Help me with my Research Paper: Survey #2B

[caudor]

Exactly what kind of person is going to freely admit that they have mental illness and/or poor hygiene?

I'd ask for pictures, clothing samples, and testimony from game store employees.

-Samir

I suppose I'm the kind of person, although I'm doing much better now days. In 2004, I fell into a severe depression (actually hospitalized) not long after my dad died. I'm not ashamed to admit it since I could not have snapped out of that depression any more than I could have snapped out of a broken arm. I'm certainly grateful that part of my life is behind me.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

A surprising 1.95% of enworlders are apparently neither male nor female

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

Don't be frustrated by what others have said about your poll, Xath. It's all true. That's okay.

You will have made "significant progress" with this, even if it lends skewed results. You may not, however, find what you set out to. What you are collecting is a highly non-randomized sampling of voluntary responses, and you should declare as much in your paper. You should be able to spin it reasonably well - you already have what I would call very "sexy" data Sorry, an affectation of one of my professors).

I would be curious to see the other poll as well and I suggest that you might get more respondants in common by cross-linking the two threads. The real problems I see with the data you're collecting are:
1. The data is not indexed - how many lesbian poll respondants are both underweight and under 20 yrs? We'll never know, and it may not matter for what you want to do, but I don't believe that ENWorld really provides the means to easily do better.

2. The data you're collecting is both broad and subjective: there is an appropriat BMI for everyone, but most people don't know it and so overweight/underweight is subjective. Mental conditions run a broad spectrum of social functionality: my recently diagnosed ADD versus the Schizoid personality disorder with dissocciative tendencies of my late, non-gaming father, versus decompensating schizophrenia with paranoid and delusional features of a gamer friend versus the general (non-diagnosable) wackiness exhibited by other gamer friends.

Figure out what you can really measure
Measure it with a population you can control or identify thoroughly
See what your measurements suggest about the population measured
Go back to the beginning and hypothesize about about what you think you will find (wink* wink*)
Interpret your findings to demonstrate what you thought knew all along you would find.
Suggest ways in which this research might be expanded further, either to other populations or to other conclusions with the same or similar populations.

I used ENWorlders to help me on some research on the formation of gender stereotypes and received some biting criticism of my research methods from fellow ENWorlders, but my paper turned out wonderfully and earned top marks.

 

[Wyrm Pilot]

Exactly what kind of person is going to freely admit that they have mental illness and/or poor hygiene?

I don't know if anyone would willingly admit to poor hygene -- I personally tend to assume that those with poor hygene are not aware of the fact -- but the survey does not ask about "mental illness;" rather it asks about "diagnosable mental conditions."

Since I have been diagnosed with ADHD, I am aware that not all such conditions are categorized as "mental illness," and in fact most are physiological syndromes with behavioural effects. I have no compunctions about letting others know of my condition, especially if it can help others to understand that it is not a form of "mental illness."

I like to think that my gaming hobby makes me part of a community, more than my ADHD (or my asthma and allergies, for that matter) sets me apart.

Perhaps its already been mentioned, but I think the profile of an ENWorlder is very different from the average role player. I think its a more mature community, lots of people from within the industry...

I don't know about that, I'm pretty immature and so is my imaginary friend over here...

Cheers,
Wyrm Pilot
____________________

I've always wanted to be somebody but I see now I should've been more specific.
-- Lily Tomlin

 

[Xath]

Thanks for all the help guys. If I were going to make a "real" proposal out of this, I'd definitely do things differently. However, I have 3 weeks, and it's for my Advanced Composition class.

That being said, I find the concept to be fairly interesting, so if I ever find myself having this thing called "free time," I might come back and do this thing right.

 

[Zimbel16]

Comments

1) Sexual orientation does not inclue bisexual, so I didn't mark that one.
2) Note that your sample is intrisically skewed towards those who answer ENWorld polls.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Back when there were only 37 respondants, 2 people picked both, so there are some bisexuals at least who filled out both, maybe.

 

[Emirikol]

These Cosmo quizzes are always fun to fill out. Thought on your next one:
* Children questions (which is basically the only thing that matters to 90-% of us with them)
* Income: if employed are you small business or a drone working for someone else?
* Level of education


jh

 

[jgbrowning]

You forgot to include:

"Believe this poll has some sort of problem and will graciously point it out to me."
"Believe this pool has many problems and will graciously point them out to me."



joe b.

 

[wedgeski]

I think your poll is fine within the obvious 'limitations' of the sample group (i.e. what defines someone who posts on ENW *and* answers polls ). It's getting a good turnout, and the results are interesting. As I said in your previous thread, I neither flaunt nor hide my gaming, so I didn't choose either of those. If it comes up, it comes up.