questionnaire problems

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Most of the questions are too simplistic for me, e.g. for the "theatre or museum" question, it's both, and I'd need to know what specific theatre and what specific museum, what the crowds would be like, and what play it was. I can't do the AQ test or the EQ test, most of the answers would be "don't know" or "it depends," which aren't allowed, or would lead to a completely inconclusive result such as "subject omitted most questions." I can't do the "gut reaction" thing either. I did the AQ test for my pre-diagnostic screening, but frankly I fudged it and allowed myself to bias my answers towards autism, as it was the only way to get onto the proper evaluation where they ask questions and actually listen to honest, detailed answers. I'd never use a questionnaire of that type as a means to find out anything about myself. It might have a bit of diagnostic power if I knew what the scoring system was, because then I could keep track of which way each answer was skewing the result, which would allow me to err on one side of the truth for one question and on the other side for the next, and so on, and the errors would hopefully cancel each other out. I doubt the test providers would approve, but I just can't answer such questions without lying with most of them. It's strange to me that Aspies are supposed to be the black-and-white thinkers, because I seem to see the greyness of reality more clearly than the test designers do.

Hello Zylon, there are some glitches with this site still.

I think a lot of people here share your concern/problem with questionaires. I have seen the subject come up here before.

Try to remember that the AQ test is now quite old, and probably should be updated. It is only a screening tool and not designed to give a categorical result by itself, without any additional assessment.

When you copy what you wrote first, then you can paste it if it's gone as soon as you've clicked on 'preview'

I agree that the questionaires seem inaccurate. Each question makes too many assumptions, as others have said... And we interpret the questions in different ways.

Then they ask what things you notice that other people don't. Unless you know people well, this can be tricky to answer.

And at this point, clothing never irritates me, but is this just because I cut all my tags off without even thinking about it and only have one type of sock I will wear?

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My mother who is detailed orientated has noticed things I haven't noticed because I don't pay any attention because I go off in my own little world. I think that is how my brain automatically copes with noisy places. I put my mind to something and I just do it and I block the rest out around me. So she could answer yes to that.

Also I have noticed things others didn't notice and I have noticed sounds other didn't notice. I can remember my school counselor telling me how not everyone is going to notice the same things I notice like how it took me three years to notice in 101 Dalmatians there was a man kneeling on the ground on the background while Pongo is pulling Roger through Leicester Square. He used that example right there for how I didn't notice it but someone else might have noticed it before me.

As for sounds, maybe they are just not standing in the right spot or not really paying attention to hear it. It doesn't mean they can't hear it and that you have better hearing than others. I have been in that situation many times where I have asked "What's that sound?" and no one knows what I am hearing. People have to know what to listen for to hear it sometimes. Even my mom has asked me what the sound was and I didn't know what she was talking about. Plus some people have ringing on their ears so they might not be able to hear what you are hearing. But I think the question about hearing sounds that others don't notice is more about above normal hearing or sensory processing disorder but even someone with ADHD might answer yes since they also get distracted by sound so they might notice it more than others. People manage to tune things out when they focus. Some even argue that autistic people don't have any better hearing than others, they just notice sounds more due to inability to filter.

Clothes irritate me too sometimes. Sometimes they feel scratchy on me for no reason and I used to deal with that in high school when I have been sitting for too long and then the fabric of my pants start to itch my legs and feel prickly. I also can't stand wool or acrylic on my bare skin. My husband has lot of tactile issues but he has learned to block it out so he doesn't feel them. He can feel tags, lines in clothes, seams, etc. until you remind him about it and then he feels it.

I always pick theater because even though i plug my ears 50% of the time, i love going to cinema and always have. But in the other hand i always wanted to go to a museum,
There are none near where i live, so if someone gave me e option id probably pick museum

Your suppose to answer the questions as honestly as possible and not think, "which is more autistic?

I've noticed this problem with questionnaires for much of my life. For a long time, since I couldn't honestly answer certain questions (because neither was technically correct) I assumed I was...faulty. I mean, the test maker was an authority and therefore knew far more than I and so on.

I don't buy into that any more. Almost all such questions are designed by NT people, who think as NT people do, and must make assumptions as to what makes us "different" based only on their NT-centric observations. This structure also intrinsically sets NT as the default and anything that doesn't fit as, "less than" rather than simply different. So now when I hit those questions I just try to think - without putting too much into it - what would a NT test maker *think* they were trying to differentiate with that question. Then I mark it and move on.

ZombieBride, I do not choose which is more autistic. The usual problem is to decide whether the question refers to the usual case, or the potential case. Such as if given a choice between a specified museum and a specified theater, I would choose the museum 90%of the time. However, the best theater is better than the best museum, given the unlikely case where the subject matter of both were the same. The situation is even worse when the choice involves people. To be with the best person is by far my top choice of anything. However, in most cases I would choose things over people, because most people make be uncomfortable.

Mavis and Leaguegirl, All clothing is uncomfortable to me. I would much rather be completely nude. It even makes me uncomfortable to see other people wearing clothing (via empathic identification). However, seeing a naked body is disgusting, so the best compromise would be for them to wear very light clothing.

I struggle with any questionaire. NTs have this assumption that I should know what the person who constructed the questionaire was thinking. I often see numerous possible interpretations for each question all the possible interpretations to me have equal likelihood of being the interpretation intended by the author.

Noca, I noticed at the bottom of your post, you have an equivalence between "neurodiverse" and "Aspie":

Does that refer to some test showing neurodiversity, or just a test showing Asperger? In a valid test of my neurodiversity, I would be in the "extremely diverse" category, but in a test for Asperger, I would only be in the borderline category. Either way, I am extremely non-NT.

Again, I think you should be allowed to just skip questions to not taint the result. The test instead should have enough questions to get a good sample size even if you skipped some.

As an education major in college, I took a course entirely on assessment. Questions must be properly worded in order to get accurate responses. If questions are not well-worded, results are skewed. It is kind of like not tracking a variable in a scientific study. It's really more important than just not over-thinking and answering whatever is a first impression. The questionnaires *should* be more clear. Unfortunately, it seems most of the time they are not.

I am very picky about questions. One can only get a correct answer when one asks a correct question (one could also get a wrong answer even if the question is right, but if the question is wrong the answer is always wrong.) I teach my students to ask good questions. They often complain about "not getting" something, and I always tell them "ask a question." And they have to think about what they are trying to understand - what aspect they are getting stumped on - in order to form a question. This is how one learns, by asking questions.

I spent time with my nephews the last couple of days and the older one asked the younger "why do you have a bandaid?" and the younger answered, "I got hurt." And the older asked the same question again - why do you have a bandaid? And the younger one kept giving the same answer, which caused the older one frustration. I said to the older one, "You are asking the wrong question - you need to ask how he got hurt." Finally - the right question leads to the answer one is looking for.

All this to say it is the responsibility of the questioner to ask the right questions, and even more so for professionals who are making assessments that are diagnostic tools!

i meltdown with questionnaires, even 'tho I've aced i.q. tests: it's like there are too many variables and assumptions in these kinds of questions that I cannot answer black or white or even multiple choice. (Fuzzy logic, anyone?) in the instant case, I loathe noxious museum shows and detest odious theater performances, and am walking on air after a really great theater piece and elated for days after from a really exceptional museum exhibition.

And I prefer not to have preferences at all so I can enjoy inclusivity and be surprised.

There was one questionnaire I took for a job interview and I wanted to scream that one of the questions had a faulty assumption. If the question has an agenda might I disagree with the premise in the first place.

It's a routine hurdle for me so maybe I'm getting better at it

It was some test in one of the sticky threads in this forum with 200 questions. It was one of the tests I did before I sought out a professional diagnosis. During my professional assessment, I asked for clarification on almost every single question, and gave specific examples for each question to make sure I understood the correct interpretation for each question.