The 20th annual Symposium will be held on Thursday, April 23, 2009.

The Autistic Spectrum and Creativity
Norris 102, 2:00 PM

Takeshia  Williams,   '09 50
   Major: Psychology
   Hometown: Flossmor, IL

Sponsor(s): Mareike Wieth
Support: FURSCA-James W. Hyde Endowed Student Research Fellowship

Abstract: 
Those suffering from autism are characterized by their strong desire for a strict schedule, limited interests, and inability to communicate and socialize. These traits have been shown to lie on a continuum (Baron-Cohen, 1999). Individuals with a high number of these traits fall at the autistic end of the continuum, while those with fewer of these traits fall at the non-clinical end of the continuum. The current study was designed to investigate the characteristics of individuals at the non-clinical end of the autism continuum. Hans Asperger proposed the extreme male brain theory, which suggests that autism is an extreme version of the male brain. In essence, those with autism are thought to be less creative because they are more “male-brained” and thusly more systematic. These theories alongside other research (Baron-Cohen, 2001), provides convincing evidence that those with autism are less creative than the normal population. The present study investigated the creativity levels of individuals at the non-clinically diagnosed portion of the continuum (i.e. the normal population). If autistic traits truly lie on a continuum one would expect that participants’ creativity would vary depending upon the number of autistic traits they displayed. Preliminary results indicate that those higher on the autistic spectrum that show more autistic traits, score lower on creativity measures than those showing fewer autistic traits that are therefore lower on the spectrum.

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