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Abstract:
Observations on what Richard DeNovellis' "Personality Type Preference Indicator" tests show about ages and genders; laws of nature vs. laws of God.
Notes:
See also list of dialogue articles or image scans.
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The following material has been supplied from the research and observations of Dr. Richard DeNovellis, creator of the Personality Type Preference Indicator (PTPI). The PTPI is a self-report instrument designed to measure and describe an individual’s problem-solving “style.” After completing the questionnaire, the individual’s responses are matched to existing 36 male or 36 female profiles. The matches generally run about 70% to 85% accurate according to the follow-up surveys, a very high rate of match when compared to similar instruments. DeNovellis, currently a professor in the Teacher Preparation Center at Cal-Poly Pomona, has spent nearly 15 years developing and researching the PTPI. His current research data base numbers over 15,000 Americans of multi-ethnic backgrounds cross matched with other validated instruments such as the 16PF (Personality Factors), the California Personality Inventory, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory.
Children, ages 5-6
Ages: 7-8
Ages: 10-14
Ages: 15-18
Ages: 25-49
I believe the controversy can be traced to two rather basic ideas. The first idea is linked to the concept of valuation. Valuation is a process by which we decide that some things are more valuable than others. Value emerges from two interconnected elements: perception and power. Our physical senses are geared to perceive differences, sudden movements, strange smells, changes in the tone of someone’s voice, and the like. Constant states tend to dull us, changing states excite us. To determine if one thing is valuable while another is not, one must focus on differences more than similarities. It does not matter that one person is about 90 percent the same as another, it is the 10 percent differences which make us unique (or so we think). The other element of valuation is the issue of power. Who determines which differences are desirable and which are undesirable? Who tells us what we are to be prejudiced for and against? Simply stated, individuals or groups in power tend to value what they believe to be their most desirable traits in contrast to those not in power. For example, men see as desirable strength, providing, rationality (read as “emotional suppression”), and power. Women are seen as weak, irrational (emotional), powerless, and nurturing rather than providing. Since men are dominant, history, the process by which we perceive and define ourselves, is seen through masculine virtues, that is, strong (survival of the fittest), providing (eat or be eaten), rational (Nature does not take sides), and powerful (the dominant male). The second, and most serious flaw in the way we approach this issue is to forget what Bahá'í is. We forget we are part of a religion, which is a process that is mystical in its essence. We focus upon subtle differences of skin shading, mammary tissue, and specialized biological functions. We forget that we are souls; and God has “…engraven upon the tablet of man the mysteries of pre-existence…” (The Seven Valleys, p. 1). We forget that “the reality of man is his thought, not his material body” (Reality of Man, p. 9). It is with great amusement that I hear Bahá'ís state that we have a “spiritual solution to the economic problems of the world.” Are not all of our other solutions also spiritual in their natures? Everything we advocate and live is spiritual in its essence. As Americans, Bahá'í or not, we are very suspicious of “public religion,” and go out of our way to avoid the infringement of religion in our public lives. For example, although the vast majority of Americans have religious beliefs, we live our daily lives as though there were no such thing as God, spirit, divine Will and so forth. Is the brain the seat of intelligence or a conduit of the rational soul? We may privately believe the latter but our science, medicine, and social philosophy acts as though the former is true. This limitation upon our true selves hampers us in so many ways. Instead of dealing with the essential equality of the genders or races and striving to remove all barriers to advancement for all, we concentrate on the how’s and what’s. How long does a mother stay with a small child? What is the father’s role? How much should a husband provide? What is the proper number of children? Unless people are a great deal more limited than I can imagine, the best answers to these details would be generalities such as those with which this article began. In other words, even if men tend to show less social concern than females, what about men who do show great sensitivity and women who prefer logic and facts to feeling and intuition? In such cases generalities can move from either the instructional to the oppressive or from the majority to the differences which enrich the whole. Generalities are like the normative student, a descriptive profile that no single individual actually fits. We may describe a canyon as a long, narrow valley between high cliffs, often with a stream flowing through it; a fine generalization from the dictionary. But this one word “canyon” must convey a sense of a small valley and the Grand Canyon simultaneously. Generalizations that men are aggressive or that women are more inclined toward peace may be somewhat descriptive of gender traits, but to assume all men are one and all women are the other is, at best, naïve, and, at worst, prejudicial and utterly destructive to human potential. As DeNovellis’ research shows, there are tendencies which are more common to one gender or the other but none are exclusive save certain biological functions. For example, while women alone bear children and generally score higher on nurturing scales, as a group, there are many men who score much higher than the average woman on scales measuring warmth or social concern. While function does influence development, function does not dictate development. Some may argue that there are “Laws” which must be followed whether they are laws of nature, laws of government or laws of God. The problem is whose perceptions of the law do we follow? Science, philosophy, and politico-social paradigms (fashions) are constantly shifting as new data and theories temporarily gain precedence. Traditionally, the power elite has made these determinations in their own self-interest—or at least in their own image. Even the Bahá'ís, who have the Universal House of Justice to make such determinations in an absolute sense, must remember two humbling thoughts: One, even the Universal House of Justice may alter or even reverse itself at some point in the future on any given interpretation or implementation. Two, for virtually every Bahá'í law there are exceptions. For example, get married without a Bahá'í ceremony and you will lose your administrative rights; yes, most of the time; but if you were ignorant of the laws, given bad advice by an Assembly, living in a country where the Bahá'í laws are not in force, acting out of desperation followed by sincere repentance, you might not lose your rights. In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Bahá'u'lláh promises that even Mírzá Yaḥyá would be forgiven should he sincerely repent. In short, one should approach hard and fast applications of any laws, including Bahá'í laws and principles, with great caution. This is one of the reasons Bahá'í consultation is not based upon precedent. In its wonderful letter on Bahá'í scholarship, the Research Department of the Bahá'í International Centre, dated October 1978, reminds us that “scholars have often been most wrong when they have been most certain that they were right. The virtues of moderation, humility and humour in regard to one’s own work and ideas are a potent protection against this danger [of spiritual pride and arrogance].” Knowing that my opinion is the product of studying the Faith through the eyes of an American, middle-class, white male helps me appreciate that other modifiers, such as being Nigerian, wealthy, black, or female might come up with an equally valid but different interpretation of the same set of laws. What of a twentieth-generation Bahá'í living in the fifth Bahá'í century? The Catholic Church intellectually crippled itself by becoming integrally tied to the ideas of Aristotle. We should not make the same mistake by assuming the ideas and theories of the late twentieth century are the final words on any field of thought or endeavor. Knowing that all of our current ideas and interpretations will be expanded, changed, evolved or utterly discarded in the future, let us instead make errors of inclusion rather than errors of exclusion, that is, in the spirit of future discovery and sophistication, we should broaden our minds rather than narrow them. In the spirit of the true seeker each of us must “so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error or that hate repel him away from the truth.” If an idea or method seems truly wrong, seek the truth of the matter rather than reflexively refute or support it. If it is a divisive matter in the Bahá'í community, report it to the Assembly or even the Universal House of Justice for confirmation rather than become embittered in dissension and strife. As ‘Abdu'l-Bahá’s living example showed, true knowledge manifests itself in patience and compassion, not dogmatism or intolerance. Rather than clashing our ignorant opinions like blind behemoths, let us conduct studies, to see what methods will work with the nearly infinite variety of human beings around us. As the data the article opened up with indicates, no one method of doing anything will be suitable to all people. Finally, let us remember that we are part of a religion, a faith whose ultimate purpose is to unite the human race in its vast diversity, not crush it with one group’s idea of a sanitized and homogenized world culture. Our purpose is to find our essential spiritual core and see it in all humanity; to remove the barriers that keep others from recognizing and rejoicing in their souls, fashioned in the image of God. It is the Kingdom of God on earth, not the kingdom of mankind for which we are living and dying.
O CHILDREN OF MEN!
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HISTORY | Typed 2012-06 by Bobbi Lyons. |
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