three personality types | the Wakefield Doctrine

Wednesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

May 21, 2025 By clarkscottroger 6 Comments

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

At the mid-week point. Couple of draft Sixes to slap a coat of allegory-pink on*. But what say we take some time this Wednesday and do our job¹.

A couple of comments from Reader Cai is most helpful.

I guess clarks are too orderly to do abstract art paintings. They’ll make good wall painters.

Let’s begin with the basics:

clarks are those who grow up in a world in which they are the Outsider. they know two things: 1) everyone else apparently knows three things, i.e. ‘How to be a part of’ (the other two don’t matter all that much).
scotts relate to the world as does your average, everyday Predator: running!! on the alert for greater predators and happy to run to where fresh prey might be hanging out, waiting for some excitement in theys lives
rogers grow up knowing that the world is quantifiable and the most important enumerator is the number of members of their Herd, everything else simply reinforces that

So these are the three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine.

To make learning simpler (and more fun) it helps to think of the personality types as relationships.

Rather than wonder, ‘What are the traits and drives, inclinations and tropism of each of the three?’ It’s simpler (and more fun) to ask: “How does an Outsider (clark) relate to the world around them. What does the world seem to be?” or “Assuming I’m a Predator (scott) what do I see (in my mind’s eye) when I’m standing in the line at the supermarket?” and, to round out the three, “If I’m a Member of the Herd, (a roger) how do I feel about my job, my boss, my place in the world?”

How we relate ourselfs to the world around us determines the nature and quality of our personal reality (aka ‘the world’)

And….and!! Don’t forget about the Everything Rule (‘Everyone does everything at one time or another’).

So to the observation that started us off today, let us break it down:

are clarks too orderly?
if a clark were to think to paint an abstract painting (Everything Rule says that all three might take to mind to be a painter of abstract painting) how would it be received?
would, all things being equal, clarks be ‘good’ wall painters

wellll….

no/the Art World would hate it (at first, until the clark died or something and left room for a roger to try)/absolutely….not! (lol) sure, they could be ok. but in the relationship that puts acquirng unique insights into the world, perforce mandating as great a variety of input as possible… errr not so much.

Hope this helps!

(Yes. The Scarecrow is a clark. The Tin Man a roger, Which leaves the Cowardly Lion… you guessed it! a scott.)

ProTip: the primary characteristic of a scott is not actually bravery or courage. The primary characteristic is agresiveness. Act first, ask questions later.

* no, we have no idea what that’s supposed to mean lol

1) as Curator of the Wakefield Doctrine, our primary function (as we imagine the role is played in the ‘real’ world) is to suggest certain exhibits, perhaps provide some supporting background information, i.e. “Why yes, the wooly mammoths were indeed quite… Take a guess why?” and “Absolutely! That is what makes the Hottentots so hot!”

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: self-development, the Wakefield Doctrine, three personality types, Understanding Human Behavior

two…two…Tuesday-in-one! -the Wakefield Doctrine-

April 22, 2025 By clarkscottroger

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

Hey! Interesting thing. Remember that ‘How to Publish Independently …etc’ thing we attended a couple of weeks ago? Well, it biweekly (or is that, ‘half-monthly’ or…duodecimally?) lol whatever.

We may not have written about, no, wait, we did.

Hold on… we’ll check, (do your own visual: tottering off to a bookshelf over-loaded with dusty folders… wait. you people have read this blog for long enough to know where we’re going.)

New Readers? We’re nothing if not about imagining the imagination of the Readers and Visitors. Vicarious? Thy name is Curator (of the Wakefield Doctrine). Like ever adolescent daydream about the first real date (“I’ll do that and then, they’ll probably will say…and I can…”)

you’ve all been young, right? Don’t blame the messenger.

ok. just checked. Apparently we have not yet updated y’all on how the first installment of our attending the ‘How to Write Publish Good Seminar’ went.

Damn! Avoided a RePrint. And, just between you and us and the lampost* it was…interesting. Actually, more than interesting.**

Quick backstory: Four Part Series ‘Self-Publishing and Making a Career Writing Fiction’ hosted by the Ashaway Free Library. Taught by local author Gage Greenwood.

As a matter of fact, the first session prompted a serious discussion among some of the followers of everyone’s favorite personality theory. On Saturday Night’s call-in we had Denise and Roger¹ on and that resulted in a very interesting and informative discussion of the primary take-away from the moderator of the seminar: “The best strategy in independent publishing is to focus on developing a fan base. A personal fan base.”

First discussion was with Phyllis. (New Readers: she is a roger with a significant secondary clarklike aspect. That latter results in insights into the Doctrine as a whole that would be impossible to one who, though a roger, lacked a strong-enough secondary clark)

She say, “That makes complete sense. If you’re going to introduce something new to your Herd, it better have your stamp of approval. And no roger is going to like something that they don’t know that a lot of other rogers already know. …you know?”

yeah. you read that right. Personal as in, ‘get your Readers to like you first and then your stories.’ Get one and the rest will follow.

The discussion on Saturday Night’s call-in was along similar lines. It did, however, continue and explore the thesis: can a clark do the self-promotion that is inferred by this simple sounding strategy? There followed a spirited discussion of Herd, Stephen King, faking emotional content and, at the bottom of it all, the fundamental proposition of the Wakefield Doctrine:

We are, all of us, born with the potential to relate ourselfs to the world around us in three characteristic styles. At a very early age this relationship is so established as to become the personal reality in which we grow, mature and otherwise develop our social/interpersonal strategies for getting through life. While we lock into one, (and only one), relationship, i.e. as an Outsider (clark), a Predator (scott) or a Herd Member (roger) we never lose the potential for relating as do ‘the other two’. Some, we might add, have this potential in greater amounts than do others. As curator we might be described as having ‘a significant secondary scottian and a weak tertiary rogerian aspect’.

The Doctrine maintains, ‘Hey! You coulda been a clark or a scott… or, even a roger. Don’t worry about acquiring something, some knowledge from the world. Look within. The relationship that offers the way and style of living that is integral to your contemplated (self)-improvement is already within you. Practice, yo. Practice.

*No, since you ask, we have no idea what prompted the scottian accent.

** hey! thanks for the music vid prompt!!

who said that? yeah. you’re right! That roger. the lifeform, the Herd, the 2 plus 2 can only equal 4, the ‘There is a Right Way and a bunch of other ways, we’ll be happy to make that distinction for you”.

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

Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “…sing a song of sixpence”

April 21, 2025 By clarkscottroger

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

This, (referring to the subtitle of today’s post), is representative of how a vast majority of the approximately three thousand thirty-three got written. A catchy song/poem fragment, a bit of undigested melody hiding in the milky swamp of one’s favorite fruit and cereal breakfast.

Ain’t gonna fight it. As absent friends might say, ‘If it works, don’t fix it.’

It’s an open secret that, as a clark, we find the ‘chex* sources’ easily three-quarters of the fun of writing blogposts. Serially, when we flipped back to a Wikipedia reference to the phrase (click here), we were all smiles and wtf!

Hey, that’s our segue!

clarks ask why
scotts exclaim what
rogers insist on knowing who

damn that was a simple Monday post!

We all know that clarks are to curiosity as fleas to the Black Plague (lol no, doesn’t make any sense. even as a metaphor/simile but, hey, we only make this stuff up, we’re not required to be correct**)

*never even close to being in the Top Three cereals to add fruit to¹

** hokey smoke! a genuine topic for a Doctrine post! The ~~value of being right as manifested in th~~e

ProTip: New Readers? (Yes, if you’re reading this, the chances of your being a clark just went way the heck up! Keep up the good work!) The strikethrough is an example of a choice in how we express the Doctrine. We could, (and obviously almost did), focus on the value relative to the person, as opposed to simply comparing, (with an option on ‘contrasting’), the manifestation of the concept (‘value’) in each of the three perspectives.

…again, compliments on ignoring your secondary aspects and following the narrative trail

(those with secondary clarklike aspects? our sincere condolences and heartfelt approbation. gotta be tough to ignore a predominant scottian (“What the hell are you doing sniffing around the bottom of the text?!?! Ain’t no music or photos or nothin’ Lets get back on the run!”) or rogerian (“Excuse me. What are you doing. You can’t do that. It’s clearly a trick. Stop reading this instant.”) worldview.

lol

1) Puffed Rice… Rice Krispies… CornFlakes (Kelloggs, not Post. of course)

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

Wodin’s Day -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 26, 2025 By clarkscottroger

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

Found a RePrint post that made us think of two things:

New Readers: for the record this is not a clumsy effort to find our way through the new(ish) Land of ProNoun Choice. Hell, while we have not always committed to the editorial ‘we’ in narrative, we’re totally comfortable now, to the point of preferring it. In our defense, (yeah, like we need to be concerned… not to tempt the gods of good online fortune, but we have not, to date, been subject to negative readers or comments or such over the years of our tenure. chalk it up to the natural, self-limiting hubris of a clark),

… the two things? two people:

Cai who has been contributing to the TToT for the weeks of this new(ish) Year… in their lists has been mention of the A-Z Challenge. We did that! Once. And, as it happens below is a One of Twenty-Six (or four…can never keep that straight) from our participation
Friend of the Doctrine zoe… at the bottom (not showing in this RePrint) are the thumbnails of the twenty contributors to (that) weeks’ TToT zoe being one of them and then, we noticed she was a Hostinae at the time. And, we’re like, wth! gotta send her an invite to update her Host Emerita status to Hostinae. there ya go!

…before we get into pasting and such, a word about clarks and privacy.

damn! (insert clever/risque/relatable metaphor for embracing the concept quality of privacy to a level that Michelangelo would be all “You meant the wall outside the Chapel?!?! Aspetta un attimo, cavolo!!! …So the people walking by could enjoy my depiction of ‘The Creation of Adam’??!!). You know, like that.

P -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘Provocative‘

April 18, 2015

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

provocative (prəˈvɒkətɪv)
adj
1. acting as a stimulus or incitement, esp to anger or sexual desire; provoking: a provocative look; a provocative remark.*

“…finally a word we can sink our teeth into!!!” (said nearly every scott, at one time or another). Find me another word that does more to generate images of lipstick and slinky dresses**, not that that’s what today’s Post is going to be about …much.

In the words of a clark, ‘yeah, no! but….‘ in the early days of this blog, we saw any number of occasions when, searching in earnest for an illustrative metaphor for one of the worldviews, or a fictional encounter between members of the three worldviews, meant to demonstrate how our worlds are experienced differently, we’ve been met with the response. ‘what?!! did you just say that scotts are predators??’ (yes)…. “I’m not sure that a photo of a cow is really such a nice way to begin a discussion of rogers, don’t your think you’re being a little offensive?” (no).

I’ll say this for certain, the behavioral metaphors that are associated with the three worldviews, are exaggerated and yet ring true, they are over-the-top examples of ways that people perceive the world and yet, when used as a predictor of future behavior, are uncannily accurate. And it’s fun. That’s the other thing that I can say for certain, all that is written in the Posts*** that collectively are the Wakefield Doctrine blog, is written with a sense of affection for each of the three personality types. And this should be anything but surprising, seeing how we all have the potential, the capacity, to experience the world as any of the three personality types do.

Of course, the way ‘provocative’ is manifested in each of the three worldviews is as different as…well, as the three worldviews. scotts come to mind first, as the definition that we used above, anger or sexual desire. rogers, not so much. clarks, oddly (lol, well, duh!) enough, clarks can be very provocative people, in a secret, roundabout way, of course.

Since I have a TToT Post to add to this, lets run out some favorite statements that help us appreciate today’s Word.

rogers are mean, scotts are cruel and clarks are heartless

scotts are stupid, rogers are dumb and clarks are crazy

scotts get angry, clarks get mad and rogers get resentful

(stop me anytime, remember: ‘acting as a stimulus or incitement’!)

* courtesy of free dictionary.com

** at least for those of us blessed to live in the happy and peaceful land of Y Chromia! I assume the womenfolk, (to use the proper technical psycho-socio-cultural term for members of Gender X….), will find their mental drive-in movie playing a similar but different film (you ‘not-old people’, you have heard of drive-in theaters? please say ‘yes’)

*** those Posts that I wrote, which are not all the Posts in this blog.

*

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: clarkscottroger, self-development, the Wakefield Doctrine, three personality types

Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 17, 2025 By clarkscottroger

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

The simplest, and among those who have come to this website more than two and a half times, question we hear is this:

What good is it?

There are, in the way of this particular theory of personality, three answers:

It offers a fragment of a map
It’s kinda fun and, hey… anything that provides an edge is good
It might, in certain circumstance, once properly vetted and refined, offer more richness to an already perfect world

There! Ha! Our topic!

New Readers: What follows is an example of: Experience versus Youth. Unbridled Enthusiasm versus Thoughtful Reflection. If you’re new, we recommend the 2010-2013 vintage posts.

Anyway. Lost the thread…. oh yeah, this (from this weekend’s call-in)

clarks are crazy * scotts are stupid * rogers are dumb

the worst other personality type for:

a clark is to be a roger
for a scott is to be a clark
for a roger is to be a scott

Why?

Do your reading.

Given how their joining in on the call-in this weekend spares us the need to find and post a RePrint, a Doctrine shout-out:

Cynthia for all website and internetistic needs and requirements head over to her site: Artfunky
Denise for reading and finding a path to the true value of the blogosphere, i.e. bloghops and flash fiction and such: GirlieontheEdge
roger for words and posts that are composed of pleasingly well-rounded words: The Secessionist Rag

So go to these sites and be sure to tell ’em the Doctrine sent ya,