Publication Date

2021

Document Type

Dataset

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

School or Research Centre

School of Arts and Humanities

Description

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has generated much research interest in recent times due to a soaring increase in diagnosis rates and a movement to recognise ASD as a cognitive style, rather than a cognitive deficit. Psychologists are responsible for the timely and accurate diagnosis of ASD and supporting clients on the spectrum with general mental health care. Undergraduate psychology students may go on to further study to become registered psychologists or choose to pursue other careers in mental health care and support work in which they will likely have contact with members of the autistic community. However, little research into the attitudes towards and knowledge of autism in psychology students in Australia has been conducted. In this exploratory study, 1st year (n=23) and 3rd year (n=64) undergraduate psychology students were surveyed, and the results compared to see if a significant difference exists between cohorts. That is, to ascertain if attitudes towards and knowledge of autism improved in students studying an undergraduate psychology major. Results indicated that there was no significant difference in knowledge and attitudes towards autism between the 1st and 3rd year student cohorts. Implications for psychology students, universities, the autistic population, and the future direction of research in this area are discussed.

DOI

10.25958/jt5z-xx69

Start of data collection time period

2021

End of data collection time period

2021

Language

English

File Format(s)

.xlsx

File Size

33 KB

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Included in

Psychology Commons

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