The Construing of Self and Others of Adults with Autism

Article type: Research Article

Authors: McQuillan, Margaret

Affiliations: Speech and Language Therapist, Castleknock Child & Family Centre, Dublin 9

Abstract: This study attempts to gain a greater understanding of how adults with autism see themselves and their social world, using two procedures derived from (Kelly’s 1965) Personal Construct Theory (PCT) with six adults with autism. Six subjects with mental handicap were also included in the study in an attempt to differentiate between results attributable to mental handicap and those attributable to autism. The results suggest that adults with autism view themselves in a restricted manner and their view of others is also limited thus mitigating against successful social interaction. This may be interpreted to indicate that therapy, focussing on developing the adult’s ability to construe self and others in order to facilitate the formulation of predictions in social contexts, may increase self esteem and result in more socially appropriate behaviour.

Keywords: Autism, Personal Construct Theory

DOI: 10.3233/ACS-1991-1106

Journal: Journal of Clinical Speech and Language Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 43-59, 1991