Linking Clinical and Industrial Psychology: Autism Spectrum Disorder at Work

摘要

From the perspective of a non-industrial psychologist involved in understanding the barriers to employment for those with clinical conditions (defined under the Neurodevelopmental Disorders code in DSM-5; APA, 2013), Guenole's article (2014) "Maladaptive personality at work: Exploring the darkness" provided an interesting perspective and struck a number of chords. I will contextualize these within our knowledge of the experiences of those with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) obtaining, and maintaining employment. As a preface, ASD is diagnosed on the basis of delayed or atypical development of social interaction and communication, as well as repetitive and restricted activities and interests (DSM-5; APA, 2013). ASD is currently believed to affect around 1% of the population (Baird et al., 2006) and has long been seen as a spectrum. This spectrum includes affected individuals ranging from those with a severe learning disability and/or little to no language ability to intellectually highly able and linguistically competent individuals who, nonetheless, struggle to function in their daily lives at a level commensurate with their intellectual ability and other competencies. It is such individuals that form the basis of the content in this commentary and their difficulties can involve understanding other people's motivations, organizing and monitoring their own thoughts and actions, as well as securing and maintaining any form of employment, particularly a position that reflects their abilities. Indeed, Martin Knapp and his colleagues have estimated that the lifetime cost for each individual with ASD without intellectual disability is approximately ￡800,000 (Knapp, Romeo, & Beecham, 2009), with their recent figures showing this to be higher, reaching more than ￡900,000 ($1.46 million) in the UK for this subgroup of the autism spectrum (work in progress at LSE and the University of Pennsylvania carried out by Ariane Buescher, Zuleyha Cidav, Martin Knapp and David Mandell, see http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/ healthandsocialcare/2012/04/09/professor-martin-knapp-autism-costs/).