Sunday, May 06, 2007

Dinah: I Have Relatively Moderate Wisdom

It's Sunday morning (2pm is still "morning," right?) here in Shrink Rap land. I've had coffee with the judge, I've done a load of laundry, I've run a 10 minute mile and then walked another one, and, of course, I've read part of the Sunday New York Times.

It's been an exciting morning with the paper. I've discovered that I'm either middle-aged or on the cusp of it. This is okay, not really news and now that I have teenage kids, I think I'm entitled to it.

So, first I read a review of a book by Gina Kolata called Rethinking Thin. The book reportedly downplays the dangers of obesity (let's not go there) and trails four patients as they go through a clinical trial at a University of Pennsylvania obesity treatment group. Back in the day when middle-age wasn't even on my radar, I worked as a research assistant in that group--some of those folks are even still there (I think that makes them Old). I hear the book isn't all flattering to the group, but I may have to buy it anyway.

So now that it may be okay for me to be fat, I moved on to the issue of Wisdom, a rather vaguely defined condition and it was sort of amazing that so long an article could say so little. I thought of Roy when I read, "One of the most interesting areas of neuroscience research involves looking at the way people regulate their emotions and how that regulation can change over the course of a lifetime." Roy, why aren't you here? Yes, yes, yes: there were fMRI studies quoted, not to mention salivary cortisol levels. No oxytocin, I'm so sorry. Okay, so I read and read, all the time wondering if I am Wise. I got to the end of the article and there it was, a link to an on-line test I could take. I was on it-- the test scored as 1-5 and answering quickly, I scored a 3.7. I have relatively moderate wisdom. Probably one different answer and I could have gotten a 4 and had moderately high wisdom. Okay, I'm off to test my husband (who is definately wise), maybe the kids, maybe Max, and I still have to read the article on the guy who stopped his anti-depressants. I may be back.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Roy is the wisest of us.
My entire family is relatively moderately wise.
Blogger is working again.
I will comment on Roy's post later.

Violet said...

I got 3.5. I don't think I ever picked the first or last option, saying never or always is too strong of a statement for me. I don't like how if you get 3.0 you have low wisdom and moderate wisdom at the same time, and with 4.0 both moderate and high. Seems like a bit of a scoring problem.

It seems a bit unscientific. It was moderately fun though.

Does anyone watch Law & Order:CI? They talked about duct-taping astronauts in space this week. One of the characters had a little black book that was supposed to be all the procedures for dealing with problem astronauts. It made me think of this blog.

Catherine said...

I too was moderately wise.

I liked the test though because it made me think about how I have been thinking lately, namely my attitude towards others. It acted as a good reminder.

Roy said...

"4.4 relatively high wisdom"...

...obviously a very accurate and sensitive test (LOL ;-)

Sarebear said...

It won't let me finish. On the last question, the next button is greyer, and doesn't do anything. (I use Firefox).

But I suspect from some of my answers I'll a 2.5. Lol. I'm rather emotional.

Rach said...

I didn't like that test one bit. I'm only moderately wise, but honestly, did I need to spend a half hour to find that out?

I want 30 minutes of my life back.

NeoNurseChic said...

4.2 here - relatively high wisdom....nifty ;)

I don't really get how that test measures wisdom, but whatever - I like my result! haha

Alison Cummins said...

4.0. High enough to make me feel good but not so high that I feel peculiar, or like a fraud. Or suspicious of the test.