social psychological explanations of ASD

empathising systemising theory

• developed by baron-cohen to address the parts of ASD that ToM couldn’t

• repetitive behaviours and gender discrepancies in diagnosis

empathising definition

a drive to recognise, identify and respond to other people’s emotional stress

two components of empathy

• cognitive element

• affective empathy

cognitive element

recognising and understanding the mental state of others (explained in ToM as a deficit people with ASD have)

affective empathy

• ability to respond appropriately to people’s emotional state

• people with asd: respond to emotional distress with similar feelings of anxiety

• asd often have heightened personal distress

systemising

• the drive to analyse and understand systems

• important in non-social contexts, allows us to predict how systems will behave

• we analyse systems to understand how they are structured

ES theory suggests that

• people with asd have impaired empathising ability but hyperdeveloped systemising ability

• impaired empathising: difficulties in social interaction, maintaining relationships

• hyperdeveloped systemising: narrow interests, repetitive behaviours

empathising systemising: supporting evidence

• lawson et al (males with and without aspergers, females from general population)

• completed task that involved empathising and one involving systemising

• empathising: females scored higher than the control males, then the aspergers males

• systemising: females scored lower than both male groups

• strength, credible evidence supporting ES theory

empathising systemising: evidence only applies to high functioning autism

• study conducted before 2013, prior to when diagnostic criteria was different and categorised

• findings may not be applicable to asd people diagnosed with new criteria

• weakness, if individual doesn’t align with autism researched in study, the findings are not credible or useful

empathising systemising: valla et al

• studied 144 neurotypical male and female students, range of tasks to measure empathising-systemising abilities

• neurotypical men scored highly for systemising and low on empathising

• women scored well on both empathising and systemising

• strength, supports greater prevalence of asd in males but struggles to explain onset of ASD in women

kanner’s theory

• based on psychodynamic approach

• originated from observation of children + proposed first diagnostic criteria

emotional refrigerators

• cold, distant and overly intellectual parents of children with ASD

• kanner: mothers who ‘just happened to defrost long enough to produce a child’

bettleheim

• book: the empty fortress

• compared children with ASD to prisoners in a concentration camp

• cause of ASD: emotionless and unstimulating relationship between mothers and their children

emotionless mother cycle

• child faces challenges

• child overwhelmed, so withdraws

• child met with rejection and coldness

• child withdraws further

refrigerator mother: supporting evidence

• kanner observed 11 children with mental illness, observed lack of warmth from parents

• children brought up by ‘emotional refrigerators’

• however, study lacked pop validity, limited sample

• open to researcher bias, kanner’s interpretation

• therefore, lacks objective, credible support

refrigerator mother: lack of cause and effect

• kanner: children with asd = emotionally distant mothers

• lack of emotional reciprocity from mothers causes development of asd

• however, lack of emotion may be due to caring for child with asd (period where asd had limited research)

• therefore, puts blame on mother, doesn’t define any causes for behaviour