Empathy Quotient (HPDs & Nons)

xdude wrote:

ghost5of7 wrote: Try not to put too much stock in it. These tests are what's referred to as "non-scientific". They may be very insightful.. and well thought out, but without controls and observations available in a clinical setting.... There's too much freeplay to KNOW.

ghost I completely agree. For whatever it's worth though, one reason I'm fond of a good long Myers Briggs test is that the results are limited in scope (4 personality axis) and a good test is LONG and beats the tested down with the same questions over and over and over again until they'll tend to answer honestly. Still, what does it mean to answer honestly? As you suggested in your posting, we're inclined to answer in the way we like to see ourselves, which is not necessarily the full truth about who we really are when it comes to real life situations.

There's another "validity diagnostic" test called the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) which is reputed to be a very accurate and in depth test for clinicians. I've never seen it so don't KNOW.. but I understand that it will address core topics many times from abstract and alternate contexts... and compares the subject's answers for consistency (an inconsistent pattern being a flag for non valid answers) It serves as a diagnostic aid by virtue that the test examines the subject's mental processes... but also looks for patterns. The discussion I read on it mentioned that a skilled psych can interpret the results to get clues to problems like learning disability, memory dysfunction, deliberate dishonesty, self deception..... ADD... etc.

Considering the HPD defense mechanisms it'd be interesting to see the results and reactions to a test which sees through hpd's manipulation, reppression, denial and delusional avoiadnce tactics..

Katewixen wrote:Fascinating. I always felt high empthy and intuitiveness was a good thing. But yeah pondering it maybe it is only a good thing for the other person, they get attention, sympathy, a listening ear. Being hyper aware can be exhausting, and quite painful when the other person shows no interest in you.
When I get too tired of it I isolate myself.

Did not get a huge score....52. But I am definitely a hyper aware person because the love of my family depended on how much I could give them emotionally when I was a child. That certainlt ingrains it in you, whether you want it or not.

On the plus side...being hyper aware of a balanced person? One who can give and take? That is a pretty nice experience.

Hi Kate -

In the big picture I'd say it's definitely easier to live among a group of empathetic/intuitive people than it is to live with a group that is not. From that point of view it's a good thing.

There are some interesting thoughts to be found in Freud's work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilizati ... iscontents

Where he talks about the fundamental quandary that what is good for society/civilization is often in conflict with what the individual wants moment to moment, on an instinctive level. It's questionable whether or not empathy is innate or learned, for example, if a child was lost in a forest and had no human contact, no social training, would he/she learn empathy? But this quote from the linked article above is also important -

People become neurotic because they cannot tolerate the frustration which society imposes in the service of its cultural ideals.

But read on because Freud also acknowledges that repression of our own interests is a necessary compromise. We trade off some of who we are/want in exchange for a life in which we benefit in other ways (for example, the ability to sleep safely at night, knowing a stronger neighbor is unlikely to steal from us, beat us, murder us etc).

The quandary, in my opinion anyway, is this -

Society is nothing but us people. It's not a greater good in and of itself. It doesn't exist without us. So if we're not happy, if we end up neurotic, what is the point in that? There needs to be some balance then, some way in which we balance what we need as people as well as what benefits civilization, because we do benefit from civilization too. So from that point of view, it's sound/healthy to take into consideration ourselves in this tremendously complex dance of balancing everyone's personal wishes with what's best for the society.

Of course that kind of thinking doesn't align with a belief that there is some higher good at play, such as some religious beliefs, so if that's ones belief then empathy/intuition are always good traits and more is better.

Pretty good x-dude. i did not know about that book, but it sounds interesting.
I think psychosis is also caused by the same thing. It just plays out in the thoughts, and not the emotions.

Your Emphathy Quotient (EQ) is 60 and your Systemizing Quotient (SQ) is 50.

Hmmmmm....perhaps that is why I know I should leave a bad relationship, but can't muster the cojones to do so

Then again, my score would have been different, perhaps, if there was a fifth, middle, choice: neutral. Having to select Slightly Agree or Slightly Disagree when you might be closer to the center or if the question does not apply to you, or if it applies sometimes, but not at other times, forces you to make a choice either way.