:::this is the way the world ends:::

Mental Health Monday

OK, so here is my first post in a while- a two-parter.

I have recently been thinking in systems theories, particularly as they partain to groups like ours. How closely does life imitate art, I ponder. In a system, each part of that system serves a function and hopefully the whole of the system is able to obtain homeostasis, that is to say, a conistancy in functioning. Our group, I would contend has been consistent over time to a degree, and has righted itself here and there over the years. So, when TV shows, movies, and theater is written, one wonders how much of what they are trying to capture could be represented in our little group. What I would suggest is that this may occur more than we think.

An interesting little experiment we might do here is to have each person consider the cast of a few shows and movies and submit them to me. Feel free to add shows, or movies we might all have some degree of familiarity with. What I would be interested in is:

1) how we see ourselves; what roles we envision ourselves in
2) how others see us
3) how well those match.

This may give us some clues as to some of the roles we fulfill with in the structure of our group. Some obvious shows: Star Trek (original and next generation), Lost, U2 (not a written cast, but a group whose members function as a system), Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, M*A*S*H*, the Office. Maybe we want to choose 2 or three to get started. Suggestions? Send them to me this week, and I will tally and report on them next Monday. I am also open to any suggestions on how to better this experiment.

The next line of business is not related with any intention to the first. I would submit that we all look at taking 5 minutes and filling out a Myers-Briggs test. Human Metrics has one that has a number of questions which should provide some validity to the project. This is strictly for fun only, and does not have any problematic mental health implications. This is a test used primarily by psychologists and is a fun way to compare what the test says about personality traits so we might compare how that measures up with observation of self and others. Really not much more than a conversation peice which may give everyone a little insight about themselves and how they function and work, what strengths they might have. I would be interested to get feedback on how whether or not everyone feels the tool is accurate or inaccurate and why. There are several of these on line, and they are not the actual test, but my experience has been that they are fairly predictive in capturing the flavor of the test. This one is a little longer than the others which should help create more validity. There are no right answers just how you feel. being honest with yourself and not playing to the bias that you feel the questionare is seeking is most likely to result in the most accurate tabulations. I took it and will take it again after I post to see if my result is consistent again. I was an INTJ.

Here is one more if you get bored or want to compare your result to another test.

I am looking forward to hearing what you guys find out. By the way, Happy New Year to all.

9 Comments

  1. J.E.

    One recent Saturday morning Liz announced to me that she was an evil genius (INTJ) after taking this test.

    So I’ve taken this test twice now with the same results.

    I am an INTJ.

    56% Introverted
    88% Intuitive
    25% Thinking
    67% Judging

  2. Shotts

    Peters and all–

    Happy New Year!

    This is a very interesting post, and I’m eager to hear Peters’ assessments, as we proceed. Thanks, Peters, for posting this. I could use a good Mental Health Monday every week.

    As for the first part of your question, about casts of characters from movies, shows, etc.: I think LOST could be helpful, in that it has a fairly large cast of various types. I’m not sure the show is totally common to all of us, however. SEINFELD has pretty strong personality types, so could be useful and interesting. U2 is indeed common to us all. STAR WARS provides a certain archetypal character study, and could be interesting or usefull too. So those are a few of my suggestions to throw into the pot, for you to consider.

    And for the second part, I took the Human Metrics Myers-Briggs test, and here are my results:

    INFJ

    11% Introverted
    25% Intuitive
    62% Feeling
    56% Judging

    I have taken such personality tests before and have come up INFJ previously, but have also come up ENFJ.

    –Shotts

  3. Pete

    earl grey recipe tomorrow. I = 89% N = 75% T= 38% and J=63%. Supprised at how similar JE and I are. will have to compare notes at some point. Similarities with Shotts too. hmmm. Where are the other results?

  4. J.E.

    Holy crap! You are introverted! You should go to a rave and then take the test again and see if you can score 100% introverted.

    Startling how similar we are — yet I guess it confirms what we suspected all these years.

  5. Ned

    I took this test with Peters on New Year’s Eve and again today. The results varied only slightly. I am an INFJ. Both times my introverted score being the most extreme of my scores.

    As far as the Lost characters, I tend to relate to television characters in the beginning and then, as the writing is forced to cannibalize itself, I loose sympathy. I like Jack the best I suppose. Then probably after that I like the black fog monster.

  6. Shotts

    Looks like Ned and I have quite a bit of similarity, and Peters and J. E. have quite a lot of similarity, on the Myers-Briggs test. Let’s see what Toby scores in at.

    –Shotts

  7. Shotts

    Toby–

    I think we’re just waiting for you. Let’s not let this thread go, as I’m curious what Peters has in store. The personality test only takes 10 minutes or so.

    –Shotts

  8. Tobias

    Took the test, I’ve taken it a couple of times before and I usually come up as an ENFP. I’m aways borderline on the Extrovert and Introvert. This time, I came up as an INFP.

    I=11%
    N=38%
    F=75%
    P=11%

    “You are:
    slightly expressed introvert
    moderately expressed intuitive personality
    distinctively expressed feeling personality
    slightly expressed perceiving personality”

    I think the tipping over from Extrovert to Introvert has come about because I’ve become more reclusive, I spend about 95% of my time at home and don’t go out too much. Also, being gregarious takes it’s toll on Steph, so I think I’ve moved away from that to accomodate.

    Doesn’t seem surprising at all.

    http://keirsey.com/personality/nfip.html

    http://typelogic.com/infp.html

  9. J.E.

    Mr. Peters, some analysis if you please.

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