Proud stamp carrier...

Yesterday, whilst cooking gingerbread, cleaning, and folding loads upon loads of Alexa's laundry I had Dr. Phil on in the background.  I don't particularly like the Dr. Phil show, I find it rather boring and pretentious, but I don't always have much selection of shows to choose from on AFN, so Dr. Phil it was!  While running up and down stairs and back forth to check the oven, I hear them discussing personality tests; spending the majority of the show discussing the Big 5 Factor personality test, which I am particularly familiar with from a Grad school class I took on adult learning.  The Big 5 Factor test take into consideration five broad constructs that are used to determine one's personality; openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion and neuroticism (emotional stability).  Everybody falls along a spectrum within each category and can be used to theorize about one's personality. 

A Professor of psychology from t.u. (hisssssss!) was on the show helping to explain this widely accepted personality test.  While describing conscientiousness he used an example of people who carry stamps with them in their wallet.  Dr. Phil then asked his audience how many people had stamps with them in their purse, approximately 10 people raised their hands and then reached into their purse to pull out their trusty sheet of stamps.  Dr. Phil was shocked that anybody would carry stamps with them, actually stating that he didn't understand why anybody would do such a thing.  The Professor went on to explain that people who score very high in conscientiousness are the type of people that carry around stamps with them and almost always buy extra of things long before they run out of anything!  GUILTY!  I am totally guilty of both!  I proudly carry stamps around with me AND buy multiples of things long before they run out.  I can't for the life of me understand why people wouldn't carry a sheet of stamps in their wallet, its such a small item to have with you, besides what the heck do you do when you spontaneously need to mail something and don't have a stamp with you?!!!  I also can't understand why people actually allow themselves to run out of stuff without having a replacement.  Isn't it so annoying to run out of something and have to wait to finish whatever you were doing until after you run to the store...heaven forbid it should be toilet paper!  Of course this could explain why I will have 4 extra shampoos, 15 bars of soap and 25 cans of rotel acquired before I leave Germany!  Admittedly, the lack of closets and pantry is definitely helping curb my desire to have too many extras of anything, because if its one thing that bothers me more than running out of something, its not having a place for that something to live!