Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Network Formation among Adults with Autism

神经发育障碍，如自闭症，抑制了社会交往的能力。科学家们意识到患有自闭症的成年人能够创建社区和社交网络，但我们对这种情况如何发生知之甚少。这个项目，培训研究生如何进行严格的基于实践的科学实地考察，询问神经发育障碍的人如何发展社会性。这个项目将大大提高我们对代表性不足的群体的成员如何使用各种技巧和技术来发展社交网络和社区的了解。它还将增加我们对成年自闭症的了解，以及自闭症成年人与他人就诊断分类的性质进行交流的方式。石楠托马斯，由基思博士监督M。Murphy博士将研究生活在美国的自闭症成年人如何利用各种交流实践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交群体和网络的社会动态。初步的数据表明，这些是理想的网站，检查形成和维护社会群体的成年自闭症，自闭症成年人的自我宣传的做法，并挑战广泛持有的信念，自闭症，神经发育障碍，必然限制一个人的兴趣和能力的社会联系和有意义的社区参与。数据将通过访谈、参与和观察线上和线下社交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。在分布在南加州的各种社会群体中，研究者将收集视听数据，并通过参与和观察每周发生的事件来制作描述性笔记。在探索自闭症成年人经常光顾的数字媒体网站时，她将记录这一人群的成员用于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.