Monthly Archives: November 2008

Myers Briggs types & frequencies

Posted on by

The multiple silly personality tests build on the Myers-Briggs test, which is copyright. The Myers-Briggs foundation kindly has this data on it’s website.

Now the foundation includes this comment:

“Ethical use also means an honest presentation of the MBTI practitioner’s training and expertise, of research results, and of authorship and ownership of the MBTI assessment tool and other materials.

Ethical guidelines are also meant to prevent the abuse of type. Abuse includes using type to assess people’s abilities and using type to pressure people toward certain behaviors”

It’s clear that the computer tests do not adhere (well most of them don’t) to acknowledging who owns the ideas. The second paragraph is more important. You should not ask or pressure people on the basis of these tests…

  1. The web versions are not a proper MBTI. They cannot be, for copyright reasons. They therefore have not been validated or had their psychometric properties measured.
  2. The MBTI may not be valid. This is not a criticism of Myers or Briggs: in the same way, the DSM-IV (current diagnostic system) is probably not valid. We do not the knowledge to get beyond description to validity.
  3. I’m uncertain as to if there is “healthy” personality. I’m more comfortable talking about distress, resilience and adjustment.

The web tests are for fun only… and as the foundation say, the temptatinon to use in any other way should be avoided

Silly tests; typealyzer

Posted on by

You can check your personality by your blog. The analysis indicates that the author of https://pukeko.net.nz/blog is of the type:

INTP – The Thinkers

The logical and analytical type. They are especialy attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.

They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about.

Whale oil put the standard through this and came  up with the same result. Since most psychometricians say the INTP group is fairly rare and I test (see previous silly tests) as INTJ most of the time, this is just fun.
Looking at local right wingers…
Whale oil   ESTP  “The doers”
Kiwiblog ESTJ “The guardians”
The prickly expatriate ISTP “the mechanics”.
Now if the aforementioned want to ping those on their link lists, they will find (cam, please take note) that personality types are scattered from the right wing to the left… but to be fair, let’s avoid multi-authoured sites.

Netbooks and notebooks.

Posted on by

I use Linux: as I get bored, I have tended to move around distros. At one point I was installing gentoo on everything, but have ended up using ubuntu. It is not that pure, but it just works: all the desktops run smoothly and I’ve reached the point where the only windows machine around is the clinical machine (which the hospital IT will not let me touch).

The laptop I have however, is haavy. Netbooks work — even an asus eee can run ubuntu with some work. If I’m going on a holiday or trip with no work duties, it allows viewing of photos and light email and surfing. But writing… no way.

For me, the main issue is the keyboard. I touch type and need feedback:  I use unicomp keyboards because of the feel and the fact the control key is in the right place. ASUS laptops have marginal keyboards, and the eee compounds this by being very small.

So… a netbook is not goind in the bag on work trips. A lenovo R61e is: this was a good machine a few years ago but now is seen as slow. However, the keyboard is brilliant and the machine is bombproof. And they retail in NZ under $900.

Shame, anger, Galifornia.

Posted on by

It appears that some radicals have invaded churches, because california passed proposition 8, which amends the California state constitution so that a marriage is defined as between a man and a woman.

WorldNet reports:

Decisions by voters in Florida, Arizona and California to join residents of 27 other states with constitutional protections for traditional marriage
have prompted threats of violence against Christians and their churches.

“Burn their f—ing churches to the ground, and then tax the charred timbers,” wrote “World O Jeff” on the JoeMyGod blogspot today within hours of California officials declaring Proposition 8 had been approved by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent. Confirmation on voter approval of amendments in Florida and Arizona came earlier.

The amendments in all three states essentially limit marriage to one man and one woman. In California, the measure states the only marriages “valid and recognized” in the state are those between one man and one woman.

Thirty states now have adopted marriage amendments. However, in California, the vitriol appeared especially high since the state Supreme Court in May created same-sex marriage for homosexuals. Proposition 8 overruled the court decision, readopting the marriage definition California votersadopted in 2000.

Now the logic is that this is lobbying, which cannot be done by charities, which is bullshyt. Reformed churhc es attempt to influence the secular government: this is the reason for a” public questions committee”. From Huffington

Some pro-Proposition 8 folks may come to regret their not so private support of hate. And were you thinking about skiing in Utah this year? Hmmm, Colorado’s looking pretty appealing these days.

Yet somehow an economic boycott doesn’t feel direct enough; those who team up against gay people must learn that there are consequences.

That’s why we are seeking to strip the Mormon church of its status as a religious organization. According to IRS law, “no organization, including a church, may qualify for IRC section 501(c)(3) status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying).” [Emphasis added.]

Please join our efforts and show the world that gay people — and their friends and families — know how to hit back

I’m no Mormon. But they first came for the Mormons…
Now when the Church stands up as it should and says to our Muslim friends ““Brother, do not kill your son because he loves a boy. Pray for him, love him”

From today's lectionary:

For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. 19Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.

I find I struggle with the attraction of the Belly — and there is a whole industry that sets my mind on earthly things. What the radicals do is glory in their shame. Maywe be ashamed ot that which is shameful, as this is the first step to repentence.

Hat tip Michell Malkin

Climate heresy.

Posted on by

The only place I’m orthodox is in my adherence to the reformed faith. I trust God. Everyone else better produce evidence.

And I’m becoming more and more irritated with the new Green state religion. My Anglo-Saxon forebears occaisionally sacrificed a noble to Odin one-eye, and the Romans (who were not by any means saints) were disgusted by the Druidic habit of bone fires.

The current Greens want to sacrifice humankind. Moreover, knowing that adults can think, can see when they are speaking shite (it is hard to talk about global warming after a cool northern summer, and snow in November in the South Island). Instead they are recruiting children into a Green guard. From the Spectator:

It is the mark of a truly authoritarian regime to recruit children to nag out-of-tune parents or to spy on disobedient citizens. A writer for the Guardian celebrates eco-pester power on the basis that children make ‘natural campaigners — no shades of grey, no nuanced arguments, just loads of passion and clarity’. Yes, and that is also why ruthless governments, from the Soviets to Chairman Mao, cultivated zealous little police-kids: because childish minds are easily moulded to accept political orthodoxies. In Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four it was ‘almost normal for people over 30 to be frightened of their own children’ because they were ‘ungovernable little savages’ who spied for the Party. Before we become scared of our kids, too — as they patrol our homes, speak to us from CCTV cameras, or squeal on us to councils — I suggest dealing with this politicised pester power in the same way my mum dealt with my childish demands: by administering a collective clip around the lughole to the Child Spies.

Back… and is mental health a viable topic at all?

Posted on by

Sin ce the last post I have been travelling, there has been an election in New Zealand (and the USA) and I have been trying to get things sorted out after some time away.

Blogging is lower down the priority list.

Most recent thoughts though:

Most of the data on Mental Health Promotion I can find is of the”Oh this is lovely and we are so nice because we do it”. The other set of data I can find relates to studies. This is less optimistic. A recent meta analysis shows benefits to mental and physical health from exercise and health interventiosn but not psychological interventions  [1]. A second review suggests that the data on MH promotion is too sketchy to produce any reliable costings of benefits [2].

I get irritated when the policy is “do something” when the data indicating that it may make a difference is not there. I would support people doing trials to see if interventions can make a difference — but claiming that we can promote mental health when it looks like efforts to do so could not be effective is at least intellectually dishonest, if not actively harmful

1.  Kuoppala J, Lamminpää A, Husman P. Work health promotion, job well-being, and sickness absences-a systematic review and meta-analysis.J Occup Environ Med. 2008 Nov;50(11):1216-27

2.  Zechmeister I, Kilian R, McDaid D; MHEEN group. Is it worth investing in mental health promotion and prevention of mental illness? A systematic review of the evidence from economic evaluations.BMC Public Health. 2008 Jan 22;8:20.