Social/Psychological Explanations Of ASD Flashcards
(11 cards)
What did Leo Kanner observe in children with ASD?
Observed a lack of warmth from parents of children from ASD. He called them “emotional refrigerators”, i.e cold, distant, overly intellectual parents
Bruno and Bettelheilm’s description of the refrigerator mother theory
Suggested that ASD is caused by emotionally detached mothers who “defrosted just long enough to create a child”, and compared children with ASD to prisoners in concentration camps.
Suggests that the primary cause of ASD is an emotionless and unstimulating maternal relationship.
What solution did Bruno and Bettelheim propose?
Remove children from the home and place them in a warm environment.
What is the relationship cycle of children with ASD and refrigerator mothers?
Child faces challenges -> become overwhelmed and withdrawn -> met with rejection from parents -> further withdrawal
How does the cycle with children with ASD compare to typical development?
Child faces challenges -> becomes overwhelmed and withdrawn -> parent responds with love -> child feels safe and returns to normal.
What does empathising-sympathising try to explain about ASD?
Attempts to explain the repetitive behaviours, rituals, and routines, as well as the gender distinction in diagnoses
How did Baren-Cohen define empathising?
A drive to recognise, identify, and respond to other people’s emotional state.
It’s important for social interactions and the ability to predict other’s behaviour.
Two components of empathy
Cognitive element - recognising and understanding the mental state of others
Affective empathy - the ability to respond appropriately to mental states.
People with ASD respond to a person’s emotional distress with similar emotions, although their personal distress is higher than neurotypicals.
Define systemising and provide examples
The drive to analyse and understand systems.
E.g: mechanical systems, numerical systems, collectible systems, etc.
What does the theory of empathising-systemising suggest?
People with ASD have impaired empathising ability but hyperdeveloped systemising ability
Describe Lawson et al’s research that supports E-S theory
3 groups of participants: males with Asperger’s, males without ASD, and females from general population.
Each participant completed two tasks: one that involved empathising and one that involved systemising. On the empathising task, females scored significantly higher than controls who in turn scored higher than males with ASD.
In the systemising task, females scored significantly lower than males did, who did not differ from each other.
