School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, 5290002, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, 5290002, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Sci Rep. 2024 Aug 18;14(1):19116. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-67762-8.
Young adults with ASD experience shame in social interactions, and if poorly mishandled, it may interfere with their attempts to participate in their social environment. One strategy to reduce shame is cognitive reappraisal, yet the efficacy of this strategy was not examined in ASD. Here, we investigated the effect of reappraisal in reducing feelings of shame in ASD and the thematic contents used. Young adults with high-functioning ASD and typical participants were shown shame-arousing pictures. They imagined themselves as the primary character in each scenario and rated their feelings of shame. Then, they were trained to reappraise shame-arousing pictures less negatively. Finally, they viewed other shame-arousing photos, reappraised them, stated aloud their new interpretations, and rated their feelings. We found lower shame ratings in participants with ASD than in typical participants. In addition, we found a similar reduction in shame ratings after reappraising these pictures in both groups. Qualitative analysis revealed that participants with ASD used fewer positive narratives and more neutral and unrealistic descriptions than their typical peers. These findings highlight shame-regulation abilities in individuals with ASD while pointing to their unique narratives. We recommend that clinical interventions in ASD emphasize generating positive reappraisals of social situations.
患有 ASD 的年轻人在社交互动中会感到羞耻，如果处理不当，可能会干扰他们参与社交环境的尝试。一种减少羞耻感的策略是认知重评，但这种策略在 ASD 中并未得到检验。在这里，我们研究了重评对减少 ASD 中羞耻感的影响以及使用的主题内容。高功能 ASD 青年和典型参与者被展示了引起羞耻感的图片。他们将自己想象成每个场景中的主要角色，并对自己的羞耻感进行评分。然后，他们接受了重新评价引起羞耻感的图片的训练，使其不再那么消极。最后，他们观看了其他引起羞耻感的照片，对其进行了重新评价，大声说出他们的新解释，并对自己的感受进行了评分。我们发现 ASD 患者的羞耻感评分低于典型参与者。此外，我们发现两组参与者在重新评价这些图片后，羞耻感评分都有类似的降低。定性分析显示，与典型同龄人相比，ASD 患者使用的积极叙述较少，而中性和不现实的描述较多。这些发现强调了 ASD 个体的羞耻调节能力，同时也指出了他们独特的叙述方式。我们建议在 ASD 中强调对社交情境进行积极的重新评价。
