Perils of Self Assesment in Training
Pitfalls of Determining Your Skill Level Through Self-Assessment – Jay Izienicki – Chief Instructor
Anyone looking to acquire gun fighting skills is faced with two options. You can adopt the method of how babies do it and just pick it up by imitation using trial and error (i.e. Youtube) or you can seek out the aid of a professional Latent Force firearms instructor. The latter approach is a far more efficient use of time and money, and in the case of dangerous activities, such as gun fighting, it is critical (Stuart E Dreyfus, 1980). Having a professional instructor allows you to gain the correct knowledge and skills to make determinations in the future about your level of skill and when and where you need more training. Unfortunately, far too many lack the skills necessary to determine their abilities and falsely assume they are competent – American Idol anyone?
This reminds me of a study done on U.S. drivers perceptions of other driver’s skills. It showed that 93% of drivers rank themselves as better than the average driver (Svenson, 1980). Clearly, and no surprise to me being a driver in Las Vegas, this shows the tendency of the average person to believe he or she is above average. Can anyone see how this might just relate to firearms?
This metacognitive (Dunning, 1999) inability of the unskilled to evaluate their own or others ability level accurately is called the Dunning – Kruger Effect. In essence it is a cognitive bias where relatively unskilled individuals suffer from an illusion of confidence, mistakenly assessing their ability to be much more than is accurate (David Dunning, 2003). The trouble with ignorance is that it feels so much like expertise, because you don’t know what you don’t know or you just don’t care to know.
When honestly faced with these realities out on the range or in the classroom, as a student or an instructor, you see that incompetence does not leave people disoriented, perplexed or cautious. Instead, those lacking skills are often blessed with an inappropriate confidence, buoyed by something that feels to them like knowledge (Dunning, 2014). You know the types – talking out of turn during class, adding their part to every conversation, they have seen or done everything, or freely giving pointers where they shouldn’t. Remember, ignorance and carelessness are the 2 major factors in firearms accidents and we have one of them covered here.
There are two ways to counter the Dunning – Kruger Effect and we will cover them in this article.
One is that you put forth a concerted effort to consider other possibilities. Question everything you already know and allow yourself to think that the problem may really be you. This is sometimes easier said than done, but it is critical.
The other is to introduce someone else who can alter the skill you are focused on in such a way that the other alternatives become clearer. This is the Latent Force approach and it comes from professional instructors that “lead you to discovery” of other methods that work better based on the objective results.
During a recent rifle course we had a great cross section of students. They ranged from never having used a rifle before to what could be described as very familiar with their weapon. There were also those inbetweener’s that either overestimated or underestimated their skill set. These classes are always fun because we can see just how the Dunning – Kruger Effect plays out when a student believes they are skilled or experienced and they are placed side by side with the honest and true beginner.
As with all of our classes we try to have a daily debrief with the instructor team and then a class debrief with all the students. One is for feedback from the instructors on how the class went and how we can improve as individual instructors. The other is to find out what the students thought of the course, how we can improve, what they liked/disliked and what they learned. These are the most valuable moments for the true professional.
Amongst all the accolades of having put on a great class one student in particular said something that inspired me to write this article. This student owned and operated a gun store. He had extensive knowledge of firearms, ballistics and NFA. On top of that he was a good shooter and very familiar with his weapon system. So when he says, “I thought I knew a lot about this coming in, but I wasn’t aware of how much stuff I didn’t really know until I came to this class” - it carries serious weight and means a lot to me personally.
So here is the double edged sword of the Dunning – Kruger Effect, when people are unskilled in the strategies or techniques they use to achieve success not only do they reach the wrong conclusions or outcomes and make unfortunate or dangerous choices, but their lack of skill robs them of the ability to even realize it (Dunning, 1999). They are left with the mistaken impression that they are doing just fine or better. The truth is, gun fighting skills that determine competence are the very same skills that are necessary to evaluate gun fighting skills. To lack the former is to be deficient in the latter. If you fail to have skills you fail to accurately judge your skills or those of others.
Over 26 centuries ago Confucius said, “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance” (Waley, 1938). This still rings true today and is especially true with gun fighting skills. In order for you to improve and grow as a student you must have some insight into your own limitations (David Dunning, 2003).
As an instructor here is one of the roadblocks we face. Research shows that very often self-awareness is not only limited but also distorted in the direction of flattering and enhancing oneself. Not only that but in most activities, firearms especially, self-awareness is far from perfect and people are unable to properly gauge their overall performance of specific skilled tasks. For poor performers to recognize their ineptitude would require them to possess the very expertise they lack (Dunning, 2014). Remember, the people who graduated last in their medical school are still doctors and unfortunately they likely believe they are the best ones (Staff, 2010).
All is not lost for mankind and there is a cool part of the Dunning – Kruger Effect. Even the unskilled can gain insight about their shortcomings. This comes by making them more competent, ultimately providing them the skills necessary to be able to realize they have performed poorly or lack the skills they once thought. This is where true learning, skill development and improvement happens. Our gun store owner proved this premise earlier. The key part is that you have to be willing to allow yourself to accept other possibilities other than your current misbeliefs in order for you to grow as a gun fighter.
David Dunning himself states that the problem of unrecognized ignorance is one that visits us all. An ignorant mind is not a spotless or empty vessel but one that is filled with clutter of irrelevant or misleading life experiences, theories, strategies, hunches, intuitions or facts that have the look and feel of useful and accurate knowledge.
As with all of our classes we try to have a daily debrief with the instructor team and then a class debrief with all the students. One is for feedback from the instructors on how the class went and how we can improve as individual instructors. The other is to find out what the students thought of the course, how we can improve, what they liked/disliked and what they learned. These are the most valuable moments for the true professional.
Amongst all the accolades of having put on a great class one student in particular said something that inspired me to write this article. This student owned and operated a gun store. He had extensive knowledge of firearms, ballistics and NFA. On top of that he was a good shooter and very familiar with his weapon system. So when he says, “I thought I knew a lot about this coming in, but I wasn’t aware of how much stuff I didn’t really know until I came to this class” - it carries serious weight and means a lot to me personally.
So here is the double edged sword of the Dunning – Kruger Effect, when people are unskilled in the strategies or techniques they use to achieve success not only do they reach the wrong conclusions or outcomes and make unfortunate or dangerous choices, but their lack of skill robs them of the ability to even realize it (Dunning, 1999). They are left with the mistaken impression that they are doing just fine or better. The truth is, gun fighting skills that determine competence are the very same skills that are necessary to evaluate gun fighting skills. To lack the former is to be deficient in the latter. If you fail to have skills you fail to accurately judge your skills or those of others.
Over 26 centuries ago Confucius said, “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance” (Waley, 1938). This still rings true today and is especially true with gun fighting skills. In order for you to improve and grow as a student you must have some insight into your own limitations (David Dunning, 2003).
As an instructor here is one of the roadblocks we face. Research shows that very often self-awareness is not only limited but also distorted in the direction of flattering and enhancing oneself. Not only that but in most activities, firearms especially, self-awareness is far from perfect and people are unable to properly gauge their overall performance of specific skilled tasks. For poor performers to recognize their ineptitude would require them to possess the very expertise they lack (Dunning, 2014). Remember, the people who graduated last in their medical school are still doctors and unfortunately they likely believe they are the best ones (Staff, 2010).
All is not lost for mankind and there is a cool part of the Dunning – Kruger Effect. Even the unskilled can gain insight about their shortcomings. This comes by making them more competent, ultimately providing them the skills necessary to be able to realize they have performed poorly or lack the skills they once thought. This is where true learning, skill development and improvement happens. Our gun store owner proved this premise earlier. The key part is that you have to be willing to allow yourself to accept other possibilities other than your current misbeliefs in order for you to grow as a gun fighter.
David Dunning himself states that the problem of unrecognized ignorance is one that visits us all. An ignorant mind is not a spotless or empty vessel but one that is filled with clutter of irrelevant or misleading life experiences, theories, strategies, hunches, intuitions or facts that have the look and feel of useful and accurate knowledge.
When we are conducting a class we anecdotally believed that the majority of our students thought that they already had the concepts down and were surrounded by a bunch of amateurs. It turns out, studies show we were right. Students are thinking they are outperforming the majority of their peers when in fact they are the ones being outperformed. Even worse they can’t properly evaluate their actions as correct or incorrect and they grossly overestimate their own performance. People just tend to hold overinflated views of their skills that cannot be justified by their objective performance.
So here is where the meat of it is. If you are a student with freshly developed skills or one of those that have plateaued, due in part to your tendencies to scoff at structured training, and you expect to continue your development as a gun fighter you will need the objective observations of a professional instructor. This allows you to receive immediate feedback on the areas where you are lacking or excelling in your skills. The knowledge you gain from these courses allows you to go home and practice while evaluating yourself against the newly gained set of standards shown to you by a professional instructor. None of this works if you don’t open yourself up to accept where your skill level truly sits.
So how do we solve the problem long term and when we aren’t with an instructor? Use the “Consider the Opposite” corrective strategy. You have to consider that things might be different than they seem. People typically seem oblivious to the fact that the way they process information may itself influence their judgement and that the questions they ask may determine the answers they receive (Charles G Lord, 1984). Huh?
To counter the potential of you actually following misbeliefs and failing to recognize your own lack of skill or knowledge you will have to play devil’s advocate. Begin thinking through how your conclusions might be misguided. Ask yourself how you might be wrong and how things could turn out differently than you expect. Is my grip really impacting my consistency? If I opened both eyes instead of closing one would I be more accurate? Is the fact that I close my eyes when the gun fires slowing down my follow through? If I try a Glock will I realize it is better than all the rest?
Finally, seek out advice and constructive input. Other people may have their own misbeliefs, but just taking the time to have a discussion with likeminded individuals can most times be enough help a person that is serious about improvement eliminate his or her most serious and success limiting misconceptions. This is why your selection process for advice and constructive input needs to be thought out. Professional instructors are not all created equal so be methodical in your selection process.
If you’ve read my articles before you know I’m a movie and TV nut. I always find a way to incorporate concepts from those sources into my stuff – it keeps it fun and easily relatable. Over the last 12-18 months I have come to find relaxation and enjoyment from watching Big Bang Theory. It is easy to relate to just about every character on some level and I am convinced they based the characters on people that I actually know. My personal favorites are Howard Wolowitz and Sheldon Cooper and both are textbook examples of the Dunning – Kruger Effect (Dunning, 1999).
Wolowitz presents himself as the ladies’ man. A Master’s toting Jewish Aerospace Engineer and NASA Astronaut that has a pickup line, skinny jeans and dickey for every occasion. Oozing with confidence, he demonstrates outrageous techniques, bordering on creepy, in an attempt to pick up women. He even developed the “Wolowitz Coeffiecient” that he applies to his pickup game – neediness times dress size squared (Unkown, 2015). As viewers we know the truth, he’s offensive, awkward, somewhat slimy and he couldn’t get a date at a woman’s prison if he had a fist full of pardons.
Sheldon, on the other hand, is a narcissistic genius theoretical physicist and former prodigy who is regularly referred to as an East Texas doorknob. He is a geek who speaks Klingon and has no issues spouting cultural and historical anecdotes much to everyone’s chagrin (Unkown, 2015). He claims to be the perfect human specimen but actually he is socially inept and has a tenuous understanding of irony, sarcasm and humor even though he considers himself the “funny” one of the social group. “We’re laughing at you, not with you” comes to mind.
Both of these characters are highly educated and supremely intelligent so they should be able to see their own shortcomings. As it turns out, even though they are likely the smartest guys in the room they lack the skills and knowledge to see what we can plainly see – the illusion of confidence can survive even the measurement of skill (Staff, 2010). Don't be a Sheldon or a Wolowitz. See you on the range.
Stay in the Fight.
Jay Izienicki - Chief Instructor, Latent Force
References
Charles G Lord Elizabeth Preston, Mark R Lepper Considering the Opposite: A Corrective Strategy for Social Judgement [Journal] // Journal of Personality and social Pyshcology. - [s.l.] : American Psychological Association, Inc, 1984.
David Dunning Kerri Johnson, Joyce Ehrlinger and Justin Kruger Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence [Journal] // American Psychological Society. - [s.l.] : Blackwell Publishing Inc, 2003.
Dunning David We Are All Confident Idiots [Journal] // Pacific Standard Magazine. - [s.l.] : The Miller-McCune Center for Research, Media and Public Policy, 2014.
Justin Kruger and David Dunning Unskilled and Unaware Of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments [Journal] // Journal of Personality and Social Pyschology. - [s.l.] : American Psychological Association, Inc, 1999. - 6 : Vol. 77.
Staff Opinion: New York Post [Online] // New York Post. - May 23, 2010. - August 29, 2015. - http://nypost.com/2010/05/23/why-losers-have-delusions-of-grandeur/.
Stuart E Dreyfus Hubert L Dreyfus A Five Stage Model of Mental Activities Involved in Direct Skills Acquisition [Report]. - Washington, DC : United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFSC), 1980.
Svenson Ola Are We All Less Risky Than Our Fellow Drivers? [Report]. - Stockholm, Sweden : North-Holland Publishing Company, 1980.
Unkown Characters: The Big Bang Theory [Online] // The Big Bang Theory Wiki. - August 29, 2015. - August 29, 2015. - http://bigbangtheory.wikia.com/wiki/Sheldon_Cooper.
Unkown Characters: The Big Bang Theory [Online] // The big bang theory wiki. - August 30, 2015. - August 30, 2015. - http://bigbangtheory.wikia.com/wiki/Howard_Wolowitz.
Waley Arthur The Analects of Confucius [Book]. - New York and London : Routledge, 1938.