Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 20:27:47 GMT

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Paul Stevens — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 18:57:50 GMT

[quote user="Catriona MacIntyre"]wondered perhaps whether some of the traits were things I'd developed in self defence over the last few years.[/quote]

Although conscientiousness (as measured using this scale) gradually increases after the early years of adulthood, a person's day to day conscientiousness may well be accentuated or diminished according to a situation. But this refers to the common understanding of conscientiousness - "Wishing to do one’s work or duty well and thoroughly:" as the internet would have it.
The scale we are using (the IPIP or (Big5) has a more complicated reading of the idea of conscientiousness:

It concerns the way in which we control, regulate, and direct our impulses. For example, impulsive behaviour (which is measured in this scale) doesn't necessarily mean you don't perform your duty to your best ability.

This test arrives at an overall result through asking questions that determine facets of conscientiousness such as self-efficacy, orderliness, dutifulness, achievement-striving, self-discipline and cautiousness.

To sum up, although the test uses the word conscientiousness, it doesn't mean the same thing in common parlance.

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Paul Stevens — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 18:44:40 GMT

[quote user="Iain Richards"] There are some personality traits where my results are so far removed from what I know,[/quote]

It is worth noting here that this IPIP (or Big5) scale is not attempting to describe your personality in common terms.
This is a scale that measures stable aspects of your personality through asking you your preferences. This reference to preferences is the important aspect of the scale in as much as though you may have a preferred view on a situation, in fact in reality you do (and recognize in yourself) something else.
This scale determines an underlying set of scales which you may not recognise. This may be so, but if you did the test again in 5 years, the results would come out in a similar fashion.
It is that stability that the scale is reading.

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Catriona MacIntyre — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 17:31:45 GMT

I found the same Iain, but wondered perhaps whether some of the traits were things I'd developed in self defence over the last few years. E.g. I used to be very conscientious, but now perhaps less so as I have realised I can't keep it up? Maybe, maybe not

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Iain Richards — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 14:02:56 GMT

I recieved my report quite promptly and it was rather unexpected. There are some personality traits where my results are so far removed from what I know, that I suspect that either I have not properly read the questions or the survey is flawed.

Iain

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Paul Stevens — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 11:18:57 GMT

Last Call VPP 2015

Time ticketh.

The survey will remain open for another 10 days and then regrettably, it will close on September 23rd 2015.

Tell your friends and colleagues...

www.vetsurvey.org

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Paul Stevens — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 21:17:59 GMT

[quote user="mariette asselbergs"]

I did this survey but never got a result!

Mariette

[/quote]

Mariette

Please send a private email to paulstevens@vetsurvey.org with your madeup name and email address.
I'll look into it.
Don't forget it can take upto 2 weeks to get your result although most are within a few days.

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

mariette asselbergs — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 18:26:16 GMT

I did this survey but never got a result!

Mariette

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 17:52:10 GMT

http://www.xkcd.com/

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Mark Hedberg — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 16:28:44 GMT

I think the point is that the American left wing is still so far to the right of even the most rabid UK right wingers, there's not really much overlap! :p

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 12:55:14 GMT

[quote user="Paul Stevens"]This test is,after all, a scale of preferences rather than dogmatic truth.
There are no right or wrong answers.[/quote]

I quite understand that. My point is, that American devisors of the test may well assign the wrong values (or weights, or scales, or whatever it is you use the answers for) if they don't understand that American political shorthand, and American politics, are different from those in other countries.

I write with my left hand, due to being left handed. Is that relevant? I am intrigued.

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Hannah Wynne Richards — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 10:35:37 GMT

I would have liked a differentiation between animal and human charities. I give a lot to animal charities - voluntarily. I don't give to human charities - as I feel I'm compeled to do more than my bit towards other humans in the exorbitant taxation I'm forced to pay. If my forced contribution towards other humans was less thanthe Biblical 10% we're supposed to give tothe poor, then I might contribute.

Wynne

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Mark Hedberg — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 10:21:34 GMT

It's true, there are surprising numbers of nuances that still catch me out 5 years later in the UK. It really is a foreign language sometimes! :)

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Paul Stevens — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 04:57:16 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]Well, put it this way.[/quote]

I have to agree with you.
There is a tension between believing your political affiliation is correlated with your approach to social issues (which is what those questions are probing).
Do conservatives not give to charity? Do labour voters always buy the Big Issue?
I suspect the issue is in the intention rather than the detail.
This test is,after all, a scale of preferences rather than dogmatic truth.
There are no right or wrong answers.

Do you prefer to write with your right hand or your left?

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 18:04:07 GMT

[quote user="Paul Stevens"]

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]o how do we know these tests are of any use outside the rat[/quote]

The IPIP is generally accepted as the test to ascertain trait bias in the english speaking world. That is, by academic researchers and clinical psychologists. The MBTI is used by business and HR as it gives a more dogmatic answer.

[/quote]

Well, put it this way. A researcher using these tests wants the interviewee to give an honest, or truthful, or instinctive answer to every question – and i appreciate that the answers are then subject to considerable analysis and processing. Most of the questions are simple and straightforward, would mean the same to an American as they do to a British person and can be given a fairly straight answer (assuming that "it depends" can be answered as "neutral") – but the terms "liberal" and "conservative" mean I suspect something different to the US interviewee compared to the British interviewee, or at least the nuances are different. It's not a matter of understanding the political process better, it's a matter of different meanings.

To put it another way, what's the point of including questions about the type of candidate one would vote for? There cannot be any point, unless the devisers of the tests have a pretty clear idea of what the answers imply about the interviewee's state of mind and attitudes. But if the devisers are American, they may put the wrong interpretation upon answers in other countries.

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Paul Stevens — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 17:42:02 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]o how do we know these tests are of any use outside the rat[/quote]

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 17:24:01 GMT

[quote user="Paul Stevens"]Casta and McCrea who developed these tests are American (I know!!). Americans are perhaps more engaged with the political process than we are - so C & C are assuming some knowledge of politics and its relationship with ones own preferences.[/quote]

So how do we know these tests are of any use outside the rather insular world of the USA?

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Paul Stevens — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 14:30:14 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]Even if you assume that everybody will tell the truth as they perceive it, how do you know that really is the truth rather than an answer coloured by optimism, pessimism, bravado, sympathy-seeking or the mood of the responder at the moment of answering?[/quote]

ALL these surveys are 'self-reporting'. There is no other way to ascertain, for example, personality scales. One unfortunately cannot take a blood sample (as yet) or tie the person to a chair and force it out of them. Subjective assessment is of no value in trying to reliably read a population - for obvious reasons.
Yes, state of mind has an effect on the answers, but that effect is surprisingly small using this approach. The IPIP test being used is less dogmatic than the MBTI (see earlier in this thread) and so slight increases or decreases in a particular trait's scale result don't impact the trends to the same degree.

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]What do you mean by a "liberal" or a "conservative" political candidate[/quote]

Casta and McCrea who developed these tests are American (I know!!). Americans are perhaps more engaged with the political process than we are - so C & C are assuming some knowledge of politics and its relationship with ones own preferences.

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 13:44:28 GMT

How do you know everybody is telling the truth?

Even if you assume that everybody will tell the truth as they perceive it, how do you know that really is the truth rather than an answer coloured by optimism, pessimism, bravado, sympathy-seeking or the mood of the responder at the moment of answering?

What do you mean by a "liberal" or a "conservative" political candidate?

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Paul Stevens — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 08:40:47 GMT

[quote user="J G Wray"]There is something almost enjoyable in dwelling[/quote]

Nicely put JG. Incisive.

Can I quote you? In 'the work' ?

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Arlo Guthrie — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 08:37:58 GMT

[quote user="J G Wray"]Sadly, there is no work being done with those who do not have these problems - the "normal".[/quote]

Interesting point. But surely this survey DOES look at factors affecting the "normal", because the "normal" can (and presumably do, even in lesser numbers) take part. The limitation of the survey is that it can't (unless everyone takes part) accurately gauge levels of happiness / problems.

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

J G Wray — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 07:33:49 GMT

There is something almost enjoyable in dwelling on the empathy felt when considering how being a vet might adversely affect you. The Mind Matters programme and related research is worthy and that's seductive and who doesn't like being seduced?

Sadly, there is no work being done with those who do not have these problems - the "normal".

The "normal" do the same work as those who are "stressed" or worse; they experience challenge, adversity and failure; they experience life challenges of illness, injury, personal problems, money problems as well, yet function and are even happy. The "normal" cope with the mercurial nature of work and life, motivation and reward, personal satisfaction and pleasure and the "normal" have been selected in the same way as others.

Whither the interest in these vets and their families, their behaviours, resolve, and their philosophy? They are important because their answers will have method which can be learned and put into practice.

Surely there is a point where we move on to "treatment" for perceived ills?

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

grumpyoldman — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 21:53:16 GMT

[quote user="J G Wray"]Quite.[/quote]

Or, they may not have realised they had a problem until you prodded them.

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

J G Wray — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 07:24:22 GMT

[quote user="Paul Stevens"]One of the problems with this particular design of research is the possibility that people completing the survey are mainly those who are already experiencing some of the issues being addressed. Indeed, it is that those healthy vets who are happy in their work, happy in their family and just generally happy with life will not participate in the survey.[/quote]

Quite.

RE: Veterinary Personality Project 2015 - Call for all vets and vet students - cpd 1 hour -

Catriona MacIntyre — Mon, 31 Aug 2015 22:29:14 GMT

the questions on mental wellbeing e.g. "Since graduating, did you ever have a significant problem with clinical depression" could really do with a "Don't know" option.

E.g. - maybe you have, but never had it confirmed by the doctor