ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on different ways of understanding Asperger's syndrome at a psychological level, which includes cognitive, emotional, and social processes. Psychological processes in autism have generated great interest in the literature. The chapter looks at some of the most enduring and widely held theories about psychological processes occurring in autism. The majority of these theories focus on cognitive processes. Their proponents consider that cognitive deficits occur prior to the social and emotional features of autism. From a converse perspective, Peter Hobson's theory of interpersonal relatedness and autistic development takes into account the difficulty in isolating different aspects of functioning, particularly in infancy, where these processes are so inter-dependent. Hobson offers a model that can account for some of the more unusual social and affective difficulties to be seen in autism and that are difficult to explain using a purely cognitive framework. His theory also allows for the possibility of interventions that address difficulties in relatedness.
