-----Original Message----- From: John Whittington <John.W@MEDISCIENCE.CO.UK> Sent: Jan 16, 2004 3:01 PM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: RE - Little Birdies fyi

At 12:11 16/01/04 -0500, Joe Whitehurst wrote:

>JW| "Firstly, it is not uncommon (and we have examples on SAS-L) for some >individuals to frequently use 'self referential words and phrases' very >much with their tongues in their cheeks, in some cases even to the point of >effectively being self-critical; to interpret that in the same sense as >'real' egocentricity would be incorrect." > >No doubt this is true. That's why we need 12-36 months of cumulative >verbal behavior.

In the case of some of those I have in mind, the 'tongue-in-cheek' (seemingly) egocentric behaviour is a perpetual feature of their behaviour, so you'd probably get the same (misleading/incorrect) answer whether you evaluated them over 1 month or 100 months.

Joe|Since all we're trying to do is offer an empirical method for crowning the unacknowledged (until now)SAS-L "Egocentric Verbal Behavior Maven", we can ask the recipient of the award to return it if he were merely spoofing us with his "tongue-in-cheek" verbal behavior so we can award the distinction to the next most egocentric verbal behavior emitter.

>JW| "Secondly, as others have said/implied, egocentricity (in the sense your >index is assessing it) does not necessarily imply anything about the value >of the individual's contribution to discussions. .... " > >No doubt this is true as well.

I'm sure it is - but I fear many people might be misled by an 'egocentric' label into not realising this.

>No doubt you will get to see the egocentric index scores for the top 100.

I will? When and where? The 'top 100' of what?

Joe| Yes, the names and scores of the top 100 egocentric verbal behavior emitters will will be posted on SAS-L when the committee finishes all the hard work necessary to produce the indexes.

>JW| "As for me, I judge people by the merit of what they >say/write/contribute, >regardless of how 'egocentricly' they do it." > >I do both. I evaluate the merits, and I evaluate how they do it.

Well, yes, I'm sure we all do to some extent; I suppose I worded that badly. What I really meant is that I'm very careful not to let my view of the merit/value of what people say be biased by considerations of the way they say it. I know a good few overbearingly arrogant and egocentric people whose opinions and advice I nevertheless regard extremely highly.

Kind Regards

John

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