Participate in Asperger's research study

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Hello,

I have been given permission by Alex via email to recruit participants for my research study here.

My name is Benjamin Walser, and I am conducting a study under the auspices of the University of Tulsa. This study is designed to provide greater understanding of the career interests of individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), which is needed in order to promote greater understanding among educators and employers. This will benefit those with AS by making it easier for them to find and maintain employment that is a good “fit.” I am seeking adults (age 18 and above) with AS to participate in this study.

The study questionnaire contains items from the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), Multidimensional Emotional Intelligence Assessment (MEIA), and Career Directions Inventory (CDI). The estimated completion time is approximately 60 minutes. Your participation in the study will be kept strictly confidential.

In return for completing the questionnaire (in a conscientious manner), you will receive a Career Directions Inventory report (a $30 value) showing your personalized career interest results. Such a report will have no meaning to you or the researcher if you do not answer the questions carefully and thoughtfully, so PLEASE TAKE YOUR TIME. If it is determined that your answers show signs of non-conscientious (i.e., random) responding, you will not be eligible for this incentive.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is the second time I have recruited participants for this study from this site, so if you have already participated, please do not fill out the survey a second time.

Thank you very much for your participation!

Here is the link to the survey:

http://zipsurvey.com/LaunchSurvey.aspx? ... y=B66DBDD0

Sincerely,

Benjamin Walser
Graduate Assistant
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
The University of Tulsa
[email protected]

Are you serious?

Seems like you might obtain more practical information by soliciting data from those with AS who have already had successful careers spanning multiple decades.

Its pathetic the way Academics keep studying children and teenagers, who do not have the experience to evaluate their own condition and its long term effects on their quality of life, while ignoring the existence of adults who have lived with the condition through many phases of life and can maturely reflect on how their Autism has influenced and sometimes dictated their personal path.

But you just keep on "observing" the kids and speculating on what it is you're seeing, because you'll always appear intelligent to the ignorant and inexperienced. Who's to ever say you're wrong, if you never ask anybody who knows?

As a sociologist, I like the fact that you have used a Likert scale. However, do you know that "Asperger's disorder" is no longer used in the U.S.? It was replaced by the multidimensional category, autism spectrum disorder (DSM-5), two months ago.

He does specify adults with no upper age limit.

I am trying to do the test, but I feel like I am wasting a lot of time answering the same questions over and over again.

You'd probably get more successful responses if you didn't keep repeating and rephrasing questions, and you'd save both your own time and that of participants. I reckon you could cut out about a third of the questions on the first few sections.

On the "which activity do you prefer" question, some of the activities come from really left field. For example, here is one question:

Styling customers' hair
Carrying out activities in the conventional way
Checking campsites for smouldering fires

1 and 3 are like most of the activities, but 2 isn't an activity as such. Another example is "preferring a job that requires routine". I might wake up in the morning and decide I want to check campsites for fires or design unusual candles, but I'm not going to wake up and decide to spend the day preferring a job that requires routine. And "being polite at all times" doesn't conflict with "teaching children to read" or "holding a position of authority".

Okay, done now.

The repeated questions are related to what the OP said about conscientious answers. One of the ways to detect whether someone is seriously answering the questions or randomly answering them is to provide similar questions and see if the answers are consistent.

Nominalist brought up a significant point. I wonder if we could have Alex confirm his approval ... ?

I always like helping out other researchers when I can, so I completed the questionnaire. However, my suggestion is that your survey instrument is much too long for an online questionnaire (or a mail questionnaire). The length is about right for an interview schedule.

Also, since you are using an accidental sample (self-selection), you will not be able to make any statistical inferences about the population.

I appreciate everyone's input.

I thought they incentivised random answers though. They were incredibly time consuming. With fewer questions, the answerer doesn't feel the need to randomise to save time.

It's also not a great test for autistic pedants who will pick up on subtle changes of meaning. And there were questions in there like "I have watched television once in the last three months" and "I have travelled north of the Arctic circle" which demanded "strongly agree/disagree" answers.

Those are control questions. They are designed to make sure that the person is being honest or consistent.

Tests like this do allow for being pedantic like this. I'm incredibly pedantic. I never come back as lying though. Because I'm not, I'm just being pedantic. Analyzing it isn't as simple as saying "if you ever are inconsistent you fail", but do have you start randomizing they will tend to catch you.

My diagnosis evaluation had a long list of question that had some of these in it. I wasn't completely consistent. I was almost a standard deviation more inconsistent than average just because of being pedantic, while being very precise about every question and never randomizing. But not being completely consistent didn't make my results not valid. It was just me being pedantic.

I gave up at the 8% mark. This survey is entirely too long. While I think the info might be useful (and my responses as an aspie who is an attorney of several years would be useful), I'm not going to be very patient with this kind of survey. There is no way it could be completed, accurately and carefully in one hour. And I think the payoff (a $30 value) is too low for this much of a time commitment, at least if you are seeking adult respondents.

I think it should be taken into consideration that a neurotypical brain will think neurotypical and make a test with neurotypical response options. Perhaps I'm am alone in my experience, but if I'm taking a test, and the answers are not listed as I percieve my experience, one will see a pattern of different answers. It is not an attempt to be random, rather an attempt to isolate my experience and the degrees to which I fit into the neurotypical respinses.

For example,

If I am asked if I like to work outside,
I may put yes.
If I am asked if I like to work inside,
I may put yes.

The aspie experience, as it relates to me, is one of rigid, black and white thinking. In the example of above, I can't answer these questions 'correct' because sometimes I like being inside, sometimes outside. It doesn't capture my experience at all , because 'no's would mean I don't like either all the time, but then yes means I always like both.

I'm not sure there's a clear cut solution to this, but I hope it gets you to think a bit more on just how prevalent the problem is for autistic people. That even 'simple' tests as such can't reflect our experience accurately.

(I do not pretend I speak for everyone. I speak only from my own wxperience and research.)


Edit:

Neurotypucals generally possess abstract thinking. They are able to understand that, while sometimes, they may enjoy being inside, that doesn't cloud their abolity to see that they like being outside more. I am unable to seperate this way. I was diagnosed with BPD because of this, but the real truth being that my inability to have a personality and opinions on the plane of neurotypical thinking does not mean I don't possess personality. If judged by this tyåe of thinking, my brain literally cannot seperate and distinguish between liking it or not. I enjoy all things, and I dislike all things, because it depends ob the day and circumstance of that moment I am engaged in the activity.

Edit edit:
Unless something is ly obsession. Then I am able to say yes with confidence, because I have engaged in that activity enough times that, statistically, the positive response to the activity outweighs the negative.

I would think both once and twice before using large Likert Scales on neurodiverse people. Black-and-white thinking might mean they will use such scales in a different way than the average NT, so you might measure that difference rather than a real difference.