Monique Botha

Monique Botha
University of Stirling · Department of Psychology

PhD

About

47
Publications
46,576
Reads
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1,802
Citations
Introduction
Monique Botha currently works at the Division of Psychology, University of Stirling, as an Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow on a project entitled "Fragile Knowledge: Dehumanization and Interpretation Bias in Autism Research". Monique's PhD and MSc research focused on autism, identity, community connectedness and minority stress. Their work also covers meta-theoretical issues in the creation of autism knowledge, such a epistemic injustice and violence, and issues around power.
Additional affiliations
October 2020 - present
University of Stirling
Position
  • PostDoc Position
Education
September 2016 - December 2019
University of Surrey
Field of study
  • Psychology
September 2015 - September 2016
University of Surrey
Field of study
  • Psychology
September 2011 - June 2015
Athlone Institute of Technology
Field of study
  • Social Care Practice

Publications

Publications (47)
Preprint
Background: Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing in its prominence and use in society, with an ability to “create” images, text, music, and video in short time frames, with relatively little cost. However, calling it generative is a misnomer given that it consumes what it is trained on and produces an amalgamation of what it has “lear...
Chapter
In this chapter we explore the challenges and possibilities of neurodiverse research collaboration, i.e., including researchers of different neurotypes. We come from different disciplines, from the UK and Sweden. Drawing on a collaborative autoethnographic methodology, we share our reflections about working together on a wider project exploring the...
Article
There is an increasing focus on research exploring autistic communication and community. In this review, we systematically collate and analyse how autistic adults describe their experiences of other autistic people and the relationship this has with their Quality of Life (QoL). Fifty two qualitative papers were analysed using thematic meta-synthesi...
Preprint
Background: Many services designed to support victim/survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) do not have a specific focus on, or understanding of neurodivergence, which may impact autistic access to meaningful support. The aim of this project was to examine the support and recovery needs of autistic adults who have experienced IPV. Method: We...
Preprint
Background: Autistic people are more likely to experience intimate partner violence (IPV) than non-autistic peers, but our knowledge about how they recognise abuse and make sense of what has happened to them is sparse. The aim of this study was to explore how autistic people recognise and make meaning after experiencing IPV.Method: We recruited 21...
Article
Many support schemes in current autism clinical services for children and young people are based on notions of neuro-normativity with a behavioral emphasis. Such neuro-disorder approaches gradually undermine a person, restrain authentic self-expression, and fail to address the impact of a hostile world on autistic well-being. Furthermore, such appr...
Article
Full-text available
We, an international group of autistic scholars of autism and neurodiversity, discuss recent findings on the origins of the concept and theorising of neurodiversity. For some time, the coinage and theorising of the concept of ‘neurodiversity’ has been attributed to Judy Singer. Singer wrote an Honours thesis on the subject in 1998, focused on autis...
Article
Full-text available
Studies investigating autistic community research priorities indicate a mismatch between what autism research focuses on and what autistic people want to see researched. Furthermore, there has not been a research priority-setting exercise specifically with autistic people in Scotland, where there are unique cultural, political and social contexts....
Article
Full-text available
Autistic people diagnosed in adulthood often report that the experience can be life-changing, but there are issues with the diagnostic pathway. Few studies consider the views of people currently seeking diagnosis or contextualise the experience of diagnosis around developing an autistic identity. In this qualitative participatory study, we explored...
Article
Full-text available
Consistent with a “double empathy” framework, autistic adults often experience better interaction with autistic compared with non-autistic partners. Here, we examined whether non-autistic observers detect differences in autistic interactions relative to non-autistic and mixed ones. Non-autistic adults (N = 102) rated the interaction quality and tra...
Preprint
Full-text available
Many support schemes in current autism clinical services for children and young people are based on notions of neuro-normativity with a behavioural emphasis. Such neuro-disorder approaches gradually undermine a person, restrain authentic self-expression, and fail to address the impact of a hostile world on autistic wellbeing. Furthermore, such appr...
Article
Full-text available
It was recently argued that autism researchers committed to rejecting ableist frameworks in their research may sacrifice “scientifically accurate” conceptualizations of autism. In this perspective piece, we argue that: (a) anti-ableism vs. scientific accuracy is a false dichotomy, (b) there is no ideology-free science that has claim to scientific a...
Article
Full-text available
Researchers are increasingly relying on online methods for data collection, including for qualitative research involving interviews and focus groups. In this letter, we alert autism researchers to a possible threat to data integrity in such studies: “scammer” participants, who may be posing as autistic people and/or parents of autistic children in...
Article
Full-text available
Singer et al. (2023) argue that the current lexical shift within autism research towards more neutral terminology hinders accurate scientific description of the wide range of autistic experiences, particularly within clinical and medical contexts. We disagree with these claims. This letter is authored and co-signed by a diverse group of autistic re...
Preprint
Singer et al. (2022) argue that the current lexical shift within autism research towards more neutral terminology hinders accurate scientific description of the wide range of autistic experiences, particularly within clinical and medical contexts. In this Letter to the Editor, we present an examination and criticism of these claims. This letter is...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction While not all autism research is ableism, autism researchers can be ableist, including by talking about autistic people in sub-human terms (dehumanization), treating autistic people like objects (objectification), and making othering statements which set autistic people apart from non-autistic people, and below in status (stigmatizatio...
Preprint
Full-text available
Autistic people diagnosed in adulthood often report that the experience can be life-changing, but there are issues with the diagnostic pathway. Few studies consider the views of people currently seeking diagnosis or contextualise the experience of diagnosis around developing an autistic identity. In this qualitative participatory study, we explored...
Preprint
Full-text available
Studies investigating autistic community research priorities indicate a mismatch between what autism research focuses on and what autistic people want to see researched. Further, there has not been a research priority-setting exercise specifically with autistic people in Scotland, where there are unique cultural, political, and social contexts. Usi...
Article
Full-text available
Increasingly, neurodivergent people are sharing their own narratives and conducting their own research. Prominent individuals have integrated the ‘nothing about us without us’ slogan, used by neurodivergent and other disabled social activists, into academia. This article imagines a neuromixed academia. We consider how to work through challenges pre...
Article
Full-text available
The aim of this paper was to think with and elaborate on theories developed outside of autism research and the autistic community, and through this support the production of new autistic-led theories; theories and concepts based on autistic people´s own embodied experiences and the social worlds we inhabit. The paper consists of three different sec...
Article
Full-text available
The neurodiversity movement is a social movement that emerged among autistic self‐advocates. It has since spread and has been joined by many with diagnoses of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and developmental coordination disorder among others. By reconceptualizing neurodiversity as part of biodiversity, neurodiversity proponent...
Preprint
Full-text available
Abstract: The neurodiversity movement is a social movement that emerged among autistic self-advocates. It has since spread and has been joined by many with diagnoses of ADHD, bipolar, and dyspraxia among others. By reconceptualising neurodiversity as part of biodiversity, neurodiversity proponents emphasise the need to develop an 'ecological' socie...
Preprint
Full-text available
Autism researchers can be ableist, including by talking about autistic people in sub-human terms (dehumanisation), treating autistic people like objects (objectification), and making othering statements which set autistic people apart from non-autistic people, and below in status (stigmatisation). This mixed-method study aimed to investigate how au...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Masking involves blending in or covering a stigmatized identity, to avoid discrimination and to "pass" within society. Autistic people often report masking, both intentionally and unintentionally, to get by in social situations. Autistic people who report high rates of masking also tend to experience poorer mental health. It is importa...
Article
Autistic people report greater comfort socialising and easier communication with each other. Despite autism being stereotypically associated with lack of social motivation, an autistic community has been described briefly in the literature but is not well understood. Autistic community connectedness may play a role in promoting wellbeing for autist...
Article
Full-text available
Autistic people report greater comfort socialising and easier communication with each other. Despite autism being stereotypically associated with lack of social motivation, an autistic community has been described briefly in the literature but is not well understood. Autistic community connectedness may play a role in promoting wellbeing for autist...
Article
Full-text available
Singer intended for neurodiversity to be a new category of intersectionality. However, intersectionality has been neglected in autism research and practice. This paper aims to inform an intersectional approach to autism by exploring autistic identity development in relation to other marginalized identities. We reviewed literature about neurodiversi...
Article
Full-text available
Community psychology (CP) is a transformative subdiscipline of psychology which aims to address inequality and social injustice and to attend to wellbeing. It has been argued that CP lacks an underpinning philosophy of science. Philosophies of science provide road maps for values, methods, and objectives, thus ultimately framing all research. This...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Masking or camouflaging involves blending in or covering a stigmatised identity, to avoid discrimination and ‘pass’ within society. Autistic people often report masking, both intentionally and unintentionally, to get by in social situations. Autistic people who report high rates of masking also tend to experience poorer mental health. I...
Preprint
This commentary – provided by a group of Autistic researchers – reflects on a case study trialling a ‘modified Cognitive Behavioural Therapy intervention’ to address the ‘noise hypersensitivity’ and associated behaviours of an Autistic teenager, ‘Aaron’. We identify serious flaws in the evidence base behind the ‘therapy’: including failing to accou...
Preprint
Full-text available
This commentary – provided by a group of Autistic researchers – reflects on a case study trialling a ‘modified Cognitive Behavioural Therapy intervention’ to address the ‘noise hypersensitivity’ and associated behaviours of an Autistic teenager, ‘Aaron’. We identify serious flaws in the evidence base behind the ‘therapy’: including failing to accou...
Article
Full-text available
There has been a focus on autistic-led and participatory research in autism research, but minimal discussion about whether the field is hospitable to autistic involvement. While the focus on participatory and/or autistic-led research is abundantly welcome, a wider conversation should also happen about how autistic people are treated in the process...
Preprint
Full-text available
Singer intended for neurodiversity to be a new category of intersectionality. However, intersectionality has been neglected in autism research and practice. This paper aims to inform an intersectional approach to autism by exploring autistic identity development in relation to other marginalized identities. We reviewed literature about intersection...
Preprint
Full-text available
Autistic people report greater comfort socialising and easier communication with each other. Despite autism being stereotypically associated with lack of social motivation, an autistic community has been described briefly in the literature but is not well understood. Autistic community connectedness (ACC) may play a role in promoting wellbeing for...
Article
Full-text available
In response to Vivanti’s ‘Ask The Editor…’ paper [ Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 50 (2), 691–693], we argue that the use of language in autism research has material consequences for autistic people including stigmatisation, dehumanisation, and violence. Further, that the debate in the use of person-first language versus identity-fi...
Article
Full-text available
There are many different perspectives for understanding autism. These perspectives may each convey different levels of stigma for autistic individuals. This qualitative study aimed to understand how autistic individuals make sense of their own autism and experience the stigma attached to autism. The study used critical grounded theory tools. Partic...
Preprint
Full-text available
In response to Vivanti’s ‘Ask The Editor…’ paper (2020), we argue that the use of language in autism research has material consequences for autistic people including stigmatisation, dehumanisation, and violence. Further, that the debate in the use of person-first language versus identity-first language should centre first and foremost on the needs,...
Preprint
Full-text available
There are many different perspectives for understanding autism. These perspectives may each convey different levels of stigma for autistic individuals. This qualitative study aimed to understand how autistic individuals make sense of their own autism and experience the stigma attached to autism. The study used critical grounded theory tools. Partic...
Thesis
This thesis aimed to investigate the role of minority stress (MS) and autistic community connectedness (ACC) on mental health (MH) and wellbeing in the autistic community. Multiple methods were used, across four studies. Study one consisted of a qualitative study using grounded theory tools to create a measure of ACC, as none existed. The findings...
Article
Full-text available
Research into autism and mental health has traditionally associated poor mental health and autism as inevitably linked. Other possible explanations for mental health problems among autistic populations have received little attention. As evidenced by the minority disability movement, autism is increasingly being considered part of the identities of...

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