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Autistic Spectrum Behaviours

Extreme male brain and empathising-systemising theories

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Recall questions on Extreme male brain and empathising-systemising theories.

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What does the extreme male brain theory claim?

Key term

Give one way the theory may itself contribute to under-diagnosis of autistic girls.

Evaluation

Give one methodological criticism of the evidence for the theory.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What does the extreme male brain theory claim?

    Model answer

    Baron-Cohen (2002) proposed that autism represents an extreme of a typically male cognitive profile, with very strong systemising alongside much weaker empathising.

  2. 2

    On what average sex difference is the theory built?

    Model answer

    The claim that, on average, females score higher on measures of empathising and males higher on measures of systemising, with wide overlap between the two distributions.

  3. 3

    What evidence has been offered for a prenatal hormonal basis?

    Model answer

    Work by Baron-Cohen and colleagues linking higher levels of foetal steroid hormones in amniotic fluid to fewer social behaviours in infancy and to later diagnosis in boys.

  4. 4

    What did Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) report about the occupations of relatives?

    Model answer

    Fathers and grandfathers of autistic children were more likely than expected to work in engineering, which was taken as indirect evidence of a familial systemising bias.

  5. 5

    Why is a claim about averages a poor guide to any individual?

    Model answer

    The distributions overlap heavily, so many women systemise more strongly than many men, and knowing a person's sex predicts very little about their cognitive profile.

  6. 6

    Give one way the theory may itself contribute to under-diagnosis of autistic girls.

    Model answer

    Framing autism as an extreme male profile leads clinicians and teachers to expect a male presentation, so girls who present differently are less likely to be referred.

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