allan619
Well-Known Member
The Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale
Has anybody taken this test, I have just taken it online and I have to say it wasn't easy to answer the questions, simple as they seem. In fact I found that the questions were poorly formed, were strangley broad and the selection of 4 multiple choice answers were insufficient to answer the questions accurately. Are they supposed to be difficult to answer? Is it AS that is making it difficult to answer them. Maybe I’m interpreting them far too literally. Here’s a few examples of questions that annoyed me.
Possible answers:
True now and when I was young
True only now
True only when I was younger than 16
Never true
Question 1
I cannot imagine what it would be like to be someone else.
- This was the first question that frustrated me because, technically, nobody on this planet knows what it is like to be someone else since we can only ever experience reality from our own perspective. This is a stupid question. I can imagine what it is like to be on Mount Everest; it’s probably cold, windy, and bright. This can be tested by actually going there and thinking this is exactly as I imagined it to be. But testing your imaginings of someone's experience of reality is untestable and anybody who claims to be able to do it is not being honest.
This is only one question, I had issues with at least 25% of them, I ended up just choosing any answer to finish the test. I’ve got a diagnostic assessment in a fortnight or so and I’m worried that they are going to attempt to diagnose me using questionnaires like this. I’m not an expert on how to make an AS diagnosis but these types of question, broad non-specific questions seem to be just the type of questions that would annoy an asspie not help them.
Question 2
I would rather go out to eat in a restaurant by myself than with someone I know.
- This one annoyed me, not because I couldn't understand it, but because there is no possible way to answer it honestly and accurately. The truth is, I would rather not go to the restaurant at all. I have no preference between the two, I find them both to be objectionable. The closest answer that I can give is to say “Never True”. Maybe the problem I’m having is that they are actually not questions at all, they are statements. “I would rather go out to eat in a restaurant by myself than with someone I know” is a statement that claim eating in a restaurant alone is preferable to be with company. If I answer "Never True" to this, then isn't the inferance that I prefer to be with company in a restaurant? I have no preference and therefore I feel I cannot answer this question accurately.