Self-evaluation
Jul. 7th, 2006 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apparentparadoxI've been thinking a lot about self-evaluation lately. (Hmm, self-thinking about self-evaluation).
There are many times and places in our lives where we are told or expected to self-evaluate things. For example, when doing aerobic activity, you're supposed to use "perceived exertion" to determine how hard to work. That's nothing more than self-evaluation of how hard you are working. AARP has a self-evaluation for senior drivers to help them determine when they should stop driving. Square Dancers choose to move up to the next level of square dancing based on their own self-evaluation. In the first case (aerobic perceived exertion), I think that self-evaluation probably works out fairly well. It's an easy evaluation that someone can make almost instantly, and the consequences aren't all that bad -- generally you just might not get as much aerobic benefit as you could -- I doubt that there are very many people who have heart attacks because they self-evaluate that their perceived exertion is low when actually they are over-stressing their heart.
There are other cases, however, where I believe that self-evaluation really doesn't work well. This may be for a number of reasons. In the first place, there is usually an incentive to make the evaluation turn out one way or another. Self-evaluating that you shouldn't be driving means that you will lose some independence and have to face your declining health, for instance.
Another factor (and I wish I could pull up the study) is that people who are incapable of understanding something are also incapable of accurately self-evaluating themselves in that field. This is really a difficult issue! If you aren't able to understand something, you may mistakenly rate yourself as "knowledgeable" in that area. So, self-evaluation really isn't good, but how would you know?
Of course there are other factors such as problems remembering things (if you don't remember that you almost hit 4 pedestrians the last time you drove your car, you'd probably rate yourself as a safe driver).
So, when does self-evaluation make sense and give you a good answer? Or is it the fact that self-evaluation should rarely be trusted?
I got to thinking about all this because I'm trying to decide whether I should continue dancing C4 or not. My self-evaluation tells me that I shouldn't, but how would I know if my self-evaluation isn't accurate?
The other thing that weighs on my mind is whether by self-evaluating that I'm not ready for C4 if that would help serve as a role model for those dancers who feel they aren't ready to move up, but are feeling pressure to dance at a higher level. Thus, there might be an incentive to self-evaluate one way vs. another which leads us back to the question of how do you know when to trust self-evaluation?
There are many times and places in our lives where we are told or expected to self-evaluate things. For example, when doing aerobic activity, you're supposed to use "perceived exertion" to determine how hard to work. That's nothing more than self-evaluation of how hard you are working. AARP has a self-evaluation for senior drivers to help them determine when they should stop driving. Square Dancers choose to move up to the next level of square dancing based on their own self-evaluation. In the first case (aerobic perceived exertion), I think that self-evaluation probably works out fairly well. It's an easy evaluation that someone can make almost instantly, and the consequences aren't all that bad -- generally you just might not get as much aerobic benefit as you could -- I doubt that there are very many people who have heart attacks because they self-evaluate that their perceived exertion is low when actually they are over-stressing their heart.
There are other cases, however, where I believe that self-evaluation really doesn't work well. This may be for a number of reasons. In the first place, there is usually an incentive to make the evaluation turn out one way or another. Self-evaluating that you shouldn't be driving means that you will lose some independence and have to face your declining health, for instance.
Another factor (and I wish I could pull up the study) is that people who are incapable of understanding something are also incapable of accurately self-evaluating themselves in that field. This is really a difficult issue! If you aren't able to understand something, you may mistakenly rate yourself as "knowledgeable" in that area. So, self-evaluation really isn't good, but how would you know?
Of course there are other factors such as problems remembering things (if you don't remember that you almost hit 4 pedestrians the last time you drove your car, you'd probably rate yourself as a safe driver).
So, when does self-evaluation make sense and give you a good answer? Or is it the fact that self-evaluation should rarely be trusted?
I got to thinking about all this because I'm trying to decide whether I should continue dancing C4 or not. My self-evaluation tells me that I shouldn't, but how would I know if my self-evaluation isn't accurate?
The other thing that weighs on my mind is whether by self-evaluating that I'm not ready for C4 if that would help serve as a role model for those dancers who feel they aren't ready to move up, but are feeling pressure to dance at a higher level. Thus, there might be an incentive to self-evaluate one way vs. another which leads us back to the question of how do you know when to trust self-evaluation?