HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Autism
Generalized Environmental Fear Hypothesis and The Effects of Cognitive Restructuring in Autism
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, New College, Arizona State University, Tempe, United States
- 2Texas A&M University, College Station, United States
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Current Models of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are very complex and exploratory in nature, it is the general consensus that there is not one underlying cause of autism. This article seeks to contest that claim by supporting a hypothesis that accounts for multiple, if not all, subgroups with a single common factor. At the same time, this hypothesis would lead to the use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for researching therapeutic methods for people with ASD, and this article outlines why that is not advisable. It is hypothesized that upon realization of awareness in the womb, people with ASD conditioned a fear response to their environment. This fear response generalized upon the realization of new cognitive awareness, leading to the symptoms of ASD. In regards to CBT, it is hypothesized that cognitive restructuring (a result of CBT) can lead to symptoms associated with CPTSD and schizophrenia. We further hypothesize that addressing schema in reverse order of acquisition will reduce the risk hypothesized to be associated with CBT. Drawing on schema theory, developmental stages, and neurobiology this article argues for the validity of these hypotheses. The implications of these models are vast, not only for the field of Autism research, but for the field as a whole. While some of the implications may seem negative for the field (CBT), the authors ultimately support the use of CBT for many situations other than ASD.
Keywords: ASD, autism, Cognitive Psychology, cognitive restructuring, Relational mapping
Received: 02 Dec 2025; Accepted: 30 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Long, Revanur and Crowder. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Alan Long
Nishant Revanur
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