Problems With Personnel Preparation in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Research Paper Example

Abstract

The aim of this experiment was to examine the relationship between hiring process and demographics. The specific characteristics studied was whether individuals with autism will be hired on the basis of their unique skills. In addition, the relationship between gender and work status was examined. It was hypothesized that both gender and autism will impact both the hireability and salary for individuals based on the particular positions that were available. It was predicted that males are more likely to be hired than females and thatthere would be an interaction effect, stating that males with autism will be more likely to be hired than females with or without autism. The qualtrics survey system was used to create the questionnaire, which was targeted towards college students who were contacted through Facebook. The survey aimed to determine whether the students would hire interview and hire individuals based on their qualifications. In addition, they were asked to indicate how much they would pay these individuals.The results indicated that females were more likely to be hired than their male counterparts. In addition, independently of gender, individuals with autism were more likely to be hired as well.

Discussion

The results of the study found that, contrary to the hypothesis, females were more likely to be hired than their male counterparts. This hypothesis was formulated based on the understanding that the work of males are generally valued to be greater in American society, which causes them to be more likely to be hired and paid a greater salary. However, it is important to consider that the scope of this study varied from the overall American population, as a majority of study participants were current or previous university attendees. This result is important because it presents the concept of education as a confounding variable in the relationship between gender and hireability. It is important to consider that females that are well-educated may be more likely to be hired than well-educated males. Education helps decrease the gender disparity. Since females have historically been denied education, modern females have become more motivated to learn more in order to help them pursue advanced careers that they have been traditionally barred from. This difference between males and females can be considered one of the reasons that the results appear to be internally valid, rather than externally valid; this data only describes one group of individuals that are more educated than the rest of the population, meaning that the study samples are not reflective of the population as a whole.

The results of the study as it pertains to the relationship between hireability and autism disease status agreed with the hypothesis, stating that individuals with autism would be more likely to be hired because of their specific skill set. However, the results of this study provided a greater extent of insight into this relationship. At first, it seemed that the skills of individuals with autism would contribute to their likelihood of being hired. It is also important to consider that these individuals could be hired on the basis of a mixture of their personal ability to do the job and pity from the individual hiring them. It is likely that many individuals without autism have the same set of skills as these individuals, but managers believe that individuals without the disease will have more opportunities available to them, and autistic individuals will be preferentially hired on this basis. Furthermore, there are many government programs in place that provide managers with financial incentives for hiring individuals with disabilities. Therefore, this could explain the hireability of individuals with autism as well. These findings disagree with the current literature in the field, as females are generally seen as less desirable to hire than men and that they are less likely to be provided with an equal salary (Sorensen, 1989). In addition, the literature states that it is more difficult for individuals with disabilities, such as autism, to get a job (Scheuermann et al., 2003).

As mentioned previously, this study aimed to identify a general trend in the population but instead identified the relationship between gender and hireability in addition to gender and hireability in specific situations in which educated individuals are present. Therefore, the results are not externally valid, which is a limitation of this study. In order to present results that are representative of the whole population, it would therefore be necessary to repeat the study in a manner that allows for more random selection. Since I am highly educated, it is more likely that the individuals that I am in direct contact with will be highly educated as well, since many of them are my university classmates. It would therefore be useful to send survey mailings to the community to individuals within different zip codes, and have them be randomly selected from the phone book. In order to ensure that a reasonable amount of responses are gathered, approximately 500 mailings should be sent out using this process.

This study has created the need to further examine the relationship between gender, hireability, and education. It seemed that a majority of individuals that were more likely to be hired had more credentials than those who were less likely to be hired, independently of gender. Furthermore, it would be valuable to find individuals with the same credentials who are of different genders to determine whether males get paid a higher salary than females. This should be done across several levels of credential levels in order to gain a greater understanding of this relationship.

References

Scheuermann B, Webber J, Boutot EA, Goodwin M. (2003). Problems With Personnel Preparation in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Focus Autism Other Dev Disabl Fall, 18(3): 197-206.

Sorensen E. (1989). Measuring the Pay Disparity Between Typically Female Occupations and Other Jobs: A Bivariate Selectivity Approach. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 42(4).