"Socioscheme" theory of Autism Spectrum Disorders

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ASD's have become something of a special interest for me lately so I'm reading a lot on the subject. Recently, after the ASD book I wanted failed to download to my Kindle, I panic bought another book about the "Socioscheme" (titled Strange World [somethingorother]). This text aims to present a new coherent theory of how Autistic disorders develop and manifest and to provide a framework within which to place established theories such as TOM, Central Coherence and Executive Function.

I'm 30% of the way through the book so far and it's starting to build a picture of a potentially interesting model. There are some interesting ideas and examples and then also some stuff which I'm a bit more dubious about (primarily because I question the author's focus whilst writing since some parts are repetitive and others seem to jump wildly from premise to conclusion without proper explanation).

Out of interest, I both Googled 'Socioscheme' and searched WrongPlanet for the term. I was surprised to find not one mention of it anywhere on this site despite the ardency with which WrongPlaneteers tend to do their research. Similarly, Google brought up several results referring to the book I'm reading, but no discussion and no academic reviews as far as I could see. I wondered if this is because no-one has heard of the concept or if it's because it's been so thoroughly debunked that no-one even sees the point of mentioning it?

At any rate, if anyone is interested in knowing more about this theory, I would be happy to return to the beginning of my book and start posting summaries of each section here as I go through so that you can all get a sense of it and share your thoughts.

Any takers?

Last edited by Filipendula on 23 Sep 2012, 10:45 am, edited 2 times in total.

I would like to know what it is.

My special interest was also ASD for al long time. I have over 20 books on this topic at home, but at the moment it shifts a bit, but I'm not sure what to, propably Bipolar how it seems, not sure.

So, I guess my maininteresst is still something with psychology.

Okay, so I'll have to do this bit by bit as I go through the book from the beginning since I struggle to remember exactly how the framework has been building up.

The foundation concepts raised in the introduction are:
- To discuss autistic spectrum disorders where the core problem is considered to be "difficulty with (interpreting) social interaction".
- To also consider the many other behaviours which can play a part in spectrum disorders.
- To presents the concept of the "socioscheme" as a means of providing a coherent and holistic explanation of all the above where other theories (e.g.TOM) have failed to broach more than a single set of traits at a time.

The Socioscheme is founded on a biological model which initially looks at the differences between men and women or the development of male and female brains as well as the influence of testosterone on a developing foetus.

Following on, there is a section covering the history of autism and the work of, primarily, Asperger and Kanner. It then summarises the main areas of difficulty in autism as described by Lorna Wing (1988):

-social interaction
-social communication in verbal and non-verbal behaviour
-imaginary ability
-repetitive characteristics of activies
-language
-response to sensory stimuli
-specific skills

It emphasises the triad identified by Wing: social contact, communication and imagination.


Apologies if this stuff is old news to most of you. This socioscheme model is described by building the picture from the bottom up and gradually divulging connections between seemingly independent facets. I'm worried that if I neglect to mention something earlier on, I'll suddenly find it was a highly relevant building block later.

And then a proposal for the general structure of the theory:

- The meaning and relevance of predisposition v's maturation
- Differences between 'typical' men and women, primarily with regard to social contact
- The nature of various 'contact disorders' which are regarded as the crux of the problem

A central concept within the socioscheme is that of "me-other differentiation" and this comes up more and more as the text progresses.


I hope bite-size chunks like this aren't annoying. I have to read a bit and then write a bit so that I don't miss anything important. Hopefully I'll get to some of the more meaty bits soon and I'll get to find out if this is interesting to people generally.

Thank's so much for you explenation.

Is it a bit like the extreme male brain theory or what's the maindifference?

So far as I've read, it skirts along those sorts of lines (ie. testosterone driving more or less masculine brain biology) however, it seems to put a bit more effort into explaining the various mechanisms as well as touching on evolutionary theory. It also doesn't seem as extreme or generalised so far although I must confess I've not read that much on the research behind the EMT so there may be more similarities than I realise.

I think the main difference is that this text doesn't stop there, it uses this basis to build a framework with which to explain many facets of autism that have often seemed unpredictable or arbitrary when looking at them from conventional theoretical perspectives.

The book is interesting, but I haven't finished it yet so I don't know how well it'll come up with the goods by the end. But I feel I've read enough to know it might have the odd morsel of insight which is why I thought I should start again and share it as I go to see what the real experts think. I'll see if I can pull together another mini section in a bit.

Main points in Predisposition & Upbringing section:

- Autism is primarily the result of the predisposition of the child (either via genetics or other factors such as illness) and not the behaviour of the mother (as some have suggested).

- However, many parents of autistic children can come across as overly concerned, intellectual or 'cool'. This may be because they are somewhere on the spectrum themselves, but also because they have traditionally been forced to become over-concerned, to do extensive research and to approach authorities with caution when attempting to resolve their child's problems. It suggests that the child nurtures these characters in the parent, not that the parent nurtures autism into the child.

So predisposition is prime...

- Autism is connected to a deviation of the chromosomes 4, 7, 10, 16, 19, 22 and X, where chromosomes 2 and 7 are most characteristic [I wonder if this should read 4 & 7 since 2 isn't in the original list].

- A chromosomal deviation has now been linked with Rett's syndrome. The first male with Rett's syndrome has been diagnosed where it was thought to be a purely female disorder.

- The disposition of individual genes is an important factor in autism since this determines how the central nervous system will develop. More on this later.

I have some trouble with the testosterone theory on autism.
I have gender dysphoria, meaning in my case, that I'm female-to-male-transgender.
I thought about it a lot befor I started taking testosterone and informed myself if it's a whise desicion, because of my autism and the possible connection. But then I still stared taking testosterne around 1 1/2 years ago. My AQ droped and I even apeared less autistic. I believe I stayed mainly the same but through the stress relieve and so on I was even more able to learn social situations and engage in them.
Okay, you could also say: me being FtM-Transgender proofes this theory, but I'm not quite convinced, because I also know autistic people going the other way around from male to female.



Yeah, I never liked that about the EMT that it was just oriented on the extreme male brain and so on.
My new psychiatrist even toled me in the first session, that I have male and female traits and I toled him first afterwars from me being transgender.
I noticed that too, that autistic boys are very often "feminine" a bit and autistic girls a bit like tomboys, especially when they are younger.

The book touches on that (can't remember how right now, useless memory! ), it talks about higher than normal testosterone before birth contrasted with lower than normal testosterone after birth. Would be interesting to see what you think.

It'll also be interesting to see how all of this fits with you, given your position. I used to have an FtM friend (pre-surgery/hormones) and it was always interesting to hear [his] views on things. As it happens I have some of those views myself. I guess I'm vaguely androgynous, except that I'm also not. "Confused" might be a more accurate term. Suffice to say, I hate gender stereotyping, gender-based terminology and lots of other things to do with gender. It kind of hurts me to read and share a book that looks at females and males in such narrow terms, but I've decided to try and tolerate it for the sake of a greater whole at the end. It's impossible to keep fighting these things forever.

My theory is that gender norms are kind of part nature, but also a lot nuture.
And autistic people are just less influenced by their environment.
I also noticed that I'm different Transgender than most Transgenders, but that I'm clearly autistic-Transgender. Meaning I behave like a boy on the BAP mainly.
I was clearly autistic as a child with speech delay and everything, but not anymore, so officially, if I would get dx again, now I would get dx with PDD-NOS I guess, but I behave more like BAP now, just my routiones and sensory issues still stayed obvious.



I believe that autisitics have more problems with gender stereotypes, becuase they have problems with social norms in general and the gender stereotype is nothing more than another social norm and I believe that there are some hormone influence who push being transgender in autistics more than in others, but that it's mainly because of their different fiew on those things because of their ASD that pushes even in some cases up to Gender Dysphoria in autistics.

Interesting thoughts Raziel. I'll have to consider your theories for a while. Given that my position on the spectrum is decidedly vague and my position on the gender spectrum is also vague, it can be hard for me to see how things fit together for myself let alone for anyone else.

Anyway, I'm now 6% through this book (having skipped a load of history, aims and objectives sections which would be repetitive for people on here) and will hopefully have time to outline a few more points in the next section: Development from Predisposition and Environment

- It's important to establish the extent to which behaviours in children are due to predisposition or to other factors. Only by knowing this is it possible to change focus and teach the child how to understand and behave appropriately rather than to 'correct' what is considered a problem behaviour and instead teach the child that they are to blame in some way.

- The point is made that parents routinely inspect a new born to establish whether it takes after the mother or the father and great significance is placed on this. However, within a couple of years, this seems to be forgotten and bad behaviour is blamed on the child or attributed to poor upbringing.

- Environment can have a significant effect on behaviour, but it is predisposition which determines the boundaries of a person's possibilities and potential.

- Optimum development is achieved when a child (or adult) is enabled to develop those qualities that they are ready to develop at any given time. It takes longer for a child to develop a new skill if it is not 'ready' to learn it. Premature training in new skills can also lead to other skills being hampered.

- A study by Arnold Gesell (1949) is described in which he studied identical twins, training one of each twin in specific motor skills and allowing the other to develop at a normal rate. The trained twin developed these skills much faster, but the other twin soon caught up and it then became apparent that, in the meantime, the other twin had naturally developed other skills which the trained twin had been prevented from focusing on. In conclusion, the untrained twin had benefitted from a broader and more even development. This shows that we all have an innate rate of 'maturation' that can vary from child to child and that trying to speed this up can hamper development in other areas.

- The suggestion is made that if a child fails to respond to environmental factors which enable development, it means the child isn't 'ready' for that stage of development. E.g. if a parent encourages make-believe play by pretending a broom is a horse and the child does not reciprocate by practising this skill, it means it is not ready and further maturation is required.

- However, it is also pointed out that where development/maturation is delayed, it can sometimes be difficult to know when the child is eventually 'ready' to learn a new skill because there can be an element of habituation too.

I think that's enough for this post, I'll read on a little bit.

There are two trends in the psychology:
- nature
- nurture

Both sides are right and it differs in every person and disorder.
You don't get PTSD for example if you didn't have an environmental factor. A person can be more vulnerable to PTSD but without certain events the person wouldn't have gotten it.
But with ASD it is different. A person doesn't get ASD because of the parents, but propably can cope better in a certain environment.
So it differs and of course there are also cases of "poor upbringing", I even know a case like this, but it doesn't make sence to blame all parents of children with disorders for their upbringing, just because of some cases.
So we have to differentiate there.



How I allready sayed, there is no "one right answer" to this.
I went the last two years through a PTSD, now it is getting better and I just have some symptoms left.
In this time I wasn't "me" how I freaked out very often and so on. I believe that I was more vulnerable to get a trauma in the first place, but without the situation I wouldn't have gotten it in the first place and I wasn't born with it.
But with autism it is different, I was like this since the beginning and it doesn't make sence to blame my environment for this.
Someone can't compare those two, just because they are both "disorders of the mind".



I see this study a bit critical and I believe it depends how much you push a child and so on.
Accourding to this theory propably even school wouldn't make sence...!
I had dyslexia as a child and I went in therapy once a week for an hour and also learned at home. So I got help, but not like every day and I was still able to do other activities and develop "normal" in the other areas.
I think it is importand to train a child in "weak areas", but not pushing it too far, because then you really get the afect this study is talking about that other areas are left behind. This is not the goal of a good therapy.

Here is a research paper that looks at autism and sex hormones

Sex Hormones in Autism: Androgens and Estrogens Differentially and Reciprocally Regulate RORA, a Novel Candidate Gene for Autism

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0017116

"We also show that one of the transcriptional targets of RORA (RORA= a novel autism candidate gene, retinoic acid-related orphan receptor-alpha (RORA) in a neuronal cell line) is aromatase, which is a crucial enzyme in the biosynthesis of estrogen from testosterone. It is noteworthy that both RORA and aromatase proteins are decreased in the frontal cortex of autistic subjects, and that the level of aromatase protein is strongly correlated with the level of RORA protein in the brain tissues. We therefore propose that the reduction of RORA observed in autism is exacerbated by a negative feedback mechanism involving decreased aromatase level, which further causes accumulation of its substrate, testosterone, and reduction of its product, estradiol. Testosterone and estradiol respectively exhibit negative and positive feedback regulation of RORA expression as illustrated in Fig. 5, which summarizes the principal findings of this study. Thus, a deficiency in RORA in autistic brain is expected to be further aggravated by increased levels of testosterone due to suppression of aromatase, a transcriptional target of RORA."