AUTISM LITERATURE SOURCES: Psychological

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	PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFESSIONAL LITERATURE Reference Texts with Comprehensive Bibliographies on Psychology Literaure on Autism Cohen, D., & Volkmar, F. R. (Eds.). (1997). Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Dawson, G. (Ed.). (1989). The nature, diagnosis, and treatment of autism. New York: The Guilford Press. Greenspan, S., I. (1992). Infancy and early childhood--The practie of clinical assessment and intervention with emotional and developmental challenges. Madison, CT: International Universities Press, Inc. Psychology Peer Reviewed Journals Advances in Family Psychiatry Behavioral Science Child Development Cognition and Emotion Focus on Autism Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophenia Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology Journal of Humanistic Psychology Journal of Social Psychology New Directions for Mental Health Services Psychological Inquiry Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities Social Psychology Quarterly Social Psychology Social Development Mental Health Service Provider Development Texts Baron-Cohen, S., Tager-Flushberg, H., & Cohen, D. (Eds.). (2000). Understanding other minds--Perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford Press. Greenspan, S., I., & Wieder, S. (1998). The child with special needs--Encouraging intellectual and emotional growth. Reading, MA: Perseus Books. Schopler, E., & Mesibov, G. B. (Eds.). (1986). Social behavior in autism. New York: Plenum Press. Schopler, E., Mesibov, G. B., & Kunce, L. K. (1998). Asperger Syndrome or High Functioning Autism? New York: Plenum Press. Family Provider Development Texts Greenspan, S. I. (1995). The challenging child: Understanding, raising and enjoying the five difficult types of children. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books. Powers, M., D. (Ed.). (1989). Children with autism--A Parents' guide. Rockville, MD: Woodbine House. New Families report this one as a favorite Schopler, E. (1995). Parent Survival Manual: A Guide to Crisis Resolution in Autism and Related Developmental Disorders. Plenum Press. Wing, L. (2001). The autistic spectrum--A parents' guide to understanding and helping your child. Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press. (Dr; Wing is a psychiatrist, and reknown researcher in the field of Autism, who has raised a daughter with Autism.) New Parent and Novice Provider Guides for Behavioral Issues These are texts from our INTERVENTION>PARENT TIPS links along with tips to help you with your basic parenting needs: Future Horizons 1-800-489-0727 www.futurehorizons-autism.com “A Treasure Chest of Behavioral Stategies for Individuals with Autism” by Beth Foust Ph.D. and Maria Wheeler. “The Out of Sync Child” Book/Video By Carol Stock Kranowitz, M.A. Autism Asperger Publication Co. 1-877-AS-PUBLISH www.aspergers.net “Challenging Behavior and Autism: Making Sense--Making Progress” by Phillip Whitaker, Helen Joy, Jane Harley, and David Edwards “Developing Emotional Intelligence: A Guide to Behavior Management and Conflict Resolution in Schools” by Richard J. Bodine and Donna K. Crawford. “Power Struggles: Managing Resistance, Building Rapport” by John W. Maag Autism Resource Network 1-952-988-0088 www.autismshop.com “The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chonically Inflexible Children” by Ross W. Greene “Making a Difference: Behavioral Interventions for Autism” by Catherine Maurice, Gina Green and Richard Foxx “Positive Behavioral Support: Including People with Difficult Behaviors in Community” by Robert L. and Lynn Kern Koegel Amazon.com "First Feelings: Milestones in the Emotional Development of Your Baby and Child." Greenspan, S. I., & Greenspan, N. T. This early text by Dr. Greenspan, helps new parents of infants and very young children understand typical early childhood development in ways that help them understand their child's typical versus atypical emotional and psychological aspects. “Addressing the Challenging Behavior of Children with High-Functioning Autism/Asperger Syndrome in the Classroom: A Guide for Teachers and Parents” by Rebecca A. Moyes “Without Spanking or Spoiling: A Practical Approach to Toddler and Preschool Guidance” by Elizabeth Crary . A BRIEF PSYCHOHISTORY & AN EMERGING SYSTEMS SCIENCE APPROACH TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT & AUTISM Psychology is the study of mental processes and behaviors and their relationship to our human development. Since the beginning of the last century psychologists have generated many competing, and even directly conflicting, scientific theories about how and why typical human beings think, feel and behave. In recent decades we have also been enriched by research in relation to all peoples’ development across our diverse worlds. This has happened at the same time that the understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain have exploded. In addition, since the mid-twentieth century, we have seen similar intense scientific debates with conflicting theories and competing intervention philosophies influencing the study of groups and individuals along the wide and highly varied spectrum of Autism. However, as the twentieth century closed, most psychologists in the field of typical human development were moveing away from grand or even competing theories that demanded we choose between the “nurture” bias of behavioral theories or the “nature” bias of cognitive theories. Now, the genetic diversity of our naturally occurring physical and psychological traits can be seen as interacting with the ways our environment may nurture, or fail to nurture, the growth, change and stability of our minds, bodies, and spirits. Therefore, the field of psychology is currently moving towards more of a systems science approach to human research, which interrelates all of psychology with other important disciplines of human studies. Developmental psychology can then better examine how diverse groups of people, and each unique human being, may grow, change, and stay the same over time. Our community might well follow this movement in order to speed progress in Autism research. A systems science approach to psychology would let us investigate four main idevelopmental domains: 1) biological, 2) cognitive, 3) psychosocial, and 4) biosocial. The integrated structure and interactive functions of these domains allows the physiological, mental, and behavioral aspects of our development to be studied in the context of our social and ecological environments. This systems approach can also be applied to study the growth, change, stability and diversity of all peoples within our families and our cultural groups. This can naturally lead us to consider the developmental patterns of each person’s life span and each group’s generational conditions across our globe. This may then better reveal how are we similar to, or different from each other as both individuals across our life spans and groups across time. The cultural and functional aspects of development that are the same for all human beings will then be seen as more universal, where as, those that differ may then more clearly define humanity in its true able and social diversity. Therefore, the study of people with Autism around the world can certainly benefit from inclusion in such a systems science approach. It is important to note that such a systems science approach to psychology is NOT about introducing any new grand theories or specific treatment methods related to our typical/atypical developmental populations. Instead, a systems science approach could helps us organize our existing theories and interventions in more meaningful and useful ways. Therefore, a systems science approach can facilitate a more comprehensive developmental approach to many human conditions, including Autism Spectrum Disorders. To help our community consider this new possibility, each of the domains are defined and discussed in this web site in terms of how they relate to features of Autism. In the last century, scholars and practitioners have generated vast amounts of knowledge, both scientific and metaphysical, about how and why human beings think, feel, and act the way we do. Psychology, for the most part, is the scientific study of mental processes and behaviors and their relationship to human development. It has been rich with diverse approaches to human cognition and behavior. Parrallel to this systematic line of investigation into the psychological aspects of Autism their has been biomedical research into its causes as a physical condtion, educational research into best intervention practices, sociological research into the impact of Autism on the lives of people and our families, and developmental research into the human and organizational systems and how they relate to each other around Autism. Which this range of use-able knowledge about human beings and our bodies, brains, minds, interpersonal relationships, and social relations we can look at Autism from both a functional/psychological and a cultural/philosophical perspective. All of these objective and subjective perspectives can help us learn how to better live, work and cope with the mutual impacts of Autism. One Historical Perspective Before we can consider the value of studying Autism through a systems science approach to developmental psychology, we must examine the benefits and challenges found in past studies of human mental processes and behavior. Turn-of-the-century studies in the new field of psychology sought to study the nature of the human mind through self-reports of and reflections on people’s subjective thinking processes. This method could not include people with significant degrees of Autism, but that finding alone may have helped first identify the pervasive nature of the disorder of Autism. By the thirties and forties, psychologists sought to increase the field’s scientific standing and so began to study how it could describe, explain, predict, and influence only observable human behavior and develomental patterns in either mechanistic or organicistic Early behavioral theorists saw the human mind as a “blank slate” upon which one’s entire being was written by learning and forms of social shaping alone. Early developmental theorists saw human beings' minds as emerging due to innate potentials and patterns, and in terms of children's and adults ideal life span patterns and outcomes. By the forties, the unusual behavior of people with severe Autism had been identified iby Dr. Leo Kanner in American. As is common parallel work was taking place in other nations. Yet, inadequate science initially allowed the false projection of Freudian psychodynamic theories onto children in Western nations in the fifties. In the sixties, two determined behavioral research psychologists, Dr. Bernard Rimland and Dr. Ivar Lovaas first documented that Autism was neurological in nature and that it could be effectively treated with systematic behavioral methods that were more educational in nature. This undid the dual myth of the refrigerator mother as the cause of Autism and the idea that people with Autism were uneducable. Much of later research in Autism was built on their early findings. However, soon influences from the “cognitive revolution” in psychology and medicine in the seventies and eighties contributed to even deeper understandings of the structures and functions of the brain and how it processes information. This allowed refinements and advancements in how many professionals assessed and educated people with Autism. Many universities, including the University of North Carolina, researched and developed adaptive teaching strategies to incorporate effective cognitive and behavior self-management strategies and to respond to changing social standards around appropriate lifespan intervention strategies. At the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries, the Autism community continues to struggled to interpret, apply, and integrate many diverse cognitive and behavior approaches. Throughout this century a very similar struggle to reconcile various psychological theories and practices has taken place around typical cognitive and behavioral research of people without Autism. It is most likely that oppositional philosophies and methods are not meant to be melded into one eclectic approach, but rather that they both afford our community with a wide range of useful options. You can find more information about behavioral, eclectic, and developmental approaches in the green column of this website. Finally, it is important to note that sound psychological research on all developmental groups was built on strong professional standards and the use of a variety of well-established scientific and other systematic methods of inquiry. However, sound knowledge gathering and brokering of both quantitative and qualitative human research can help us better understand Autism and how it impacts peoples' lives. Therefore, the inclusion of mechanistic, organicist, experential, and contextualist worldviews, as various kinds of research hypotheses and practical knowledge systems about Autism, may better assure the accuracy, reliablity, ethics, and relevance of various kinds of data gathered and the validity of such mixed methods research results. This is why it is so critical that we come to understand taht no one of these perspectives on what is useful knowledge about Autism is actually superior to the others. Each one provides important gains in our insights about the nature and realities of this broad life span condition using different theorectical assumptions and various well-established philosophies of what constitutes use-able knowledge about human beings. Each method then must set its own standards for its approach, while providing the most reflective and judicious commentary on the other approaches. Therefore, both within and outside the scientific method there must continue to be open debates about all these issues. Scholarly peer reviewed publications from all service fields and all worldviews of research can afford us all spaces of careful reflection on, and critical evaluation of all these human research methods. This can allow us a public discussion on the implications of all kinds of study results and the exploration of how to best apply significant and meaningful findings. Experimental and correlational, longitudinal and life span case studies, as well as ethnographic, community relations, and social action research on individuals and groups, may provide important contributions to our knowledge of human development in relation to people with and without Autism. Each of these research methods has its own appropriate applications and purposes and its own inherent strengths and weaknesses when used to explore the true nature, accurate identification, effective treatments/interventions, and human ethics in our shared experience of Autism. Let us not leave any of these stones unturned in our pursuit of a better understanding of people with and without Autism together. Understanding Autism Webbook. Copyright © 2000-03 by Sharone Lee. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. All names, concepts, methods, materials, products and publications are protected by trademark and copyright, and no part of this text or this web page may be reproduced or distributed in any manner, for any purpose, including educational purposes, without express written consent from: THRESHOLD • SALEM, OREGON • 503-375-9462 • sharone@understandingautism.org. Portions of "The Path Through the Woods" were published in The Net Journal of the Autism Society of Oregon, with the Author's permission in 1999 and again in the complimentary issue 2002.