Article Summary: Perspective-taking is two-sided: Misunderstandings between people with Asperger’s syndrome and their family members
Despite no longer being an official diagnosis after 2013, this study still uses the description “Asperger’s syndrome.” What was previously assumed to be Asperger’s syndrome is now simply being on the autism spectrum with perceived “mild” or “high functioning” characteristics. The description “Asperger’s syndrome” will not be used in favor of using “autism” and “autistic” in this summary instead.
Misunderstandings are almost always bidirectional rather than the fault of one person. Unfortunately, communication problems involving autistic people are often viewed by focusing on those who have a neurodiverse diagnosis rather than the dynamic of the social interaction. This study went against this tendency by evaluating the misunderstandings between twenty-two pairs, one autistic participant and one of their family members.
Both parts of each pair were asked a series of twelve questions. In answering these questions, they also have ratings about oneself, the other part of the pair, and the predicted score they would receive from the other interviewee. The ratings were about knowledge and proficiency in certain aspects of social communication and self-awareness. All participants were aware of the presence of autism in half of the members.
The findings showed that the autistic subjects were able to predict that the ratings they would receive from their family numbers would be lower than how they rank themselves. The autistic participants were able to make this accurate guess even though they disagreed with their family members’ views. Both based on these results and the autistic participant’s answers, it is implied that the family members overestimated the egocentricity in their autistic relatives’ views.
While these findings suggest that misunderstandings are two-sided, there are some limitations of the study. First, most of the most common pairing observed was an autistic son and his mother. Other kinds of relationships, especially ones that included autistic females, were underrepresented. Second, participants were recruited through charity, which means the autistic participants might have been more willing than average to take part in the survey and have a family member who was able to take part. Third, social misunderstandings were evaluated in retrospect instead of during natural real-time interactions.
Even with some areas that could use more experimentation, the idea of misunderstandings being bidirectional is an important lesson for working with students at JHFA. Furthermore, if a student talks about certain topics often, it is not necessarily out of selfishness. The intent of why that topic is brought up should be considered, so we should avoid overestimating the egocentricity of autistic people.
