Selective Competence

Selective Competence

Definition:

Selective Competence - Demonstrating different levels of intelligence, memory, resourcefulness, strength or competence depending on the situation or environment.

Description:

Selective Competence

Demonstrating different levels of intelligence, memory, resourcefulness, strength or competence depending on the situation or environment.

When Can-Do Turns to Can’t

We’ve all experienced times when our ability to perform a particular task has been greatly enhanced or significantly hampered by our level of motivation, confidence and conviction. This is normal. Personal variations in skills and abilities are also normal, because not everyone is great at everything.

However, variations in competence become dysfunctional when there are clear inconsistencies in someone’s abilities in a way which becomes chronic and destructive towards self, friends or family. It’s a level of fluctuation which extends beyond the normal ebb and flow of coping with life’s “ups and downs” and can at times appear downright strategic.

For some people with Personality Disorders, unregulated emotion can lead to extremes or systematic levels of selective competence or incompetence depending on the task at hand or the people around them.

What it Looks Like

A man is a successful business manager at work but says he cannot successfully balance his personal check book.
A woman can organize a wedding with 500 guests but claims she can’t arrange a birthday party for her children.
A man is an expert at fixing cars and motorbikes yet he cannot hold down a mechanics job.
A teenage girl is habitually late for school but never misses the start of her favorite TV show.
A co-worker selectively remembers facts and information which confirm a particular bias.

Selective competence often appears similar to hypocrisy or laziness. And sometimes it is. We are all capable of hypocrisy and people with Personality Disorders are no different from the rest of us in that regard. Most people draw the line on hypocrisy and laziness at the point where they think they will no longer safely get away with it.

However, when you are dealing with a person with a Personality Disorder, you will occasionally discover examples where their selective competence cannot be rationalized away simply as selfish behavior:

A man will suddenly not allow himself to eat a food that he usually loves, because he believes it will make him sick.
A girl has trouble remembering certain teenage years although her childhood is easily remembered.
A woman is afraid to ride in green cars.

Genuine selective competence which can’t be explained just by hypocrisy or laziness is an example of dissociation - when a person’s feelings about a particular task take precedence over any scientific truth they may know to logically apply to the situation.

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