Severity is associated with the strict imposition of rules.
Severity is a term that came into our language from the Latin word severĭtas . The concept refers to the condition or characteristic of severe : that which is strict in compliance with the rules or that is hard, inflexible or crude .
For example: “The Natural Sciences teacher is feared by all the students because of her severity” , “I'm not unfair, I just enforce the rules with severity” , “I think this coach treats the players with excessive severity” .
Example of severity
Let 's take the case of the principal of a school who must punish a case of bullying . The woman, aware of the danger of this type of behavior and the need to prevent the spread of cases, makes the decision to punish the person responsible severely .
The director, in this way, suspends the student who harassed another for a month, orders him to prepare a monograph on peaceful coexistence and tells his parents that the boy must receive psychological assistance so that he understands the harmfulness of his actions.
The term in the scientific field
Within the scientific field, reference is also made to the concept of severity. Specifically, in this sector its use is used when it comes to addressing experimental procedures with animals . Thus, for example, it is determined that there are different degrees of severity depending on the anguish, pain or prolonged damage that has been caused to the specimens that have been used.
In this way, taking these criteria into account, it is determined that there may be mild severity , in which living beings suffer those ailments described but very briefly; moderate severity , which is when the procedure causes mild consequences in the animals but for a long time; The acute severity , with which creatures have these pains and damage for a long time.
The concept of severity is used in medicine.
Severity in medicine
In medicine, the idea of severity is used to record the level of severity of a disease or a specific clinical situation. Thus, for example, to know if a person suffers from a coagulation disorder or not, we choose to analyze it using different degrees of severity:
- The normal range is what makes the individual have a percentage of normal factor activity in the blood between 50% and 150%.
- Mild hemophilia is between 5% and 40%.
- Moderate hemophilia sets the parameter between 1% and 5%.
- Severe hemophilia determines the percentage below 1%.
Other uses of the concept
Severity can also be seen in a criticism . If a deputy considers that a bill is “unserious, irresponsible and absolutely negative for society” , what he or she will be doing is criticizing said bill severely .
It should be noted that the severity of the climate is often talked about when its temperatures or conditions are extreme : “The severity of the cold was felt as soon as we arrived in Alaska,” “No city can withstand a storm of such severity without suffering consequences.”