Autistic people’s perspectives on stereotypes: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

Abstract

Autism stereotypes can often portray autistic people in a negative way. However, few studies have looked at how autistic people think they are perceived by others, and none have specifically asked autistic people what they think the autistic stereotypes are. Semi-structured interviews with twelve autistic adults (aged between 20-63 years) were conducted. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, three main themes emerged from the data. These were: (1) primary stereotype is that autistic people are 'weird'; (2) autistic stereotypes have negative effects and consequences; (3) autistic people are heterogeneous. This study makes an important and novel contribution to understanding the experience of being autistic in several ways by exploring how autistic people feel they are perceived by others and identifying some of the ways in which negative stereotypes are believed to have negative consequences for autistic people.

Environmental pre-requisites and social interchange: the participation experience of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder in Zurich

“…Due to the social communication problems, which are inherent to ASD, this social construction of knowledge seems specifically difficult for adolescents with ASD. In turn, this difficulty might be one of the reasons why persons with ASD often indicate that they feel that others stereotype them as being "weird or stupid" [53], as they feel a lack of knowledge or insight. For adolescents in this study, using public transport was an overall pleasant experience.…”

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a tool for participatory research within Critical Autism Studies: A systematic review

“…Most widely used was a form of credibility checking by asking participants to give feedback on researcher interpretations. All but one study (Treweek et al, 2018) employed this technique. Credibility checking is a common technique of validation within qualitative research, but in the context of autism studies, it carries a new significance.…”

“…Other techniques were employed by seven studies in addition to credibility checking, with the exceptionof Treweek et al, 2018).As described, MacLeod et al (2013; entered into a further dialogue with participants in relation to draft publications, allowing participants the opportunity for further reflection and commentary from a temporal distance -an opportunity which only a minority took. Five studies involved autistic stakeholders who were not participants, two of which used the formal Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) process in the planning stages(Casement, Carpio de los Pinos & Forrester-Jones, 2017;Treweek et al, 2018) and one of which involved an autistic stakeholder in reviewing the transcripts(Maloret & Scott, 2018) Jones, Huws & Beck (2013),. involved an autistic panel involved throughout.Enabling and challenging narrativesIn the section above I hope I have demonstrated the ways in which this corpus of work has enabled autistic narratives to emerge more clearly.…”

Participants Over-Estimate How Helpful They Are in a Two-Player Game Scenario Toward an Artificial Confederate That Discloses a Diagnosis of Autism

“…To date a number of studies have explored how autistic expressions and behavior are perceived by non-autistic people through vignettes and thin-slice judgements (e.g., utilizing video, image, and audio), showing that disclosing a diagnosis of autism significantly improves evaluations (e.g., Chambres et al, 2008; Faso et al, 2014; Brosnan and Mills, 2016). However, reports from autistic people indicate that disclosure of a diagnosis can also result in stigma and negative discrimination (Davidson and Henderson, 2010; Powell and Acker, 2016; Treweek et al, 2018), resulting in a gap in the literature in connecting self-reported perceptions with actual behavior.…”

“…Autistic reports also indicate that autistic people are misunderstood by non-autistic others resulting in stigma (Dekker, 1999; Chell, 2006; Chown and Beardon, 2017; Treweek et al, 2018). Moreover, media representations have largely focussed on autism as an illness that is a burden to others (Clarke, 2011; Huws and Jones, 2011; Sarrett, 2011; Brownlow et al, 2015), framing autism in terms of a deficit rather than a difference from a neurotypical majority norm (Smukler, 2005; Ortega, 2009; Kapp et al, 2013; Ridout, 2017).…”