications*** of said Doctrine.
And by **qualified we mean people who upon visiting this blog and reading it’s content are capable of loosening the grip of dogma  enough to allow the overlay of the description of the world that the Doctrine offers.
And by ***principles and practical applications of the Doctrine, we mean it offers an alternative, an adjunct to the way most of us interpret the actions, behaviors and intentions of the people we live and work and play with every day of our lives****.
And by****lives, we mean the increasingly rigid lens through which we not only perceive the world we exist in, but we also use  as the template which informs our experiences as we live our lives.

Let’s talk about practical applications (of the Doctrine)….the Doctrine tells us that only one of the three (clarks, scotts and rogers) consider a tool that is useful in altering themselves (and thereby their realities) to be a valuable thing. In other words to change themselves. You know who you are.
Another of the three will, if engaged sufficiently in the Wakefield Doctrine, consider the most valuable is as a tool to change others, changing the view that the world has of them.
Finally, the third (of the three) will view the Doctrine as a tool, a weapon, to aid them in dealing with the hostile world they live in.

Tired? Bored? You want what? Come on people, learn first then have fun.

(Alright…damn, I wonder if Rev Moon had to put up with this…alright…short break for you attention-span challenged Readers….I see you out there scott.    Jeez,  try to bring the Secret of the Universe to the masses and what do you get…”More videos!!” and they are not even mine, if it wasn’t for the youtube we probably would have been shut down months ago.)

OK. Back to work.

… lets get all Readers Digest on this thing.

clarks live inside their own heads because it’s all much better in there

clarks are the only (one of the three) to sincerely entertain the idea that it would be better to be someone else

clarks read a lot and to say that clarks daydream a lot is to totally go redundant

clarks work very hard at whatever they do but since we are bored very easily, do not do well at repetitive tasks

clarks are the creative one(s) of the three

clarks share, to a fault

clarks believe that if they work hard and help others unselfishly at some point they will no longer be different

‘knowledge is power’ is a keystone concept to clarks

It can be said that clarks can believe anything and therefore believe in nothing. (If you know what that means, you are a clark).
yeah here too, lets get all Readers Digest on this thing.

scotts are leaders (because they are certain, not necessarily right, but certain).

scotts are self-confident/self-assured/certain (which is why, of course, they are the leaders)

scotts are emotional in a way different from rogers, it is for the moment emotion, not much grudge holding

in a band it is always a scott who is the ‘front man’, (see leader above)

at a party scotts will not hesitate to introduce themselves (to everyone)

for the most part, when confronted with a threat or other fear-generating situation, a scott will choose to attack rather than flee

scottian females can be ridiculously sexy or quick witted, hardly ever both.

(female) scotts can be spotted because they have prominent throat tendons (ask us why)

One of the most useful metaphors in the Wakefield Doctrine is: grouping (when you have more than one of each type, what do the characteristics tell us about the individual?)

a group of scotts is a pack
you gotta like the form, its a fucking bullet list, but lets get all Readers Digest on this thing.

rogers are the friendly ones

rogers are the glue to whatever social fabric you might care to consider, civic, religious, scientific

rogers require rules and traditions, they are in fact the only ‘reason’ that history of human civilization has any continuity whatsoever

rogers are behind the creation or and perpetuation of virtually all human institutions, religious, civic, political whatever

rogers do not create, they maintain, they assemble, they are the machine operators

rogers are the engineers, accountants and physicians

rogers are the judges, the firefighters and high school teachers (except for gym teachers)

rogers believe in a quantifiable universe to such a depth that it is not seperable

when you are new to a neighborhood, rogers are the ones who come over to introduce themselves, and they will appear in a group ( herd), the scotts are the neighbors who always offer to help you with projects, scotts will feel comfortable asking to borrow and offering to lend things, but they will show up (at your house) alone.

Herds, rogers be in herds…

Well, that is helpful, no?

Alright, we have covered a lot of ground. No, there will be no questions from the floor, roger. The eyes I see have a distinct glaze.

But in all seriousness, read this shit and look around you today, right now. Pick one person only and decide whether they are a clark, scott or roger. And keep checking their behavior against the Doctrine. I guarantee that once you find one, the others will be much more obvious. You will probably spot a roger first, but any of the three will do. Personally, I think it would be easier and more fun to spend a little extra time and find your nearest clark. (The clarklike females are totally easy to spot). Don’t bother with which of the three you are at this point. Not important. You just want to spot the clarks, and the scotts and the rogers around you. Like one of those old puzzles in the back of kids magazines or Sunday supplements, “Find the tigers in the jungle”; once you discern the first pattern, the rest jump out at you.

Now don’t think we don’t know that which of the three (clarks, scotts or rogers) you happen to be, will have an effect on how you respond to this…but by virtue of the fact that you are still reading, still with us is proof that you have what it takes to apply the Doctrine in your own life.

Good luck, don’t forget the contest and don’t worry so much…

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

Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 14, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

You know, you’re right!

It has been a while since I attempted a one-take ‘this is the Wakefield Doctrine’ post.

(ok…give us a minute… wanna clear the, whats the old term, ‘Just need to clear me gulliver’)

The Wakefield Doctrine is an additional perspective on the world around us and the people who make it up. A fundamental principle of the Wakefield Doctrine is: reality is, to a small and not-weird degree, personal. The utility of the Doctrine in an individual’s life hinges on this concept. Although presented as a rational system of thought, like many other things in life, it involves the use of faith. Nothing religious, more like a piano student or a person beginning to train in the martial arts. Accept that personal reality, extending an opinion or knee-jerk reaction radius around us, is real and the power will manifest eventually.

The Wakefield Doctrine maintains that we, all of us, are born with a predilection to experience (a) world that manifests in one three characteristic manners

the reality of the Outsider(clarks)
the world of the Predator(scotts)
the life of the Herd Member(rogers)

The basis of the ‘personality types’ of the Wakefield Doctrine is: at a very early each we settle into one of three, (and only one), and grow up. Growing up is, in this context, the child developing strategies and styles, ways of interacting and surviving the world as they are experiencing it.

Drop a two-year-old girl into the reality of the Outsider, observing a world in which everyone else appear share a connection, a belonging and before long, she will find her strengths and hide her weaknesses. Throw a two-year-old boy into the world of the Predator and he’ll survive and thrive or die trying, teeth bared at a world that offers life for the quick and the strong. Open the life of the Herd Member to a two-year-old child and, upon oberseving the behavior and the understanding of the rules of the family/class/culture, they will gladly don whatever colors the local gang wears.

So, for the Doctrine, personality type is a label for relationship of the individual to the world around them and the people who make it up.

This relationship is referred to as a person’s predominant worldview. There is only one. We never lose the capacity, the potential, to experience the world as would the other two, but our ‘style’, our social strategies are of one, the one we grew up knowing was the world.

Some people have more developed secondary and tertiary aspects than others.

The benefit of the Wakefield Doctrine is realized as we look at how we relate ourselves to the world around us. How we relate ourselves to the world… not how we relate to the world. Big difference.

Learning the characteristics of the three predominant worldviews is the starting point. (Pro-tip: it’s how the other person is relating themselves that leads us to which of the three personality types a person is.The path to this understanding/appreciation/acceptance is to learn to see the world as they are experiencing it. Not how it looks/appears to us.

There are other tips and tricks to applying the perspective afforded by an understanding of the Wakefield Doctrine, including ‘the Everything Rule’. This Rule states, ‘everyone does everything at one time or another’. This serves to avoid the distraction of thinking of each of the three as a list of interests, inclinations and tropisms, instead of how (the) person is relating themselves to the world around them. A clark, a scott and a roger all do the same things, follow the same paths through life that all of us do. How a given activity, hobby, occupation or advocation manifests is where we see the proof of their worldview.

Have fun!

Hey! Nick! ( in the interest of link equity* shout outs to Chris and Jenne and Ford, lol) You seem to have a certain curiosity in this thing. Fair Warning. If you get to the point of knowing the characteristics of the three predominant worldviews sufficiently to begin to see the clarks, scotts and rogers in your world, you might find you’re no long able to not see them.

* if it’s still a real thing or, more likely an artifact from the ‘sphere from ten years ago

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

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

February 27, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

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

Each week, our host, Dyanne, invites one and all to participant to an exercise in cultivating gratitude.

Well, not exercise, in the, “Jeez, I promised myself that I’d do twenty-three minutes and either the clock on my phone is slow, or, like oft-reported from near-death experiences the brain has accelerated (though no where near my heart-rate) and time has slowed down. To. A. Crawl!!”

The value of Lizzi’s creation, the TToT, is, imo, two-fold: all are invited to enjoy a rich variety of posts, each offering an engaging and elegant insight into one the most ephemeral of psycho-emotional states: gratitude, while courtesy of the not inconsiderable skill of each writer, conveying their experiences in a manner both inspiring and entertaining. As a perhaps unintended consequence, the process leaves the metaphorical door open so that we, equally inspired, arguably less subtle writers here at the Wakefield Doctrine blog enjoy an opportunity to offer our… err own list.

Following are people, places and things that have caused us to say, “Damn! Almost what we wanted from the world, fortunately not, strictly-speaking, what we deserve.”

1) Phyllis

2) Una

3) the Wakefield Doctrine “sine qua non, y’all, sine qua non”

4) the Six Sentence Story the place for stories that are like 15 cent hamburgers. Sorry, this Grat requires semi-accurate memory and a certain tenure on this mortal coil. When .15 hamburgers were a novelty, they didn’t burn all the Michelin books. That said, were you a kid at the time… it was, well, a kid’s rehearsal of upcoming adulthood, i.e. go out to eat without your parents.

5) (the) Six Sentence Café and Bistro A new and quite interesting landmark in the virtual world atlas. Go over to the aforementioned Six Sentence Story bloghop and ask them. (Tell ’em the Doctrine sent ya.)

6) the Proprietors seven figures in the developing mythos of the virtual nightspot, eatery, social club and Reading Room cited in Grat 5

7) this is a marker for the first social event at the SSC&B (#5 again!) We’re going all Bifröst on the weekly activities of Denise’s blog, with a book launch on Friday. Stay tuned!

8) 21st Century technologies…well, duh!

9) something, something

10) S.R. 1.3 (From the Book of Secret Rules, aka the Secret Book of Rules), the Codex Regius of this here bloghop here, the BoSR/SBoR allows, nay, encourages, the free ranging prose oft witnessed in these pages.

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