It's probably no news to you that people experience things differently. This is easy to forget when we try to understand everyone by fitting them into some framework like "Never, Sometimes, Frequently, Always", " I like it-I don't like it", "True-False", "Yes-No". Sound bite heaven.
Even when scientists study something as basic as people's senses, they too forget this bit of common sense - that how you measure must do justice to what is really so. In fact, scientists missed the fact that there's a group of super-tasters who throw all the usual measurements off. They experience taste much more keenly than the average person. In the intense taste world of the super-taster, sharp, sour, sweet, and salty mean something very different than they do to the normal taster. If we measure their taste classifications on the same scale, look what an error we'd be making.
We don't want to make this same error with dieters, even though no one has identified a group of "super-dieters". Therefore, when a dieter says or does something that has that all too familiar ring to it, "I cheated", "I feel too deprived", "I'm going to do it this time", let's get out the right scale and weigh her words and actions correctly. Let's match what she says and does to what really is. Otherwise, we will misunderstand and not really learn about her. Going on a diet is hard enough without being misunderstood.
It's probably no news to you that people experience things differently. This is easy to forget when we try to understand everyone by fitting them into some framework like "Never, Sometimes, Frequently, Always", " I like it-I don't like it", "True-False", "Yes-No". Sound bite heaven.
Even when scientists study something as basic as people's senses, they too forget this bit of common sense - that how you measure must do justice to what is really so. In fact, scientists missed the fact that there's a group of super-tasters who throw all the usual measurements off. They experience taste much more keenly than the average person. In the intense taste world of the super-taster, sharp, sour, sweet, and salty mean something very different than they do to the normal taster. If we measure their taste classifications on the same scale, look what an error we'd be making.
We don't want to make this same error with dieters, even though no one has identified a group of "super-dieters". Therefore, when a dieter says or does something that has that all too familiar ring to it, "I cheated", "I feel too deprived", "I'm going to do it this time", let's get out the right scale and weigh her words and actions correctly. Let's match what she says and does to what really is. Otherwise, we will misunderstand and not really learn about her. Going on a diet is hard enough without being misunderstood.