Journal #43

There is an interesting topic today that I get to write about and discuss.  The topic is standardized tests for sanity/insanity.  Told you it was interesting! I really do not think that you can conclude that someone is sane or insane by them filling out a standardized test.  I think that to judge their sanity, you would have to do it orally to see how they act.  With a standardized test, you have multiple choices to choose from, where some of the answers are obviously more insane than others.  The test takers would be able to alter their test score by choosing the least insane answer.  If someone did that, their test results would come out as sane.  This person could actually be insane and the outcome of the test is sane.  This right here is a problem.  Also, when a test is put in front of someone, a lot of pressure comes upon the person.  This pressure could also affect the outcome of the test.  As I stated before, an oral test would result in a more accurate outcome.  For an oral test, the mental specialist or psychologist would ask a series of questions that could result in a disturbing or normal answer.  The answers would have to be come up by the person getting questioned.  The answers would not be provided so choosing the least insane answer would be harder.  Another thing with oral tests, the specialist can observe the behavior of the person.  Some of the questions may trigger certain memories that would affect the person.  The behaviors could steer the outcome more towards sane or insane.  The thing with people is that they will do things that an insane person would do just because they want to.  Some people are not actually insane and they just make bad choices.  On the other hand, there are people who are actually insane.  They do the things they do because they find enjoyment in them.  All in all, I think that judging a person's sanity based on a standardized test would be very difficult and inaccurate.