Eduqas A-Level Psychology A290QS
Biological Approach
Psychodynamic Approach
Behaviourist Approach
Cognitive Approach
Positive Approach
Comparing the Five Approaches
Core Studies in Social and Developmental Psychology
Planning Psychological Research
Data Handling, Statistics and Mathematical Skills
Evaluating and Validating Research
Personal Investigations and Novel Research Scenarios
Addictive BehavioursAddictive
Autistic Spectrum BehavioursAutistic spectrum
Bullying BehavioursBullying
Criminal BehavioursCriminal
SchizophreniaSchizophrenia
StressStress
Controversies in Psychology
Autistic Spectrum Behaviours
Extreme male brain and empathising-systemising theories
- 3 things to know
- Component 3 Applications
Overview
Recall questions on Extreme male brain and empathising-systemising theories.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Give one way the theory may itself contribute to under-diagnosis of autistic girls.
Give one methodological criticism of the evidence for the theory.
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 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
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
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
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
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
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.
Other ways to work this
The same content, four other ways.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Every question in Autistic Spectrum Behaviours, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.