Are Autistic Emotional Problems Due to Misattribution?

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misattribution_of_arousal

There is a phenomenon called "misattribution of arousal" where a person is physiologically aroused for other reasons and then misattributes the response to emotional reasons that aren't actually the reason for the arousal. In a study they found that men on a suspension bridge who would've been aroused from the fear-arousing nature of the bridge would be more likely to give answers with sexual content and try to get in contact with the interviewer afterwards if the interviewer was female. This was greater compared to a less fear-inducing bridge. This suggests that the men felt a physiological response to cues in the environment and then because they were talking to a woman assumed that the reason for the response was because they were sexually aroused rather than anxiety over the bridge.

Thinking about how sensory stimulation can cause physiological arousal think about how this might impact a child with autism who is told he is "nervous". And also consider that contextualizing abstract terms like those referring to emotions can be difficult on the spectrum. This has an enormous amount of potential to affect the way the person sees their emotions.

Growing up over the years I gradually became more and more anxious and stressed more and more often. I kept trying to find reasons for this. As I identified arousal as emotion and labeled it as such I felt out of control of my emotions. I would feel arousal that I would identify as "anxiety" or "stress" and then try to figure out what was bothering me and kept coming up with more and more things to be upset about over the years.

I think it's important if you are a parent with a child who has autism or asperger's or even just seems kind of literal-minded and fusses a little when you move the furniture (that was me, it never occurred to my parents to seek a dx) to teach your kid that sometimes people fool themselves about the reasons for their emotions.

Taking the example of the bridge(maybe more appropriate for older kids) you can also point out that even if the arousal is really for a reason that you would normally label "negative" like it was for the men on the bridge that those men still experienced their arousal as "positive" and that's what's really important, so if you can attribute your arousal to something positive.

I think there's probably a lot to thus theory. And I agree with the specific example that if a child on the spectrum is told he or she is "nervous," that is useless and probably counterproductive. Much better for the parent or teacher to tell the child that school is a busy environment or a loud environment or an active environment.