Midna wrote:

Most of us derive identity from the world around us. As infants, we are just a jumble of diverse biological processes over which we have no authority, and our first task in life is to develop a coherent personality which “pulls together” this fragmented confusion. Our first sense of coherence comes from our unconscious identifications with the persons around us. Then, as older children, we look around and see what the world shows us. Some things in the world appeal to us more than others; that’s because some things purport to show us something about what’s missing in our own lives. So, from all the things that appeal to us in the world, we create images of how we want to see ourselves, and then we set about making ourselves “seen” in the world so our images can be reflected back to us through the desire of others.

Whether it’s purple hair and pierced lips or Armani business suits, an image is an image. It’s simply impossible to “opt out” of the social order—even anarchy, in all its emptiness, is a form of social identity.

And some persons desire to be desired with such desperate intensity that you can literally see in their eyes the inner emptiness they seek to fill.

But they never can fill the void.

At best, the self-styled image is only a fraud, a piece of paper pasted over a gaping hole—an emotional wound—to hide their pain from their own eyes.

At worst, the fraud becomes their only reality, a pathetic lie and a living hell.

CurseoftheGods wrote:

I have a degree in psychology, and what you've just said is more philosophical in nature.

Midna wrote:

There we go. Do you have information as to the emotions on this thread? I mean the overt reaction some people have shown in contrary to what was expected?

CurseoftheGods wrote:

Well, the closest thing I can think of is the social desirability bias. Jerry must come from an environment where extreme patriotism is encouraged.

Social desirability bias is the inclination to present oneself in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others. Being by nature social creatures, people are generally inclined to seek some degree of social acceptance, and as with other psychological terms, "social desirability" is by no means an epithet.

Social desirability in its extreme however, can cause difficulties in research, particularly in psychological and medical research. When participants (subjects) in research provide "socially desirable" answers, results can often be confounded.

One example of how social desirability can affect research is in the hypothetical example of the researcher who wants to study sexual behaviour. The researcher may administer a questionnaire that asks the subject, "Do you currently masturbate? If so, how often?" Although it could be argued that no one would have trouble answering such a question for the benefit of science, it has been repeatedly proven otherwise.

A partial, by no means comprehensive, list of some areas that are sensitive to participants' interpretations of social desirability follows.

* Sexual behaviour and fantasies
* Personal income and earnings
* Feelings of self-worth and/or powerlessness
* Excretory functions
* Compliance with medicinal dosing schedules
* Religion
* Patriotism
* Intellectual achievements
* Physical symptomatology
* Acts of real or imagined physical violence
* Indicators of "kindness" or "benevolence"
* Illegal acts

When social desirability cannot be guarded against in research, often the researcher will resort to a scale that measures socially desirable responding, with the assumption that if a participant answers in a socially desirable manner on that scale, they are in all likelihood answering similarly throughout the study. One example of a test that measures socially-desirable responding is the Marlowe-Crowne Scale. Depending upon the goals of the research, respondents that engage in significant amounts of socially-desirable responding are discarded from statistical consideration; midrange scorers on a scale of socially-desirable responding may or may not be included in statistical consideration at the researcher's discretion, or their answers may be recalibrated commensurate with their perceived degree of skew, depending upon the measures involved, the goals of the study, and the robustness of the measures used.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_desirability_bias

nli10 wrote:

I'm sure most of us have played differently able people online, chatted to them on boards like this, all without ever realizing.