Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / This dissertation probes critical questions about the relationship between the production of cultural meanings, social power, and material objects. By using the public discourse on traffic accidents in the United States as a historical case study, this study investigates in particular the various ways by which social groups respond to unintended technological consequences and dangers within definitional processes of collectively constructing a social problem. The textual-thematic analysis draws largely upon theories from social problems literature and science & technology studies, as it looks at a number of salient historical claimsmakers, sites of discourse production, and cultural vehicles of meaning making. Specifically, the contributions of the private insurance industry, safety establishment, consumer market, automobile clubs, and printed media are closely dissected to flesh out the contours and content of the accident problem's construction and development through time. In line with a contextual constructivist approach to social problems analysis, the research has observed the emergence, evolution, and eventual waning of the accident issue along several structural anchors that provide possible explanations for some of these dynamics. To a great extent, the traffic accident problem has gradually 'disappeared' in America throughout the twentieth century - a disappearance that is not physical but conceptual. Specifically, it means that the troubling social condition is defined as something to live with, a necessary evil of which there seems to be limited ability or desire to substantially affect or eradicate. The sociological concept I employ to name this particular trajectory towards problem attenuation is normalization. Applied to the case analyzed here, the findings offer a way to understand the processes by which traffic accidents become nom1alized in America as an acquiescent price to pay for the benefits of the automobile. Theoretically, these conclusions have laid the groundwork for producing a hypothetical model of social problems normalization. The model highlights the role played by several cultural devices of claimsmaking in affecting issue attenuation or 'disappearance.' When the problem is constructed through highly technicizing, commensurating, commodifying, and socially controlling modalities of sense making, the likelihood of its normalization and eventual floundering increases.

<p> Challenges to the diagnostic accuracy of standardized tests of language can make the utility of these measures on their own, problematic. Consequently, this research program uses tools of conversational analysis to study the speech of preschoolers and young adults.</p> <p> In the first of three studies we examine, from a purely data-driven approach, how conversational measures relate to one another and compare with WPPSI-III expressive and receptive vocabulary scores in assessing preschoolers' language. Mean length of utterance (MLU) was found to be the only conversation measure strongly related to WPPSI-III language scores. However, other conversation measures constituted reasonably stable factors that may have utility for children's language assessment.</p> <p> The second study uses the same sample of children to investigate what features of language best predict behavioural and emotional problems and whether conversation measures provide better prediction of these symptoms than standardized scores. Results indicated that conversation measures of language significantly improved prediction of Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL C-TRF) DSM-oriented and syndrome scales beyond that accounted for by WPPSI GLC scores.</p> <p> Finally, the third study uses conversational analysis to study the role of disfluencies in the speech of young adults with and without autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) to determine whether these features of speech serve listener or speaker-oriented functions. Individuals with ASD were observed to produce fewer filled pause words (ums and uhs) and revisions than controls, but more silent pauses. Filled-pause words, therefore, appear to be listener-oriented features of speech.</p> <p> Taken together, findings of this program of research highlight the importance of using conversational analysis as an alternative or in addition to standardized tests of language as well as inform what specific measures of language are best suited for this purpose.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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