Joel D Block, Ph.D., Personality Profiling - OPW Interview

OPW INTERVIEW -- Nov 8 -- Dr Block does personality profiling.  He’s available to help dating sites add personality profiling. - Mark Brooks

What is your background? Tell us about yourself.
I took my PhD at Syracuse University. Since then I have about 30 years experience working exclusively with relationships. Love and sex are my specialties and my 19th book on those subjects will be out next year. I’ve been honored by a professional organization as Outstanding Couple Therapist and I am a senior psychologist at a teaching hospital as well as faculty at the Einstein College of Medicine in NY.

Would you say you’re a fan of internet dating?
A big fan. There are a lot of people that I see, single men and women, who have been very successful; sometimes they are frustrated but that’s part of the process. They are way more successful online than they would be going to a bar or just other ways of meeting people. They have wider ranges of choices; they will most likely find other singles on the dating sites rather than at the pub. It’s also more affordable.

Who would you say in your opinion has the best personality profiling system right now?
Oh, tough question. I really haven’t studied every single test that’s out there. But of what I’ve seen, I like mine the best.

With the rise of dating sites, there are some people who have been trying to turn romance into a branch of applied mathematics. They’ve been trying to reduce decisions about love into statistical equations. It doesn’t
work.

What some people have realized is that love is too complex to be reduced to a peer reviewed article. I bring not only scientific credibility but after 30 years of working with couples, I have a sense of the poetry needed to match couples.

I have a compatibility test that has 24 questions which takes about 15 minutes to complete. The questions are the kinds of things that are engaging because people relate to them and they strike a familiar chord. The answers go from 0 – not a chance, all the way through possibly, likely, almost certainly, or for 4 points – definitely.

I hear there are 2 schools of thought. One school of thought says that you can most easily match people based on similarity. The other school of thought says that you end up with better matches if you match based on complementary factors. What are your thoughts on that?
I agree with both. A lot of relationships work because one person is dominant and the other one is submissive. Submission and dominance are two factors that are complementary. Then there are other factors like intimacy needs and social needs such as introversion and extroversion that are similarity factors. So I think that it’s not either/or but a really good test, as mine is, has both.

Are you a fan of the Meyers-Briggs test?
Not so much. First of all, Meyers-Briggs is not quite a compatibility test and it’s a little bit of a stretch in terms of using it on a romantic basis.

There are different versions but there isn’t a “romantic” version of the Meyers-Briggs. I’m not that set against it, it’s just not something I would prefer. With my test, I do the matches and I tell you what your chances are and why this person is a good match for you.

What’s more, there is an open offer: Any dating site that uses my test and matches a couple who marry—my team will pay for a Vegas Honeymoon!

You have a new book coming out, tell us more.
The book is The Real Reasons Men Commit, Why He Will—or Won’t—Love, Honor and Marry You. It’s a book primarily for women, although I’ve had a couple of men read it and really love it. In fact, Mario Lopez, considered to be the most eligible bachelor by People magazine, wrote the cover blurb and said he learned a lot from it. But it’s mostly for women and it’s how to find a commitment oriented guy and avoid the commitment phobic guy.

I did this book with a single woman, a Broadway actress, Kimberly Dawn Neumann and we developed several new concepts. One term we came up with is vulnerphobia. These are the men who are afraid of being vulnerable. Those men don’t have a strong enough sense of “I” in terms of themselves to create a “We” in their life. The idea of sharing, losing their independence, their sense of themselves, all those things frighten them. The book really goes into detail about how to separate the commitment phobic from the commitment ready. It will be out in December.

Can internet dating services work with you?
There is a growing trend for dating sites to have a group of psychologist-coaches to help people with their relationship issues. I think that is the coming trend and its one of the things I offer. I bring 3 decades of experience to the challenge. So, it’s not just about matching, but it is also about helping couples to make their love last.

I can bring a lot of services to the dating sites, like doing webinars, answering subscriber emails, that sort of direct contact. I’ve written books on most of the couple issues. I wrote a book called “Naked Intimacy”
that has to do with openness. Another book “Broken Promises and Mended Hearts” has to do with trust. I think that dating sites would really prosper from having someone not only help with the matches but help people maintain love; keeping love alive is tough.

Comments

[Fernando Ardenghi]

You do not need to prove a piston engine when you need a jet engine to break sound barrier.

The best personality profiling system will be ..... the one matching persons who will have more stable and satisfying relationships than couples matched by chance, personal preferences, searching on one's own, or other typical type of compatibility test; with low divorce rates (e.g. after 10 years of marriage).

Dr. Block is right when he says "With the rise of dating sites, there are some people who have been trying to turn romance into a branch of applied mathematics. They've been trying to reduce decisions about love into statistical equations. It doesn't work."
It is not working yet because actual online dating sites (eHarmony, True, Chemistry, PerfectMatch, PlentyOfFish, OkCupid, Yahoo!Personals, etc) offering compatibility matching methods could reach as low as 3 / 4 persons high compatible per 1,000 persons, so in a 10,000,000 persons database, there are as many as 30,000 / 40,000 persons to contact/date, that means a whole precision less than anyone could achieve by searching on one's own!!!
eHarmony, True, Chemistry, PerfectMatch, PlentyOfFish, OkCupid, Yahoo!Personals, etc. are using piston engines.

Dr. Block' proposal - ButterfliesAgain Test - is not going to revolutionize the Online Dating Industry because:
* it is based on an ipsative test - similar to the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation Behavior test, aka: FIRO B- instead of a normative test.
* The compatibility/affinity between prospective mates is only a 2 integer figure like 75%. With a 2 integer figure, the whole precision of the matching algorithm is less than any client could achieve searching by his/her own!!

Dr. Block' proposal is another piston engine.

It is all about high precision. It is all about jet engines.

Kindest Regards,

Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
[email protected]

[Pemo Theodore]

I am interested as to whether anyone has any stats on the value add for online dating sites who have good relationship assessments? What is the rate of good matches compared to being matched by zip code as per Singlesnet.com? It makes sense that it makes the matching process simple & easy & quicker but for those who need it where is the proof?

[Fernando Ardenghi]

Hi Pemo:

"where is the proof?" you ask.

Well, my own proof, since the beginning 2003, I had been testing creating several dummy (fake) Male/Female profiles in many online dating sites who claim scientific matching, and I had only analyzed their specifications in others.

I had discovered that proprietary tests or models used by those sites (like eHarmony, True, Yahoo!Personals - WeAttract, Cybersuitors, PerfectMatch, Chemistry, PlentyOfFish Chemistry Predictor, ASoundMatch, NoMoreDates, ThomasKnowsPeople PersonalityPro, DatingDNA, PersonalDNA, Parship, Ulteem - ParPerfeito - DatingDirectAffinity, Be2, ButterfliesAgain, ZonaCitas, ScientificMatch, GenePartner, MatchScale, Mary, MatchWise, eChemistry) could have great precision in measuring different psychological variables, but the matching algorithm they use has low precision when comparing one profile to others. The whole precision (measurement_of_variables + pattern_calculation) is less than anyone could achieve by searching on one's own!
I solved that problem and contacted many researchers/academics and online dating sites, with no success until now.

I had also discovered that many online dating sites who claim scientific matching are only backed by big marketing budgets and they can mask scientific evidence with stupidities like bells, whistles, horns, drums or other diarrhea of marketing devices as *patented unique methodology used to calculate compatibility*, *the best compatibility testing system based on years of research*, *dramatically more accurate than other sites*, *a world_renowned author and expert in the science of human attraction and love who wrote 25,678,947,854,258 books*

I know you had developed AstraMatch, you are currently writing a book on matchmaking and you are also reviewing online dating sites in your blog.

Perhaps you should screen/review online dating sites using this guide:

-----A) TEST

A.1) Brain behind the test.

A.2) test? proprietary or commercial / ipsative or normative / validation / reliability, etc

-----B) MATCHING ALGORITHM

B.1) Brain behind matching algorithm.

B.2) the ENSEMBLE (the whole set of different valid possibilities)

B.3) About compatibility.
If compatibility means a high degree of similarity between several variables (religion, education, income, personality, personal preferences, likes and dislikes, etc.) between prospective mates
OR
if compatibility means a mix of similarity and complementarity between variables
OR
What does exactly compatibility mean?

B.4) What does exactly similarity mean? and What does exactly complementarity mean?

B.5) How exactly the compatibility matching method works, specifying main matching equation/ formula (without revealing proprietary information).
E.g:
"a proprietary Dyadic Adjustment Scale"
"a proprietary multivariate linear regression equation"
"a proprietary multivariate logistic regression equation"
"an adapted quantum mechanics math equation"

B.6) How compatibility results are displayed
E.g.:
* only a number: like 110 (Cybersuitors), 96% (PlentyofFish Chemistry Predictor), 65 (Parship), 92.55033557% +/- 0.00000001% (LPM), etc.
* only a graphic system: like a set of up to five empty/half_full/full hearts icon; a set of up to ten empty/half_full/full squares, a set of semaphores, etc.
* a written report like ThomasKnowsPeople

B.7) Average number of "compatible real persons" for one person over the entire database.
Eg.
* 3 or 4 persons high compatible per 1,000 persons
* 3 most compatible persons in a 100,000 persons database,

-----C) DIVORCE RATES
C.1) "Divorce rates" of the couples matched by the compatibility matching method after 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years.

-----D) Scientifc Paper peer_reviewed
Scientifc Paper peer_reviewed showing the compatibility matching method matches persons who will have more stable and satisfying relationships than couples matched by chance, astrological destiny, personal preferences, searching on one's own, or other typical type of compatibility test (like Wilson & Cousins) as the control group; with low 'divorce rates' (e.g. after 2, 5, 10 years of 'marriage').

I have not seen any credible Scientifc Paper yet!!!

Regards,

Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
[email protected]

[James Houran]

Dear Pemo,

My team is arguably the industry leader in compatibility measurement and matching. Email me directly if you would like to talk some specifics.

Thanks,

James Houran, Ph.D.

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