turquoiseX wrote:
yes, but i think the question is why does the Aspie Quiz use a metric for both NT *and* an Aspergers?
most tests, like the AQ test, have a cut off point- i think the AQ test is 30, or 33? so if you're below it, you're considered NT.
why does the aspie quiz give both NT and AS scores?
First, the AQ Test just says that a score of 32 or more carries a likelihood of ASD, while a score less than 32 carries a greater likelihood of being NT. About 20% of people diagnosed with ASD score below 32 - it is not an absolute cutoff, merely an indicator of the likelihood of ASD. A diagnostician would make their own observations and also interview people (e.g. parents or partners) who know the person well.
The person who made the Aspie Quiz regards "neurodiversity" (a concept which covers ASD, ADHD, dyslexia and various other learning conditions) as a separate (and largely opposite) set of characteristics to "neurotypical". He does not regard them as two ends of one scale, but as two separate scales, each with its own defining qualities that are not simply the negative of the qualities in the other scale. So his quiz provides two scores - a score based on neurotypical characteristics, and a score based on neurodiverse characteristics.
To explain a bit more by using an analogy: instead of contrasting "liking to go to parties" with "not liking to go to parties" - a single scale - he does something like contrasting "liking to go to parties" with "liking to study mathematics". It may be that mathematicians tend to avoid parties, but that is not the definition of mathematician. A mathematician is not (by definition) someone who avoids parties, it is someone who has skills and pleasure in quantitative and spatial thinking.
So a quiz about "liking to party" would only yield a single score, while a quiz about liking to party and also liking to study mathematics would yield two scores: one measuring the strength of liking to party, and a separate score measuring the strength of liking to study mathematics. So the Aspie Quiz measures the extent to which you have NT characteristics, and the extent to which you have Aspie characteristics. Those characteristics are defined by different things - Aspie is not simply the absence of NT, and NT is not simply the absence of Aspie characterics.
I hope that make some sort of sense.