Browsing by discipline "Psykologia"
Now showing items 1-20 of 192
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(2018)Suicidal and death-related speech and self-harming behavior can manifest themselves even in young children. This review briefly considered suicidal thoughts, speech and behavior of children, ages 2 to 8. The focus was on the manifestation and assessment of suicidality as well as on the risk factors related to it. One target of interest was also children’s cognitions of death and suicide. On the basis of research, suicidality in children is rare and is associated with psychiatric disorders of the child. Associations between child´s suicidality, traumatic experiences and parents’ psychopathology have also been researched but there is no consensus on the topic. Suicidality in childhood is a likely risk factor for suicidality later in life so early intervention for suicidal thoughts and self-harming behavior is crucial. More research on the topic is needed and children’s understanding of death and suicide should be considered when examining their suicidality. 2-8 years old children are an extremely heterogenic group concerning their development and assessing motives and intents behind their thoughts, speech and behavior can be extremely challenging. More information of how suicidality manifests itself in thoughts, speech and behavior of young children and compared to older children is still necessary.
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(2018)Muutoksien havaitseminen ääniympäristön säännönmukaisuuksissa on yksi kuulojärjestelmän tärkeimmistä ominaisuuksista. Ääniympäristön säännönmukaisuudet voivat olla luonteeltaan fysikaalisia muutoksia, mutta niihin voi liittyä myös vaikeammin havaittavia muutoksia, jotka liittyvät abstraktien sääntöjen rikkoutumiseen. Tässä tutkimuksessa käytettiin oddball -paradigmaa, jossa ärsykkeinä käytettiin kahden puhtaan siniäänen pareja. Korkeusero näiden parien äänien välillä oli joko yhden länsimaisen sävelasteikon askeleen tai yhden oktaavin verran. Yleisin esiintyvä äänipari oli nouseva, eli parin seuraava ääni oli korkeudeltaan edellistä korkeampi. Joukossa oli myös harvinaisia poikkeavia äänipareja, joissa sääntö oli käänteinen. Lisäksi käytin myös äänenvoimakkuudeltaan poikkeavia äänipareja. Tutkimus suoritettiin elektroenkefalografialla (EEG). Päätelmät tehtiin Mismatch Negativity (MMN) -vasteen perusteella. Tulokset olivat seuraavat: Suunnaltaan poikkeavat ääniparit synnyttivät MMN-vasteen, mutta se esiintyi varhaisemmin, kun korkeusmuutos oli poikkeavan parin äänissä yhden oktaavin verran. Suunnaltaan poikkeavien ääniparien synnyttävät MMN-vasteet heikkenivät, kun koehenkilöiden tarkkaavaisuus oli suunnattu erottelutehtävään, jossa kohteena olivat hiljaisemmat äänet. Tietoinen tarkkaavaisuuden kohdistaminen yhden tyyppiseen ärsykkeeseen mahdollisesti siis heikentää muiden äänivirran sääntöjen poikkeuksien käsittelyä kuulojärjestelmässä. Tämä viittaa siihen, että nämä prosessit eivät ainakaan täysin ole tarkaavaisuuden suunnasta riippumattomia.
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(2018)The traditional approach of perfectionism focuses merely on the pathological side of the concept. In this thesis, perfectionism is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct. According to the multidimensional model, perfectionism can be divided into two separate dimensions, maladaptive evaluative concerns and positive achievement strivings. The aim of this thesis was to distinguish between the maladaptive and adaptive sides of perfectionism by examining the connections between different dimensions of perfectionism and psychopathological symptoms, personality traits, and positive outcomes. The main interest was to find out to what extent perfectionistic achievement strivings can be described as a positive side of perfectionism and, on the other hand, how consistently the factor of evaluative concerns reflects the maladaptive side of perfectionism. Also, the meaningfulness of the division between maladaptive and adaptive forms of perfectionism is discussed. The harmfulness of perfectionism is mainly a consequence of concern over mistakes, uncertainty, socially prescribed actions and other factors associated with maladaptive evaluative concerns. On the other hand, more adaptive sides of perfectionism such as high personal standards, ambition and preference for order and organization are not solely responsible for the negative consequences of perfectionism. Positive achievement strivings and its subfacets seem to be connected both with maladaptive and adaptive qualities whereas maladaptive evaluative concerns are consistently correlated with psychopathological symptoms, personality disorders and other negative characteristics. Hence, instead of defining the dimension of positive achievement strivings as an adaptive side of perfectionism, it is better to be understood as a neutral form of perfectionism. In conclusion, according to the present studies of perfectionism there seems to be an overlap between maladaptive evaluative concerns and positive achievement strivings. Hence, it is crucial to define more accurately and in greater detail the concept of perfectionism and tighten the criteria for the dimensions attached to adaptive and maladaptive forms of perfectionism. Even though there is still confusion about depicting the categories of perfectionism, it is crucial to underline the multidimensional nature of perfectionism in order to deal more extensively with the subject.
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(2019)Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by an early onset of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsiveness. Many studies have shown that ADHD is related to later substance use disorders (SUD). Although the association between the disorders has been proven in several studies, the true nature of this association is still unknown. The latest findings of the association between ADHD and SUD and the mediating factors are discussed in this review. Because substance abuse can cause major problems for individuals and the society, risk factors of SUD should be identified at an early stage. The latest findings have shown that almost one of four SUD patients also meet the diagnostic criteria of ADHD. ADHD patients seem to be in an elevated risk for alcohol, nicotine and marijuana dependence and the use of psychoactive substances. Current research suggests that both genetic and psychosocial factors play a role in the development of SUD in ADHD patients. Genetic studies and studies on families have shown that ADHD and SUD might share a common genetic background. ADHD patients with comorbid conduct disorder seem to have the greatest risk for later SUD. Fetal alcohol and tobacco exposure are risk factors for both ADHD and SUD. In addition, some psychosocial environmental factors, such as academic and social problems, might increase the risk for SUD. The high prevalence of ADHD in SUD patients should be taken into account in the prevention of SUD and in the treatment of both disorders. According to the current knowledge, ADHD medication that is started early on and used properly can reduce the risk for later SUD. However, in order to prevent substance use disorders more effectively, it is important to develop and investigate new possible early preventions for ADHD patients. Instead of treating these disorders separately, we should also provide targeted and optimal treatment for patients with ADHD and comorbid SUD. To make targeted treatment possible, ADHD symptoms should be distinguished from the symptoms of SUD.
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(2019)Objective: The goal of this review was to gather information about the mixed families with both adopted and biological children. Special characteristics of these families are reviewed and the positive and negative effects of biological children in the adoptive family are considered in the light of the wellbeing of the family. Adoption research has focused on family structure, but only a few studies include mixed families. The data collected during the last decades has been diverse and few conclusions have been made about the generalization of the results. Some adoption agencies however refrain from placing children into families where there are several children already in the family. In this review the main question is “how the mixed family structure affects the adoption outcome”. Methods: The data was gathered mainly by using Google Scholar with combinations of the search terms ”adoption, family structure, biological children, natural families, mixed family, biological families” and looking at the references form the found studies. Unfortunately, some of the potential articles were not available in university the University of Helsinki library service. Finnish articles and masters theses were also looked for, but only one was found on this subject. Results and conclusions: The presence of biological children in the family might affect the adjustment and problem behavior of the adopted children. However not all the studies in this review found the link between these variables. Greater number of children also predicted increased parental stress. Parents evaluated their adopted and biological children differently and provided more resources for the adopted child. It seems like parents compensated for the poorer early childhood and basis of the adopted children compared to the biological children and supported the adopted ones to bring them to the same level as their biological ones. The conclusion is that family structure matters. However, it should not be given too much value when choosing a family for a child because it is not obvious what kind of an effect it has on the lifelong outcome.
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(2018)ABSTRACT There is evidence that maternal psychopathology is a risk factor for development of psychiatric disorders in the offspring. Unfortunately, many studies have excluded eating disorders even though it's been estimated that 7% of Finnish women suffer from eating disorder during the first 30 years of life. The aim of this review was to examine the impact of maternal eating disorder on children's psychological well-being. Two large cohort studies and multiple smaller studies were examined in this review. Maternal eating disorder was often defined as maternal history of eating disorder either during or before pregnancy. Maternal eating disorder has been associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in the offspring. Especially children of mothers with anorexia nervosa are at higher risk of having internalizing problems. In addition, mothers with eating disorders rated their children as having a more difficult temperament. The children of mothers with eating disorders showed delays in neurocognitive development. The identified associations were, however, not simple. What might be important considering the effect of maternal eating disorder on child psychopathology is the type and timing of the maternal eating disorder. More research is needed in order to develop early interventions.
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(2018)In brain imaging research, two types of inferences are regularly employed: direct inference proceeds from a cognitive function to observed brain activation, whereas inverse inference takes an opposite direction from observed activation to a cognitive function. Inverse inference is more problematic of these two. Its hasty application could lead to errors in the interpretation of experimental results. In this study, conditions for the succesful use of inverse inference are analyzed. To start with, inverse inference should always be part of the testing process of a neurocognitive model, and there should be at least preliminary understanding of the neural correlates of cognitive functions. With the help of Bayesian analysis, quantitative estimates for the strength of inverse inference could be calculated. The bayesian analysis shows that this strength is inversely proportional to the number of different experimental tasks associated with activations in the region of interest. There is also an important distinction between two types of inverse inference: constrained inference is restricted to the activations associated with one type of experimental task, wheras unconstrained inference involves all the tasks that activate the region of interest. Especially unconstrained inference is strengthened by the use of large pools of experimental results, which are recently collected to the neuroscientific databases such as BrainMap or NeuroSynth. One problem for inverse inference is that there are not any commonly accepted taxonomies of cognitive functions. The lack of unitary vocabulary could leave the mapping between mental functions and brain mechanisms indeterminate. As a solution, some researchers have developed cognitive ontologies, which are formal knowledge structures with an explicit goal to define unitary empirically-based cognitive concepts. As a conclusion, it could be stated that if the above mentioned considerations are carefully taken into account, the employment of inverse inference becomes acceptable in the context of brain imaging studies.
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(2020)The purpose of this thesis is to give an overview of how neuroimaging is used in courts. It is discussed how neuroimaging-based information is applied in trials, how usual it is and what problems may rise because of it. In addition, it is described which laws regulate brain studies and the use of their results. There have been conflicting opinions whether bringing neuroimaging to court is a good or a bad idea. Constantly increasing debate motivates to find out what is going on within the field of neurolaw according to recent research. For the purpose of this thesis it was made an Ovid Medline search using keywords neuroscien*, brain imag*, court* and law. The source material was completed by suitable articles found from reference lists and from Journal of Biosciences and Law since 2015. Neuroimaging-based information is used in court mostly for diagnostic purposes and as defense’s mitigating evidence. Interpreting the results of brain studies is often contradictory and the evidence may be presented without a well-founded reason. Research also supports that neuroscientific evidence may mislead decision making considering death penalty and accountability. Research is aiming to come up with more reliable neuroscientific applications such as fMRI-based lie detection. The amount of trials that use neuroscientific evidence differ from country to country but there is a globally upward trend. According to current knowledge, there is no specific neurolaw issued anywhere in the world, but existing regulations considering medical research in general are applied on neurosciences. Despite the missing legislation, applying neuroimaging in court neither seems to violate any human rights nor has it led to any more misuse than any other methods applied in court.
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(2018)The connection between cognitive biases and pathological gambling has been under investigation for a while now. In this paper the link between problem gambling and cognitive biases, is examined in the context of their simultaneous coexistence and in their possible cause and effect relationship. This paper attempts to answer the questions: What or which cognitive biases are linked to problem gambling? In what way are they linked? Are there some identifiable mechanisms, that can be used to explain how the cognitive biases might lead into, and help to maintain the habit of problem gambling? The cognitive biases covered in this paper are: Gamblers fallacy, illusion of control, near-miss, chasing and entrapment, as well as double-switching and related dual processing model.
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(2017)Attention and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a developmental, neurobiological and neuropsychiatric disorder that begins in childhood, but often persists into adulthood or through the lifespan. However, ADHD in adulthood has been studied for only a couple of decades and there is still a lot of controversy about the disorder, for example, regarding the diagnosis. The core symptoms of ADHD are inattention, hyperactivity and impulsiveness. Cognitive difficulties, such as difficulties in attention, memory and executive functions, are often related to ADHD. Multiple comorbid disorders, such as depression, anxiety and substance abuse are also very typical to ADHD in adulthood. The treatment consists of both medication and nonmedical treatments. Medication attenuates effectively the core symptoms of ADHD. Nevertheless, the medication is not suitable for everyone. Besides, the patients often suffer from psychosocial problems. Cognitive-behavioral psychoterapy and neuropsychological rehabilitation have turned out to be the most efficient forms of nonmedical treatment.
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(2020)According to Bowlby’s (1976) attachment theory, the purpose of the attachment system is to maintain proximity between a child and the parent in order to ensure the child’s safety. The child develops internal working models (IWM) of attachment that represent the individual’s view of the self and others: (1) whether or not the self is judged to be worthy of love and care and (2) whether or not the attachment figure is judged to be the sort of person who in general responds to calls for support and protection. These internal working models influence the formation of the attachment category and serve as the basis for later personality development as well as control the style of social interaction and emotion regulation. The negative internal models may manifest themselves in adulthood, for example, as an insecure attachment style or otherwise inappropriate behavior in a relationship. Families where one or both parents consume large amounts of alcohol, are not the ideal environments for a child to develop a secure attachment and positive internal working models. This review examines attachment styles among adult children of alcoholics. The review focuses on general attachment styles as well as romantic attachment styles and behavior in a relationship in general. The sex of both the child and the alcoholic parent are being taken into an account when dealing with these topics. The literature search was conducted using the PubMed database using combinations of the keywords ACA, ACOA, adult child of alcoholic, attachment, attachment style, problem drinking and parent*. Literature was also searched from Google Scholar using these keywords. The selection criterion was that the study had focused on the attachment styles among adult children of alcoholics. The articles which had examined only the attachment between adult children of alcoholics and their parents, were not selected. Nine research articles were selected for the review. Parental alcoholism negatively affected the child’s attachment style. The adult children of alcoholics had more fearful, dismissing, avoidant and anxious/ambivalent attachment styles than the children of non-alcoholics. In addition to insecure attachment styles, the adult children of alcoholics reported more anxiety and greater avoidance in their relationship. Parental alcoholism was also associated with lower satisfaction, higher aggression and higher need of control in a relationship. Parental alcoholism experienced during childhood predisposes to negative effects on acting in relationships later in life. The effects may slightly differ depending on the sex of the person.
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(2020)Viime aikoina älypuhelimien yleistymisen myötä on herännyt kysymys siitä, miten niiden jatkuva käyttö vaikuttaa ihmisten kognitioon. Tämän kirjallisuuskatsauksen tarkoitus on pyrkiä täyttämään tätä aukkoa kirjallisuudessa selvittämällä, minkälaista tutkimustietoa on älypuhelimen tavanomaisen käytön vaikutuksista ihmisten kognitiiviseen suorituskykyyn. Kirjallisuushaussa keskeisimmät kriteerit tutkimuksille olivat, että kognitiivista suorituskykyä oli mitattu jollain kognitiivisella testillä ja että älypuhelimen käyttöä ei mitattu itsearviointina. Haussa löytyi yhdeksän kriteereihin sopivaa artikkelia. Melkein kaikki tutkimukset olivat kokeellisia. Seitsemässä artikkeleissa tutkittiin älypuhelimen akuutteja ja ohimeneviä vaikutuksia. Keskeisimmät löydökset olivat, että älypuhelimen pelkkä läsnäolo ilman, että henkilöt käyttivät sitä, vaikutti heikentävästi tarkkaavaisuuteen, toiminnanohjaukseen, työmuistiin ja älykkyyteen. Älypuhelinriippuvuus ja positiivinen kiireellisyys (impulsiivisuus ominaisuus) moderoivat älypuhelimen läsnäolon negatiivista vaikutusta kognitiiviseen suorituskykyyn. Lisäksi älypuhelimen käyttö tauolla kumosi tauon positiiviset vaikutukset kognitiiviselle suorituskyvylle (reaktioaika ja tarkkuus). Samaten älypuhelimen käyttö urheillessa kumosi urheilun positiiviset vaikutukset kognitiiviselle suorituskyvylle (kognitiivinen ehtyminen ja tehtäväsuorituskyky). Kahdessa artikkelissa tutkittiin älypuhelimen pitkäaikaisesta käytöstä johtuvia pysyvämpiä vaikutuksia. Älypuhelimen pitkäaikainen käyttö vaikutti negatiivisesti numeroiden prosessointiin, mutta sillä ei löydetty pitkäaikaisvaikutusta lyhytkestoiseen muistiin, tarkkaavaisuuteen, kriittiseen ajatteluun tai sosiaaliseen ongelmanratkaisuun. Älypuhelimen tavanomaisen käytön vaikutuksista on alustavia löydöksiä, mutta nykyisen tutkimustiedon valossa on liian aikaista tehdä vahvoja johtopäätöksiä vaikutussuhteista. Älypuhelimen käyttö sekä sen aiheuttamat hälytykset häiritsevät ylläpidettyä tarkkaavaisuuttaa sekä muita kognitiivisia prosesseja. Vaikuttaisi myös siltä, että älypuhelimen pelkkä läsnäolo kuluttaa näihin prosesseihin tarvittavaa kapasiteettia, heikentäen niiden suorituskykyä sekä palautumista.
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(2020)Occupational self-efficacy describes an individual's confidence in their own abilities to perform their duties. Occupational self-efficacy has been widely used in organizational studies because of its ability to predict various outcomes that affect well-being at work. This review examines the relationship between occupational self-efficacy and aspects related to well-being at work (job satisfaction, job engagement, job performance, burnout), which are some of the key factors when it comes to individual's psychological well-being at work. This thesis was carried out as a literature review, collected from PsycInfo, PubMed and Google Scholar -databases. Keywords were occupational self-efficacy, professional self-efficacy, burnout, satisfaction, and engagement. In addition, articles were searched using the bibliography of one of the articles found in the database search. A total of 13 articles were selected for the review. Based on the studies discussed in this review, occupational self-efficacy is related to experiences of job satisfaction and job engagement, as well as to job performance. The higher the occupational self-efficacy is, the more satisfied the individual is with her/his job and the more likely she/he is to experience job engagement. Work performance also improves with higher occupational self-efficacy. According to the review, occupational self-efficacy is negatively related to burnout, i.e., as occupational self-efficacy increases, the risk of burnout decreases. Occupational self-efficacy is an important personal resource that can be considered to increase well-being at work and improve job performance. Therefore, it is important for organizations to recognize the importance of occupational self-efficacy for well-being at work, and to utilize this knowledge especially when designing interventions to increase well-being. For example, improving the chances of influencing one's own work, encouraging continuous learning, and providing ways to manage stress creates a positive environment where well-being at work is increased, both directly and indirectly, through improved occupational self-efficacy.
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(2019)Analyzing the relationship between analytical thinking and religion has produced rather consistent results. The purpose of this literature review is to assemble research data and find out what kind of connection there is between analytical cognitive style and religion and what could explain the connection. There were used both correlative and experimental studies to investigate the relationship between analytical thinking and religion. There was a weak negative connection between analytical thinking and religion. This connection was systematically observed in numerous studies. More analytically-minded people were therefore less religious on average compared to people who were not inclined to analytical thinking. Experimental studies used, among other things, a verbal and visual priming method to stimulate analytical thinking, resulting in a decline in religion. However, it is not yet known how long or under what circumstances an analytical priming effect will occur. This may explain why experimental studies have also yielded contradictory results. Attempts have been made to explain the connection. Conflict detection theory has the idea that people with analytical cognitive style are better to detect contradictions in situations requiring reasoning and, consequently, to adopt an analytical mindset. On the other hand, it has been suggested that the cause of the connection would be cognitive ability or epistemic rationality. In these studies, the connection between religion and analytical cognitive style remained after controlling cognitive ability or epistemic rationality. Research suggests that, while cognitive ability and epistemic rationality are related to religion, they do not remove the negative connection between analytical thinking and religion. Longitudinal studies are needed to be able to say about the causal relationship between analytical thinking and religion.
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(2017)Anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders are linked with certain personality and behavior traits: for example, people with eating disorders are more perfectionistic and neurotic as well as less extroverted than healthy people. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether traits associated with anorexia nervosa persist after clinical recovery. This paper covers ten studies in which people recovered from eating disorders are compared to people unaffected with eating disorders. It seems that there is great variety in the stability of different traits after the recovery from the eating disorder. Perfectionism might be stable feature even after the recovery.
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(2019)Irritable bowel syndrome is a chronic common gastrointestinal disorder. There are three main factors which can be linked with the syndrome, genetical vulnerability, psychological burden and behavioural factors. Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of psychosocial treatments for irritable bowel syndrome. The objective of psychosocial treatments is to strengthen coping-skills, behavioural functioning and improve quality of life in individuals with irritable bowel syndrome. This study focuses on the efficacy and mechanisms of psychosocial treatments. 4 The data was collected via online databases. Selected studies evaluated effectiveness of psychotherapy, mindfulness and online based therapeutic support groups for stress-reduction and emotion regulation. Effectiveness was measures by quality of life and symptom questionnaires and interviews. Results were also assessed after two to six months follow-up periods. Results showed improvement in quality of life and reduction on symptoms. In most of the studies effect sizes were medium or large (d > 0.47). Improvements were maintained until the follow-up periods. In societal perspective prominent result was that group interventions and online based psychotherapies provided improvements in symptoms and quality of life. This study identifies common mechanisms between various treatments. Affecting mechanisms were associated with psychological distress, behaviour and thoughts towards the syndrome. These findings suggest that treatments including stress reduction, self-monitoring and acceptance of syndrome may provide benefit in irritable bowel syndrome.
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(2019)The goal of this review is to show the possible connections between depressive disorders and the Big Five personality traits. Also, the focus is to examine the personality traits which have a possible influence on the outcome of psychotherapy when treated depression. Research shows that especially Neuroticism is connected to depression. Other personality traits connected to depression are low Conscientiousness and low Extraversion. Personality traits which influence the positive outcome of the treatment are Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness. The personality profile connected to depression seems to be an obstacle in the treatment of depression. More research about the real connection sizes between depression and personality traits is needed to help the clinicians to offer the best treatment for patients suffering from depression.
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(2018)Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a heterogenous group of disorders, with the core symptoms appearing as different levels of difficulties in communicative and social skills, but there are a number of neuroanatomical, neurotransmitter related and gastrointestinal aberrations that have also been linked to the disorder. The etiology of ASD is not very well known, but in addition to a strong genetic background, current research shows that prenatal factors might play a significant role in the development of the disorder. In this review, the proposed mechanisms of action of some prenatal risk factors are discussed in the light of current research. Many other risk factors have repeatedly been linked to ASD in empirical studies as well, but this review focuses on the possible paths through which valproic acid (VPA), thalidomide and vitamin D might be connected to the development of ASD. In addition, the retinoic acid-estradiol theory is presented, which aims to explain the link between ASD and a number of risk factors. Several proposed mechanisms of action have been formed for each of the discussed risk factors, but only some of them are presented in this review. VPA’s role in ASD is examined through the most widely used animal model of ASD (prenatally VPA-induced rats), and the role in the etiology of human ASD through proposed aberrations of both ammonium and folate metabolism caused by prenatal VPA exposure. Prenatal exposure to thalidomide might influence the functioning of the protein cereblon, which according to research is linked to the functioning of ion channels and mRNA activation in certain parts of the brain. The effects of Vitamin D deficiency are theorized to be connected to ASD through the human serotonergic system. This is explained through two genes (TPH1 and TPH2), which hold a crucial role in serotonin synthesis, and Vitamin D is known to affect the expression of these genes. According to the retinoic acid-estradiol theory, the balance between three endogenous chemical substances (retinoic acid [RA] estradiol and human alpha-fetoprotein [HAFP]) have an essential effect on fetal development: RA on certain genes’ expression, estradiol on neural defeminization processes and HAFP by protecting against harmful effects of both RA and estradiol. According to the theory, prenatal risk factors can be divided to promoters of RA-sensitive growth (VPA), inhibitors of HAFP production (thalidomide, ethanol, the ToRCH [toxoplasmosis-rubella-cytomegalovirus-herpes] infection family, interleukins) and promoters of estrogen-sensitive growth (hypothyroidism, iodine deficiency). Under the umbrella term “ASD” lies a wide variety of disorders with big differences in the level of severity and the ways of showing symptoms. In the light of today’s empirical knowledge, there is no certainty weather or not ASD is one single disorder or are there actually several completely unrelated disorders which are just arbitrarily grouped together.
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(2018)Several studies have shown that the autism spectrum disorder is more common among males than females. Most of the models accounting gender difference in the prevalence of the autism spectrum disorder have focused on the biological and genetic factors. However, these models haven’t always been empirically supported. The goal of this review is to clarify why girls with the autism spectrum disorder are diagnosed later and less frequently than boys. Most of the articles chosen to this review are from Google Scholar and Scopus by keywords “autism spectrum disorder in girls”, “underdiagnosing of autism in girls” and “underdiagnosing of autism spectrum disorder”. Diagnostic tools of the autism spectrum disorder have been created based on studies that have only used male samples. Consequently, they are not necessarily efficient identifying girls with the autism spectrum disorder. Girls’ symptoms differ from the classical symptoms especially when it comes to social deficits. It has been shown that girls are more talented than boys in participating to reciprocal interaction and communication and they also integrate their verbal and nonverbal gestures better than boys. Moreover, restricted interests are different and less intense in girls than boys. Girls also have less stereotyped use of objects and repetitive behaviors than boys. Despite the fact that internalizing symptoms are more common in girls, externalizing symptoms such as conduct disorders or intellectual problems may be required to diagnose girl with the autism spectrum disorder. Differences between the classical and girls’ symptoms may be accounted by the sosiocultural factors. Relationships more typical to girls and girlish plays improve especially skills involved in interaction and feeling empathy. On the other hand, high expectations concerning girls’ social skills create pressure for girls to compensate and hide their deficits in social situations. Because of this, parents, teachers and even clinicians do not necessarily observe social deficits in girls. In addition, sosiocultural factors have an impact on the interpretations made of a child’s antisocial behavior. We should pay more attention to identifying girls with the autism spectrum disorder in order to have the same opportunities for girls and boys with the autism spectrum disorder to get treatment and care. On this account the diagnostic tools should be improved, and clinicians should be informed of the specialities of girls’ symptoms. When evaluating girls, we should compare them to typically developed girls instead of the boys with the autism spectrum disorder.
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(2018)Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are developmental disorders that include abnormalities in social reciprocity and communication, with restricted and repetitive behavior and/or limited interests. Presence of the symptoms in the early childhood is essential for diagnosing the autism spectrum disorder, but recognizing those symptoms is often challenging. This is because of the heterogeneity of the symptoms in each individual, and the strong development that takes place in the first years of life, which may contain significant individual differences. The aim of this study is to investigate which are the factors that most strongly predict later diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders, and by which age those factors can be detected for the first time. Despite the many challenges considering the recognition of ASD, detecting it as early as possible would be important for interventions, because the intervention is more effective when applied as early as possible. One reason for this is the strong neural development that takes place in the early childhood. Also, because the symptoms of ASD are not separate from each other, difficulties in one domain may complicate the development of other areas, leading to accumulation effect. According to the latest research, there are many signs that may point to autism spectrum disorder in the early childhood even in the first year of life. Some examples of those signs include abnormalities in the handling of objects or the amount of the repetitive behavior. There may also be differences in the social interaction in the first year of life. In addition to diagnostic symptoms, there may be, for example, some self-regulatory problems, which together with other signs may be important for the recognition of ASD. Because there may be huge individual variation in the early signs of autism spectrum disorder, a single symptom could not reveal the disorder by itself. When trying to recognize ASD it is essential to pay attention to many different signs and whether or not those signs appear together. For example, the repetitive behavior together with the difficulties of social interaction may be alarming. The co-occurrence of multiple signs may give a reason to monitor the individual’s development more closely.
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