Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Network Formation among Adults with Autism

像自闭症这样的神经发育障碍会抑制社会交往的能力。科学家们意识到患有自闭症的成年人能够建立社区和社交网络，但我们对这是如何发生的知之甚少。这个项目训练一名研究生如何进行严格的以经验为基础的科学实地考察，研究神经发育障碍患者如何发展社交能力。这个项目将大大提高我们对一个未被充分代表的群体成员如何使用各种技术和技术来发展社交网络和社区的认识。它还将增加我们对成年自闭症的认识以及自闭症患者与他人交往的方式，了解诊断分类的本质。在加州大学欧文分校基思·m·墨菲博士的指导下，希瑟·托马斯将调查生活在美国的成年自闭症患者如何使用各种交流方法和技术建立和维持社交网络。研究将在自闭症成年人群体、在线社交媒体网站上的自闭症成年人网络以及国家和地区自闭症会议中进行，以了解自闭症成年人创建和维持的在线和离线社会群体和网络的社会动态。初步数据表明，这些是研究自闭症成年人社会群体形成和维持的理想场所，自闭症成年人的自我宣传实践，以及对自闭症这种神经发育障碍必然限制一个人对社会联系和有意义的社区参与的兴趣和能力的广泛信念的挑战。数据将通过访谈、参与和观察在线和离线的社会互动，以及收集过去十年中产生的与自闭症相关的重要媒体来收集。在南加州分布的各种社会群体中，研究人员将通过参与和观察每周重复发生的事件来收集视听数据并制作描述性笔记。在探索自闭症成年人经常访问的数字媒体网站时，她将记录这一群体成员用来形成社交网络的社会实践和通信技术。

Neurodevelopmental disabilities such as autism inhibit the capacity for social interaction. Scientists are aware that adults living with autism are able to create communities and social networks, but we know little about how that happens. This project, which trains a graduate student in how to conduct rigorous empirically-grounded scientific fieldwork, asks how individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities develop sociality. This project will significantly enhance our knowledge of how members of an underrepresented group use various techniques and technologies to develop social networks and communities. It will also increase our knowledge of autism in adulthood and the ways adults with autism engage with others about the nature of the diagnostic classification. Heather Thomas, supervised by Dr. Keith M. Murphy of the University of California at Irvine, will investigate how adults with autism living in the United States establish and maintain social networks using various kinds of communicative practices and technologies. Research will be conducted among groups for adults with autism, autistic adults' networks on online social media websites, and national and regional autism conferences to learn about the social dynamics of online and offline social groups and networks created and sustained by adults with autism. Preliminary data suggests that these are ideal sites for examining the formation and maintenance of social groups for adults with autism, autistic adults' self-advocacy practices, and challenges to the widely held belief that autism, a neurodevelopmental disability, necessarily restricts one's interest in and capacity for social connection and meaningful community participation. Data will be collected through interviews, participation in and observation of online and offline social interactions, and collection of significant autism-related media produced in the last decade. In various social groups distributed across Southern California, the researcher will collect audiovisual data and produce descriptive notes through her participation in and observation of recurring weekly events. In exploring digital media sites frequented by autistic adults, she will document the social practices and communication technologies that members of this population use to form social networks.