I must start this week's entry by saying I was very shocked and somewhat impressed by the results of the MBTI report. Last week I wrote about the many places that I saw flaws in the study. I was hesitant (to say the least) about whether or not the test could actually gauge who I was within a 144 question survey. How can the essence of me be summed up so simply? (make sure to read in a very dramatic tone of voice :) ) While I still think there may be flaws in the survey, I was exceedingly shocked to find that my results from last year matched this year. I am a ISFJ. Introverted, Sensing, Feeling and Judging. Those who know me best could probably throw in a few more adjectives (stubborn, aggressive, dramatic etc.) but we won't mention those.
Too stubborn to admit that I can be summed up so simply, I try to reflect on who I was when I took this last year and who I am now. How did I answer the questions last year as opposed to this year? Did I have the same mindset? I see such drastic differences in the girl I was when I walked into college and the woman I feel I am now. So how could the results be the same? I feel that in some of my responses as a freshman, I answered in a way that reflected who I wanted to be. I've grown and changed in the past year and a half, and maybe I've gotten closer to that person. Also, in all honesty, the survey pretty well sums me up. After talking to a few people closet to me, I found that the "Rachel" MBTI describes is pretty much the real Rachel others see. Who knows. Maybe I take it again in the future, I'll get a report that describes, even more precisely, the Rachel I'm supposed to be.
Switching gears to the conference, I truly enjoyed the key note speaker. As a fan of the movie clips shown through the speech, it was easy to understand the concepts of leadership he was explaining. In everything we do, we have to lead ourselves and allow ourselves to be changed before we can help change the lives of others. I feel like it's easy to live under the belief that we have it all figured out. Our comfort zone allows us to exist without being influenced, touched, or changed. Once we step out of that area we feel the safest and walk into the darkness of questions and doubt, we will be able to forge a new path of discovery. And, in the end, our discoveries can lend light along the paths of other's journey. Hopefully, as I discover who I am and allow myself to be changed for the better by those around me, I will be able to be a positive influence in the lives of those incoming freshman who need a helping hand to start their journey.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Reflections of MBTI survey and ways to improve its results
This week, the main assignment for us to complete was the MBTI survey. MBTI stands for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The goal of this survey is to asses what traits of a person, while they may seem random, remain consistent and stable in the individual's life. By knowing these traits, it becomes easier to assess how that person will react to certain situations and behave when interacting with others. There are basically four areas this survey attempts to pinpoint personality into. They are; Extroversion vs. Introversion, Sensing vs. Intuition, Thinking vs. Feeling, Judging vs. Perceiving.
While the survey's end goals are good, last year as a freshman and even this year as a sophomore I don't feel I can put much stock into this type of survey. Some areas of the evaluation may be spot on in determining who I am, what type of situation I feel most comfortable in or even how I will respond to certain situations. However, I feel that without taking this test more than once, and without being able to apply the questions to specific scenarios, it is just too great of a generalization. If the survey was set up to have multiple (let's say 3-5) different questionnaires presenting different scenarios to gauge the same type of responses, and if it were to be taken at different times, it would be a much better evaluation of personality. There are many factors that can go into how a person responds to the questionnaire. The person's mood (whether they had a good day vs. a bad day), their state of mind (busy, stressed, angry, sad, hyper, creative, adventurous, etc) and other variables that can affect the possible different responses. Having more than one survey to be taken at different times would help eliminate the mood driven responses to yield a better evaluation of personality.
Additionally, in reference to the "pick a word" section. I struggled to find the term that could best encompass me. I found that responding as spontaneously as possible generated the answer associated with the exceptional behavior I may exhibit. This is because exceptions are what generally stand out in memory, as opposed to the everyday actions that might better classify my situation in life. If was also difficult to determine between concepts such as "just vs. mercy." This presents a problem that only context can resolve. An animal bites me making me bleed. Technically, for justice sake, the animal should be put down. But say that animal is not one that would intentionally cause harm. In that case a person might evoke mercy to make an exception. This may be an extreme or even random example but it demonstrates that context plays a large role in determining what word would describe day to day actions. In this way, I feel the MBTI survey would be much more applicable if we were able to receive a contextual reference.
While how the test is set up is important, perspective is everything. The way I perceive myself may be polar opposite from the way others see me. It's difficult to determine if I truly am introverted or if I simply see myself that way while others perceive me as an extrovert. (I see myself as a very strong introvert, enjoying time by myself, having only a few close friends, and not feeling very comfortable in large groups of people, while after asking my mom and a few friends, they see me as an extrovert due to my love of sales and customer service, enjoying sports and enjoying being a leader during activities.) A different perspective can give incredible insight into who a person is.
Finally, while most of the ideas I have presented so far reflect ideas within psychological theory of personality and a scientific approach, another idea that I think of when taking the test is that it is very possible to manipulate the results to reflect whoever I want to be. It's easy to pick out which questions are geared toward introversion vs. extroversion, sensing vs. intuition, etc. If I wanted to appear to be an extrovert, I would be able to mark the responses that most reflect extroversion. While, hopefully none of us want to manipulate the results in a certain way, many times it becomes difficult to gauge whether a response is due to how we see ourselves, how others see us or how we want to be seen. All these factors can play into the simple responses we give in the 144 item survey.
I've kind of torn apart the survey but hope that it doesn't seem like pure criticism. I feel that the idea behind the survey is good and it can be very effective in gathering lots of data of many individuals quickly, easily, cost effectively, and in a way that the person responding knows exactly how they behave 100% of the time. In those regards the survey does it's job, however, implementing of the few ideas mentioned in this blog would increase the validity and reliability of the survey results.
While the survey's end goals are good, last year as a freshman and even this year as a sophomore I don't feel I can put much stock into this type of survey. Some areas of the evaluation may be spot on in determining who I am, what type of situation I feel most comfortable in or even how I will respond to certain situations. However, I feel that without taking this test more than once, and without being able to apply the questions to specific scenarios, it is just too great of a generalization. If the survey was set up to have multiple (let's say 3-5) different questionnaires presenting different scenarios to gauge the same type of responses, and if it were to be taken at different times, it would be a much better evaluation of personality. There are many factors that can go into how a person responds to the questionnaire. The person's mood (whether they had a good day vs. a bad day), their state of mind (busy, stressed, angry, sad, hyper, creative, adventurous, etc) and other variables that can affect the possible different responses. Having more than one survey to be taken at different times would help eliminate the mood driven responses to yield a better evaluation of personality.
Additionally, in reference to the "pick a word" section. I struggled to find the term that could best encompass me. I found that responding as spontaneously as possible generated the answer associated with the exceptional behavior I may exhibit. This is because exceptions are what generally stand out in memory, as opposed to the everyday actions that might better classify my situation in life. If was also difficult to determine between concepts such as "just vs. mercy." This presents a problem that only context can resolve. An animal bites me making me bleed. Technically, for justice sake, the animal should be put down. But say that animal is not one that would intentionally cause harm. In that case a person might evoke mercy to make an exception. This may be an extreme or even random example but it demonstrates that context plays a large role in determining what word would describe day to day actions. In this way, I feel the MBTI survey would be much more applicable if we were able to receive a contextual reference.
While how the test is set up is important, perspective is everything. The way I perceive myself may be polar opposite from the way others see me. It's difficult to determine if I truly am introverted or if I simply see myself that way while others perceive me as an extrovert. (I see myself as a very strong introvert, enjoying time by myself, having only a few close friends, and not feeling very comfortable in large groups of people, while after asking my mom and a few friends, they see me as an extrovert due to my love of sales and customer service, enjoying sports and enjoying being a leader during activities.) A different perspective can give incredible insight into who a person is.
Finally, while most of the ideas I have presented so far reflect ideas within psychological theory of personality and a scientific approach, another idea that I think of when taking the test is that it is very possible to manipulate the results to reflect whoever I want to be. It's easy to pick out which questions are geared toward introversion vs. extroversion, sensing vs. intuition, etc. If I wanted to appear to be an extrovert, I would be able to mark the responses that most reflect extroversion. While, hopefully none of us want to manipulate the results in a certain way, many times it becomes difficult to gauge whether a response is due to how we see ourselves, how others see us or how we want to be seen. All these factors can play into the simple responses we give in the 144 item survey.
I've kind of torn apart the survey but hope that it doesn't seem like pure criticism. I feel that the idea behind the survey is good and it can be very effective in gathering lots of data of many individuals quickly, easily, cost effectively, and in a way that the person responding knows exactly how they behave 100% of the time. In those regards the survey does it's job, however, implementing of the few ideas mentioned in this blog would increase the validity and reliability of the survey results.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Peer Educators on the College Campus
Quotes:
"Peer educators are students who have been selected, trained, and designated by a campus authority to offer educational services to their peers" (page 6)
"Peer educator is slightly ahead in experience and awareness of what a student seeking help may be going through but not so removed as to seem unable to identify and understand his or her situation" (Page 8) "understands and won't judge me for needing input on what may seem unimportant." (Page 8)
Tips for Being a Successful Peer Educator
1. Genuine interest in positively impacting other people's lives, listen and help them through touch decisions, be invested for a long enough time to make a difference.
2. Respect individuals and their abilities, opinions, and point of view. Sense of equal dignity in the relationship to win other's trust.
3. Listen, suspend judgment, ask thoughtful (not leading) questions to help the other individual explore their own thoughts with minimal interference.
4. Empathy without pity.
5. Find realistic solutions with optimism. Look for solutions, opportunities and barriers.
6. Recognize that it takes time to build a trusting, open relationship.
Reflection:
The biggest reason I wanted to be a peer mentor for Hixson is to give back to the scholarship. I have had many opportunities opened up to me because of this scholarship and have met a lot of people I am very happy to have in my life. The best part of my experience as an incoming freshman in the Hixson program was the family unit that developed in my recitation group. This is an experience I want to have my students look back on and say “that was a great time, I learned a lot.” I hope to be a dependable source for these upcoming freshmen to rely on when they have questions and feel free to come to with any concerns.
From the reading, the idea of “What,” “So What,” and “Now What?” seems like a very logical process. To be able to reflect upon what is being taught allows everyone to process their own ideas. In the “So What” step, I wonder if that would work better within a discussion setting. While the book might want us to take one thing from a lesson, after the “What” step, I feel being able to trade ideas with fellow peer mentors to find out their interpretations of the lesson, to see if any additional lessons, theories, or applications could be used in the future (third step “Now What” and in class settings.) In the final step, “Now What” I like that we are able to apply exactly what we thought/interpreted/discussed, and put it to use in either an everyday or simply classroom setting.
I liked the “Tips for Being a Successful Peer Educator” because it is something I will be able to look back on and apply to my own relationships with the other peer mentors along with the incoming freshman Hixson scholars. Through this reading I’m hoping to find more tips or ideas to better prepare for the upcoming semester. No interaction with students will be the same, and some might not even be easy, but by the end of the semester, a higher level of confidence on how to address such situations will make everything much more manageable.
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