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Self- and other-descriptions by individuals with autism spectrum disorder in Los Angeles and New Delhi: Bridging cross-cultural psychology and neurodiversity

  • Original Research Article
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Culture and Brain

Abstract

Decades of cross-cultural research have shown that self-concepts vary across cultural contexts. However, it is unclear whether individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who have impairments in self- and other-understanding, will acquire the relevant cultural patterns regarding self- and other-concepts; or whether their social impairments will extend to broader cultural impairments. Here we present the first examination, to our knowledge, of self- and other-concepts in a cross-cultural sample of individuals with ASD in Los Angeles, USA, and New Delhi, India, compared with matched control groups in each culture. We used a modification of the well-known 20 statements description task, and coded participants’ responses according to 28 sub-categories, along the axes of autonomous/social and abstract/specific. When describing themselves and their favorite fictional characters, participants in Los Angeles provided significantly more autonomous and abstract descriptions than participants in New Delhi, as expected from their different locations. Surprisingly, we found no effect of diagnostic group on the content of participants’ responses, suggesting that individuals with ASD are indeed capable of acquiring the cultural scripts that surround them—at least on a cognitive, verbal level—despite their neurocognitive impairments. These results provide an important step towards bridging the study of cross-cultural psychology and global autism research; while simultaneously highlighting the ways in which individuals with ASD can become a part of their local cultures, serving as an important impetus of acceptance for caregivers and policy-makers worldwide.

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Notes

  1. This approach draws from the neurodiversity movement (Silberman 2015), a term used by self-advocates with autism and their allies to call for recognition of individuals with a variety of neurological conditions.

Abbreviations

ADOS:

Autism diagnostic observation schedule

ASD:

Autism spectrum disorder

LA:

Los Angeles

mPFC:

Medial prefrontal cortex

TPJ:

Temporal-parietal juncture

TD:

Typically developing

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank participants and their families. The following individuals were instrumental in recruitment, transcription and data analysis at the Los Angeles site: Tiffany Wong, Joni Zuckerbrow, Liz Laugeson, Christina Schin, Alana Taniguchi, Tiffany Chen, Crystal Park, Caroline Kim, Alex Zhu, Sydney Brown, Wai-Ling Wu, Meera Sethi, Tiffany Tso, Raisa Santiago, Courtney Paine, Karen Chernik, and Ellen Hockley. The following individuals were instrumental in recruitment, data collection, and transcription in New Delhi: Deepali Taneja, Sachita Suryanarayan, Simi Sunny, Rubina Pradhan, and Tanvi Behl. Funding for the Los Angeles site was provided by a UCLA internal grant from the Department of Psychiatry, Semel Institute, UCLA. Funding for the New Delhi site was provided by Foundation for Psychocultural Research, Robert Lemelsohn, President. During the time of writing, the first author was supported by the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya Sagol Center for Brain and Mind, and by a grant from the Israel Ministry of Science and Ministry of Immigration and Absorption.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sagol Center for Mind and Brain, School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, Israel

    Rachel S. Brezis & Lauren Mark

  2. Action for Autism, New Delhi, India

    Nidhi Singhal & Merry Barua

  3. Westat, Durham, NC, USA

    Tamara Daley

  4. NHS Forth Valley, Scotland, UK

    Judith Piggot

  5. Center for Culture & Health, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

    Shreya Chollera

  6. Departments of Psychiatry (Semel Institute, Center for Culture & Health) and Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

    Thomas Weisner

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  1. Rachel S. Brezis
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  2. Nidhi Singhal
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  4. Merry Barua
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  6. Shreya Chollera
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  7. Lauren Mark
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rachel S. Brezis.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 6.

Table 6 Examples of descriptive phrases given in each category
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Brezis, R.S., Singhal, N., Daley, T. et al. Self- and other-descriptions by individuals with autism spectrum disorder in Los Angeles and New Delhi: Bridging cross-cultural psychology and neurodiversity. Cult. Brain 4, 113–133 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40167-016-0040-9

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