Statistical Infrequency AO3

• Statistical Infrequency

  +It has real world application; it’s useful. It’s used in clinical practice as a part of a formal diagnosis and as a way to assess the severity of an individual’s symptoms. A diagnosis of IDD requires an IQ below 70. An example of SI used as an assessment tool is Beck’s depression inventory (BDI). A score of 30+ is widely interpreted as indicating severe deression. This shows that the value of the SI criterion is useful in diagnostic and assessment processes.
• Statistical Infrequency

  -Unusual characteristics can be positive.

  For every person with an IQ below 70, there’s a person with an IQ over 130; we don’t think of someone as abnormal for having a high IQ. Someone with a very low depression score also wouldn’t be called abnormal: therefore being unusual or at one end of a psychological spectrum doesn’t necessarily mean someone is abnormal. This means that although SI can form part of assessment and diagnostic procedures, its never sufficient as the sole basis for defining abnormality.