User:Mrwil8/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Masking (personality)

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
The reason for choosing this article is due to the idea that masking is a social, and coping strategy that tends to be a universal trait in for various reasons. Everybody at some point has decided to mask in various situations, which opened a door of curiosity to me as to why people may need to feel the need to mask themselves. Though I am aware of very reasonable situations to mask, such as in a dangerous scenario, I tend to find myself masking in many situations that are not called for it, and not only myself, but knowing multiple people who have also claimed they do mask in unnecessary situations and are unsure of it. Curiosity is the reason I selected this, to put it short. Masking matters due to the fact that once again, it's a strategy everyone has used at one point or another, though some more than others. It seems to be a coping mechanism that can prove to be taxing on the individual, and in some circumstances, either frowned or smiled upon in society depending on who is masking and what they are masking for. For instance, society will give praise and encourage a person with autism to mask themselves in many social situations, despite how much it emotionally, mentally, and even physically drained it can leave the individual, but in the perspective of a psychologist, masking is frowned upon and often there's the encouragement and hopes that a masking individual can unlearn this skill. My preliminary impression of masking was it's context within the neurodivergent category. I was aware that many people mask, but the first idea that comes to mind when hearing the word is usually that it's a coping mechanism that individuals with ADHD and/or autism use in many social situations.

Evaluate the article
The article describes masking in a concise and detailed fashion, with a strong lead that provides the reasoning as to why people mask, what are some situations in which someone is likely to mask, and what the root cause to the coping mechanism is. The content of the article is strong, providing the necessary details, history, and contexts of situations one may find one, or themselves masking. The information is relevant, and one of the details that sticks out to me is the section in which autism is covered, due to the fact that masking tends to be a a strategy many individuals with autism tend to rely on in many social situations, and what exactly is being masked, alongside the effects of what masking may cause for these individuals. However, as much as there is good content, I do believe there could be more content within the article, such as not only do individuals with autism tend to mask as a situational mechanism, but as do folks with ADHD tend to mask as well in same situations. Perhaps even more examples and reasoning as to why people mask in the first place, or what are the positive effects masking may provide. Other than that, the historical context and observations and acknowledgements to certain populations and their use of masking is present and accurate, though perhaps a few more examples could be used. There is no sense of biases within the article, simply stating the facts, with a balanced tone that provides the necessary details. The references are trustworthy sources, many of the references are up to date and have been updated to more current events and ideas, and even the older references are still accessible and provide the necessary facts. Doing a bit of my own research, there could be a few scholarly articles that can be used to update this Wikipedia article, especially concerning the population group of Autistic individuals and perhaps even ADHD individuals, but this does not mean that the current selection and current articles are out-dated or may not be good sources, just more information could be shared in a few aspects. The article is well maintained and organized, and I did not catch any grammatical errors. Beginning with the history, and breaking down into the causes and eventually the consequences, the organization is clear in impressive. There are two images total, but both images convey the idea of masking, especially the one with the lady holding a neutral expressing mask over exhausted face, which portrays the idea of trying to be normal, and it's taxing toll on the individual. Within the talk page, there are few discussions but nonetheless, they all are necessary changes and comments. For instance, there was a section removed back in February of 2023, in which an editor realized there was misinformation. Another user decided to make Autism it's own section to highlight the importance and prevalence masking is seen within the autistic population.

Overall, the article is very concise and though it's a rather quick read, one can get most the information they are seeking in the first paragraph alone. My only comments is that there could be more discussion about more population groups that tend to mask, such as the ADHD population, or perhaps even more answers as to why certain populations mask, or what are some cases in which masking maybe smiled on, or even frowned upon.