E Minus S Theory – Simon Baron-Cohen
Ok, yes, I know I have talked about Simon a lot lately, but I think you will find this relevant and interesting. As some of you may know, I want to become a clinical psychologist. To help me with my psychology studies, I have subscribed to “the Psychologist”, a monthly Journal produced by the British Psychological Society (BPS). Anyway, yesterday the latest edition came through, and there was a 4 A4 page article by Simon Baron-Cohen on his latest Autism theory. Anyway, I thought you might be interested to know what it is and what I think of it
Ok, this develops on his extreme male brain theory. However, the E-S theory is how the male brain, extreme male brain, female brain and extreme female brain are categorised. First off, lets define E.
E (for empathising) is defined in two ways. Firstly, there is Theory of Mind and how a child scores on that, however this is only a cognitive component of empathy: it merely measures an individual’s thoughts and not their emotional responses. The second and more important is the appropriate emotional reaction to others’ thoughts and feelings (affective empathy). These are measured by an Empathy Quotient test (EQ) which determines how empathetic someone is. Obviously, due to the nature of autism, people with low empathy are more likely to have autism.
The second factor is systemising, which is a bit harder to define. In short, it is “the drive to analyse or construct any kind of system. What defines a system is that it follows rules, and when we systemise, we are trying to identify the rules that govern the system in order to predict how the system will behave” (Baron-Cohen 2006). Baron-Cohen then goes on to define what types of systems exist. A few examples are:
Sensory systemising – wanting to create the same sensory inputs over and over. So eating the same food every day, or running sand through fingers are two examples given. For me, it would probably be clicking the top of my pen when I am thinking hard, or twisting a highlighter in my hand.
Collectable systemising – collecting things, like Thomas the tank engine figures, books, etc. For me, this would probably be wanting to always have sets of DVDs – I have just bought series 6 and 7 of my family, even though I rarely watch them now: I have to have the whole set because I had series 1-5.
Vocal/Auditory/verbal systemising – this is repeating what people (or characters from TV) say, echolalia etc. For instance, Jack went through a period of putting in “Looney Tunes” words into his conversations to make a point.
A test has been devised to measure people’s systemisation and put it in the form of a systemising quotient (SQ).
The E-S theory basically states that individuals on the autistic spectrum have unusually low empathy combined with unusually high systemising. So if we take this further, E-S = where you fall on the autistic spectrum. What Baron-Cohen and his team have discovered is that 54% of men have an S higher than E, 44% of women have E higher than S, and 65% of people with Asperger’s or autism have S significantly higher than E.
Now I think that this is a great theory, and covers most of the bases. However one it does not cover is why.
You see, I think that Baron-Cohen is right when he says that a high S and a low E are characteristic of Autistic Spectrum Disorders. However it doesn’t say why, at least, not in any of the articles I have read on it.
And in my little blog, I am going to have a stab at this. In Baron-Cohen’s “the essential difference” he states that boy babies prefer looking at systems, objects etc, where as girls prefer looking at faces. So this is obviously something that starts very young age, if not in the womb. Anyway, Anna and me talked about it, and we have come up with this idea.
What if there is a finite amount the infant brain can do. Babies are in REM sleep (when it is thought that the brain grows/repairs etc), so it is obviously doing a lot. If this is the case, then maybe there is only a finite amount of time and energy that it can devote to developing empathy or systemising, maybe one hemisphere of the brain develops a little more than the other (it has been shown that the left hemisphere is better as systemising and the right better at emotion). I think the best way to explain it is with this analogy. Imagine, babies have a pound and are in a sweet shop, selling only sherbet lemons (empathy) or mint imperials (systemising), both at a penny each. Then the baby can only buy 100 sweets, and so it stands to reason that if one develops more, then one may develop less. And that when a lot more mint imperials are bought than we say they have Aspergers syndrome or Autism.
Let me know your thoughts.
For more info look at Simon’s website.
Please note, this blog is adapted from an article written by Simon Baron Cohen in “The Psychologist” Volume 21, Number 2, Pages 112-116 and the E-S theory is his and not mine. If I have misinterpreted anything in the article, or misrepresented an idea in the theory, please contact me and I will be happy to amend it. Opinions expressed are mine, and mine alone, examples are a mixture of mine and those of Simon Baron-Cohen.
Joshua Muggleton – Enjoying mint Imperials
Ok, this develops on his extreme male brain theory. However, the E-S theory is how the male brain, extreme male brain, female brain and extreme female brain are categorised. First off, lets define E.
E (for empathising) is defined in two ways. Firstly, there is Theory of Mind and how a child scores on that, however this is only a cognitive component of empathy: it merely measures an individual’s thoughts and not their emotional responses. The second and more important is the appropriate emotional reaction to others’ thoughts and feelings (affective empathy). These are measured by an Empathy Quotient test (EQ) which determines how empathetic someone is. Obviously, due to the nature of autism, people with low empathy are more likely to have autism.
The second factor is systemising, which is a bit harder to define. In short, it is “the drive to analyse or construct any kind of system. What defines a system is that it follows rules, and when we systemise, we are trying to identify the rules that govern the system in order to predict how the system will behave” (Baron-Cohen 2006). Baron-Cohen then goes on to define what types of systems exist. A few examples are:
Sensory systemising – wanting to create the same sensory inputs over and over. So eating the same food every day, or running sand through fingers are two examples given. For me, it would probably be clicking the top of my pen when I am thinking hard, or twisting a highlighter in my hand.
Collectable systemising – collecting things, like Thomas the tank engine figures, books, etc. For me, this would probably be wanting to always have sets of DVDs – I have just bought series 6 and 7 of my family, even though I rarely watch them now: I have to have the whole set because I had series 1-5.
Vocal/Auditory/verbal systemising – this is repeating what people (or characters from TV) say, echolalia etc. For instance, Jack went through a period of putting in “Looney Tunes” words into his conversations to make a point.
A test has been devised to measure people’s systemisation and put it in the form of a systemising quotient (SQ).
The E-S theory basically states that individuals on the autistic spectrum have unusually low empathy combined with unusually high systemising. So if we take this further, E-S = where you fall on the autistic spectrum. What Baron-Cohen and his team have discovered is that 54% of men have an S higher than E, 44% of women have E higher than S, and 65% of people with Asperger’s or autism have S significantly higher than E.
Now I think that this is a great theory, and covers most of the bases. However one it does not cover is why.
You see, I think that Baron-Cohen is right when he says that a high S and a low E are characteristic of Autistic Spectrum Disorders. However it doesn’t say why, at least, not in any of the articles I have read on it.
And in my little blog, I am going to have a stab at this. In Baron-Cohen’s “the essential difference” he states that boy babies prefer looking at systems, objects etc, where as girls prefer looking at faces. So this is obviously something that starts very young age, if not in the womb. Anyway, Anna and me talked about it, and we have come up with this idea.
What if there is a finite amount the infant brain can do. Babies are in REM sleep (when it is thought that the brain grows/repairs etc), so it is obviously doing a lot. If this is the case, then maybe there is only a finite amount of time and energy that it can devote to developing empathy or systemising, maybe one hemisphere of the brain develops a little more than the other (it has been shown that the left hemisphere is better as systemising and the right better at emotion). I think the best way to explain it is with this analogy. Imagine, babies have a pound and are in a sweet shop, selling only sherbet lemons (empathy) or mint imperials (systemising), both at a penny each. Then the baby can only buy 100 sweets, and so it stands to reason that if one develops more, then one may develop less. And that when a lot more mint imperials are bought than we say they have Aspergers syndrome or Autism.
Let me know your thoughts.
For more info look at Simon’s website.
Please note, this blog is adapted from an article written by Simon Baron Cohen in “The Psychologist” Volume 21, Number 2, Pages 112-116 and the E-S theory is his and not mine. If I have misinterpreted anything in the article, or misrepresented an idea in the theory, please contact me and I will be happy to amend it. Opinions expressed are mine, and mine alone, examples are a mixture of mine and those of Simon Baron-Cohen.
Joshua Muggleton – Enjoying mint Imperials
posted by Joshua at
5:48 PM
1 Comments:
A very interesting theory. I think you will make a great clinical psychologist.
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Casdok, at 6:52 PM
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