Research Thoughts On Participating In Online Studies

[PeritraumaticDissociation]

Hello all,

I’m a doctoral candidate of a clinical psychology Psy.D. program, and I am beginning to work on my dissertation for my program. I am interested in learning more about peritraumatic dissociation (dissociation that occurs during the timespan of a traumatic incident) in the context individuals’ traumas. I would likely be using an online questionnaire with a set of 20 or 30 questions that probably wouldn’t take longer than 10-15 minutes to answer. My questions to the members of this forum are as follows:

1) I was recommended to leave an “other” option for each of the questions so that people could write in their subjective experience in a text box instead of trying to fit it to one of the item’s limited answers. I totally empathize with this position—it can be quite invalidating to have to choose between inadequate responses that don’t feel like it reflects ones personal experience. However, due to the specifics of the statistical analysis that I will have to perform on the questionnaire, I won’t be able to offer that kind of “other” option. Would people be willing to participate in the study despite this limitation?

2) Is there anything that people feel it is important for me to know to make participation in the study more appealing and easier for members to follow through on completing the whole questionnaire?

3) Although I would be willing to offer some kind of compensation (either a small gift certificate or a chance to win one of several larger gift certificates), I’m also sensitive to the possible drawbacks of offering compensation to a study that asks for details about someone’s experience of trauma. What are peoples’ thoughts on this? Would it increase the appeal of participating, or would members find that it deters them from participating?

Thank you for any and all insight about your thoughts on participating in studies! It will hopefully help me to more carefully consider participants’ feelings in participating in this online study.

<Full line spaces inserted between questions for ease of reading. By Amethist>

 

[atl22]

1) Yes, understanding the limitation, I would still participate.

2) It is important to remain anonymous. Also, given the above limitation, there would have to be sufficient options in the questions so that I would feel that I answered them as honestly as possible. I understand that no study can be perfect.

3) I would participate in such a study purely in order to help further the understanding of dissociation. I would not want any kind of compensation. A gift certificate also would risk the loss of anonymity.

 

[cat]

I'd be happy to participate.

 

[Oberons Wife]

No need for payment gifts etc, it feels as if social policy lags some 20 years behind the science, so I would happily participate to hopefully get some help to people in the future. People shouldn't have to struggle with this.

 

[PeritraumaticDissociation]

Thank you all so much for your input. I greatly appreciate it. I'll be posting again when I start to get my project more finalized. If anyone has additional comments, feel free to post.

All the best!

 

[timetorecover]

YESSS there is not enough research being done with people who are actively looking for help.

 

[PTSDtheBlackHole]

I would be very interested in participating. I do have dissociation with PTSD. It is a learning process for those who suffer from PTSD and those who are clinicians wanting to learn more about those who suffer from it. I would love to participate but also read about the outcomes of your research

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I realize this post is a few months old, but as someone who frequents "money saving deals" forums, by offering a monetary reward I feel that people are going to take the survey just for the reward, even if they don't have PTSD. So IMHO, don't offer a reward. People with PTSD will consider participating without one, while those without PTSD will participate simply for the compensation. Sad but true.