Baron-Cohen

yr 12 contempory core study, individual differences area

Give some information on Autism

• it’s a lifelong developmental disorder

• a diagnosis of an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) requires that someone has difficulties with communication and relationships with others, and imagination

• children on AS struggle to understand other people’s behaviour, so it’s more difficult to form friendships

what is the Theory of Mind?

the ability to understand that other people have different mental states and that these mental states can be different compared to your own

what was the aim of the study?

to investigate whether adults with High-Functioning Autism or Asperger Syndrome (HFA/AS) have an impaired Theory of Mind

what does masking mean?

hiding your autistic characteristics when outside of your ‘safe space’

what was the sample for Baron-Cohen’s study?

• experimental group: 13 men, 3 women all diagnosed with autism/ asperger syndrome

• 1st control group: 25 men, 25 women no diagnosis

• 2nd control group: 8 men, 2 women all diagnosed with tourette’s syndrome, recruited via tertiary referral centre in london

• everyone was a volunteer sample

what experimental method was the study and why?

quasi experiment because autism and tourette’s syndrome is naturally ocurring, but the experiment takes place in a controlled lab

what experimental design was it?

independent measures

sum up the method of the study

• participants were in 3 separate groups, they either did the experiment at home or in a lab