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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences pp 1–5Cite as

Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Synonyms

Asperger disorder; Autism; Autism spectrum condition; Autistic disorder; Asperger syndrome; Childhood autism

Definition/Introduction

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong developmental disorder characterized by quantitative impairments of social communication as well as restricted behaviors, interests, and activities. Some people with ASD may also be over- or under-sensitive to sensory stimuli (sound, touch, taste, smell, pain, temperature). Personality characteristics involving social difficulty and rigidity of thought can often be identified in non-autistic relatives of autistic individuals, also sometimes referred to as the broader autism phenotype in the general population.

Autism Prevalence and Symptoms

ASD, which is traditionally called autism (derived from the Greek “autos” meaning “self”), manifests early in life. It occurs in about 1% of the population, with a gender bias toward males of 4:1. There are, as yet, no established biological markers for the...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology, Department of General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany

    Dana Schneider

  2. Institute of Psychology, Department of General Psychology, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Maria Glaser

  3. Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, UK

    Atsushi Senju

Authors
  1. Dana Schneider
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  2. Maria Glaser
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  3. Atsushi Senju
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dana Schneider .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

    Anna Czarna

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Schneider, D., Glaser, M., Senju, A. (2017). Autism Spectrum Disorder. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2092-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2092-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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