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Marlitt Tippetts
Introduction
autism spectrum disorder and the magnitude of the child attachment measured by the Strange
Situation Procedure (SSP) method. As scientists already know, 65%, 15% and 20% of children
are generally classified as having the three attachment styles: having a secure, anxious, and
avoidant attachment style. According to the SSP method 53% of children with autism are
The researchers found how the autism spectrum disorder affects individuals sense of
ability and self-efficacy. They also examined the differences of each subscale score of the
internal working model (IWM) between two groups: high and low Autism-spectrum Quotient
(AQ). The results of the present study add to existing knowledge of autism spectrum disorder
The scientists chose to study autism to find solutions to not only problems of children
who developed autism but its effects on society. Information they gather are based on how
The scientists tested 468 university students who had no diagnosis of autism spectrum
disorder, (183 men and 285 women), the range of age between 18 to 23 years. The scientists
measured autism spectrum tendency by using a Japanese version of the AQ, consisting on 50
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items in various situations. Attachment style was measured by the IWM scale, rating at a five
point scale.
Surprisingly, the AQ consists of five subscales: social skills, local details, attention
switching, communication and imagination. A high score on the AQ indicates a high degree of
The Attachment style they measured was used by the Internal Working Model (IWM).
The same way of questionnaire consists of 18 items the test retested on reliability and internal
consistency of the IWM scale. As an example of the question on the IWM scale included: I am
easier to get to know than most people, I have more self-doubts than most people (pg 515) the
In social skills the scientists tested were measured by Kikuchis social skills scales
(KISS-18), 18 items on various situations involving social interaction. The KISS-18 followed
conservations and practical questions to each subject and is a single-factor model. As an example
of the question on KISS 18 was: Do you tend to halt a conversation while talking with
someone, Can you explain well what you want someone to do.(pg 515). The results show also
good.
Results
The results reflected on tests: Psychometric Properties of the AQ, IWM, and KISS-18. In
this study shows that the scores on these 3 tests are: AQ score 21.38, examining the differences
between males and females in AQ scores. The results show that males had higher AQ scores than
females did.
There was no significant difference between men and women in the total IWM scores and
the reliability coefficients for the secure, anxious and avoidant types were .86, .79, and .72.
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The mean KISS-18 was 56.95 again indicating no marking a big difference between males
and females.
Discussion
internal representation of how others interact with an individual with autism. They believed
that the relationship between AQ scores and attachment style made a great difference in the
Studies investigated the relationships between total AQ scores and the IWM subscales:
the higher AQ score, the lower the IWM secure subscale and the higher AQ score, the higher
In addition, AQ scores where close correlated with the KISS-18, that indicating the
These results indicated that people with high AQ scores might less of a tendency to
exhibit secure attachment and a greater tendency to exhibit anxious and avoidant attachment
styles.
Some researchers may argue that the results that might not be able to be generalized to
those with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder because the experiment was composed of
university students who did not have a diagnosis. This is interesting because these same similar
characteristics of people with a diagnosis may be extended to a people that experienced a typical
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development. The present results provide additional knowledge about these relationships
Reference
Takahashi, J., Tamaki, K. & Yamawaki, N. (2013). Autism Spectrum, Attachment Styles,
10.4236/ce.2013.48075.