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Autism Spectrum Disorders
Psychological Theory and Research
Dermot Bowler (Author)
9780470026861, Wiley
Paperback / softback, published 6 October 2006
320 pages
22.9 x 15.5 x 1.7 cm, 0.454 kg
Psychological research into autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has increased exponentially in the last two decades. Much of this work has been led by various theorists who claim to have identified processes that hold the key to understanding the condition. As a consequence, newcomers to the field feel that they have to opt for one or more of the competing approaches and to neglect the remainder as being in some way wrong. In fact, the different theoretical perspectives are just that - different points of view on the same phenomenon - each with its own insights to offer. This is not to say that understanding ASD in psychological terms is just a matter of choosing a perspective and that all perspectives are of equal value. Clearly they are not. This book, in addition to providing an outline of what current perspectives have to offer, also provides a framework to help readers to decide which aspects of psychological research into ASD contribute to our understanding of the field and how these can be integrated in a way that enables research to be taken forward.
Preface ix 1 Identifying Autism: From Discrete Entity to Multidimensional Spectrum 1 Early conceptions: the ‘autistic child’ 1 From discrete entity to spectrum of related conditions 5 Diagnostic systems and instruments 11 Dimensions versus entities: ‘lumping’ versus ‘splitting’ 16 Early detection 21 Conclusion 25 2 Understanding Other Minds: Cognitive Approaches 26 Understanding false belief: a specific mental module? 26 Understanding minds: a specific process or something else? 37 Provisional conclusions 49 3 Understanding Other People: Emotion and Interaction 51 Appraisal of emotion in others 53 Understanding the directedness of behaviour 60 Understanding others in autism: final conclusions 67 4 Beyond Social Impairment: Difficulties with Executive Functions 70 Implications of the executive dysfunction account for our understanding of ASD 81 Conclusion 88 5 Building a Coherent Picture of the World 90 Alternative explanations of WCC phenomena 98 Conclusion 111 6 Attention and Perception 113 Attention 113 Accounting for attentional difficulties 125 Conclusion 133 7 Specific Aspects of Understanding: Faces, Concepts and Memory 135 Face processing 135 Concept formation 145 Memory 152 Conclusion 165 8 Psychology, Autism and the Brain 167 Studies of brain size and structure 167 Lesion-based models of autistic behaviour 173 Theories of global brain dysfunction 175 Brain impairments inferred from more basic psychological processes 203 Conclusion 207 9 Development 209 Assumptions about development in ASD: psychometrics, matching and developmental delay 209 Developmental trajectories in ASD 212 Developmental change in two psychological domains: theory of mind and executive functions 219 Developmental theory and ASD 228 Conclusion 241 10 Whence and Whither: Glimpses of the Tapestry, Paths Through the Jungle 242 How far have we really come? 243 Stepping back to move forward? Emerging themes 247 Final thoughts 261 References 263 Index 299
Subject Areas: Psychology [JM]
