Gems

[Chris Boyatzis]

As a first-time writer, let me say at the outset that I for one love
hugging babies, and I think random utterances that kids generate are
wonderful sources of insight.  Now, to me the real question is, "to what
end is all this charming anecdota?"  (Has anyone already come up with
"anecdata" or have I coined a new one??)

If folks decide to begin compiling such info, beyond their intrinsic appeal
and their illumination of various lecture topics (as others have noted),
specific utterances that may be included in such a Gems file may give rise
to new ideas.  The use of creative and peculiar wugs, er, words have had a
big role in the field.  Perhaps some original utterances from the mouths of
babes will have similar innovative impact.  I don't think there's any loss
of their heuristic value if such utterances arise in rare gems discovered
while rummaging through the anecdata.

My more serious curiosity comes from my use of parental diaries (of
parent-child conversations about religious and spiritual issues).  Diaries
have some obvious pitfalls--including the time-lag problem--especially on a
topic as potentially sensitive as religion.  I appreciate the references to
some studies on limitations of diaries in the language-dev
literature.   But the oft-alluded to time lag/validity concern should not
cause a loss of faith in the measure.  From my own work, I know that
information and impressions gleaned from the diaries is rather different
from, say, survey data or verbal self-reports from parents on such
conversations.

Chris Boyatzis



At 04:10 PM 8/5/2004 +0100, Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith wrote:
>On behalf of the late and much regretted Elizabeth Bates, you ought to
>know that the CDI ("MacArthur parent response stuff" that you deem to be
>worse than anecdotes) was carefully validated in the laboratory and on
>hundreds of children in nearly 40 different languages and cultures.
>Annette Karmiloff-Smith
>
>At 4:00 pm +0100 5/8/04, r.n.campbell wrote:
>>Surely in psychology we ought to know by now that 'no bread is much
>>better than half a loaf'. It's a difficult enough subject without
>>muddying the waters with dodgy data. This GEM collection sounds almost as
>>bad as the MacArthur parent-response stuff.
>>
>>Besides, isn't there an unfortunate whiff of baby-hugging about it?
>>
>>Robin
>>--
>>Dr Robin N Campbell
>>Dept of Psychology
>>University of Stirling
>>STIRLING FK9 4LA
>>Scotland, UK
>>
>>telephone: 01786-467649  facsimile: 01786-467641
>>email: r.n.campbell at stir.ac.uk
>>Website:
>>http://www.stir.ac.uk/Departments/HumanSciences/Psychology/Staff/rnc1/index.html
>>
>>
>>--
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Chris J. Boyatzis, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Bucknell University
Lewisburg PA  17837

Office phone:  570.577.1696
FAX  570.577.7007
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