Re:Autism's Confusing Cousins
by kelseyfrog on Saturday December 06, 2025 @12:48PM
(#46175161)
Norm is descriptive. Normative is prescriptive.
Knowing the difference is important to understanding and empathizing with the person you replied to.
Normative is just the adjective form of "related to norm" - can still be perfectly descriptive in use. The difference you allude do is more about the practical enforcement of a norm (or lack thereof), than the kind of the part of speech use to refer to it.
I 100% understand and empathize, doesn't mean I agree.
Re:Autism's Confusing Cousins
by kelseyfrog on Saturday December 06, 2025 @05:44PM
(#46177270)
> Normative is just the adjective form of "related to norm"
You might want to recheck the definition of normative. Yours is a non-standard usage and you will be misunderstood if you continue to use it that way.
Norm is is, Normative is ought.
> Normative: pertaining to giving directives or rules
> Synonyms: prescriptive
No. Both definitions are correct. Don't tell people to recheck without first doing so yourself.
Re:Autism's Confusing Cousins
by kelseyfrog on Saturday December 06, 2025 @08:47PM
(#46178463)
Literally false.
It is fine if you disagree with Marriam Webster, but maybe chill a bit with your attitude.
You don't get to decide.
>You might want to recheck the definition of normative
Funny you should say that. Merriam-Webster:
1: of, relating to, or determining norms or standards 2: conforming to or based on norms 3: prescribing (see prescribe sense 1) norms
Re:Autism's Confusing Cousins
by dragonwriter on Saturday December 06, 2025 @05:51PM
(#46177317)
A "norm" can refer be either descriptive (average) or prescriptive (standard), but "normative" specifically is an adjective which refers to things establishing or relating prescriptive norms (this subtle distinction is often not made in short dictionary definitions but is readily observable in use.)
No biggie, there's a real normative undertone to the world in general too.
Norm itself means "what the majority does" or the socially (i.e. majority) accepted yardstick ("norma" in latin was a literal yardstick-like tool).
It's not about the typical person _always_ doing things in a better way, or the autistic person always doing things differently. It's about the distribution of typical vs atypical behavior. So, it's not very useful to characterize such atypical behavior better or worse based on absolute moral or technical judgement. Morality changes over time, cultures, and even social groups, to a bigger or smaller degree.
If, however, we use "degree of comformity with majority behaviors/expectations" as the measurement, autistics do perform worse on that.