Second assignment is a sequel of the first: Research report

Second assignment is a sequel of the first: Research report

ssessment 2: Research Report

Assessment weight: 45%

Due date: Friday 6 May 11.59pm

Word Limit: 1500 words (Note: this is a strict word limit, the + or - 10% rule does not apply)

Your Task:

I have called this a research report but it is essentially a lab report. The difference between this and other lab reports you might have done is that you will not actually be conducting the study (or undertaking data analysis).

For this assessment item, you will develop and refine the topic explored in your short literature review (assessment item 1). You will be able to use some of the content of your literature review in the research report.

i. Include a title page at the beginning of the assignment indicating your name and student number, title of the research report and word count. Note: the title page will not be included in the word count.

ii. Include an abstract of between 150 and 200 words at the beginning of the research report. This willnotbe included in the word count.

iii. Review the relevant literature and write a literature review. You can adapt the literature review that you developed in Assessment item 1 in order to that it conforms to the funnel shape required to develop the rationale for a report.

iv. Identify a gap in the literature (i.e. something that the studies that you have read have not addressed but that you think would be interesting/important). This will form the rationale for your proposed study.

v. Develop study aims and hypotheses. Note that stated hypotheses must be testable.

vi. Develop a methodology to test your hypotheses. This will include the following:

a. Under theParticipantsheading include an approximate number of participants, and, the nature of participants (e.g. a sample of individuals diagnosed with depression, members of the general population aged 18 years or over, children, university students etc)

b. Under theMeasuresheading include a description of the tasks or psychological scales used.

c. Under theProcedureheading talk about how the study will be conducted - is it online, in a laboratory, anonymous? And provide a time estimate for how long the study will take to complete.

Note that because this is proposed research, it should be in future tense.

References

Note: You can include additional references in the research report that you have not referred to in the literature review.

Include a reference list and in-text citations in APA format. You may be able to borrow a hard copy of the APA Publication Manual 7th Edition from the RMIT library, but you can also make use of online library guides for instance,https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introduction.html(Links to an external site.)which provide detailed instructions as to how to apply this format.

Use only scholarly (peer reviewed) references (including those that have been provided.Please do not use websites as references.A good way to locate additional relevant references is to look at the reference lists of key articles and to look at which articles have cited the key article in Google Scholar (this is indicated below the name of the article in the search result list).

Tips for navigating the epigenetics topic

When reading about epigenetics, you dont need to focus on the technical details surrounding the mechanisms underlying epigenetics e.g. DNA methylation etc

When proposing a study for the Research Report (assessment item 2), focus on measurable psychological factors rather than measuring epigenetic markers per se. (If you want to also include this in order to seek correlations between behaviour and epigenetic markers, you can, but the focus should be on measuring psychological variables.) So for instance, if you are wanting to propose a study on the heritability of trauma, look at comparing behaviour/psychological function in children of trauma survivors compared to children whose parents havent suffered trauma. You will also need to think about teasing out possible effects of upbringing and distinguishing this from inherited epigenetic changes.

If you want to look at epigenetics in the lifespan of an individual- locate literature discussing likely epigenetic influences on behaviour. This might be for instance, evidence that early childhood stresses cause epigenetic changes which then result in depression in later life. Your study could then test the impact of life stresses on the later onset of depression with a purported underlying mechanism of epigenetic changes.

You could also design a study to investigate whether epigenetic changes which have resulted in psychological dysfunction (e.g. maladaptive stress responses) are reversible by implementing an intervention to promote more adaptive function and looking at its effect on behaviour.

Given that research into epigenetics is in its infancy, particularly in humans, it is legitimate to speculate about the impact of epigenetic changes on behaviour. However, you do need to approach this from the perspective of what is likely given what has been established in existing research.

Impaired Social Interaction as a function of Autism Spectrum Disorder Traits: Investigating the role of Social Cognition and Social Motivation

Name:

Student No:

Word count: 1473

Abstract

A need for social connection and interaction is an innate aspect of the human condition. Yet, extensive research posits that many individuals on the autism spectrum lack this innate need. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterised by atypical social communication and social interaction. While many individuals with ASD present with deficits in multiple facets of social behaviour, there is no consensus regarding the basis for these impairments. The present study aims to test two competing psychological perspectives, social cognition and social motivation, in order to better understand the factors that explain social interaction impairments in ASD. Approximately 230 participants will be recruited from the general population. An autism trait measurement (AQ) will be utilised to differentiate participants into low and high ASD traits groups. The findings of this research will provide insights into the mechanisms underlying social interaction impairments in ASD as well as offering insights into appropriate intervention strategies. (150 words)

Impaired Social Interaction as a function of Autism Spectrum Disorder Traits: Investigating the role of Social Cognition and Social Motivation

Autismspectrumdisorder(ASD) is a persistent neurodevelopmental disorder, characterised by impairments in social communication and social interaction (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Despite the clinical focus of ASD intervention addressing social and communicative impairments (Morrison et al., 2020), the underlying psychological mechanisms responsible for such deficits remains contentious, with the significant heterogeneity ofpresentation further complicating our understanding of ASD (Ruzich et al., 2015). Research has focussed on social cognitive and social motivational frameworks ofautism, with specific interest in which theory best explains the aetiology ofsocial impairments in ASD.Further investigation is warrantedto explorehowsocial motivation andsocial cognition distinctively explainimpairments insocial interactions.

Theory of Mind

Social cognition is the perception and interpretation of social information, encompassing theory of mind(ToM), emotion recognition and social perception (Morrison et al., 2020).Theory of Mind is a developmental phenomenon reflecting an individual's ability to understand and predict the behaviours/intentions of others by their underlying mental states (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985;Scheerenet al., 2013). Deficits inToM present as difficulties inemotion recognition and decipheringintentions and thoughts of othersas identified in difficulties in false-belief tasks and identifying basic emotional expressions in early life(Baron-Cohen et al., 1985; Kimhi, 2014; Morrison et al., 2020).However, a subgroupof individuals with ASD present typicalToMskills (Chevallier et al., 2012; Peterson et al., 2012), warranting further investigation of variables impairing social skills (Briot et al., 2020).

Social Anxiety

Socialanxietypresentsasanxiety in one or more social situation where the individual may fear judgement or negative evaluation (Spain et al., 2018).Social anxiety can be conceptualisedas a disruptive motivation variable, presenting as a bias to orient attention away from threatening social stimuli, such as direct eyegaze (Kleberget al., 2017; Zaboski & Storch, 2018).Eye-gaze avoidance is well-established in ASD, with aberrant eye-fixations presenting as a marker for atypical social attention allocation and anxiety, impairing social skills and interactions (Kleberget al., 2017; Spain et al., 2018).

Social Attention

Presentingan innate motivational tendency, humans are primedto allocate

attentional resources to social information (Alvares et al., 2019). A preference to orientateaway from social stimuli andtowards non-social stimuli is well-established in ASD (Alvares et al., 2019; Hernandez et al., 2020). Deficits in social attention may present as a motivational preference to orientate away from social stimuli, leading to atypical eye fixations and attention allocation, subsequently impairing the developmental of social-communication skills and joint attention (Alvares et al., 2019; Redcay et al., 2013).

Social Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy is anothermotivational construct defined as belief in one's abilities to exert control over their functioning and their ability to accomplish tasks (Bandura, 1977; Ward & Esposito, 2018).Social self-efficacy is a robust predictor of one's ability to initiate and maintain interpersonal relationships, and persistence when a social situation is ambiguous or new (Ward & Esposito, 2018).High levels of autistic traits are associated withlower levels of self-efficacy,self-esteemandquality of life (Buckley et al., 2021).(504 Words)

The Proposed Study

Research has established differences between neurotypical individuals and those with ASDon a range of social motivation and social cognitive measures (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985; Chevallier et al., 2012; Morrison et al., 2020). However, the causal relationship between social cognition and social motivation requires further investigation. Specifically, it is unknown whether deficits in social motivationleadto impairments in social cognition or whether deficits in social cognitionleadsto decreased social motivation, resulting in individuals with ASD orientating away fromsocialstimuli(Chevallier et al., 2012). Socialmotivationtheoryis however criticised for overlooking the heterogeneity of behaviour and social motivation within the population (Bottini, 2018; Jaswal &Akhar, 2019). Social motivation should be conceptualised along a continuum with considerable diversity in the reinforcing properties of social stimuli (Baron et al., 2020;Jawal&Akhar, 2019). It is therefore controversial to assume individuals with ASD completely lack social motivation.

There is more evidence for the claim that motivating properties of social interactions are heterogenous, with either unpleasant and aversive outcomes driving a lack of social engagement or social interactions being neither aversivenormotivating (Baron et al., 2020). From this perspective, understanding the intrinsic human drive to seek acceptance and avoid rejection may clarify deficits in ASD, and investigating variables, such as social anxiety, rewardmotivation,ToMvariabilityand social attention may further advance knowledge of ASD (Bottini, 2018;Uljarevicet al., 2019).

Social motivation and cognitionprovide interesting insights into the aetiology of ASD. Further research is warranted to conceptualise social motivation, with particular interest regarding whether cognitive deficits in ASDamplifyan individual'sinsensitivity to social cues, discouraging social motivation, or whether deficits in social motivationleadto impairments in social attention and cognition. Further,it is unknown whether ASD symptomology develops through an individual's low motivation to seek social rewards, or as a heightened motivation to avoid social rejection.

The proposed study aims to investigatevariability in socialmotivation and cognition betweenlow andhigh autistic traitgroups. Further,the theoretical perspectives of social motivation and social cognitionwill be competitively testedin explaining various autistic traitaspects andsubfactors. The proposed studyis expected to provide practical recommendations forautism intervention, such asweighting andallocatingsocial skills training versus social motivation interventions. Furthermore,the studyintendstobetterunderstand theintrinsic human motivation to avoid rejection.

This study also aims to investigate reward motivation and social attention, anxiety and self-efficacyin the relationship between autistic traits and social motivation and social cognition. It is therefore hypothesised:

Hypothesis 1. Individuals reporting high and low autistic traits will presentlowandhighsocial motivation, respectively.

Hypothesis 2. Individuals scoring high on autistic traits will report lower social-cognitive abilities as measured byan emotion recognition test.

Hypothesis 3. Social attention,socialanxiety, socialself-efficacy, and emotion recognitionwillbe associated withautistictraits.(478 Words)

Proposed Method

Participants

Acommunity sampleof adults,aged 18-years or older,will be recruited via social media.

Procedure

Participants will complete this anonymous study online. The study is expected to take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Measures

Demographics. Participants will be asked their age,gender, education leveland whetherthey, or family member/s,have a clinical diagnosis of ASD.

Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). The AQ is a 50-item measure quantifying autistic traits in neurotypical adultsona 4-point Likert scale. With five subscalesof "social skills", "attention switching", "attention to detail", "communication" and "imagination" (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001b), the AQ reflects good internal consistency (=.75) and test-retest reliability (r .80; Stevenson & Hart, 2017).

Reading the Mind in the Eye Test (RMET).The revised-RMETassesses social cognitive abilityin an emotion-recognition task (Baron-Cohen et al., 2015).Thirty-six cropped photographs ofan individuals eye area areshown to participants who are required to selectthe word best identifying what the person is thinking or feeling (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001a; Pagni et al., 2020). Responses are coded 'correct' or 'incorrect'. The reliability of the RMET is well-established ( = .78; Black, 2019).

Social Attention Scale (SAS).On a 5-point Likert scale, the 13-item SAS measures an individuals tendency to behave in ways that attract social attention, forexample,"You like to entertain others"(Ashton et al., 2002). The scale represents strong reliability ( = .88; Ashton et al., 2002).

Social Evaluative Anxiety Scale (SEAS). "True" or "false" responses to 58-items operationalises social-evaluative anxiety, with two subscales of Social-Avoidance and Distress and Fear of Negative Evaluation (Watson & Friend, 1969). The SEAS reflects good validity ( = .82) and discriminant validity of social anxiety from other anxiety disorders (McCall et al., 2018).

Social Self-Efficacy Subscale (SSES). The 6-item SSES measures an individual's ability/willingness to initiate/persist in social interactions (Sherer & Adams, 1983). The subscale demonstrates good construct reliability and adequate internal consistency ( = .71; Sherer & Adams, 1983).

Social Interaction Scale (SIS).On a 5-point Likert scale, the 8-itemSISassesses an individuals preference for social engagement and whether they prefer situations that provide opportunities for social interaction (Lucas et al., 2000). The SIS demonstrates good criterion validity to predict social interaction ( = .79) and good discriminant validity from other extraversion facets, such as sociability (r = .45; Lucas et al., 2000).

Mini International Personality Item Pool (IPIP). On a 5-point Likert scale, the 4-item scales measures extraversion (Cooper et al., 2010). The subscale demonstrates good internal consistency ( = .86; Donnellan et al., 2006).

Relationship Goals Questionnaire: Friendship Version.To operationalise social motivation, the 8-item questionnaire assesses friendship-approach and friendship-avoidance on a 7-point Likert scale (Elliot et al., 2006). The subscales demonstrate good internal consistency ( = .88, = .75, respectively) (Elliot et al., 2006).

(469 Words)

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