Even Darwin, who knows a lot about man and humanity, said that «ignorance more often gives rise to confidence than knowledge.» In other words, the more incompetent we are, the less we doubt our own abilities. How to see your ceiling and stop torturing yourself with tasks that are too tough? Or, on the contrary, is it worth raising the bar and jumping higher and higher? We are looking for an answer together with a cognitive psychotherapist.
“Probably, the artist in me died,” says 43-year-old Eduard. “I am excellent at interviews. I studied so much, so often rushed to new, higher positions, that I did not have time to really understand the current work. My wife calls me a professional job seeker. I can sell myself for good money. But then … A couple of times I realized that a little more, and they would figure me out: serious projects were at stake, and I understood that I could not do them. I didn’t manage to leave first. And it was quite humiliating to hear that the interview was like a different person.”
There are many people who deliberately throw dust in the eyes of the employer. But no less of those who are sincerely mistaken in their own level of competence. They enthusiastically take on tasks of any complexity, and then are surprised to find themselves day and night at work or in the hospital after a nervous breakdown.
I know everything!
“The neurotic mechanism makes such a person be no worse. And then it inevitably begins to overload. As a result, workaholism, explains cognitive psychotherapist Dmitry Kovpak. “He is physically exhausting himself. The Japanese have officially had the term «death in the workplace» for many years. They tend to overestimate the bar so much that it leads to exhaustion, increasing health problems, anxiety disorders, psychosomatic illnesses.
A little over a hundred years after Darwin, in 1999, researchers Justin Kruger and David Dunning made a hypothesis that was confirmed by studies on students at an American university. According to their conclusions, an adequate assessment of oneself and others depends on the level of incompetence of the evaluator.
Less qualified people often overestimated their abilities and capabilities and did not understand the real level of their incompetence. They could not adequately assess those who had a higher level. But after they were trained, they looked back and saw their meager store of knowledge and skills. The flip side of the effect is that people with high competence are unable to understand why someone with a lower skill level cannot complete a task as easily as they can.
Often people do not pay attention to the importance of everyday and interpersonal competencies, because a certain level of knowledge and skills is also necessary in relationships. They rely on general awareness. It seems to someone that the main thing is to put a stamp in the passport, and then everything will somehow work out by itself.
“But relationships are also work. It is desirable for both husband and wife to have certain competencies and, accordingly, the level of competence. People try to act intuitively when faced with stress or a difficult life situation. And if something doesn’t work out, they look for the cause of failure not in themselves and in their incompetence, but in external circumstances: either the partner is “not the right one,” or everyone around is bad and envious, ”the expert believes.
Are abilities important?
Each person is born with his own temperament, physical and cognitive data, he is brought up in certain conditions in specific families and cultures, studies in different schools and universities. Finally, there are abilities that, according to some researchers in the field of psychology, are laid in us genetically and develop due to the environment. Do abilities affect the level of competence?
“Competencies are a kind of dynamic stereotype, a set of actions that an employee performs with one quality or another. These are very specific skills, a schema. For example, a cashier at McDonald’s performs simple actions that require refinement, but not some in-depth knowledge. Skills are learning. And abilities are a broader channel. You can have abilities, but not have competencies.
More complex competencies are not visible to the «naked eye»
One of the main theorists in the study of managerial effectiveness, David McLelland, divided competencies into two levels — superficial and deep. The first are learnable behaviors, knowledge and actions that lead to competence in a narrow format: quickly received an order from the buyer, quickly passed it to the kitchen, issued a check with a number in the queue and switched to the next buyer. This is easy to teach.
More complex competencies are not visible to the «naked eye», they are measured by special tests and scales and manifest themselves in specific situations. For example, a tendency to empathy or the ability to behave in conflicts.
“It can’t be taught, at least not as quickly as taking an order for a burger,” the therapist comments. “Personal characteristics matter here. For example, an IT specialist tends to work with machines, equipment, programs, and not with people. It is difficult to demand empathy from him, and it is hardly as necessary in his work as basic professional skills. Or let us take the type of people called in psychiatry an anancaste. They are prone to punctuality, thoroughness. Sorting papers, sharpening pencils will infuriate anyone, but they are fine — they are in nirvana. Their personal characteristics and acquired skills will give high competence in this position.”
I know that I know nothing
The higher the level of competence, the more critical we are of ourselves. As Socrates said: «I know that I know nothing, but others do not know this either.»
“Democritus compared knowledge to a ball. When we know little, then the ball is small, and the surface of contact with the area of ignorance is small, so there is an erroneous idea of our own knowledge as significant. The same Dunning-Kruger effect is manifested, when a student is not very versed in the subject, but listened a little, read something somewhere, feels omniscient and categorically makes judgments. And how well we all understand politics and psychology! There are people who sincerely believe that, having learned and understood something about themselves, they are able to teach others different things. However, they are often uneducated. But the larger our ball, the larger the surface with which we come into contact with the area of ignorance.
There is such a thing — «I-concept». It’s a kind of self-image. “For the majority, it is positive, in order to somehow make ends meet in this complex world, not to collapse. People are not critical of themselves, because self-doubt can become traumatic, painful. They avoid criticism or respond to it inappropriately. Negative ratings may remind them of how they were devalued and criticized as children.” Hence, difficulties arise in communications, building interpersonal relationships. People are subconsciously afraid to open something, as it is associated with pain. It is easier to accept your illusions about yourself.
If we understand the number of our white spots and are critical of ourselves, then this is a good symptom. “Critical thinking allows you to measure the amount of your knowledge and skills. And it helps to take on what is on the shoulder. Cognitive psychotherapists have this joke: a person in a real situation will not rise to the top of his expectations, but will fall to the bottom of his skills.
Exercise «Cognitive Continuum» helps to get rid of the black and white perception of yourself
But there is another extreme: there are many who, with great knowledge and experience, are not sure of their sufficient competence. Despite the fact that all external signs of successful work are evident. This is the so-called impostor syndrome, when a person believes that he undeservedly takes some position, that in fact he is an absolute zero. What is the danger here?
“In limitation: a person does not let himself into activity by excessive criticism of himself. He is «worse than Sidorov, who knows how much he can.» He is not so sure that he will block his life activity. In psychotherapy, we help such clients form an alternative, an outside perspective — look at their habits, see and then change the patterns. Increasing awareness of their own skills and competencies. We increase the level of self-acceptance so that he allows himself to act, “comes out of the hole,” Dmitry Kovpak explains.
There is a tool that you can use yourself, without the help of a psychotherapist. The Cognitive Continuum exercise helps to get rid of the black-and-white perception of oneself, characteristic of «imposters». They either have to be geniuses and 100% successful, or they are nobody and have no right to a place in this world. It is proposed to ask yourself questions that would help you turn on critical thinking, change your automatic thoughts. And visualize the main «delusions» on a scale from 0% to 100%. We ask ourselves the question: if I am a complete zero, then why am I being paid a salary? So am I doing something? What exactly? Etc.
It is advisable to keep a diary where you should write down problematic actions and situations.
Gradually, asking himself non-judgmental questions, recalling and selecting for answers the facts that the client repressed, denied and devalued, he comes to the conclusion that in fact he is not worse than Sidorov at all, and even in something or in many ways more competent than him. If the total score is slightly more than zero, this is still a step towards changing the “I-concept”. The next time the number of points will increase even more.
And it is advisable to keep a diary, the psychotherapist recommends, where you should write down your problematic actions and situations, as well as the thoughts that precede them. It is important to do this not in your head, but on paper. It is with the help of an external carrier that critical thinking develops, allowing you to look at the situation from the outside and realistically.
It turns out that you do not need to overestimate the bar for yourself?
“We need a golden mean. If set too high, there will be apathy and blocking of actions. If you set the bar for today, there will be no motives for development. You need gradual training and stimulation yourself. Set yourself tasks at an accessible level, this will be, according to Vygotsky, the nearest development zone, ”the expert is convinced.