Online Research Study of Special Interests of Aspies

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Individuals over the age of 18 who have either Asperger syndrome or high
functioning autism are invited to participate in this study:

Dr David Hamilton and Melis Aday from the School of Psychology at Deakin
University are conducting a study looking at special interests in adults
with Asperger syndrome/ high functioning autism. They are interested in
finding out about the types of special interests we might have, and the
circumstances under which we tend to pursue them. We are invited to
participate even if we do not have a special interest. They hope that this
information will assist mental health professionals to provide services
which are more sensitive to the needs of people with Asperger syndrome or
high functioning autism.

As participants of this study, you will be asked to complete an online
questionnaire which will take approximately 30 minutes. For further
information and to access this questionnaire, please click on the website
link: http://www.deakin.edu.au/psychology/res ... estsinAS/*

Thanks, I took it.

Survey served topic

I was a bit impatient to get it done. I felt the categories were a bit narrow. My interests are structured differently than a person who is primarily interested in objects. Mine are more of mind.

tried, couldn't concentrate right now for some reason

I will try again tomorrow

Too long and I don't have the patience.

Ooh! This sounds like a lot of fun! I most definitely will take the survey! Thanks for letting us know about it!
-OddDuckNash99-

I did the whole thing and left quite a few critical comments where additional information was allowed. I think the study is deeply flawed -- full of assumptions and very narrow in its scope.

Hey, give the person a break, they're only doing a PhD, it's not like they've been studying this for ten years or something.

There was one question that I had an issue with; the one right after they asked whether you've broken the law because of your interests should have had a third option that said "I haven't broken the law" rather than just yes/no.

They also didn't allow for the possibility of fluid, short-term interests like what occasionally happens to me when I get fascinated with a topic and spend sixteen hours a day for two weeks on it, then just as abruptly drop it when something else catches my interest. I had to talk about the long-term, lower-level interests (which still ended up in the highest intensity category because apparently the researcher doesn't realize that it is indeed possible to spend longer than six hours a day at a special interest...)

It's not perfect, but I think they are likely to get valid data out of it, and that's the important thing. I think if I were studying a psychological diagnosis, I would try to get a consultant with that diagnosis so I could get a firsthand perspective; it would have been useful in this case to interview some autistics before proceeding with designing the survey.