Science Help me with my research!

[Compass]

Edit: Thank you again to everyone who participated. The survey is still open if you'd like to take it. However, since my project is turned in, I am opening it up so you can view the results, too. Here is the link to the results: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-8SPK6RYH/

Original: Hello, I'm Compass!

I'm new to RPNation but not to role playing. I'll be graduating in a couple weeks with a Bachelors in Anthropology. For my senior research project, I'm studying online relationships and role playing. I'm a little short on time due to the IRB process--I was very much not prepared--but I'm finally approved and looking for responses for my survey!

If you are interested in helping me, here is a link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/J2FZDTL
The only requirement is that you are at least 18 years old and are willing to submit your results for analyzing.

If you have any questions, I can answer them here. Also, I will share the results here once my project is all done.

Thanks for your time!

 

[LittleMissFoxy]

I helped with the science!

 

[Compass]

Thank you so much!

 

[Hall Kervean]

My mouse was hovering over the link. I was poised to click it and forever change my fate.
Then I read I have to be 18 ;-;
Well, sorry

 

[Compass]

That's okay! You can't choose your age. Excluding minors makes it easier to get the research approved, is all. Sorry you couldn't participate.

 

[Zombocalypse]

I did it.

 

[Compass]

Thanks, Zombo!

 

[Arin]

I also have done the ritual.

 

[Miracleist]

There, done

That said, if you're open to critique (and perhaps if you still have the time to work in changes or whatnot), I have some for you. If not, it's fine to just ignore it (or you could read it and ignore it anyway, there's that!).

Those who haven't taken the test shouldn't see below for sure!

Spoiler

It's pretty clear you really were short on time, I'd think. Some questions could use better framing and terminology. Questions 2 and 3 are examples of that. I major in Sociology, so I'm quite keen about the term you used for the categorizations. Gender and sex (biological) tend to be competing terms that mean the same thing colloquially, but mean different things academically. Biological sex, as you might imagine, would be like what the options in Question 2 go with. Gender would be more like your Question 3 actually... So seeing that in Question 2 is off-putting. A minor gripe in the interest of time, but something to think on.

Then there're the following question pairs - Questions 4 and 5, and Questions 6 and 7. I presume the following questions after Questions 4 and 6 are directly related in that the "relationship" being asked about is specifically the "online relationship". That's cool and all. One minor gripe's that specifying "online relationship" would be a great way to idiot-proof the question as well. A certain idiot (*ahem* me *ahem*) might have accidentally responded thinking it referred to real-world relationships. It's a minor gripe to be sure, but it's also a matter of simply adding one word (or two in this case).

The major problem though, is this - there's no zero option in Questions 5 and 7. In both Questions 4 and 6, I answered "No", so there was no duration to be maintained (because there was none). Yet I can't ignore those questions because there's no way to. Those questions should have been filtered out. I'm not sure if it's a limitation of SurveyMonkey, but Google Forms already has a feature that allows you to direct respondents to the next relevant question if they chose certain responses.

I guess the final question (10) also seems more like an incomplete afterthought as well. I'm not sure if anything meaningful could be gleaned from a simple yes-no about a rather arbitrary question. But that's just another minor gripe as well - and I obviously don't know the full rationale or line of thought you're going with.

 

[Compass]

Thanks Arin!

Spoiler

Biological sex, as you might imagine, would be like what the options in Question 2 go with. Gender would be more like your Question 3 actually... So seeing that in Question 2 is off-putting. A minor gripe in the interest of time, but something to think on.

..This might come off as rude, but no. You may be a sociology major but I'm an anthro major and I've focused heavily on sex, gender, and sexuality both in and out of academics. Sex is limited to male/female/intersex. I asked for gender so I could include non-binary identities. Question 3 is about sexual orientation, which is separate from gender and sex. Each of the three is a spectrum that is separate from the others and I honestly think labeling them at all is difficult--but I need answers that the general population will understand. I was excited to see what advice you could give, but I know these terms extremely well, and I limited the answers in 2 purposely. I think you need to read sex/gender/sexuality more thoroughly. Or PM me--I can explain them pretty simply.

Then there're the following question pairs - Questions 4 and 5, and Questions 6 and 7. I presume the following questions after Questions 4 and 6 are directly related in that the "relationship" being asked about is specifically the "online relationship". That's cool and all. One minor gripe's that specifying "online relationship" would be a great way to idiot-proof the question as well.

Yeah, I agree with that;; I just have a personal gripe with "real life" so that clouded my judgement a bit. And you're right that it was rushed. I was unprepared going into the IRB On the bright side, I have more mistakes and challenges to gripe about when I sum it up in a paper lol.

The major problem though, is this - there's no zero option in Questions 5 and 7. In both Questions 4 and 6, I answered "No", so there was no duration to be maintained (because there was none). Yet I can't ignore those questions because there's no way to. Those questions should have been filtered out. I'm not sure if it's a limitation of SurveyMonkey, but Google Forms already has a feature that allows you to direct respondents to the next relevant question if they chose certain responses.

It is a limitation of SurveyMonkey. There were actually more questions and better structured written up. However, I discovered SurveyMonkey was very limiting. However, 5 and 7 are skippable. And I can view individual responses and see where someone felt forced to answer the question to move on. Adding a zero or N/A option in 5/7 would've saved the headache however.

I guess the final question (10) also seems more like an incomplete afterthought as well. I'm not sure if anything meaningful could be gleaned from a simple yes-no about a rather arbitrary question. But that's just another minor gripe as well - and I obviously don't know the full rationale or line of thought you're going with.

I agree 10 may come off like that to you as the surveyed. It is an important question to the research I am doing, however. It would have felt much more in context if SurveyMonkey allowed for more questions. I should've researched the survey engine before choosing it, but I specified it in my IRB so I was stuck with it and I did what I could.

Overall, though, thank you for your time to the survey! And I appreciate the insight. It's much needed and it'll help me think more critically and be more prepared about research in the future. This is an undergrad class so a big part of it is leaning how to do it--making mistakes and getting better. Science is hard, lol, and I've never had a knack for it.

 

[Miracleist]

Overall, though, thank you for your time to the survey! And I appreciate the insight. It's much needed and it'll help me think more critically and be more prepared about research in the future. This is an undergrad class so a big part of it is leaning how to do it--making mistakes and getting better. Science is hard, lol, and I've never had a knack for it.

Nah it's cool~

Spoiler

..This might come off as rude, but no. You may be a sociology major but I'm an anthro major and I've focused heavily on sex, gender, and sexuality both in and out of academics. Sex is limited to male/female/intersex. I asked for gender so I could include non-binary identities. Question 3 is about sexual orientation, which is separate from gender and sex. Each of the three is a spectrum that is separate from the others (not always with gender/sex, obviously). I was excited to see what advice you could give, but I know these terms extremely well, and I limited the answers in 2 purposely. I think you need to read about them more thoroughly. Or PM me--I can explain them pretty simply.

Don't worry about it. Rude is if you start name-calling me, this is still perfectly civil. I'm no expert on the subject, and likely know the subject to a more superficial degree than you do (especially since you're focused heavily on that subject). My interests are elsewhere so there's that, I should probably have added that caveat in my last post. I think it's quite safe to defer to your judgment on that one. I wouldn't mind the extra explanation though - to see whether my understanding's different or if it's been flawed the whole time. To lay out my current understanding:

Gender's what I understand much akin to sexual orientation - in that it's self-assigned (whether consciously or unconsciously through a "feeling" - E.G. I feel more like a woman than a man)...

... Oh, hm, reading it again, I think I might be understanding the differences more. Sexual orientation, I suppose, crudely, would be the one you would rather bonk. The nature of your attraction to another gender.

I still think of sex as the most objective one (in most cases). Either a male, or female (and perhaps including the trans people, I suspect - but I'm not sure).

Yeah, I agree with that;; I just have a personal gripe with "real life" so that clouded my judgement a bit. And you're right that it was rushed. I was unprepared going into the IRB On the bright side, I have more mistakes and challenges to gripe about when I sum it up in a paper lol.

It is a limitation of SurveyMonkey. There were actually more questions and better structured written up. However, I discovered SurveyMonkey was very limiting. However, 5 and 7 are skippable. And I can view individual responses and see where someone felt forced to answer the question to move on. Adding a zero or N/A option in 5/7 would've saved the headache however.

Ah, sorry to hear that. Real life sucks sometimes. I guess having interned at a research organization before, I can empathize with that IRB process - it was the reason why I couldn't dive into a full-fledged research project during my internship They're taking months to decide whether the research's ethical (though I guess to be fair, that research at the time was definitely more sensitive). But yeah, more material for the Conclusion.

Too bad about SurveyMonkey though. I'd have recommended either a more formal and paid software if your school offered it but otherwise, Google Forms has come a long way now to, I feel, be actually better than SurveyMonkey at the moment (at least, the free version - never tried the paid SurveyMonkey).

I agree 10 may come off like that to you as the surveyed. It is an important question to the research I am doing, however. It would have felt much more in context if SurveyMonkey allowed for more questions. I should've researched the survey engine before choosing it, but I specified it in my IRB so I was stuck with it and I did what I could.

Ah fair enough, and I suppose changing it at this point would be too much of a time-waster, given how amazingly fast the IRB is with these sort of approval things.

 

[Compass]

Spoiler

Gender's what I understand much akin to sexual orientation - in that it's self-assigned (whether consciously or unconsciously through a "feeling" - E.G. I feel more like a woman than a man)...

... Oh, hm, reading it again, I think I might be understanding the differences more. Sexual orientation, I suppose, crudely, would be the one you would rather bonk. The nature of your attraction to another gender.

I still think of sex as the most objective one (in most cases). Either a male, or female (and perhaps including the trans people, I suspect - but I'm not sure).

Hoo boi, I love this topic. It's very interesting to me, so tldr coming up!!

And you're understanding it a little better already. They're all difficult to define, and I bounce through definitions as I learn more. The only one biologists are really sure with is sex: it's a mix of what's between your legs, your chromosomes, your hormones. Sex is as simple as what you are physically. It has a bit of a history, but we have had it simplified to the binary of male and female for most of our time...But research finds that it's broader than that. Intersex is generally used as a term for a person who is born not conforming to the physical binary in some way (though they are almost always assigned male or female at birth). I agree sex is pretty objective and straightforward, but our ideas of sex should be--rather than what it is--makes sex and gender difficult for people to fully understand.

But if you can understand sex as a spectrum, I personally think it makes it a little easier to understand gender; but there are a lot of theories about gender (biologically, sociologically, anthropologically, politically, etc.) that make it difficult to define anyway, lol. Fundamentally, gender is a social construct based on sex and it varies between populations. I would consider "transgender female" a gender identity, not a sex identity. Typically, a person's gender does match the sex they were assigned at birth: if you're born a male, you're called "he" growing up and most of the time, that's correct. However, a transgender female will identity with "she" instead--and what it means to be "she" is constructed by society and the individual. Gender was probably easier to define in the 50s where "she" was a stay-at-home mom almost all the time and "he" was a working man, lol, but we've moved away from those strict social constructs.

And sexual orientation is, you're right, who you wanna bump uglies with--if anyone. While I see your point about it being comparable to gender due to its individual assignment, I think it's important to consider it something separate altogether. A person's gender/sex's doesn't necessarily reflect a person's sexual orientation. Intersex, cis, trans, etc. people can identify with any orientation despite their sex or gender.

Too bad about SurveyMonkey though. I'd have recommended either a more formal and paid software if your school offered it but otherwise, Google Forms has come a long way now to, I feel, be actually better than SurveyMonkey at the moment (at least, the free version - never tried the paid SurveyMonkey).

Ah fair enough, and I suppose changing it at this point would be too much of a time-waster, given how amazingly fast the IRB is with these sort of approval things.

Ugh, yeah. Now I know for the future! But for now, I'll make do with what I have. I'm confident I can still write a satisfactory paper even with the issues. And as much as I've spewed about sex/gender, I probably chose the wrong topic for myself anyway. xD

 

[Windsock]

Not very aesthetic, but I did it.
Also I'm not 18 lolololololol

 

[Compass]

Not very aesthetic, but I did it.
Also I'm not 18 lolololololol

 

[Windsock]

mediocre maymay, now I'm dissapointed.

 

[Compass]

I'm just not hip with the kids anymore it seems.

 

[FTR]

I think my definition of relationship made me a bad subject

 

[Compass]

All subjects are good subjects, fam. Thank you for taking it anyway

 

[Compass]

Thank you everyone for your responses! I got twenty! For anyone interested in the results, here they are: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-8SPK6RYH/

 

[Role Model]

Hello, I'm Compass!

I'm new to RPNation but not to role playing. I'll be graduating in a couple weeks with a Bachelors in Anthropology. For my senior research project, I'm studying online relationships and role playing. I'm a little short on time due to the IRB process--I was very much not prepared--but I'm finally approved and looking for responses for my survey!

If you are interested in helping me, here is a link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/J2FZDTL
The only requirement is that you are at least 18 years old and are willing to submit your results for analyzing.

If you have any questions, I can answer them here. Also, I will share the results here once my project is all done.

Thanks for your time!

I've submitted my response! I hope it helps, and I hope all goes well! ~

 

[FTR]

I've submitted my response! I hope it helps, and I hope all goes well! ~

I think the score's been tallied already :T

 

[Role Model]

I think the score's been tallied already :T

Oops! I didn't notice that until after I submitted! Oh noes ~

 

[Cheesemick]

Being called a research subject makes me feel like a lab rat e.e buutt I guess ill do it FOR SCIENCE

They is some more things I would like to say on the subject but theirs no like closing comments

I cri

 

[Hall Kervean]

I'm just not hip with the kids anymore it seems.

Maybe you would be more in touch with the times if you didn't use terms like "hip" and "gnarly."

 

[Compass]

Okay, lemme try again:

What's lit, fam?