REPORT ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY

interviews and psychological tests. Next, the individualised and standardised
intelligence testing which is commonly known as the Intelligence Quotient (IQ Test) is
used to identify the mental abilities of the previous examples. The IQ Test is not
created in order to measure the level or degree of intelligent level but to identify the
mental abilities that allows individuals to compare their personal result regarding of
their skills and abilities with other individuals from the same category (American
Addiction Centers, n.d.). Besides, IQ Test is not being used to determine all three
diagnostic criteria for this certain disability but only used to determine the intellectual
functioning which is one of the criteria of intellectual disabilities.
Then, the second diagnostic criteria of intellectual disabilities is the impairment
in adaptive functioning. Adaptive functioning refers to the ability of individuals to
apply their existing knowledge and experiences in their daily life. With the wisdom to
apply their knowledge and experiences allow them to adapt themselves better with the
real world. The deficit in adaptive functioning that existed in the individuals restricted
their abilities to function normally as other normal people within normal IQ range.
This deficit lets the individuals who suffer the intellectual disability to fail the standard
bar set by the public in the aspects of developmental and the sociocultural to be
independent and gain social responsibility. The deficit causes the functioning across
social activities of individuals to be limited. The individuals’ life will be affected not
only from daily activities to various different environments but they will be limited in
their functioning especially if without ongoing support throughout their whole life.
Lastly, the age of onset is another set of diagnostic criteria for intellectual
disabilities. The onset of intellectual and adaptive deficits during the developmental
period can be specified into categorised into the age before 18 of individuals
(American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, n.d.). Even
though AAIDD had defined the onset of developmental period to be specified into the
age under 18 but the American Psychiatric Association (2013) decided to cut-off the
chronological age on just the developmental period to ensure the clinician are able to
make better judgement without the limitation of the fixation definition upon
developmental period (as cited in Tassé, 2016).
Besides, all three diagnostic criteria of intellectual developmental disorder are
correlated closely with one another. It states that it is very important to recognise all
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