The Wakefield Doctrine is based on the premise that behavior is a response to perception. Within individuals, these behaviors tend to repeat themselves over time, and with repetition become a defining and characteristic type of behavior, in other words, personality.


The three characteristic ways to perceive the world are identified as: clarks, scotts and rogers. It is a given that we all start our lives with the potential to perceive the world as any of the three. However at some point in our early, early childhood  we become predominantly a clark, a scott or a roger. How we perceive the world around us becomes established, we establish our personal reality, our predominant worldview.

We become clarks, scotts or rogers.


clarks think, scotts act and rogers feel…


scott.  (adj. scottian  to have the qualities of a scott; pronunciation: scoe-shun).

The Initial Behavioral Metaphor for a scott is that of predator/hunter. In the animal kingdom we would look to dogs and wolves and other predators. Consequently, the world to the scott is characterized by an environment that is essentially hostile; a world of danger and threat.

Primary identifiers and characteristics

The social structure most appropriate to the scottian personality type is that of the pack, as seen in wolves and other canids in the wild.

In the case of the scottian personality type, scotts will not normally gather in packs, the way that rogers will gather in herds. scotts are, for all intents and purposes, solitary and will interact with groups without necessarily becoming a part of or a member of (that) group. What is most characteristic of scotts as it relates to the metaphor of the ‘pack animal’ is that scotts will be driven by the need to establish ranking, as is characteristic of members of a pack. Ranking is, at heart, the establishing of dominance relative to other members. There is always an alpha member and everyone else in the ‘group or pack’ is ordered relative to dominance over the other members. This drive to rank is one of the single most identifiable characteristics of the scottian personality, in particular the male scott. It underlies most the social strategies exhibited by the scottian personality types. It is demonstrated and can be observed in the scottian personality every single time they enter a social environment, the first thing they will do is establish their ranking relative to all others present.

(For our purposes) The nature of a pack is a common purpose for shared benefit and (an internal) hierarchy of members. This hierarchy is relatively simple, i.e. a ranking of members as dominant and submissive. There is always an alpha.

The pack is formed in response to a world that is perceived as fundamentally hostile; a world of predator and prey.
The pack will function as a group only for relatively narrowly defined goals/purposes such as securing food and defending territory.

The scottian personality type demonstrates the closest parallel of actual behavior to the assumed behavior when employing the metaphors that we have found helpful in understanding the three  personality types. Case in point, the social behavior of certain predators (dogs and wolves) in the wild and the social behavior of the scott in a social situation. Does the other person push back or not? Where in the ‘pack’ that the situation implies, does any one person stand relative to our scott.

This behavior is perceived as being the result of being a gregarious and very social person. The scottian personality (type) is thought of as the ‘life of the party’. In reality, their actual purpose of this socializing is only to discover if there are other scotts in the environment and if there, then are ranking and the establishment of ‘territory’,  are the next order of business.

Some key points relating to the nature and character of the scottian personality type:

  • scotts are ‘natural’ leaders (because they are certain, not necessarily right, but certain).
  • scotts are emotional in a way different from rogers. It is spontaneous emotion, there is very little holding of grudges,  mercurial is the best descriptor for their emotional environment.
  • In a band it is always a scott who is the ‘front man’, they are natural performers, entertainers
  • At a party scotts will not hesitate to introduce themselves (to everyone), they will always, ‘work the room’ moving from person to person, group to group
  • For the most part, when confronted with a threat, a scott will choose to attack rather than flee, however if it is clearly a ‘no win’ a scott may chose ‘flight’
  • scottian females can be remarkably sexy or intelligent and even witty, but hardly ever both.




As children, scotts are the easiest of the three personality types to identify. They present the un-self-conscious, out-going, nature with an unforced and persistent curiosity about the world around them. A young, juvenile scott is every bit the puppy (implied in the Initial Behavioral Metaphor of the canid).  Of the three personality types, the scottian child, at early childhood/pre-adolescent stage of development, exhibits the interests and behavior reflecting the scottian worldview in a fashion that is much clearer and obvious than do the other two types. The scottian child tends to be comfortable on their own, finding less interest in socializing with other children than in exploring their world. The scottian child will enjoy hours investigating their immediate environment, gaining confidence in their ability to cope with new situations, assess threats and practice ‘hunting’ skills.


Gender and Adolescence

This play practice is most suggestively demonstrated in the case of the pre-adolescent female scott, who as a rule is given to solitary activity, exploring the environment, finding entertainment in solitary activity. In point of fact, the term commonly used in describing this young, scottian girl is ‘tom boy’.  A relatively innocuous label intended for use in the case of a young girl who appears to be demonstrating behavior and interests that are not the culturally approved gender behavior and interests. In this case, that of the scottian female, this term is most often used by to account for (and condone) behavior usually considered in the culture appropriate for the male child. Interestingly enough, the attributes that earn the scottian female the label ‘tom boy’, while understood to be a temporary phase in the girl, are considered appropriate for the male (child) well into adulthood. There is a tacit recognition that this behavior in the female will, with the onset of puberty, be replaced with the more culturally accepted role of the young female (as dictated by the culture in which the example is found. This, of course implies that the behavior that most cultures expect from females is grounded in biology as much as psychology. The expectation of (the culture) that the individual conform to and fulfill their biological imperative is clear, as a girl matures into womanhood; implicit is the role as mother, home-maker, care-giver. Modern cultures have expanded the range of additional activities, interests and functions available to the female, however, at the base of it all is this primary reproductive capacity.

As the effects of biology exert an influence, the gender differences in the scottian personality type, the behavior that results from developing strategies is much more easily identified in the scottian child than in the clarklike or rogerian child. These behaviors are simply the characteristic way of responding to the worldview as a scott. It is important to remember that it is not the behavior that is important as much as it is the worldview that is to be inferred from observed behavior. So knowing that a child has a high level of interest in physical activity and yet eschews group play (at least at times) in favor of playing by himself implies a scottian personality type.

Adulthood and maturity

A scott will, invariably (upon entering a social situation), approach all the other people present and ‘push them on the shoulder’ (figuratively most of the time, on occasion, literally). The scott is doing this simply to elicit a reaction/response from the other person, which in turn allows (the scott) to establish ranking.

A scott, if attacked, will go into a counter-attack mode immediately but, concurrently will be trying to establish whether the situation calls for a fight or flight. If the scott sees the aggressor as demonstrating undeniably superior strength, the scott will take a submissive posture. As this metaphor-as-paradigm is expanded, the scottian personality shows it’s strengths in certain social/employment situations, i.e. a scott will make an excellent salesman but not a good manager. The scottian personality type gravitates towards the ‘spotlight’.  A scottian personality will be a very effective at training others, in the sense of presenting information in a group setting (with the scott up on stage), but scotts will not be effective as a teacher, in the traditional definition of that term. Within an area of life, there will be the situation where specialties exist. If we look at a high school faculty, the scotts will more likely be found teaching gym or vocational education than math or science. From this, we can anticipate that a scott will be good at holding the attention of the crowd until the need for content (of the presentation) outweighs the entertainment value of the presenter.

How do you know when you encounter a scott?

The eyes. Scotts have a distinctive ‘focus’, their gaze is never incidental to their mood, the conversation they are engaged in, or anything other than being aware of their surroundings.  a scott will always be watching the surrounding environment for threats and opportunity.

Can you tell who is what?

Can you tell who is what?

