Social Justice and Autism: Links to Personality and Advocacy

289 Pages·2016·1.42 MB·English

by  Edward Sturm

UCLA
UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Social Justice and Autism: Links to Personality and Advocacy
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6fm925m3
Author
Kapp, Steven
Publication Date
2016

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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University of California
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles

Social Justice and Autism: Links to Personality and Advocacy

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in Education

by

Steven Kenneth Kapp

2016
© Copyright by
Steven Kenneth Kapp
2016
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Social Justice and Autism:
Links to Personality and Advocacy

by

Steven Kenneth Kapp
Doctor of Philosophy in Education
University of California, Los Angeles, 2016
Professor Connie L. Kasari, Chair

Autism’s history as an independent condition may originate from “autistic psychopathy”,
but autism and psychopathy may entail opposite patterns of personality. Autism may incline
people toward moral intuitions in the dimensions of care, loyalty, authority, sanctity, and
especially fairness. Yet these may play an unconscious and visceral role that in combination with
difficulties with moral reasoning and the understanding of one’s own and others’ emotional and
mental states, reduces self- and other awareness of autistic people’s moral drives. Conversely,
psychopathic people may have low moral values (particularly for care and fairness), yet usually
strong moral reasoning skills, cognitive empathy, and mentalizing abilities. This contrast adds to
the literature in part through emphasizing basic sensory and motor differences, in transaction
with the social environment and life experience, as underlying these personality-relevant
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distinctions between autism and psychopathy. It thus attempts to embody both conditions, with
the understanding that all behavior involves motor activity, and to think of both conditions as
neurodevelopmental in their origins and early trajectories. Such an analysis raises the importance
of strengths, as a matter of individual differences as well as influences from the environment,
that can help to distinguish and even cause the conditions. For example, sensory
hypersensitivities in autism may both give rise to talent but also overload individuals and
interfere with language and cognitive development for some. Early abilities in imitation may
help to explain why individuals biologically vulnerable to psychopathy may have such strong
influence to adverse home environments, as they mimic the harshness and lack of warmth they
witness by caregivers. Indeed, individuals with putative “social disorders” may have particular
susceptibility to their social environments, particularly parenting practices. They also suffer from
unfair social norms that often in effect reward psychopathic individuals and punish well-
intentioned autistic people. Both conditions challenge the notion of social dysfunction as an
individual problem rather than reflecting lack of reciprocity or injustice experienced
interpersonally or societally. Supportive environments that meet the needs of people prone to
autism and psychopathy may avoid pain and punishment that possibly plays central roles for both
conditions, with starkly different effects, perpetuating social injustice.

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The dissertation of Steven Kenneth Kapp is approved.
Jeffrey J. Wood
Sheryl H. Kataoka
Connie L. Kasari, Committee Chair

University of California, Los Angeles
2016

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. CHAPTER 1: Autism as Opposite Psychopathy .................................................................... 1
2. CHAPTER 2: Sensing Needs: Unmasking the Pain of Autistics and Psychopaths………..14
3. CHAPTER 3: Getting a Grip on Autism and Psychopathy. .. Error! Bookmark not defined.
4. CHAPTER 4: Unmasking the Moral (In)justice of Punishment…………………………..97
REFRENCES ................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It takes a village to raise a child, and required something similar to make this work possible.
Thank you to the members of my committee for mentorship and feedback, and diverse sources of
support for helping with the formatting and time-management aspects of the process. The author
would like to thank all those who have helped to inspire my thinking on autism and justice, and
all those working to make the world a fairer and more caring place.

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Steven Kenneth Kapp
Education

University of California, Los Angeles 09/2009-03/2013
M.A.: Psychological Studies in Education

University of Southern California 08/2005-05/2009
B.S.: Public Policy, Management, and Planning

Teaching Experience
Teaching Assistant Summer 2014
University of California, Los Angeles
Course title: DS/PSYCH M139: Perspectives on Autism and Neurodiversity
Instructor: Steven Kapp

Publications _____________
Nicolaidis, C., Raymaker, D., McDonald, K., Kapp, S., Weiner, M., Ashkenazy, E., ... & Baggs,
A. (2016). The development and evaluation of an online healthcare toolkit for autistic adults and their
primary care providers. Journal of General Internal Medicine. doi: 10.1007/s11606-016-3763-6.

Schwartzman, B. C., Wood, J. J., & Kapp, S. K. (2016). Can the five factor model of personality
account for the variability of autism symptom expression? Multivariate approaches to behavioral
phenotyping in adult autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and Developmental Disorders, 46(1),
253-272.

Gillespie-Lynch, K., Brooks, P., Someki, F., Obeidi, R., Shane-Simpson, C., Kapp, S. K., Daou,
N. N., & Smith, D. S. (2015). Changing college students’ conceptions of ASD: examining potential
benefits of an online training in terms of knowledge and stigma associated with ASD. Journal of Autism
and Developmental Disorders, 45, 2553-2566.

Laugeson, E.A., Gantman, A., Kapp, S. K., Orenski, K., & Ellingsen, R. (2015). A randomized
controlled trial to improve social skills in young adults with autism spectrum disorder: the UCLA
PEERS® Program. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45, 3978-3989.
.
Nicolaidis, C., Raymaker, D., Ashkenazy, E., McDonald, K., Boisclair, C., Baggs, M., Kapp, S. K.,
Weiner, M., & Dern, S. (2015). “Respect the way I need to communicate with you”: healthcare
experiences of adults on the autism spectrum. Autism, 19, 824-831.

Gillespie-Lynch, K., Kapp, S. K., Simpson, C. S., Smith, D. S., & Hutman, T. (2014). Interactions
between the autism spectrum and the internet: perceived benefits and preferred functions of computer-
mediated communication. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 52, 456-469.

Kapp, S. K. (2013). Empathizing with sensory and movement differences: moving toward sensitive
understanding of autism. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 7: 38.

Kapp, S. K., Gillespie-Lynch, K., Sherman, L. E., & Hutman, T. (2013). Deficit, difference, or
both? Autism and neurodiversity. Developmental Psychology, 49(1), 59-71.

Gantman, A., Kapp, S. K., Orenski, K., & Laugeson, E. A. (2012). Social skills training for
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young adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders: a randomized controlled intervention
study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(6), 1094-1103.

Kapp, S. K. (2011). Navajo and autism: the beauty of harmony. Disability & Society, 26(5), 583-595.

Conference Presentations _____
Kapp, S. K., & Gillespie-Lynch, K. (May 2016). Toward social acceptance of autism: listening
to autistic people. Invited oral presentation on Life Course and Ecological Perspectives on Autism
keynote panel of the International Meeting for Autism Research, Baltimore, MD.

Kapp, S. (June 2014). Models of helping and coping with autism. Paper presented at the annual
conference of the Society for Disability Studies, Minneapolis, MN.

Kapp, S. (June 2013). Merging science and advocacy: expanding the influence of disability
studies. Presentation at the annual conference of the Society for Disability Studies,
Orlando, FL.

Kapp, S. (November 2012). The neurodiversity movement: celebrating and supporting people
with autism. Presentation at the 2012 TASH Conference, Long Beach, CA.

Kapp, S. (November 2012). Toward intercultural universality of neurodiversity. Presentation at
the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Kapp, S. (July 2012). The views and influence of the neurodiversity movement. Poster presented
at the Autreat annual conference, Johnstown, PA.

Kapp, S. K., Gantman, A., & Laugeson, E. A. (May 2012). Associations of IQ and autistic
symptomology with functioning in young adults with ASD: self- and parent report. Poster
presented at the 2012 International Meeting for Autism Research, Toronto, CAN.

Kapp, S. (October 2011). Evaluating the neurodiversity movement: history, progress, and
the path forward. Presentation at the 2011 Autcom annual conference, Burbank, CA.

Kapp, S. (June 2011). Neurodiversity and progress for intercultural equity. Presentation at the
annual conference of the Society for Disability Studies, San Jose, CA.

Kapp, S. K., Gantman, A., & Laugeson, E. A. (May 2011). Perceptual differences between
young adults with autism and their parents. Poster presented at the International Meeting
for Autism Research, San Diego, CA.

Fellowships/Awards/Honors
UC Regents’ Fellowships UCLA 2009-2016
Graduate Summer Research Mentorship award UCLA 2011, 2009

Positions _____________
Graduate Student Researcher at the UCLA Semel Institute 09/2014-06/2015
Los Angeles, CA

Graduate Student Intern at the UCLA Tarjan Center 02/2012-09/2014
Los Angeles, CA

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