18.03.15 The Real Questionnaire

This week I have put my questionnaire live on the internet (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BSPV8WG)  where it will stay for the next 43 (ish) days. I have posted the link on several social media sites and have asked others to share it in order to gain as large of a sample as possible:

I have also put up hardcopies in my 6th form common room as although I want a representative and generalisable sample, I am intrigued about the specific age group that are in the common room.

23.02.15 Pilot Study

Today I conducted a pilot study on 20 individuals in order to test the reliability of my questionnaire. I found that overall it was well received and participants understood what the questions were asking, however what I noticed is that Q3 doesn't specify that participants need to state what eating disorder they have, if they have one. I also realised that no where in my questionnaire does it ask about ethnicity and as this is a huge topic and area of debate in the field of eating disorders I felt it was imperative to include it. Due to the survey monkey only allowing 10 questions, I added ethnicity to my first question about gender. In order to make sure all ethnicities were represented I used the guidelines as written by the Office of National Statistics (http://ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/measuring-equality/equality/ethnic-nat-identity-religion/ethnic-group/index.html)

I have now amended my questionnaire and will officially start the study in due course.

04.02.15 Questionnaire Draft #1

I have created my first draft of my questionnaire, however as I have a progress meeting with my supervisor on the 10th, I will wait for his opinion before posting it. This is the first draft:

28.01.15 Questionnaire

I am now designing my questionnaire. I will use a volunteer sample to gain this sample using  2 different methods; firstly I will upload my questionnaire onto the website www.surveymonkey.com  and share the link on Facebook with this description attached ‘This is a 10 question questionnaire for my EPQ on the Psychological Approaches to Eating Disorders. The questionnaire is more specifically asking about your opinion on what influences disorder eating. If you would like to fill it in, please. By submitting this you have given consent, please do not write your name on it as this ensure your anonymity. Thank You. If you have any questions please contact me.’ I will also put this website link: www.b-eat.co.uk as a way for people to ensure the study does not mentally or physically affect anyone and if it does then they can visit the website for further information. Secondly I will put up 50 paper copies on the wall in my common room with a box for people to put completed questionnaires and a sign saying: ‘This is a 10 question questionnaire for my EPQ on the Psychological Approaches to Eating Disorders. The questionnaire is more specifically asking about your opinion on what influences disorder eating. If you would like to fill it in, please do and once finished place in the box below. By submitting this you have given consent, please do not write your name on it as this ensure your anonymity. Thank You. If you have any questions please come and speak to me. Sasha Nathan.'

I think that the methods of distributing the questionnaire  that I have chosen will be the most effective as by sharing it on social media I am able to reach a larger, more generalisable sample in a cheap and efficient way. I also feel that by leaving it on the wall of my common room it means that participants cannot respond to any demand characteristics or researcher bias that may occur if I were to stand there at the time of completing the questionnaire. Both ways also allow participant’s anonymity to stay in tact.  I will use a range of open and closed questions, increasing the validity of my findings as it will provide me with both quantitative and qualitative data. 

10.01.15 Primary Research Developments

Unfortunately my grandmother passed away last Sunday, in terms of my EPQ this means that my original plan for my primary research will not occur. However I have decided to just do a 10-question questionnaire, which I will be designing in the coming weeks.

01.01.15 No more posts

As I am now in the full swing of writing up my first draft there will most likely be a lack of blog posts, unless there are updates that need to be noted.

27.12.14 Writing in India

I am currently in India and have reached the 'relaxing' part of my trip, allowing me to focus on writing my EPQ. Whilst I was on the beach and talking about my EPQ I thought it could be interesting to do a quick experiment by asking the people around me at the time (opportunity sample) to write down what their definition of anorexia is:

I then debriefed everyone by giving them the definitions of Anorexia Nervosa, in order for them to know what the 'right' answer is, however I reassured them that whatever they wrote was fine. I will expand on my reasoning for this mini experiment in my EPQ