SPSS

 Another first coming up. I will be presenting my research poster at SPSS conference next Feb. 

My first Psychology conference. 


Writing an abstract



My attempt at the abstract for my research project.

Past research on emotions has viewed autistics from a deficit perspective, as lacking in empathy, emotion recognition and emotional experience; even as other research posits autistic emotion experiences as more intense; and we hypothesize that this could also be true of the autistic experience of positive emotions such as awe. This first of its kind study, draws on the science of awe to examine how autistics perceive and view awe, an emotion shown to have transformative effects. This research looks at how these dimensions of emotion may diverge in autistics from what has been written from a neurotypical (non-autistic) lens. With a target sample size of n=200, the study makes use of existing self-report psychological measures of emotions, includes a new empathy measure in development by the Berkeley Social Interaction Lab, as well as written narratives, from both autistics and non-autistic controls. Data from this study will add to knowledge on: 1) autism & empathy/ emotion recognition, 2) autism & emotional experience, 3) autism & awe. Potential applications include additional tools such as “small doses of awe” that can be added to the coping and navigating toolbox for autistics.



All that's wrong with this letter from RC

 All Indians MUST necessarily know Hindi,


ALL THAT’s WRONG WITH THIS LETTER on the Self-Determination Program from the CA Department of Developmental Services.


Someone at DDS decided that because I have an Indian origin last name.

1. My mother tongue must be HINDI; its not.


2. I MUST KNOW how to read the HINDI devanagari script. 


3. An automatic presumption on the part on the Hindi-speaking person at DDS who came up with this plan, that every person of Indian origin knows Hindi. 


Hindi is predominant in specific parts of the India only. Even if half the country knows Hindi, it marginalizes the remaining 650 million Indians in India who don't use it; the southern states being an example. There are 22 official languages in India… 


I found this very insensitive; almost reflective of the autistic/disabled experience where neurotypicals/nondisabled will assume that theirs’ is the only experience that counts. 


 Why are they making information on disability services more inaccessible here in the CA and wasting taxpayer money in the process. How many trees died in printing out thousands of these letters, how many mailman hours were wasted in the delivery these letters. 


Who got to decide this in CA; given its claim of being a more disability friendly state. This is really the last thing I expected in California. 



THIS IS WRONG!!





A Ganesha Carrot


Ganesha shaped carrot from our garden
In time for Ganesha Chaturti


The historical moment or event I i wish I had witnessed.

The event I would have like to have witnessed is Buddha, sitting under the Bodhi tree and opening his eyes after receiving enlightenment. The moment would truly have been transcendent, as he spoke to those assembled before him, giving a glimpse into the incredible insights he had gained. 


Haas Scholars Fall Colloquium

Presented my research at the Haas Scholars Fall Colloquium today.
Overall, got very positive feedback. 



Prof Brian Powers, Sociology: I’m really overwhelmed with the depth of this research and the impact it's going to have. Well thought out project, personal as it is. It’s incredibly scholarly.

Prof Dacher Keltner, Psychology: I think many of you know that Hari writes for the Daily Cal. When he was in my class, he would send me his poetry all the time. He is a brilliant writer and a brilliant thinker and I think you all felt that in that presentation. That was an incredible tour of 13 minutes and 47 seconds, from the personal to the humorous to the in-depth critique to the societal critique to the measures to the theory. I mean that, I’ve never felt, I’ve never had a presentation in my lab of that precision. The second thing is Hari’s presentation tells us why we need diversity in scholarship. His scholarship is just you know, its a devastating critique on measures and theories out there and we need these perspectives. What a rich perspective, so it was a remarkable presentation and he’s a remarkable young scholar.





 



 

#1 Public University

 




"UC Berkeley is the No. 1 U.S. public university, the sixth-best among publics and privates nationally and the world’s eighth-best university overall, according to the Times Higher Education‘s 2022 World University Rankings, released today.

The United Kingdom’s University of Oxford ranked first among private and public universities worldwide, followed by Harvard University, the California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of Cambridge, MIT and Princeton.

After UC Berkeley, Yale University and the University of Chicago rounded out the top 10.

As for the top five U.S. public universities, after UC Berkeley in first place, UCLA ranked second and in 20th place globally, followed by the University of Michigan, (24th); the University of Washington (29th) and UC San Diego (34th).

The Times Higher Ed World University Rankings evaluated more than 1,600 universities across 99 countries and territories based on five criteria: Teaching (the learning environment), research (reputation and volume income), citations (research influence), industry income (knowledge transfer) and international outcome.

Overall, UC Berkeley ranked sixth in the world for research with a score of 96 points out of 100; 14th for teaching (85.7 points); 21st for citations, (99.1 points) 104th for industry income (84.7points) and 235th for international outlook (staff, students and research) with a score of 77.6 points."

View the complete list of Times Higher Education 2022 World University Rankings rankings.

Forbes #1 College

"It isn’t enough to ask which schools give the best return on investment. It’s also important to evaluate what kind of students they educate and whether they make themselves accessible to those who can’t afford high sticker prices."





 

First Football Game of the Season

 



















Sixth Semester teaching the Autism DeCal

50 and waitlisted!!

 Woo hoo. Not only have 50 students enrolled but the class is waitlisted as well. 



Got Approval for 50 students this time. 

The paperwork for the course gets done during the previous semester as the course syllabus has to be approved by Academic Senate COCI (Courses of Instruction) along with faculty support from the sponsoring faculty. 

This time, we got approval for 50 students, so super thrilled. This will be the largest class size yet. Over the years we have grown from 17 to now 50!!





Inspiration Porn

 Autism Lexicon: Inspiration Porn

Inspiration Porn: A term that refers to the portrayal of individuals with disabilities as inspirational solely because of their disability, often objectifying them and reinforcing ableist stereotypes. This phenomenon typically emphasizes the disabled person's ability to overcome challenges, thereby detracting from the broader societal and systemic issues they face. [Read in More detail].

PlainSpeak: Inspiration Porn refers to when disabled people are shown as being amazing just for doing everyday things, simply because they're disabled. It often leads to them being seen as inspirational or brave in a way that actually puts them down. [Read PlainSpeak in more detail]. 

One of the Lecture slides used in 1:54 Autism Class

 Inspiration porn was coined by disabled comedian Maysoon Zayid and popularized by the disabled activist Stella Young in her Ted Talk. (I had initially thought it was coined by Stella Young, just due to the popularity of her Ted Talk, till I was corrected by disability activity Rebecca Cockley who knew both)



Genetics and Plant Biology Building

 Got my honors seminar class in this building this semester. 













Barker Hall




Got a class in Barker Hall this semester. 

https://bds.berkeley.edu/barker"Barker Hall is located on the Northwest corner of campus (map) and houses labs from the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology and from the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute (HWNI).  It was named after UC Berkeley Biochemist Horace Barker." famous for discovering an active form of Vitamin B12.

UC Berkeley in 1887

 

UC Berkeley in 1887 according to the SF Chronicle