Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been conceptualised as the extreme end of a continuum upon which we all lie. Psychosis has been proposed to reside at the other end of the continuum. Those with ASD can be slow and deliberative when making decisions whilst those with psychosis tend to rapidly jump to conclusions.
Dual process accounts of human cognition typically describe two distinct processes: intuition and a deliberative reasoning. To what extent can this dichotomy be applied to models of autism and psychosis?
RESEARCH PROPOSAL - You must write your own research proposal on this topic. See our website at http://www.bath.ac.uk/study/pg/programmes/mphi-psyc for further details.
Funding Notes:
Dr Brosnan will now consider applications for Entry 2013 from those applicants who are happy to compete for University and Graduate School funding or obtain external funding. Funding is difficult to obtain and highly competitive. You are responsible for researching sources of funding early (in some cases up to 12 months in advance) and applying (in conjunction with your agreed supervisor) for as many as possible. Please see the webpages at http://www.bath.ac.uk/hss/graduate-school/pgr-scholarships-studentships.html for further details.
References:
Brosnan, M., Ashwin, C. and Gamble, T. (2013) Greater Empathizing and reduced Systemizing in people who show a jumping to conclusions bias in the general population: Implications for psychosis. Psychosis, 5, 71-81.
Brosnan, M., Gwilliam, L. R. & Walker, I. (2012) Brief Report: The Relationship Between Visual Acuity, the Embedded Figures Test and Systemizing in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 2491–2497.