by Petros » Thu Feb 05, 2015 3:52 pm
"One question on the test that particularly caught my attention however was:
True or False: "I have a special mission from God"
This seems closely related to the memorable question from the Freshman Psycho Identifier at UW in 1960: "t/f: I am controlled by a secret radio from God"
That was easier to answer. For the data-Aspie [art-Aspies seem to be a bit different] we have to sort out:
"special" means, unique, peculiar to me - which of course is true
OR
"special" means, extraordinary, spectacular - which might be true but I have not been told
OR
it is a trick question to catch those who are undesirably different
The resulting tension is uncomfortable.
"designed for the "average" personality, and many engineers did not possess "average personalities" "
Tee hee. Witness my brother, Herself's engineer cousin .... Herself's engineer brother I THINK has a near average personality, which may be why he has done more administration than engineering. At least the guy had figured it out - that helps.
"He then queried me about several aspects of my personality, raising among other things the question of my gender orientation. He then explained that the "gender discriminator" score was low, but then he explained that in people of high intelligence that often occurs, but offered no explanation of why it is so. (I suspect that an intelligent enquiring mind has a proclivity of trying to see issues from multiple viewpoints.) "
The last point drives Herself mad. If she presents a viewpoint [which may agree with things I have said] I bring out arguments for the opposite. If someone else the next day argues for the opposite stance, I will point out the problems and defend her original position, Used to it by now, but not reconciled to it. I have never [that I noticed] had my gender orientation queried, but know full well I do not conform to any standard gender profiles.
It is perhaps noticeable that not a few suspect and one confirmed alternate gendered males have found me a pleasant associate, while Herself [also spectral though the female patterns are different and she is art not data] has had similar associations with a few suspect and at least one confirmed alternate females. The assumption on the larger community seems to be, if you are not unambiguously A you MUST be B - which is very poor reasoning.
The MBTI is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. First came out in 1962 , a bit late to catch me, and while it is popular with the College of Education [where I met it through one of Wee Coryl's abortive career initiatives], not specialized enough to be much used in your sphere or mine. It is not too bad at what it does, though the standadized questiopns are NOT well thought out, and Number 1 Son has been getting useful insights lately from its categories, but it really does not tell me enough of what I need.
And yes, clearly the Aspie chipset is involved. MBTI, MMPI and others are calibrated for a particular target population, and others fall through the cracks. Just as polygraph testing and IQ measures are clearly reliable only for a narrow band. I should get my sci-fi writing cousin to work out a world and society that is tuned to an Aspie majority and the neurotypicals are southpaws.
I do not know him personally, by the way, I think I met him in person when we were both too young to take notes. But by his writing and from some ecorrespondence it would not surprise me if he - and his engineer sister - were spectral as well.
The truth, the stark naked truth, the truth without so much as a loincloth on, should surely be the investigator's sole aim - Basil Chamberlain