Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Cook, Peter

Area of Concentration

Neurodiversity Studies

Abstract

This thesis argues that producing knowledge about the brain and behavior can recognize variance in neutral terms rather than pathologizing ones. I begin by discussing the academic field of disability studies. Disability studies defines disability as separate from impairment, which describes the actual difference in body, brain, or behavior. I will then explain how redefining the way cognitive science looks at disabilities and intentionally moving away from the perspective of deficit doesn’t require the invention of new tools. Affordance theory, which discusses an emergent property between an environment and an individual that makes actions possible, has the potential to open the conversation in the cognitive sciences to include disability studies’ theories of complex embodiment. I then discuss executive functioning and its associated neuroanatomy, as well as its relationship with diagnosed “mental disorders.” The diagnoses are formed because of particular social values, and if aware of this, studies on the brain don’t have to uphold a norm. Awareness of a disability studies lens in the cognitive sciences would bolster knowledge production and reduce stigma of neurodivergent individuals.

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