Norm Updates on GeneSys

In summary: No norms have been deleted/lost, all existing visible norms remain available on your account, no existing projects will be affected, and the update makes norm selection considerably clearer and more informative.

WHAT’S CHANGING: NORM NAMING CONVENTIONS

Previously, some norm names were inconsistent or unclear. Now, every norm follows a clean format:

[Country code prefix] + [Descriptive name] + [(Year where applicable)]

So for example, “General Population” becomes “RSA General Population (Updated 2026)”. The old name is retained in the system as a reference field so you can always trace back from new to old.

The country code prefix (RSA, AUS, UK, etc.) is a practical win here: when generating a report and typing into the norm dropdown, you can now just type a country code and filter immediately to the norms that are relevant to you and your clients.

WHAT’S NEW: NORM DETAIL BREAKDOWN

Every norm now has a detail page. Click on any norm in Settings > Norms and you’ll see:

   • Main Details — Mean, SD and Sample Size per scale

  • Norm Table — the full percentile conversion table

  • Frequency Histograms — bar charts showing the actual score distribution for each scale

  • Bio Data — donut charts breaking down the norm sample by gender, ethnicity, first language, education, industry and sector

  • Notes — any additional context about the norm

We think the histograms and bio data are the most significant additions, and we’ll be honest about why: frequency distributions can reveal things that a mean and standard deviation don’t. A non-normal distribution, a ceiling effect, a sample that skews heavily towards one demographic; all of that becomes immediately visible. Most publishers don’t surface this information at all, and we believe that if a practitioner is choosing a norm for a specific population, they should be able to see exactly what that norm sample looks like without leaving the platform and hunting for a document.

WHAT’S STAYING THE SAME: VISIBILITY

Every norm a client had marked as Visible before the update will remain Visible. The update doesn’t touch visibility settings. You will simply see your existing norms with clearer names. If you want to tidy your norm list (perhaps make some older or less-used norms Hidden), you can do that any time via the Visible/Hidden toggle in Settings > Norms. It’s per-account, fully reversible, and you can update it as your preferences/norm requirements change.

WHEN IS THIS HAPPENING?

While we are still testing across regions, we aim to roll out this update in the next few weeks. If anything looks off after the update, please get in touch directly on info@psytech.co.za and we will look into it.

If you consider that this is an opportunity to update some of the norms for your clients, this may be a good time to make some recommendations. If we have sufficient data (usually at least 300 data points, for generalisable representation), we will let you know and can usually create new norms within a few days.