This is the fifth post in series of post based on a book by Stephen Kosslyn and G. Wayne Miller titled “Top Brain, Bottom Brain.” The subtitle is “Harnessing the Power of the Four Cognitive Modes.” Elizabeth Taylor was a consummate actress who was highly successful as an actress. But when it came to personal relationships, she behaved as if she regularly operated in the Adaptor Mode.
When Taylor was eighteen, she married Conrad Hilton, Jr. He had a reputation as an obnoxious and abusive drunk. He was given to extreme mood shifts and was a notorious womanizer. Taylor married Hilton in 1950 and in January 1951, less than one year later, he became Taylor’s ex-husband number one.
After dating several men, in 1952 Taylor married Michael Wilding, an English actor who had been married before and was subject to dramatic shifts of mood. They had two children, but she quickly grew dissatisfied with him and began seeing other men, one of whom was Michael Todd, who had been married twice and whose volatile temper was legendary. He was killed in a plane crash before they had a chance to marry. Eddie Fisher was her next husband whom she married in 1959. On the set of the movie Cleopatra, released in 1963, Taylor became involved with Richard Burton. Burton was an alcoholic, philanderer, and abuser—the worst qualities of Taylor’s previous husbands. They married in 1964. By 1973, Taylor had had enough. She separated from Burton and they divorced the next year. In October 1975 they got back together and walked down the aisle again. In 1976 Taylor left Burton for the last time. She had two more marriages. both of which ended in divorce, and what the authors say was a degree of happiness—though not necessarily late-life wisdom.
One can regard Taylor as an excessive adaptor.
Thus far all personal examples of the modes are of famous people. In the absence of further examples of adaptors the authors created a character named Nick: a man in his late twenties they designed to illustrate what it means to think and act in the Adaptor Mode.
On the way to work,when he becomes stuck in traffic he relaxes and listens to his iPod. He doesn’t think to call his foreman to let him know that he’s stuck in traffic. His bottom brain does not lead him to see the broader implications of his current situation (its effects on other people such as his foreman), nor does he take advantage of the time to use his top brain to make plans about things that really matter to him. The authors write, “Instead the immediate situation is driving his agenda, as we expect is typical of people who are operating in Adaptor Mode. His top brain is not formulating complex or detailed plans that would guide his thought or behavior; instead, he waits for external guidance about what to do next.”
At work his foreman gives him a special assignment, he wants him to take a new apprentice under his wing. Nick knows what this will entail babysitting. There are plenty of other electricians with more experience who could handle the job. The authors note that the foreman has not asked Nick; he’s ordered him, and although Nick might win the battle if he pushed back hard (the foreman values him as one of the best workers), he decides it’s not worth it. He reasons that the order is not totally unreasonable, good relations with the boss count for a lot.
Nick is agreeable and usually does what the other person wants rather than what he would like to do. His childhood dream was to become a firefighter. He could enroll in an EMT course, join a volunteer fire company, or apply for the fire academy. This would be difficult, but he could probably manage while still keeping his day job and remaining a good dad.
But pursuing his old dream required detailed, long-range planning. Right now, it seems too much to undertake. Overall, life is pretty good as it is. Why rock the boat?
This section ends as follows: “Being in Adaptor Mode has some clear advantages. When you relax, you really relax—you don’t fret about the future or obsess about the past. Moreover, because you very likely are easy to get along with in this mode, other people often enjoy your company. The downside, according to our theory, is that you can be buffeted by the world around you—and that can be detrimental. As psychologists showed long ago, animals that have some control over their environment experience less stress (and fewer ulcers) than animals that are always on the receiving end, having no such control.”
If you have not tested yourself to see if you are classified in the Adapter Mode, go to the the first post in this series “Top Brain, Bottom Brain.”
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