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Children diagnosed with autism show marked impairments in social and communicative behaviors. According to social motivation and social orienting models of autism, decreased social interest leads to less social input and fewer social learning opportunities (Chevallier et al., 2012; Mundy & Neal, 2001). These models suggest that the ability to initiate and participate in social interactions are important factors in language development. Research in this area has focused on the role of joint attention in language development however; the current study takes a broad view of social interest and posits that not only joint attention, but all socially mediated behaviors are important in language development. The aim of the current study was (1) to evaluate a novel behavioral-coding scheme of social approach behaviors and (2) evaluate the relationship between social approach behaviors and language development. The social approach coding scheme used frequency counts of seven social behaviors emitted during an administration of the ADOS. These behaviors were coded as being either initiated by the child or occurring in response to the parent or examiner, however, no distinction was made on the basis of on the function of the behavior. Social approach rates gleaned using this novel coding scheme were correlated with existing measures of social motivation suggesting that social approach coding is capturing a similar construct as those of existing measures. Social approach rates were also used to evaluate the relationship between social behaviors and language development. The results indicated that both social initiations and social responses are important in language development. Overall, children with higher rates of both social initiations and social responses showed increased scores on language measures. The coding scheme presented provides an alternative way to quantify behaviors on the ADOS that may be used in treatment development and assessment. Given the relationship between social approach rates and language development, using this coding scheme may provide a way to determine those behaviors that are most challenging for a child so that they can be targeted in intervention to facilitate not only their social development but also language acquisition.

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Social motivation in individuals with ASD is currently derived from the observation of overt behaviors and neurological correlates, from which motivational processes are inferred. Motivation, however, is not the same as behavior, and most theoretical conceptualization of the construct assign primary importance to cognitive processes. Nevertheless, few studies have examined the cognitive processes that may influence goal-directed tasks involved in social interaction. Understanding internalized cognitive processes may distinguish underlying motivations which influence engagement in social behavior. This study aims to assess how beliefs, mindsets, and attitudes can influence one's motivation to engage in social interaction through the development of a novel interview. The Social Motivation Interview (SMI) assesses for internal cognitions as they relate to social motivation by determining levels of social desire, interest, and behaviors in children with ASD. The development of the SMI followed stringent criteria to create a unified measure that was methodologically sound and theoretically informed. SMI development followed guidelines to ensure item pool development was consistent with the proposed construct. Pilot testing suggested feasibility of administration, user satisfaction, and promising psychometric properties. Future examination of the SMI in large-scale field testing is warranted. / Doctor of Philosophy / This study aims to assess how beliefs, mindsets, and attitudes can influence one’s motivation to engage in social interaction through the development of a novel interview. The Social Motivation Interview (SMI) assesses for internal cognitions as they relate to social motivation by determining levels of social desire, interest, and behaviors in children with ASD. The development of the SMI followed stringent criteria to create a unified measure that was methodologically sound and theoretically informed. SMI development followed guidelines to ensure item pool development was consistent with the proposed construct. Pilot testing suggested feasibility of administration, user satisfaction, and promising psychometric properties. Future examination of the SMI in large-scale field testing is warranted.

Although clinically significant symptoms of anxiety or depression are present in nearly one in two people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), little is known about how these symptoms may relate to social motivation, a key construct in the etiology of ASD. The aim of the current study was to examine patterns of anxiety, depression, ASD symptomatology, and social motivation in youth with ASD. Using a large public dataset of well-characterized youth with ASD (N = 195), we examined varying patterns of these symptoms via latent profile analysis (LPA). Three distinct classes emerged: one with moderate ASD severity and low levels of comorbid psychopathology, a second with more severe ASD symptoms and similarly low anxiety and depression, and a third with significantly elevated anxiety and depression. Neither sex nor age differed significantly among these classes, and indices of social interest early in development did not predict class membership. Implications of these symptom patterns for assessment and treatment of comorbidity in ASD are discussed. / Doctor of Philosophy / A large proportion of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience symptoms of anxiety and depression. Anxiety and depression might be related to social motivation, which is a key concept associated with the development of ASD. The current study examined variation in anxiety, depression, social motivation, and ASD symptom severity in a large sample of youth with ASD. Individuals in the sample were classified in groups by a statistical model. Models produced three separate groups: one group with moderate symptoms of ASD and relatively low levels of anxiety and depression, a second with more severe ASD symptoms and similarly low anxiety and depression, and a final group with moderate ASD symptoms and high anxiety and depression. Social motivation was strongest in the first and second groups, and low social motivation was strongly associated with anxiety and depression symptoms. Age and sex did not predict group membership, nor did items measuring social motivation early in development. Implications of these symptom patterns for the assessment and treatment of anxiety and depression in ASD are discussed.

<p>Motivated by recent academic inquiry into the distinction between relational collectivism and group collectivism that characterize different cultures, I empirically investigate the differential effects of relational and group collectivism on social motivation across cultures. The present research contextualizes motivation in social interactions and illustrates the influences of different types of interaction partners on social motivation through self-construal. To unpackage the psychological process in which social motivation is elicited, I develop a two-step theoretical model: In the first step, I examine how different types of interaction partners activate the individual, relational and collective aspects of the self construal. The second step of my model investigates how the activated self-construal shapes individuals' social motivations toward their interaction partners.</p><p>Empirical studies were conducted in an individualist culture (US) and a collective culture (Singapore). Results from the studies identified both culturally specific and culturally universal patterns in self-construal activation. Interacting with a friend elicits relational self across both cultures. When interacting with a stranger, members of individualist cultures activated their collective and relational selves whereas members of collectivist cultures activated their individual self. Another interesting finding is that interacting with an ingroup member evokes the relational aspect of the self-construal in collectivist cultures, but it elicits the collective aspect of the self-construal in individualist cultures. An outgroup member evokes the collective aspect of the self-construal across both cultures. The studies also examined the link between the activated self-construal and its motivational consequence, and established the mediating effect of self-construal between interaction partner and social motivation. Applying the two-step model to both individualist and collectivist cultures, I demonstrate that individualist and collectivist cultures vary in the self-construal activation process in response to different types of interaction partners, but once certain aspect of the self is activated, it is likely to lead to the same social motivations across the two cultures.</p> / Dissertation

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a diverse disorder, and the heterogenous range of possible presentations hinders our understanding of its aetiology. Recently there has been a surge of genome wide association studies for ASD, while historically psychological theories were relied on to explain the emergence of ASD. These fields continue to provide insights into ASD, but they tend to operate in parallel – genetic studies often lack comprehensive psychological phenotyping and theoretical backing, and psychological studies tend to lack genetic explanations. I propose that moving forward, genotype-phenotype studies should have a strong foundation in both fields and should focus on genes and theories with realworld implications for ASD diagnostics and/or interventions. This approach can be supported by focusing on established, well supported psychological theories, and selected ASD candidate genes that could be implicated in these theories, and ideally the genetic mechanism implicated should be one that can be targeted by existing medications. I therefore selected two prominent psychological theories, the Social Motivation Theory for ASD (Panksepp, 1979) and the ToM Theory for ASD (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985), and selected an ASD candidate gene that was likely implicated in each of these theories, namely the mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) and the serotonin transporter promoter length polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) respectively. For the first study of this protocol, I assessed the possible relationships between social motivation, OPRM1, and the ASD phenotype. For the second study, I assessed possible relationships between ToM deficits, 5-HTTLPR, and the ASD phenotype. These two studies shared a sample of 153 male children 4-16 years old; 51 boys per group (i.e. non-verbal ASD; verbal ASD; neurotypical). All ASD children completed ADOS2 assessment for ASD phenotyping. For the Social Motivation Study, attachment was used as a proxy to assess level of social motivation in all participants, and 76 of the 102 children with ASD provided DNA for OPRM1 genotyping. Comparisons across all three groups showed that the ASD samples had significantly lower social motivation than the neurotypical sample, with the non-verbal ASD group displaying the most severely reduced level of social motivation. Reduced social motivation was associated with ASD-related deficits in the non-verbal ASD sample but not the verbal ASD sample. Finally, I was unable to statistically assess the role of OPRM1 as hypothesized, due to an unprecedentedly high rate of the OPRM1 G allele, which indicated atypical mu-opioid processes. This clearly implicated OPRM1 in ASD and is the first study to show this so convincingly. Overall, this study's findings led me to suggest that Panksepp's (1979) theory could be updated to include a threshold effect such that more severely reduced social motivation in ASD is associated with little-to-no language acquisition, while those with less severely reduced social motivation are able to develop language and this protects against associations between social motivation and ASD-related deficits in childhood. For the Theory of Mind Study, the verbal ASD sample and neurotypical sample completed a developmental ToM Battery (i.e. University of Cape Town Theory of Mind Battery) and WASI assessment to establish verbal intelligence quotient (VIQ) scores, and 70 of the children with ASD were successfully genotyped for 5-HTTLPR. This study found that verbal male children with ASD tended to be one developmental stage behind age-matched neurotypical peers on ToM tasks. ToM deficits were associated with greater impairment in overall ASD severity and in symptoms from the social communication and interaction domain. For the non-verbal ASD sample, the 5-HTTLPR short allele, which is implicated in atypical serotonergic transmission, was associated with greater impairment overall and in the restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests symptom domain. No associations between 5-HTTLPR and ToM, or with ASD-related symptoms, was found for the verbal ASD group. This again suggested that language acquisition is an important consideration in genotypephenotype studies in male children with ASD.

The evolutionary success of our species is bound to our sociality—the tendency to engage in and benefit from social interactions. On a conceptual level, this sociality has been parsed into two facets, namely the proclivity to like and seek social interactions (social motivation) as well as the cognitive abilities needed to coordinate with others socially (social cognition). While numerous studies have assessed social motivation and social cognition in young children, our current understanding of both facets is still far from conclusive. First, the exact ontogeny of social motivation and cognition remains largely unclear. Second, the degree to which either facet of sociality is shaped by cultural input remains poorly understood. Finally, interindividual variation in social motivation and cognition has yet to be examined, without which we can neither understand the construct validity of either facet, nor their potential interplay. In this dissertation, I present three studies addressing these issues by focusing on developmental, cross-cultural, and interindividual variation in three phenomena previously linked to sociality: Overimitation and collaboration as indicators of social motivation, as well as Theory of Mind as a proxy for social cognition. In the first study I assessed whether children’s overimitation would be shaped by age, culture, and the social presence of an adult model. I found that children across three diverse populations showed more overimitation with age and selectively in the presence of the model. I also documented cross-cultural variation in children’s overimitation. On an individual level, children’s overimitation did not predict their tendency to reengage a co-player in a collaborative activity. In study 2, I found children’s overimitation to vary systematically between two populations utilizing a procedure with reduced cognitive task demands. Here, age did not predict children’s overimitation and variation across populations was only observed in how much, but not whether, children would overimitate. In study 3, I documented systematic variation in children’s social motivation for collaboration as well as their Theory of Mind across three populations and across the age range tested. On an individual level, indicators of social motivation were ontogenetically linked and predicted children’s Theory of Mind. In the general discussion, I propose an integrative model of social motivation and cognition to embed and expand the current findings. Accordingly, the interplay of socialization goals and practices, social motivation, and social cognition builds the foundation for children’s social learning within social interactions.

It is well established in the research literature that exposure to nature positively affects physical and mental health. However, research regarding the effects of nature exposure on social health is less developed. Prior research found that watching a video of nature improved state social motivation. Building on this research, the current study compared the effects of three methods of virtual nature exposure on state social motivation in a randomized controlled trial. In this 3X3 between-subjects experiment, participants (N = 426) 18 to 73 (MAge = 27.69, SD = 12.19) were randomly assigned to experience 3-minutes of nature exposure (wilderness nature, urban non-nature control, indoor non-nature control) through one of three methods (video, photo, guided imagery) and then completed survey questions related to state social motivation (State Motivation to Foster Social Connections (SMSC), State Positive Affect (SA), State Anxiety (SA)). Three two-way 3 X 3 ANOVAs revealed a statistically significant interaction between type of exposure and method of exposure on PA, F(4, 417) = 4.125, p = .003, partial η2 = .038, and no significant interactions for SMSC or SA. Compared to virtual non-nature controls, results suggest that one aspect of state social motivation, PA, is greater after exposure to a nature photo, but not after exposure to a nature video or nature guided imagery. Nature exposure may have a favorable impact on the creation and maintenance of social ties, according to these findings, and should be investigated further as a social health intervention aimed at enhancing overall health.

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