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Asperger's syndrome: Difference between revisions
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→Neurodiversity vs autistic pathology
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==Neurodiversity vs autistic pathology== | ==Neurodiversity vs autistic pathology== | ||
There is debate in the autistic community as to whether or not high-functioning autism in particular should be treated as a health problem or not. The "neurodivergent" or "neurodiversity" crowd argue the label is stigmatizing, or they imply autism is good/neutral. Those opposed to the "neurodivergent" and "neurodiversity" movements claim that these movements downplay behavioral and social issues often found in those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders. | There is debate in the autistic community as to whether or not high-functioning autism in particular should be treated as a health problem or not. The "neurodivergent" or "neurodiversity" crowd argue the label is stigmatizing, or they imply autism is good/neutral. Those opposed to the "neurodivergent" and "neurodiversity" movements claim that these movements downplay behavioral and social issues often found in those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders. | ||
Providing some evidentiary support for those in the camp that argue that autism is not necessarily a deficit in and of itself, there is research that suggests much of the dire outcomes autists often face may be due to discrimination and ostracism by [[NT]]s. | |||
For example, Beutal et al. found that commonly stated autistic deficits in social cognitive functioning only played a relatively minor role in mediating poor social and economic outcomes, calling into question the importance of the 'established' psychological deficits of autists (such as lack of theory of mind, a prerequisite for empathy).<ref>https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/aur.2055<ref> | |||
Related to this, Morrison et al. (2019) also found that, subsequent to three prearranged, unscripted 5 minute dyadic interactions between three dyads consisting of: two autists, two TDs (typicaly developing) or an autist and a TD dyad, only TD individuals desired to shun autists in subsequent interactions. This was despite both autistic and TD individuals both tending to evaluate autistic conversation partners as more awkward and less attractive.<ref>https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362361319892701</ref> | |||
This suggests that much of the problems autists face in social interactions may simply be due to difference in communication styles (especially non-verbal communication), shared interests and presentation styles vs neurotypical interaction partners, as the quality of the conversations were evaluated by TD subjects as being equally high in both groups.<ref>https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362361319892701</ref> | |||
Some research on college dorm-mates evaluated for their level of autistic traits has also found that those similar levels of aloofness (associated with the broader autism phenotype) tended to like each other more, with discordant warm and aloof combinations generally resulting in more interpersonal strife.<ref>https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1362361315585733</ref> | |||
This suggests that autists may generally get on fairly well with each other, but differences in presentation style, flatter affect, and difficulty expressing expected dominant or submissive social hierarchy based behaviors may cause autists to be seen as 'creepy', 'weird' or eccentric, leading to social exclusion and thus the social deficits the condition is known for. | |||
== Extreme male brain theory == | == Extreme male brain theory == | ||