Research volunteers needed - Autism and Gender Identity

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Hi there,

I'm looking for people with autism and NTs to complete about 15 minutes of questionnaires for my research into gender identity in people with autism. I think that this is a really interesting, and important topic, particularly in the context of Baron-Cohen's "extreme male brain" theory, as well as anecdotes I've heard from women and men with autism who have struggled with gender related issues. I was just wondering if anyone would be willing to help me out and complete these questionnaires? Some friends who have done them so far have said they have been interesting and thought provoking to complete (honest!).

Here is the link to the study: https://www.survey.bath.ac.uk/socialidentityasc

I'd be really interested to hear any of your thoughts about this research area / the questionnaires themselves.

Also, if this is in the wrong bit of the forum I'm so sorry - please tell me where it should be!

Here's the official info:
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Thank you for your interest in this research project entitled "Social identity in people with autism spectrum conditions". Before you decide if you wish to take part, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done, and what it will involve. Please take time to read the information carefully.

This study is to find out about how people with and without autism view their roles in life, particularly about gender roles. It is also to find out about psychological well-being in these groups. Taking part in this study will involve completing a number of questionnaires online. The questionnaires will take roughly 15 minutes to complete. These questionnaires will ask you about different parts of your identity (e.g. identity as a "man", "woman", or "person with autism") and other aspects of your life, such as how much discrimination you face and anxiety and depression levels.

In the questionnaires, when the term 'autism' is used, it refers to all conditions included on the Autism spectrum such as Asperger's Syndrome, High Functioning Autism, Autism, Atypical Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) and PDD-Not otherwise specified.

Your answers to these questionnaires will be treated anonymously. Once you have submitted your responses it will not be possible to withdraw your data as it is anonymous, however you are free to stop responding to the questionnaires at any point.
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Thanks in advance for your help!

Done. All the best with your work. Would be interested to hear more about it and any conclusions/findings.

That's really kind of you, thank you! If you send me a PM with your contact details I will surely contact you with our findings.

Okay, thanks.

Done/bump (for op). Best wishes with your research! /cheers

Sorry but i can not describe how masculine i am. There is a thing called cultural relativism and also what people perceive as been a real man is subjective. I certainly feel that i am much more of a man than what my culture generally perceives a real man to be. Even when masculine virtues such as courage, strength and wisdom when thought of individually, they mean different things to different people. I would love to help you but if i am been misrepresented then it's not going to help anyone is it.

I totally see your point and this is something other people have commented on. I suppose what I'm looking for is how masculine you would describe yourself based on your own conception of what masculinity is - whether or not you feel that conception fits with the mainstream one. And I think that point about being misrepresented is really interesting - perhaps a result of our culture having such binary definitions of gender is that the majority of us do come to be misrepresented!

Hi Kate,
I've completed your survey but just wanted to draw attention to the fact you have not provided a synopsis of your project. This is usually required by ethics committees here in Australia. In particular what do you hope to achieve? what is your hypothesis etc...

Hey cyberdad, thanks for completing the questionnaires! I guess the ethics over here in the UK are a bit different - they tend to be happy if you leave your contact details for people to get in touch. I will PM you with a more comprehensive rationale for the research.

Thanks to everyone who has been completing the questionnaires, it's really appreciated!

Thanks for the information Kate (I received your synopsis) . We have ethics requirements in Australia that require disclosure of certain amount of the project as framed under the policy of "informed consent" where the participant has access to sufficient information when they receive the survey to make an informed decision before they give their consent to participate. Disclosure usually requires (in addition to things you have already provided) a synopsis of your project.

I guess we have both learned something about differences research ethics for Australia and the UK

I would say that masculinity needs to be defined in terms of Cohen's extreme male brain hypothesis. Im not versed in that so all I would say is that personally defining masculinity is not much good as that wont produce results which wil validate or invalidate his hypothesis.

From what I understand Cohen's theory relates to empathy and systemising. The male female division seems to actually be largely irrelevant and its an unfortunate term for a theory that does make some good points

Im not officially diagnosed but I would say that I dont identify as male or female at all. This goes down to the roots of identity however. I dont know who or what I am. Im in a hundred different types of limbo culturally politically nationally etc I imagine that many aspies might have similar experiences

Cyberdad: Yes we have! I can totally understand the rationale behind giving more information to participants, but I would worry in this project if it would impact on people's responses, due to priming the importance of different identities right before participating.

Binaryodes: I totally agree, we all have tons of different identities that are important to us, and for some gender isn't a particularly central identity at all. And that's fine! It just happens that this is what I'm researching so am asking about this. I totally agree with you that Baron-Cohen's theory makes some really good points, but it is the gendered framework and language imposed on the theory which I find problematic. And I suppose with regards to defining masculinity, it is all about an individual's interpretation of masculinity and how much they feel they fit this - hopefully the measures I'm using will have picked this up somewhat. That is because, as you say, it is a woolly concept and all depends on an individual's experience. I have also included a measure which looks at a more standardised (and stereotyped) definition of male and female behaviour to try and control for this.

Thanks for all your thoughtful comments and to those of you who have completed the survey! Interestingly I have had lots more women with autism than men complete the study - could just be chance but I'd be interested if anyone has any thoughts as to why this might be?

The answer is quite simple. Your survey is on gender and identity. Women and girls will be drawn to such a survey in larger numbers than males. Same as if your survey was on fashion preferences or attitude toward body image, even though both impact on males and females the hit rate will be higher for females.

I am not sure I would want to do it, this extreme male brain theory is just lame. I could specify my critics but that would be too long of a post.
would you mind explaining to me better what is it about?
also I see a great problem in the survey that it doesn't specify what being female/male means! Is it all about society gender roles? Or real identity? Or something we cannot simply know because we can't know how much is influenciated by society? I hope you don't take the answers as "biological proof of essence/brain differences" because it clearly is not.
if it is about gender roles than answer is NONE! I despise both the female and male roles and hate it and want it to end.
if it is about identity, than I am 100% female. But not the female expected by society.
this makes tons of difference. There has to be a specification.

I am glad you girls/guys are doing research on autism anyway
please fix this mistake because it leads to faulty conclusions!

Hi, I completely agree about the extreme male brain theory, I think the gendered framework is unhelpful and that was a big motivating factor for this research! As for operationalising gender, the issue is that I'm interested in participants own conceptions and definitions of gender, and so deliberately haven't defined this for them. But I totally respect your decision to not take part, of course! And I will PM you more detailed study information later today.

Cyberdad: I was thinking along similar lines, but I do agree with you that gender issues effect men a lot too!

to begin with, the theory is unbased. First he does the eq and sq, but 1- systematizing is a way of thinking, therefore you can systematize nearly anything, and in his questions he considers it mainly as mechanical and math stuff. 2- he claims that female and male brain have this empathy systematizing difference because of the answer differences, but this is nuts because there is a huge difference of asking people what they think they are good at and really testing whether they are good at it or not. A man is much more likely to answer he is good at mechanical stuff than a woman for obvious reasons cohen cannot ignore, and a woman is more likely to answers she is good at understanding other people etc even if when those abilities are really tested there is no significant gap. 3- even if there were a gap it doesn't mean the reason is a biological brain difference! Isn't it obvious?
so he attempts to prove it is a biological difference by testing young babies and recording how long they look at either a face or an object. But problems here: 1- he doesn't show both at the same time, but rather one at a time. There are infinite reasons why a baby would be more concentrated on one time than another, everyone that does research with young babies know that 2- those that showed the baby the object and the face picture knew what the baby gender was!! By itself this is enough to dismiss the test. Basic scientific research says the researcher should not have access to any kind of tip that indicated what the baby gender was, even their clothes color.
let's see, even if this is true there is a huge gap of assuming because a baby looked longer at an object it is because his sex has more systematizing skills because of biological differences and that thus autism is extreme male brain etc
this sounds like he already has an ideology and is making tests in order to prove it. (I am not saying he is dishonest, but taking into account that scientific research specially of human groups is full of ideology)
I am not even going to mention the theory has obvious flaws... Or I didn't know males have coordination problems? Or that they are more likely to get lost easily? Or that they are sensitive to sensory input? What about the male aspies that have female traits?
not defining gender stuff in the study is a bad idea because then if many girls answer they don't identify with being female because of what female means in our society is. Gender roles, you are going to take it as evidence of having a male brain and that is nonsense.
I don't mean to dismiss the study or anything even because I am not a scholar but I can't prevent myself from criticizing it.

Last edited by linatet on 02 May 2014, 8:26 am, edited 2 times in total.