Employment research opportunity
by Patricia
I love reading research. Yep, that makes me a big nerd but its true — sitting down with a professional journal is almost as exciting to me as sitting down with a good novel. Research informs my practice as an autism professional. I am obligated to provide those I serve with effective interventions. And the way I learn about effective interventions is through reading research.
I feel that if I want quality research published, I have to be willing to participate in research, too. I try and lend myself to appropriate research at local universities whenever I can, and I have always welcomed quality researchers into my work setting. And I really appreciate when researchers outside of the “autism community” are interested IN autism.
One of those researchers is Dr. Samuel Hunter. Dr. Hunter is in the field of Industrial and Organizational Psychology — a field that doesn’t overlap very often with the autism community. Industrial and organizational psychology is typically interested in what happens in the workplace. And as I’ve stated in previous blog posts here, having autism and being in a workplace are not always synonymous.
Dr. Hunter’s research is of particular interest to me, as the goal of his research is to learn methods and strategies that leaders and supervisors can use to increase the success of individuals with ASD at work. To answer this question he is interested in recruiting adults with ASD over the age of 18 who are currently employed in a competitive work environment for a phone interview.
If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Hunter’s research, or might be interested in participating, contact Alissa Parr by email at aparr(at)psu(dot)edu or by phone at 410-591-7252. We need more research about what we can do to promote employment for individuals with autism. I am hoping that Dr. Hunter’s research answers some of the questions of why individuals with autism have such a difficult time gaining and maintaining employment.
November 18th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
We would greatly appreciate any feedback you could provide us on your experiences at work to help us better understand the best practices supervisors can use for employees with ASD. We’re seeking opinions from both employees with ASD as well as supervisors managing employees with ASD for a phone interview. If you are interested and would like to receive more information on the project, please contact me at aparr@psu.edu. Thanks!