Monotropism Questionnaire

Hello fellow autistic people!

I have just found this brilliant monotropism questionnaire created by Fergus Murray (autistic monotropism expert). It is so much more relatable and meaningful than any other questionnaire related to autistic experience. I have completed it and I scored very highly- 197/235 meaning I am more monotropic than 55% of autistic people and 96% of allistic people. This is a test of how monotropic you are and is part of a wider project about monotropism and autistic people. It is not a questionnaire to identify whether you are autistic or not.

Questionnaire:

Two websites:

https://osf.io/4wru2

https://dlcincluded.github.io/MQ/

More information about the questionnaire:

https://monotropism.org/2023/mq/

I hope you find this interesting! How did you score on the Monotropism Questionnaire?

  • same for me. Only excelled in one subject. They gave up, just let me do that one thing, thinking I was slow. I added other scholastic subjects later in life on my own - but doing them one at a time.

  • Thank yo ufro sharing. Very interesting! Her is my score

    " Monotropism Score: 214 / 235

    Average: 4.55

    This score means that you are more Monotropic than about 88% of autistic people and about 100% of allistic people."

    I think that last phrase has a typo but it's a quote so. there's that.

    I am a bit surprised but asked a friend and they were not.

  • I do find the theory of monotropism relatable to an extent, I think it's better for me to conceptualize it as how easy/difficult it may be to focus or notice things at any one time. Part of the way I have learned to mask is to force myself to deal with many things and multitask but I much prefer giving my focus fully to one thing at a time.

    Thank you for your kind words and the link! I will definitely check it out~

  • Cool! 

    It was interesting to do. 

    I know, I am glad you found it interesting!

  • 214/235

    That's very monotropic! 

    It was interesting to do. 

  • Thanks for sharing your thoughts and score!

    Very exciting to see this kind of thing published!

    Exactly! Do you find the theory of monotropism relatable to your autistic experiences?

    I'm what you would call a self-diagnosed autistic as of about the beginning of last year (I don't think many people in my life know since a few of the people I talked about it with fully disagreed based on their lack of knowledge and updated findings

    I self identify too, I have been on the waiting list for formal identification for 2 years and 4 months but I don’t think I want to pursue it anymore because I think the whole process will be pathologising and currently I am very proud and positive about my autistic identity.

    I am sorry that when you tried to disclose, other people disagreed. You know yourself best and you deserve to be accepted and understood as an openly autistic person. You must have felt invalidated. I completely understand why you are therefore hesitant to disclose your autistic identity to more people.

    This video below might help you when deciding who to disclose to:

    Disclosing your autistic identity;

    https://youtu.be/Sq82fb7NROY

    I hope you feel accepted in this autistic community! We are here for you!Smile

  • I got 201/235 after hearing about the questionnaire through tiktok. I'm what you would call a self-diagnosed autistic as of about the beginning of last year (I don't think many people in my life know since a few of the people I talked about it with fully disagreed based on their lack of knowledge and updated findings). Very exciting to see this kind of thing published!

  • You are very welcome! 

    I was in a meeting with people and they said that I was communicating well and that I did not come across as autistic and that I was doing "really well". I found that comment strange, and a little bit upsetting, I know that they were trying to be kind and were not bad people, but I felt that they were suddenly making themselves superior over autistics and suddenly I became inferior the moment I mentioned I am autistic

    I am sorry this happened to you, NT’s obviously don’t understand what being autistic means.

    I completely understand why you felt upset, I would be too. I don’t know why NT’s perceive being autistic negatively and don’t understand how patronising that comment could have been. NT’s don’t understand communication differences and instead falsely believe we have communication ‘deficits’ . This is yet again an example of the Double Empathy Problem.

    Always remember that you are Ausomely Autistic!

  • I can understand why you would find that comment upsetting and I would too.

    It suggests that coming across as autistic is in someway bad and that we should be rewarded and praised for masking our natural autistic communication. That is wrong. Masking is bad for our mental health and we should be encouraged to be our authentic selves.

    I appreciate that people mean well but it does not help. Personally all that happens if I get that kind of comment is I become even more anxious and self conscious about how I am communicating, rather than feeling able to just be myself.

    What people don't see is the effect that meeting may have on us afterwards and that we may need several days of quiet and alone time to recover.

  • thank you so much, the video is much appreciated. I will watch a bit at a time, as I am very interested in this.  just listening to a bit of it now and one lady brought up about the idea of explaining to people who do not understand autism. That is such an issue as a lot of people do not understand autism at all. 

    I was in a meeting with people and they said that I was communicating well and that I did not come across as autistic and that I was doing "really well". I found that comment strange, and a little bit upsetting, I know that they were trying to be kind and were not bad people, but I felt that they were suddenly making themselves superior over autistics and suddenly I became inferior the moment I mentioned I am autistic!  It is just that I never point out to NT's if they were doing "really well" in doing something that is supposed to be just an autistic trait. 

    I hope the above makes sense.  

  • Exactly!

    Monotropism is one of the first theories about autistic experience that has been developed by autistic people which means it is much more meaningful, relatable and accurate as it describes how we autistics actually experience the world as opposed to non autistic theories that are poor observations of how we behave.

    Monotropism also reiterates that being autistic is very much an internal experience.

  • It shows that we autistics are all unique, so I think that by evaluating different levels of different autistic people, it highlights the fact that stereotypical ideologies are not correct. 

    Exactly! Also monotropism is thought to be at the core of all our autistic experiences because it can also explain our sensory experiences, communication differences and emotional experiences all based on how we use attention.

    Here is another video about monotropism if you are interested:

    https://www.youtube.com/live/cEtLOGcTA0A?feature=share.

    Cool! I am very monotropic too.

  • I am glad that this is something that has been developed by autistic people rather than people who are looking in from the outside 

  • It is all very new to me.  I would say aspects of it I relate too very strongly other aspects I don't and some at a weaker level. It shows that we autistics are all unique, so I think that by evaluating different levels of different autistic people, it highlights the fact that stereotypical ideologies are not correct. 

    Overall I would say yes I do identify with the theory.  

  • Yes this questionnaire has gone viral on the internet. You can read more about what monotropism is here:

    https://monotropism.org/explanations/

    There is a comic strip on the webpage above that explains monotropism very clearly.

  • You are very welcome! I am glad you find the topic of monotropism interesting.

    Do you identify with/relate to the theory of monotropism?

  • your higher than me.

     

  • Very Interesting. I had not heard of this term, so thank you for sharing. I thought I would share my results: 

    Monotropism Score: 149 / 235

    Average: 3.17

    This score means that you are more Monotropic than about 1% of autistic people and about 49% of allistic people.

  • Monotropism Score: 201 / 235

    Average: 4.28

    This score means that you are more Monotropic than about 65% of autistic people and about 98% of allistic people.

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