DIMENSIONS OF INTUITION® (DOI®)

CHALLENGE 1:  MEASURING INTUITION

For my dissertation research project, I conducted first-round validation on the DIMENSIONS OF INTUITION®  (DOI®) instrument I designed to answer the question:  "How intuitive am I?"

Because of the elusive nature of intuition, when I set out to design my dissertation research project in 2005, most of my faculty advisors doubted it was even possible to measure intuition. One advisor said I would need access to fMRI technology; another didn't even believe there was such a thing as "intuition."  CONSIDER:

Q:  How do you measure a latent construct you can't see, hear, taste, touch, smell or otherwise

      experience through the five physical senses?

A:  You measure those characteristics that are predictive of it.

Q:  But what if the characteristics that are predictive of intuition are ALSO latent constructs?

A:  Hmmm...  

This was the FIRST dilemma I had to solve before I could even decide on a research design.

CHALLENGE 2:  SEARCHING THE LITERATURE  

In my exhaustive search of the intuition literature, I eventually came across a 1996 review of intuition studies published Shirley and Langan-Fox in Psychological Reports. The studies they examined identified 57 characteristics (or "variables") hypothesized to be related to intuition. They divided these into three categories:  

Social/Acquired (e.g., creativity; willingness to take risks; enjoyment of reading); 

Biological (e.g., age, sex, handedness); and 

Situational (e.g., time of day, amount of information available). 

Some studies established strong correlations between intuition and given variables; others found little or no relationship. For instance, NO study (including mine) has found that women are inherently more intuitive than men.

CHALLENGE 3:  DECIDING WHICH VARIABLES TO STUDY

For my project, I chose to examine 25 of the 57 variables--a momentous decision that created another set of unforeseen problems. In a research project like the one I proposed, one generally needs 10 respondents for each variable examined.  My study would require data collection from at least 300 respondents.  By the time I finished, I had acquired more data than would fit onto a single Excel spreadsheet--a thing I didn't even know was possible. 

Ultimately, I was glad I had chosen to work with so many variables, because it allowed me a much stronger "capture" of the most predictive elements.  If I had chosen, say, only six instead of 25, I ran the risk of choosing variables with a far lesser correlation and a much weaker predictability.

CHALLENGE 4:  INCLUDING OTHER INSTRUMENTS

Another lesson learned:  To validate a new instrument, one must compare results to the results from at least two other previously validated instruments that measure some or all of the same variables.  Though I had seen quite a few questionnaires posing as intuition instruments, almost none were scientifically validated.  Understandably, since anyone attempting to do so would be presented with the same challenges I was facing. 

Eventually, I found two validated instruments I could use:

THE PSI:  Bill Taggert's "Personal Styles Inventory" (PSI)--a 30-item survey measured one's preference for the Rational vs. Intuitive approach on six scales--Planning vs. Vision; Analysis vs. Insight; and Control vs. Sharing.  The PSI looked at three functional areas:

1.  How do you prepare for the future?   

     Rational planning by developing proposals OR intuitive vision by generating scenarios.

2.  How do you solve problems?  

     Rational analysis as a specialist OR intuitive insight as a generalist.

3.  How do you approach work?   

     Rational control procedure-oriented OR intuitive sharing people-centered.

THE HBDI®:  One of my four hypotheses posited that intuition was related to brain functionality.  To test this, I chose Ned Herrmann's HBDI ("Herrmann Brain Dominance Inventory®"), a 120-item instrument that measures brain-based thinking styles--also referred to as "brain dominance" or "brain preference."  I have been a Certified HBDI® Practitioner since 1999.  

With the HBDI®, degrees of preference are measured by scores on brain quadrants and hemispheres equating to the brain's primary functional structures.  More specifically: 

Quadrant: A "preference code" is derived for each of the instrument's color-coded brain quadrants:  A (blue) = cerebral left; B (green) = limbic left; C (red) = limbic right; and D (yellow) = cerebral right).  

Hemisphere:  A "modal percent" is derived for each of the brain's dichotomous hemispheres:

left vs. right and cerebral (upper) vs. limbic (lower).  

Outcomes are combined into a report of "profile scores" that identifies the individual's relative degree of preference for each quadrant and hemisphere, and explains the implications thereof. 

Both (the now late) Bill Taggert and Herrmann International, Inc. generously allowed me to utilize their instruments in my research.  Regrettably, the PSI is no longer available online. To learn more about the HBDI® and its many applications, go to:  https://www.thinkherrmann.com/

CHALLENGE 5:  ALL THE REST OF IT...

Convincing my faculty advisors that my project was feasible, determining how to approach such an unwieldy topic of study, deciding which intuition-related variables to examine, and finding validated instruments to include in my research design were only the beginning of my challenges.  I also had to:

-- design the instrument and conduct sample studies;

-- redesign the instrument items, scale and approach (several times);

-- gain approval from my research committee;

-- publish my survey and find 300 or more qualified individuals to complete the three instruments;

-- collect, compile and organize the data;

-- make statistical sense of the findings (with help from my primary advisor, a retired statistics;

    professor who was skeptical about the whole concept of intuition as I had defined it);

-- run the statistical tests--and explain the outcomes to my advisor, so he knew I understood them;

-- create the 130 tables needed--and explain the meaning and significance of each element of

   each table;

-- compile and format the 151 pages of appendices;

-- type/re-type, proof/re-proof, read/re-read; then start all over and do more of the same.

CHALLENGE 6:  STICK WITH IT

The most difficult challenge of all was to find a way to MAINTAIN MY INTEREST in the topic and KEEP WORKING on the project long enough to complete it. 

An anecdote:  Before I began, I had asked a professor friend with a PhD in chemistry what he thought of my idea for a dissertation research project. After some thought, he answered: "I think there must be an easier way to get a PhD." Little did I know then just how insightful that was...  

Ultimately, I had to complete the work, gain my full committee's sign-off, and then submit the dissertation draft to other campus officials who had to sign off, as well.  Mercifully, I've forgotten most of the interim steps that took up the 3-1/2 years I invested in this work--confirming my chemistry professor friend's initial assessment.

Full details about my research design and methodology, results,  findings and conclusions are available in the 539 pages of my dissertation:  DIMENSIONS OF INTUITION: FIRST-ROUND VALIDATION STUDIES (University of Missouri-St. Louis, April 2009). 

I have posted Chapters 1 and 5 elsewhere on this site for those who are interested in learning more about WHY I conducted the study and WHAT I learned from it. 

NEXT CHALLENGE:  FINALIZE THE DOI

Happily, my dissertation research provided strong first-round validation of my Dimensions of Intuition® (DOI®) instrument.  (See Abstract at right.)  And now, at long last, I have begun the final process of refining the instrument so I can post it on this website and, in due course, make it available to everyone. STAY TUNED! 

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