What is a strength of statistical infrequency (IRL)
Using statistics has proven to be a useful diagnostic and assessment tool. For example, the diagnosis of intellectual disability disorder. A diagnosis of this requires an IQ of below 70 (bottom 2%). Additionally, the Beck depression inventory (BDI) – a score of 30+ (top 5%) is widely interpreted as an indication of severe depression.
What is a weakness of statistical infrequency
Some abnormal behaviours are desirable. For example, very few people have an IQ over 150, yet this abnormality is one deemed as desirable.
What is a weakness of statistical infrequency
If abnormality is defined in terms of statistical infrequency, we need to decide where to separate normality from abnormality. For example, one of the symptoms of depression is ‘difficulty sleeping’ – some people might think abnormal sleep is less than 6 hours a night, others might think the cut-off should be 5 hours.
