After studying this section you should be able to:
- describe the symptoms of anxiety disorders: phobias (agoraphobia, social phobias and specific phobias) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (distinguishing between obsession and compulsion)
- describe and evaluate explanations of phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder, including biological, behavioural, cognitive and psychodynamic
- describe the symptoms of autism, including lack of joint attention and the triad of impairments (autism as a syndrome)
- describe and evaluate explanations of autism, including cold-parenting, biological (genetic and neurological correlates) and cognitive (theory of mind, central coherence deficit and failure of executive functioning)
- describe methods of studying autism, including the Sally–Anne experiment, the ‘Smartie tube’ test, and comic strip stories
- describe and evaluate therapeutic programmes for autism, including behaviour modification, aversion therapy for self-injuring behaviour, language training (including the Lovaas technique) and parental involvement.
