Baron-Cohen psych, backround Flashcards
Autism Spectrum Disorder
A neurodevelopment disorder
That presents as social and communication difficulties, restricted and ritualistic behaviours and interests.
Theory of Mind
- The cognitive ability to attribute mental states to ourselves and others. These can be desires/ emotions,
- It is linked to empathy which is the ability to understand how others are thinking and feelining.
- How we use this knowledge to explain and predict the actions of others.
- Enables us to understand people may have different ideas and hold different emotions to us.
Define empathy
the ability to understand how others are thinking and feelining.
Ceiling effect
- Occurs when a test is too easy
- And all ppts in a condition score really high
- Problematic as researchers cant differentiate between results
Basic emotions
Universally recognised emotions (that can be recognised without needing to attribute a belief to the person)
Complex emotions
Emotions that require an understanding of soemone elses cognitive state
Diagnostic and Statistical manual
- Used as a classificarion and diagnostic tool by doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists across the globe
International Classification of Disorders
- Has a wider scope and covers all health-related conditions
Foil
- Incorrect alternative words (used to describe emotions)
Quasi- experiment
A design where there is no random assignment of participants to the different levels of the IV
Intelligence Quotient
- A measure of intelligence
- Producing a score representing an indiviudals mental abilities
Aspergers syndrome
A neurological condition in the higher functioning end of the autism spectrum which manifests in a serious deficiencies in social and communication skills.
Empathy
The ability to understand how others are feeling and thinking
Explain why the eyes test may not be an accurate measure attribution of mental state
- The pictures were of static, 2D eyes shown in isolation to the rest of teh face
- In real life, when were are guessing the emotional states of others we see moving eyes, facial expressions, body language
- Ppl could have guessed all the awnsers correctly
Describe the backround of the study
- Subsequent research established a link between autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and challenges in social cognition, including difficulties in understanding others’ mental states. (TOM)
- Baron-Cohen suggested that people with autism have an undeveloped ‘ToM’.
- To measure the ‘ToM’ of individuals, Baron-Cohen came up with the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ task where participants would be evaluated on their ability to label others’ emotions by observing their eye expressions on photos.