There are many instances in today’s society when one will wonder, “What in the world is that person thinking?” This question may be asked regarding someone’s outfit, singing performance, or even career choice. How could someone be so wrong about their judgment or knowledge? The purpose of this paper is to provide some incite to how people could be so oblivious of their incompetence.
In 1999, David Dunning and Justin Kruger performed studies to test the competence of individuals and the effect of competence or incompetence on self-assessments. Dunning and Kruger stated, “…the skills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills necessary to evaluate competence in that domain-one’s own or anyone else’s” (Kruger & Dunning, 1999, p.1121). Therefore, incompetent people lack metacognition skills which are crucial to identifying how well one is performing.
In all areas of life, there are people who are not aware of the deficit between what they think they can do and their actual ability. Those who are less competent tend to overestimate their abilities while those who are more competent tend to underestimate their abilities. Studies show that bottom performers tend to overestimate their performance by approximately 30% (Hawes, 2010). Unskilled performers are said to have “illusory superiority” which causes the incompetent to overestimate their abilities. This leads the unskilled performers to “mistakenly rate their ability much higher than average (Lightfoot, 2012).”
An example of the Dunning-Kruger effect has been presented by Joe Lightfoot, Director and co-founder of Move. Eat. Treat. Lightfoot’s example explains how most healthcare professionals are not knowledgeable enough to provide lifestyle advi...
... middle of paper ...
...epress critical feedback because of social norms set forth in our culture. Fay, Jordan, and Ehrlinger (2012) state, “After a friend’s imperfect piano recital, we might keep our critiques to ourselves and, instead, imply that we enjoyed the performance immensely”(p.206). A little bit of criticism does a lot more good than a lot of empty praise. The Dunning-Kruger effect will continue to plague our society as long as we keep following social norms that encourage misleading feedback.
Conclusion
Obviously there is not one specific way to treat everyone who is incompetent. The goal though should be to increase the awareness of potential incompetence. One should not be assumed incompetent because they are arrogant or assumed competent because they are unconfident. Instead we should provide honest feedback to our peers while also seeking that same honesty from others.
“There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs,” was said by motivational speaker and American author Zig Ziglar. This relates to Carol S. Dweck’s article “Brainology” and Sherman Alexie’s essay “Superman and Me.” Ziglar, Dweck, and Alexie all feel that it isn’t easy for someone to become successful. It takes hard work, perseverance, and the want to learn and grow. In Dweck’s article, she stated that someone with a growth mindset would become more successful and knowledgeable than someone with a fixed mindset, which was demonstrated by Alexie in his essay, and by a personal experience of my own.
In order to comprehend this article, one must have a concept of self-esteem. Self- esteem is the personal evaluation of one’s worth as a person. Most individuals subject self-esteem as the “feeling that one is ‘good enough.” Also, individuals believe those with high self- esteem tend to believe they are superior to others, which is not necessarily true. Another inaccurate assumption on self- esteem interprets that talents and abilities are influential on self-esteem. Also, self- esteem is not
Results of students who received praise for intelligence: The students in this category had negative results after receiving praising. When asked afterwards if they wanted to do the same level of problems or try more challenging ones, they chose the task that would allow them to look smart and do well on. Consequently, while telling a child how smart he or she is, we are sending a message to not take risks and just look the part. Afterwards, these children were given a hard task, which they performed poorly on, and they know longer liked the problems and did not want to practice them at home. Children also felt “dumb” and when given the initial task (in which they did well), they performed significantly worse. Lastly, their opinions of intelligence reflected that it was an innate capacity as though you cannot improve.
Humans are imperfect. It 's crucial and enlightening to step out of ourselves once a while and look back as a third person. Solicit and appreciate honest feedback that shows us our weaknesses, so that we can work on it to be real, not perfect. However, for some of us, it 's not easy and I understand it. It 's not about how senior we are, how rich we are or even how talented we are, but it 's about how real we are to accept the fact that we are still imperfect.
When many people write, including myself, they get attached to their writing. Although writing can be a personal thing, I’ve learned that it is important to step away from your paper, and take the feedback on an objective level. The first time I got feedback, I had an overwhelming urge to defend myself. I remember reading that my introduction wasn’t complete, and that my evidence wasn’t properly introduced. I wanted to walk up to those who critiqued my paper, and spit right in their faces. ‘How dare they say bad things about my paper?’ I thought to myself. From here, I went back into my essay, and looked at what they had told me were errors. It was then that I realized that they were right. My introduction needed more background information, and my evidence should have had more of an introduction. They weren’t trying to be mean; they were just helping me receive a better grade, by looking at my essay through an objective view. Now, I go out of my way to ask people for feedback, and tell them to be honest. I want my paper to be the very best it can be, so it isn 't helpful when people hold back. I now understand that those giving feedback aren’t insulting me, or the paper; they are just suggesting ways to improve, or enhance my ideas. Giving and receiving feedback is a hard, yet important skill to learn, and hope to continue improving in this
...J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self Assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1121-1134.
(Chap 10) Soliciting feedback is needed to not only improve oneself but also performance and relationship between family, friend, co-workers, etc. I remember when I was little, I would always eat and would be bigger than the other kids in my grade. I hated when people or my family would tell me to lose weight because it hurts my self-esteem. However, if it weren’t for those feedbacks about my health, I think I would not be aware of how I would have many heart problems or diseases in the future. I’ve became more aware of how I am and started to pay attention more to what I eat and how I exercise. By being more aware of health, actions, etc. people are able to be more positive and learn to value opinions and take action. Self-assessment is when using self-inquiry and reflection in order to gain insights into oneself. Especially when reflecting on certain actions and feelings within the team. When I need calm down or reduce my stress levels, I would meditate or paint to relieve myself. Exercising also helped me to increase my endorphins, especially when there’s so many assignments or in need of a break. People adapt more to reflecting themselves would become more satisfied about
In Conclusion, contrary to the presumption that most people suffer from low self-esteem or feelings of inferiority, it is found that most people exhibit a self-serving bias. Individuals typically rate their selves better than average on subjective, desirable traits and abilities. Some individuals display overconfidence, which can lead to eventual feelings of failure. I have a self-serving bias as well as most everyone else, even though I may not even notice it. So next time you find yourself saying, "I was in a bad mood that day," "A lot of people make that same mistake," or "I can do it better myself," think about what you are saying and maybe you might catch your self serving bias.
Criticism is something that we all deal with daily and many of us believe that when we give criticism we are expertly doing so but as we receive criticism we tend to believe the other person is degrading us personally. Since criticism is mainly to judge merits and faults of a person or their actions, it is natural for us to feel defensive as we act the way we do based on the knowledge we have and we feel that the criticism questions our knowledge. Many of us may see criticism as such and act defensively towards it but according to an article called Giving and Receiving Criticism the author Sue Hadfield states, “Constructive criticism, however, can be helpful and lead to better working relations.” (Hadfield, 2013) With this in mind we can process that criticism can be used to give feedback to better ones position or knowledge in that which is being criticized. But how do we give criticism while staying in the favor of the criticized and when receiving criticism how do we differentiate between constructive and destructive criticism? Continuing in the article the author presents certain...
The stupidity in our scholars, like stupidity and arrogance everywhere, follows a model. The model presented here was developed by Anticommerical University Professor William Mason. It applies in general to stupidity at any level of intensity. It has 5 stages.1. Mimetic ArroganceOne party identifies themselves as an authority on a subject and other parties imitate that arrogance.
In this chapter, I learned new ways to give and to accept feedback. Personally, I like getting feedback. I like it because it allows me to improve on my work. For example, whenever I write essays I like to have another person look at it so they can catch any small, or even big, mistakes that I may have done. This chapter also taught me that too much negative feedback can really take a toll on a person negatively. When you give somebody too much negative feedback, that person can start to think that they’re doing everything completely wrong and can really be detrimental to their self-esteem. To give good feedback, you should give the person more positive feedback than negative. You should use constructive rather than destructive feedback. Constructive feedback is more information specific and issue specific based on observations without using judgement. Destructive feedback is full of judgement and isn’t helping the person learn. When you get the feedback, it is best to reframe it and then reconstruct it to your advantage. Getting feedback is always a good tool to get but not when it only contains
Commitment to continuous development of competency depends a great deal on the motivation of the individual, and the extent of self-awareness and honesty he/she has concerning abilities and skills. Accessing one’s personal level of competence could prove to be a daunting task without a focused desire for continued professional development, the help of co-workers, supervisors, continuing education classes, and a genuineness of attitude that isn’t afraid, or resentful of critique. Cultivating an honest understanding of one’s own knowledge or lack of knowledge in certain areas, or even a gap in skills or abilities is crucial to the continuing development of professional competence.
People who are criticized tend to go in the opposite direction from where the feedback
A good understanding of one’s own metacognition is necessary before aiming to understand that of other people. This is referred to as intrapersonal perception. Self-regulation, which involves self-monitoring and self-motivation, is an essential skill required to achieve academic success at university. It focuses on the concept of individuals being able to accurately judge their level of knowledge and determine the effectiveness of methods implemented for exam preparation. This allows evaluation of strengths and weaknesses, enabling individuals to engage in focused study. Students who can effectively do this will excel in their time at university. Conversely, those who lack in this skill can have major implications, such as overestimating their knowledge, thus hindering their success. Debra A. Bercher’s findings sugg...
Not all people know what skills they possess. They will most likely learn it later on in their lifetime. Some people contain skills contain that other people wish they had. Some people have a very high skill level in certain sports. Some people can job fairly high and are able to dunk a basketball on a ten foot net, while others will barely be able to get their feet off the ground. Some people also