Editor's note: Compelled to remove photo of Sarah Palin to preserve the blog's tenuous aesthetic. You can view it here.
ABSTRACT: People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.
Kruger, J. & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 6, 1121-1134.
Both theist and atheistic purviews are relatively easy to cultivate. I can, if given time and the proper inputs, develop religious beliefs and the conditions for which so-called religious/spiritual experiences occur. It may be that I have an atheistic baseline; after all, atheism does not preclude feelings of wonder and awe, or even the sense of being part of a larger whole (though, despite ideological wishes to the contrary, this is not an especially familiar feeling).
Creating the circumstances in which infatuation and potential love-type feelings are likely to occur is not so difficult as one would imagine. It's those (rare) occasions in which I've been unexpectedly smitten (meaning socked in the guts such that normal functioning is impaired) by an unlikely party that continue to leave me baffled, psychoanalytic explanations aside.
Whether it sounds clichéd or not, raising a child has been the most important, most valued endeavour of my life. My own psychotherapy falling second. Developing intimate relationships with a select few, over time, though we may share physical proximity only on occasion, is either tied with the psychotherapy or a close third.
Over the phone this afternoon, my son successfully coached me to operate the dagburnt VCR at L's house so I could watch the Presidential debate. So I'm a mother; it's really real.
Habitual responses to others, no matter how socially desirable or seemingly noble, feel more and more empty. This includes the desire to soothe, to assist, to make comfortable, the care-taking instinct. Not that any of these things are inherently undesirable, but I'm wary of my own proclivities.
State dependent learning bites. I haven't had a satisfactory dance experience (aside from tango) since moving out of my house.
