3 ms·

The article does clarify that this is with regards to moderate ADHD. In my personal opinion, most psychology disorders were named to differentiate from "normal"

by ajaimk 9y ago

The article does clarify that this is with regards to moderate ADHD. In my personal opinion, most psychology disorders were named to differentiate from "normal". Who defines normal?

falcolas 9y ago
Society, ultimately. Psychologists and psychiatrists just look at the population and identify the cliffs between "able to operate in society" and "not able to operate in society without assistance". Those diagnosed with ADHD are those who are in the "not able to operate without help" category.
bmpafa 9y ago
I underwent cognitive testing for ADHD,and it was more rigorous a process than I expected. They administered a battery of tests, among them a few controls to screen for malingerers. Each was narrow enough of a task to believably evaluate a specific aspect of cognitive ability. The results were evaluated against the broader population of people with similar levels of intelligence So, for example, in one test, the task is to sum a continuing stream of spoken digits. Apparently, the test includes a distribution of other' performance,and that distribution defines 'normal.' performing worse than the mean (or whatever measure) is therefore abnormal and, potentially, indicative of some disorder or another. Tl;Dr they use ostensibly reliable statistical methods to define 'normal'
- elcritch 9y ago
  Additionally the difference needs to be a std deviation or two away from the normal population. ADHD in particular has effects on specific sub-tests in IQ exams. It’s quite a clear pattern which emerges as the ares of IQ dealing with multiple conflicting inputs tend to be standard deviation below the rest of the sub-tests norms for a person. Unfortunately I don’t know the appropriate literature to cite. Another test which is used is response times to an onscreen test.

3 ms·

The article does clarify that this is with regards to moderate ADHD. In my personal opinion, most psychology disorders were named to differentiate from "normal"

by ajaimk 9y ago

The article does clarify that this is with regards to moderate ADHD. In my personal opinion, most psychology disorders were named to differentiate from "normal". Who defines normal?

falcolas 9y ago
Society, ultimately. Psychologists and psychiatrists just look at the population and identify the cliffs between "able to operate in society" and "not able to operate in society without assistance". Those diagnosed with ADHD are those who are in the "not able to operate without help" category.
bmpafa 9y ago
I underwent cognitive testing for ADHD,and it was more rigorous a process than I expected. They administered a battery of tests, among them a few controls to screen for malingerers. Each was narrow enough of a task to believably evaluate a specific aspect of cognitive ability. The results were evaluated against the broader population of people with similar levels of intelligence So, for example, in one test, the task is to sum a continuing stream of spoken digits. Apparently, the test includes a distribution of other' performance,and that distribution defines 'normal.' performing worse than the mean (or whatever measure) is therefore abnormal and, potentially, indicative of some disorder or another. Tl;Dr they use ostensibly reliable statistical methods to define 'normal'
- elcritch 9y ago
  Additionally the difference needs to be a std deviation or two away from the normal population. ADHD in particular has effects on specific sub-tests in IQ exams. It’s quite a clear pattern which emerges as the ares of IQ dealing with multiple conflicting inputs tend to be standard deviation below the rest of the sub-tests norms for a person. Unfortunately I don’t know the appropriate literature to cite. Another test which is used is response times to an onscreen test.