Baron-Cohen

• Background


  Looked at Autism at the 3 factors people with the disorder struggle with:

  
  

  • Social Communication (e.g. taking things people say literally, not recognising sarcasm)
  • Social interaction (e.g. difficulty understanding - or using - non-verbal body language)
  • Social imagination (e.g. difficulty dealing with changes in routine)

  
  

  • Signs that somebody has autism starts before 3 years old - childhood-onset disorder.
  • Autism is diagnosed more in males than females.
• What is the aim?

  -To investigate whether adults with autism still experience a deficit in Theory of Mind

  
  

  -To develop a new 'advanced' way of testing Theory of Mind that'd be appropriate for adults + not be vulnerable to a ceiling effect i.e. test is too easy so doesn't reveal full extent of someone's ability/deficit
• What was the IV?

  Conditions participants had e.g. Autism or Tourette's
• What was the DV?

  Performance on the Eye Task (number of emotions they correctly recognised)
• Who were the sample?

  • 16 adults with autism or Asperger's syndrome -> 13m 3f -> recruited by advert in National Autistic Society Communicate magazine or profession contacts of Baron-Cohen

  
  

  • 50 'normal' adults (control group)-> 25f 25m -> recruited from general population of Cambridge where Baron was based

  
  

  • 10 adults with Tourette's -> 8m 2f -> recruited from referral centre in London + a control group
• What is the procedure?

  Reading the Mind in the Eyes task

  
  

  -Participants shown 25 pairs of eyes for 3 seconds each

  -Photos of eyes taken from magazines, in black and white

  -Given two words/phrases with opposite meanings to best describe the emotion the eyes showed etc calm or anxious

  -Asked to identify gender of people in the eye task + to recognise the six basic emotions e.g. happiness from full face photos

  -Gail Gender Recognition Task or Basic Emotion Recognition Task = Wouldn't be given Eye task because they can't succeed in more basic tasks.

  EXTRA

  
  

  -Eye test = new TOM test by Baron -> developed for adults.

  -To make sure TOM was really being measured -> participants given Strange Stories task. (already confirmed as a test for TOM) -> Score similar on both tests = measuring the same construct

  
  

  -Possible ceiling effect -> strange stories test is for 8-9 y/o
• What were the findings?

  -Adults with autism scored worse in Eye task (16.3/25) than 'normal' adults (20.3/25) or adults with Tourette's (20.4/25)

  
  

  -Suggests deficit in TOM persist into adulthood for people with autism and that eye task can show this

  
  

  -Females performed better than males on Eye Task in 'normal' group (F = 21.8 M = 18.8/25) -> Supports 'folk psychology' that females are better at reading other peoples emotions than males
• How can the study link to ecological validity?

  -Wouldn't see just the eyes of a person, would see their whole face

  -Could be similar to certain cultures e.g. Niqab or Burqa

  -Could link to certain situations etc people wearing masks in covid
• How can the study link to population validity

  -Unequal ratio of male to female participants in groups with Tourette's and Autism
• How does the study link to concurrent validity?

  -Eye test + Sally test both measure/aim to measure understanding of situation/ social.

  
  

  -Performance on the strange stories task was completed against their performance. Strange stories -> measure TOM -> adult with Autism scored poorly on both tasks
• What is the internal reliability of the study?

  -Easily replicable -> Take photos of eyes/ face

  -Show the same 25 photos of peoples eyes + in black and white
• What is the study's external reliability?

  -Sample size for females in/and the Tourette and Autism groups are smaller than 'normal' group -> groups results can be affected
• What side of the nature-nurture debate is the study?

  -Nature -> individuals were born on the spectrum

  -Nurture - Baron suggests individuals with Autism can be trained/taught to recognise emotions
• Which side of the freewill-determinism debate is the study?

  -Deterministic -> way brain processes info -> not influenced + can't control if they recognise emotion
• How does the study link to individual-situation debate?

  -Individual -> difficulties with task are a result of difference in how they process information (TOM)
• How does the study link to individual differences?

  -Everyone on the spectrum experiences it differently etc understanding and recognising peoples emotions
• How can the study be argued as cognitive?

  -Understand how they process info -> TOM -> also relates to thought processes
• What study does Baron-Cohen link to?

  Freud
• What are TWO similarities between Baron and Freud?

  Both use Self-Report

  
  

  -Freud = Hans father observed him and sent it back to Freud

  -Baron = Participants had to select which emotion was best suited for eyes

  
  

  Both Ethnocentric

  
  

  -Freud = Only looked at 1 Austrian boy -> no further research

  -Baron = Only used a sample of participants from UK
• What are two differences between Baron and Freud?

  Type of study

  
  

  -Freud = case study

  -Baron = Quasi experiment

  
  

  Time taken for study

  
  

  -Freud = Longitudinal -> carried out for 2 years

  -Baron = Snapshot -> Conducted in 1-2 days
• How does the study change our understand of disorders?

  -Told us about a different disorder (i.e. autism, rather than phobias)

  
  

  -Shown a different way of explaining disorders (i.e. cognitive terms, rather than psychodynamic ones)

  
  

  -Investigated disorders in adults rather than children

  
  

  -Shown that different research methods can be used to understand disorders (e.g. quasi-experiments rather than case studies)
• How has it not changed our understanding?

  -Doesn't add to Freud's explanation of the development and causes of disorders (only focuses on how they affect people)

  
  

  -Doesn't add anything about how disorders can be managed/helped

  
  

  -Limited in what it tells us about disorders in females
• How has it changed our understanding of individual diversity?

  -Freud = Told us about phobias

  -Baron = Provides insight into the experiences of those with autism or Asperger's + investigated adults rather than children
• How has it changed our understanding of social diversity?

  -Tells us males and females differ in 'mind reading' abilities (recognising emotions) -> could suggest social differences between genders - gender differences weren't studied by Freud
• How has the study not changed our understanding of social diversity?

  -Quite limited number of females studied
• How has the study changed our understanding of cultural diversity?

  -Were carried out in different countries UK vs USA
• How has the study not changed our understanding of cultural diversity?

  -Would expect phobias and Autism to exist in different cultures -> both studies looked at western cultures