'Autism and Psychology\r'

'Autism: â€Å"Man is by nature a cordial wildcat; an idiosyncratic who is unsocial naturally and non accidentally is either beneath our observe or more(prenominal) than than hu globe… â€Å"(Aristotle, 328 B. C. in Aronson, 1995). We check been designed from birth to exact and trust and socialize with hotshot a nonher(prenominal) in various ways. Yet, why is it so difficult for rough further not for an opposite(prenominal)s. I involve a quadruplet year old ill son that besides has severe develop affable delays ascrib able-bodied to prematurity and birthing complications. There argon old age that he gets frustrated at not level shoot being able to communicate basic needs or exclusively wants to be in his profess macrocosm, left to his own device.That for any mavin is rough, but subtle I am his engender makes it worse. neighborly moveion is such an of import get around of growing as not all in all a human being, but too for the brain. Even from t he beginning of time man has leaned on the premise of needing that companionship and data link with the world around them. Being from the S bulgeh, you argon instructed and taught from day ace to be kind and prevail social interactions regularly with another(prenominal)s in and out of your class, race, or religion. But what if you back endnot generate and relate to the social customs? Does that wet you ar to forever be label as a deviant, eccentric, or unsociable?If it is funding that you have mental issues you wear out’t discuss them or you ar forever see to ited at as a electric razor. Traditionally, that means that these individuals were ostracized, stigmatized and even up eliminated for the good of the whole, as the compromised the real fabric of society by proposing to build a group of individuals, some like a cult, that were interconnected forever( Aronson, 1995). carnal test subjects have been well conditi aned to run finished mazes or press bars for food or to suspend electric shocks administered by researchers; likewise valet de chambre comply within similar consequences.Furthermore, it has besides been documented that behavior motivated by external consequences is relatively short-lived, ceasing with the consequence is no longer available (Thompson, & group A; Iwata, 2001). This sewer even be seen when a mother is watching her children, and then travel out. The children check to behave in both situations and the last mentioned situation may have a punishment if that direction is not followed properly. Yet, as soon as the mother steps out, the non-conformist child impart misbehave, only because of the punishment, even if the other sibling(s) is behaving themselves properly.Something stops a child like this from huging why this is wrong and what is actually acceptable. This may be in calve to some issues with the connections to neuro-transmitters or lack thereof. practically generation these children are not ev en motivated by reward placements, they pull up stakes continue to misbehave at some sharpen even when the mother returns, near challenging her. Therefore, they will never be in society as an underlying part, but as part of the job. This, however, is not true for Autistic children.They wish to be the same, but again, the neuro-transmitters misfire and do not allow for them to ‘compare apples to oranges’. In 1943 social lion Kanner named such children as, socially withdrawn. He sk etcetera the social disorder in 11 boys that he studied as an â€Å" ill disturbance of affective contact” because of their unvarnished(a) disinterest in other muckle and inability to be socially influenced (Kanner, 1943, in Frith, 1989). In spite of this, in 1984 the Ameri can Psychiatric Association, deemed this as a permeant disorder, among others, and now it is precisely cognize as Autism (APA, 1984).Over the past ten years Autism has been redefined again as the most c omplicated neurological disorder affecting the central sickening system of a large telephone number of people. It is also the most confusing and pervasive of the developmental disorders as little is recognisen for a cause, there is no cure, and treatments deviate among individuals (Frith & angstrom; Happe’, 1994). The typical stereotype of an individual with autism describes a withdrawn, mute child with an modify gaze engaged in repetitive activities or self-stimulatory behaviors, ASD or Autism Spectrum Disorder, ranges from severe to very mild(Mesibov & Burack, 2001).Yet, the ones that have such disorders, have recently been labeled as Autistic cod to lack of social artistry and extreme knowledge and fixation on one profession. These subsets of children can often times appear normal within the introductory year but start regressing in knowledge and skill, or not up(a) or gain skills at all. Eventually, one can build a bulwark to even keep family out, or mend on something so hard it becomes an fixation or routine that if stopped could be mentally, physically, and socially detrimental(Kennedy & Shukla, 1995).Although, it is also important to remember that individuals with ASD are not totally withdrawn, socially and may even interact from time to time, but this can be limited. I know as more going from hearing your child assign ‘I love you’ and hug often, to at once or twice week is difficult. The offset time my son ran and hugged me and looked me in the nerve center was very emotional for me, but he did not rede. This leads to my next point: cognition. As I said before more ASD children do not get wind emotions or are seldom empathetic. They may claim questions near the emotions you are showing but do not fully understand what you are telling them.This again is imputable to a misfiring of neuor-transmitters. That is why so some(prenominal) ASD children really like Thomas the Train. He teaches them emotions and what the facial expressions mean. My son now understand crying, anger, and excitement. Therefore, while they have a social desire, the interference in the cognitive system proves to be the main problem (Happe, 1999; Baron-Cohen, 1985; Dodge, 1980). cognitive processing systems such as motivation, decisiveness making and emotions are believed to be prompted when one responds to stimuli.These stimuli characterize the different mental states (desires, imagination, emotions, etc. ) that psychologists believe to be the cause of ones actions. Yet, without fitly developed social cognition individuals have difficulty forming social relationships with others and this is evidenced by wretched social behavior (Baron-Cohen, 2000). A study was designed to test this theory, and it erect that 64% of individuals with ASD have first phase relatives with more extensive mental health issues, like major depression, and 39% had other social phobias (Smalley, et al, 1995).That being said, one can co nclude that unlike other studies, ASD perchance a genetic disease mutated from other mental illness issues. This would also uphold the justice system that was once scandalized by improprieties of inmates due to a lack of knowledge. By understanding what type of ASD and the severity one can simply argue mental illness? Now I am not condoning every run out on the crazy defense, but if the clothe fits, why would we just put somebody who is innocent into the system as through with(p) years ago.Think of the good old days when one could be simply impel in jail for no id or not talking but if you have a mentally ill or developmentally disabled individual, and you put them in an environment that is rough, harsh, and not anything like their routine, it is no wonder why we had so umpteen inmate suicides and still do inmates skid through the cracks continuously. But we may never see that happen due to world opinion. We as a society look at children with developmental delays or ASD as a nimals. I find it sickening. Or we commend the parent does not discipline the child.Yet, due to lack of cognitive understanding, it would gain to encephalon why one does not expediency from punishing this type of child; they simply do not understand and are eager to please. Some may disaccord but my son’s touch actually explained to us that anything more than timeout/ sedate down period would be oer his head. Even taking away toys would be ineffective. So the next time you are at a store apportion that into consideration. Now that I am off of my soapbox consider this: The acceptance of inadequacies in the empathizing process of individuals with Autism can offer more tolerance of the behaviors they display.Thus, they are not competent enough to calculate the conduct of others right away and we would expect an avoidance of impulsive situations. This is apparent in the outbursts and obsessive behaviors these individuals show in an effort to control and maintain routines in their environments (Dodge, 1980). Now some can point to sensory issues, needing to feel secure through various methods close to the five senses. A lot of the Autism community says that therapies for these aversions and how to cope will cause the ASD patient to understand, control, and manipulate to attain a normal life.Nevertheless, the sensory struggles admit with socio-emotional issues and are noted as aboriginal as babyhood. Hence, the various longitudinal studies of infants by and by diagnosed with autism show empty eye gaze, poor response to name, aloofness, reduced looking-at-faces, and deficits in direct attention (Mottron & Burack, 2001). And while it appears that these skills, as well as impairments in aboriginal social- confabulation skills and joint attention are pass on long before speech and mind blindness develop (Koegel & Mentis, 1985; Shanker, 2004; wing & Gould, 1979).Additionally, developmental theories on bond paper and affective responsiv eness have signifyed that children with stricken social emotional relating in infancy will not develop confiscate social understanding and as a result social interaction and communication skills will suffer (Kennedy & Shukla, 1995). In spite of that, Supporters of the theory of mind suggest that people with Autism lack the ability to comprehend thoughts and experiences that occur outside of themselves (Happe, 1991).While I can see that, since my son gets stuck on one thing that happened and will talk about it for months as though it happened yesterday, the difficulty in understanding the mental thoughts of others often results in bizarre communication patterns (Happe, 1999). Thus, blindness and a clear lack of meeting of the minds, also appears to interfere with the ability to identify with others or to understand another persons point of linear perspective (Shanker, 2004). So do we really know what people with Autism need, or are we just grabbing air in a world full of mars hmallows? BibliographyAmerican Psychiatric Association DSM-IV (1984). symptomatic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. ). American Psychiatric Association. Aronson, E. (1995). The social animal. (7th ed. ). saucy York, NY: W. H. freewoman and Company. Baron-Cohen, S. (1985). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge, mummy: MIT Press. Baron-Cohen, S. (2000). Theory of mind and autism: A fifteen year review. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg ; D. J. Cohen (Eds), Understanding other minds: perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience (pp. 3-20).Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dodge, K. (1980) Social cognition and childrens aggressive behavior. Child Development. 51, 162-170. Frith, U. (1989). Autism: Explaining the enigma. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Frith, U. , & Happe, F. (1994). Autism: Beyond ”theory of mind. ” Cognition, 50, 115-132. Happe, F. (1991). The autobiographical belles-lettres of three asperger syndrome adults; problems of interpretation and implications for theory. In U. Frith (Ed. ), Autism and asperger syndrome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Happe, F. (1999). Autism: cognitive deficit or cognitive style.Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 6, 216-222. Kennedy, C. H. , & Shukla, S, (1995). Social interaction research for people with autism as a set of past, current, and emerging propositions. Behavioral Disorders, 21, 21-35. Koegel, R. L. , & Mentis, M. (1985). Motivation in childhood autism: shadow they or wont they? journal of Child psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 26, 185-191. Mesibov, G. B. , Adams, L. W. , ; Klinger, L. G. (1997). Autism: Understanding the disorder. New York, NY: Plenum Press. Shanker, S. (2004). The roots of mindblindness.Theory ; Psychology, 14, 5, 685-703. Smalley SL, McCracken J, Tanguay P. (1995). Autism, affective disorders, and social phobia. American Journal of Medical Genetics, 27, 60, 1, 19-26. Thompson, R. H. , ; Iw ata, B. A. (2001). A descriptive analysis of social consequences following problem behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 34, 169-178. Wing, L. , ; Gould, J. (1979). blunt impairments of social interaction and associated abnormalities in children: Epidemiology and classification. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 9, 11-29.\r\n'