Psychology of Emotions

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The Magic of Facilitated Communication
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Prisoners of Silence

• Opening Overview of autism, overview
  Facilitated Communication (FC). Bicklin
  Everything about autism might be wrong.
• Enthusiasm for FC OD Heck Ctr., Prime Time w
  Diane Sawyer, parents amazed delight, kids
  report liberation.
• Epidemic of autistic sexual abuse Gherardi
  family, girl in Maine. Autistics may be perfect
  victimsor are they?
• Maine prosecutor asks key questionare messages
  from girl or from facilitator? Hires Howard
  Shane, researcher
• Formal controlled experiments Picture test, key
  passing test, double blind T-Table test at OD
  Heck. FC never verified.

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• FC Community Response to Tests
• Traumatized at OD Heck, devastated Why?
  (think "albumin"). What does this say about
  trauma in general?
• Other responsemassive denial
• Bicklin tests disrupt FCers. Tests dont get
  at core of communication, which is more
  metaphorical, less literal. Parents accuse
  scientists of being heartless.

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Science and Facilitated Communication
Facilitated Communication Studies
Science Hypotheses arise form emotional problem,
feeling of un-ease Problem statement Hypothesis
statement, presented in falsifiable
form Experiment framed.
Prosecutor worried about veracity of FC. OD Heck
want to show that FC works
were these communications coming from the
autistic children?
If FC real, then it should work when facilitator
blind to what child sees.
Facilitator and child see same vs diff. pix how
is accuracy affected?
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1. Which are the criterion cells?   2. If FC is
valid, what should be facilitator's response in
criterion cells?
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Science and Facilitated Communication
Science
FC Validation Studies
Conduct objective, varied, and replicable tests
Double blind study pix naming, mesg. passing,
eyes on keypad
New hypothesis FC a sham, new discrepancies
become evident.
Kids type w/o looking at keypad why autistics so
verbally skilled? Why so many abuse cases?
New hypothesis has powerful social consequences
Devastates believers liberates kids, redeems
"abusers"
Serendipity (unexpected discovery)
Unconscious drives overt behavior Freud. What
is "will"? D. Wegner
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Problems and Hypotheses
Class 5
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TO SOLVE A PROBLEM, YOU MUST DISCOVER THE PROBLEM
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Problems and Problem Statements
1. Problems start with vague sense of something
not right 2. Must be in form of an unambiguous
question Bad Why does everything go wrong when
youre in a bad mood? Good Is there a
relation between clumsiness and mood
state? Better Do negative moods lead to reduced
skill at manipulating physical objects?
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Problems and Problem Statements
3. Inquire about the relation between 2 or more
variables. Bad How do students perform on the
Math SAT? Good How does gender affect the Math
SAT? 4. Must be amenable to empirical
(measurable) test. Bad Do family members get
nicer around the holidays? Good Do helping
behaviors among family members increase in
weeks before Christmas? Better Do helping
behaviors among intact, nuclear families
increase in weeks before Christmas?
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Hypotheses
Defined A conjectural statement about the
relationship between two or more
variables. Form Declarative, NOT a question
Hypotheses are formed to answer
questions. Bad Does ambient lighting affect
contrast sensitivity? Good Ambient lighting is
predicted to affect contrast sensitivity.
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Attributes of Hypotheses Hyps. are working
instruments of theory. Hyps. are testable not
proved, only confirmed or disconfirmed. Hyps.
exist outside ourselves Provide reliable answers
despite our biases/preferences Hyps. are NOT
value statements NOT ought, should, better
than BUT will, does, greater than Hyps.
should be neither too general nor too specific
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Hypotheses and Level of Specificity Which of the
following statements is the best framed hyp?
___A. Smaller classes will improve student
performance. ___B. Classes of 15-20 students
will show improved math scores compared to
classes with 20 students. ___C. Classes of
15-20 well-fed students at suburban mid-West
schools will perform better on 12 intro.
geometry questions from Wilsons Math for Teens
than will comperable students in classes with
more than 20 students.
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Gut Feelings in the DesertAntoine De Saint
Exupery and the Dragon Fly
I shaved carefully in a cracked mirror. From
time to time I went to the door and looked at the
naked sand. I was thoughtful. For the
moment everything was all right. But I heard
something sizzling. It was a dragonfly knocking
against the lamp. Why it was I cannot say, but I
felt a twinge in my heart. I went outdoors and
looked round. The air was pure. Over the
desert reigned a vast silence as of a house in
order. But here were a green butterfly and two
dragonflies knocking against my lamp. Again I
felt a dull ache which might as easily have been
joy as fear, but came up from the depths of me.
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Saint Exupery in the Desert, continued
Something was calling to me from a great
distance. Was it instinct? Once again I went
out. The wind had died down completely. The air
was still cool. But I had received a warning. I
guessed, I believed I could guess, what I was
expecting. I climbed a dune and sat down face
to the east. If I was right, the thing would not
be long in coming. What were they after here,
those dragonflies, hundreds of miles from their
oases inland?
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Saint Exupery in the Desert
Wreckage thrown up upon the beach bears witness
to a storm at sea. Even so did these insects
declare to me that a sand storm was on the way, a
storm out of the east that had blown them out of
their oases. Solemnly, for it was fraught with
danger, the east wind rose. But that was not
what excited. What filled me with a barbaric joy
was that I had been able to read the anger of
the desert in the beating wings of a
dragonfly. St. Exupery, A. (1939). Wind, sand,
and stars.
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EVOLUTION OF PROBLEM STATEMENT   I. Im about to
fly across the Sahara, Ive done it a 100 times,
but something is bugging me. What?   2. Those
insects bumping against my lamp are bothering me.
How come?   3. Wait a second Im in the
middle of the Sahara what are a moth and a
dragonfly doing out here?   4. What would it
take to transport two insects hundreds of miles
outside of their environment?   5. Does the
presence of insects in the remote desert indicate
the advent of a windstorm?
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TRANSFORMING A PROBLEM STATEMENT INTO A
HYPOTHESIS   The arrival of live insects
within the desert interior is a precursor of high
winds.   What does St. Exupery do to test this
hypothesis?
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FORMS OF HYPOTHESES   I. A B bugs are
related to sandstorms I. A? B presence of
bugs predict sandstorms   II. (A X B) ? C
(bugs and remote location) ? sandstorms   III.
A?B if C Bugs predict sandstorms, if rainy
season just occurred
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RELATION BETWEEN THEORY AND HYPOTHESES   Example
of Theory   Time Perspective (Zimbardo Boyd,
1999) People systematically differ in how they
subjectively order time into past, present, and
future. In other words, people can be
characterized as past oriented, present
oriented, or future oriented.
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Hypotheses that Derive from Time Perspective
Theory Theory People differ in time
perspectives, and this shapes their
behavior.  General Hypothesis   Future Oriented
(FO) people are better at meeting time demands
than are (PO).   Experimental Hypotheses   a. FO
will sign up for experiments sooner than PO. b.
FO will meet on-going time commitments more
reliably than PO.
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Null Hypotheses Defined Null hyp. states that
there is no relation between
variables. Examples Class size is not related
to performance The sexes do not differ in
aggression. Bugs dont predict sandstorms
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Proper and Improper Use of Null Hypothesis Proper
use of null hyp As a contrast, foil, to hpy. we
want to confirm H1 Smaller classes ? improved
performance Ho Smaller classes unrelated to
performance Improper use of null hyp As the
object of research H1
Smaller classes are unrelated to
performance Problems in trying to confirm null
hyp 1. Confirmation could be due to actual
absence of effect OR 2. Confirmation could
occur b/c study improperly done.
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MULTIVARIABLE VS. MULTIVARIATE RESEARCH   1.
Multivariable More than one causal variable but
only one outcome variable   EXAMPLE School
climate (leadership, teacher morale, level of
violence) affects students test scores. 2.
Multivariate More than one causal variable and
more than one outcome variable.   EXAMPLE
School climate (leadership, teacher morale, level
of violence) affects students school
performance (test scores, discipline,
attendance).
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Univariate vs. Multivariable Research   Univariate
Research One predictor variable and one
outcome variable. Univariate is better designed
to ask questions about whether certain things
occur.   Example Does race of writer (Black
vs. White) affect quality of feedback? (i.e., Is
there a feedback bias?)    Multivariable
Research Two or more predictor variables and
one outcome variable. Multivariable research
permits investigation into underlying
causes.   Example Does race of writer (Black
vs. White) affect quality of feedback, due to
degree of social risk (high vs. low)? (i.e., is
there a bias, and is it caused by perceived
risk?)