Societal and cultural aspects of autism or sociology of autism come into play with recognition of autism, approaches to its support services and therapies, and how autism affects the definition of personhood. The autistic community is divided primarily into two camps; the autism rights movement and the Pathology paradigm. The pathology paradigm advocates for supporting research into therapies, treatments, and/or a cure to help minimize or remove autistic traits, seeing treatment as vital to help individuals with autism, while the neurodiversity movement believes autism should be seen as a different way of being and advocates against a cure and interventions that focus on normalization (but do not oppose interventions that emphasize acceptance, adaptive skills building, or interventions that aim to reduce intrinsically harmful traits, behaviors, or conditions), seeing it as trying to exterminate autistic people and their individuality. Both are controversial in autism communities and advocacy which has led to significant infighting between these two camps. While the dominant paradigm is the pathology paradigm and is followed largely by autism research and scientific communities, the neurodiversity movement is highly popular among most autistic people, within autism advocacy, autism rights organizations, and related neurodiversity approaches have been rapidly growing and applied in the autism research field in the last few years.
There are many autism-related events and celebrations; including World Autism Awareness Day, Autism Sunday and Autistic Pride Day, and notable people have spoken about being autistic or are thought to be or have been autistic. Autism is diagnosed more frequently in males than in females.
Terminology
Although some prefer to use the person-first terminology person with autism, other members of the autistic community prefer identity-first terminology, such as autistic person or autistic in formal English, to stress that autism is a part of their identity rather than a disease they have. In addition, phrases like are objectionable to many people.
The autistic community has developed abbreviations for commonly used terms, such as: Aspie – a person with Asperger syndrome. Autie – an autistic person. It can be contrasted with aspie to refer to those specifically diagnosed with classic autism or another autism spectrum disorder. Autistics and Cousins (AC) – a cover term including aspies, auties, and their "cousins", i.e. people with some autistic traits but no formal diagnosis. Curebie – a person with the desire to cure autism. This term is highly derogatory. Neurodiversity – tolerance of people regardless of neurological makeup. Neurotypical (NT) – a person who does not have any developmental or neurological disorders. Often used to describe an individual who is not on the autism spectrum. Allistic – a person who is not autistic but may or may not be neurodivergent in other ways, for example, a dyslexic person, or someone with ADHD. Originally and commonly, however, it is used satirically to describe those without autism.
Autism spectrum disorders; DSM-V; Diagnostic criteria-Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) is the 2013 update to the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) classification and diagnostic tool. In the United States, the DSM serves as a universal authority for psychiatric diagnosis.
Overview
Autistic adults
Communication and social problems often cause difficulties in many areas of an autistic adult's life. A 2008 study found that adults with ASD commonly experience difficulty starting social interactions, a longing for greater intimacy, a profound sense of isolation, and effort to develop greater social or self-awareness.
A much smaller proportion of adult autistics marry than the general population. It has been hypothesized that autistic people are subject to assortative mating; they tend to pair with each other and raise autistic offspring. This hypothesis has been publicized in the popular press, but has not been empirically tested.
British psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen said that an increasingly technological society has opened up niches for people with Asperger syndrome, who may choose fields that are "highly systematised and predictable." People with AS could do well in workplace roles that are "system-centered, and connect with the nitty-gritty detail of the product or the system."