Dating and Relationships Interview - Participant Needed

[Noemi]

Hello,

I am an Occupational therapy graduate student doing research on the lived experiences of individuals with Autism and dating. I am looking for a participant who'd be willing to do an interview via zoom for about 20 minutes, answering a series of open-ended questions.
Of course, everything will be kept confidential and no real names will be used.
Only criteria is: self diagnoses ASD, between 18-30 yrs old, and living independently.
Please message me if interested or have questions, your help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Raggamuffin]

Ever feel like a guinea pig, with all these random new accounts asking us to participate in their studies, whilst never hanging around long enough to learn about, or become part of this forum community?

Ed

 

[Owliet]

Only criteria is: self diagnoses ASD, between 18-30 yrs old, and living independently.

Why is this your only criteria when your focus is looking at how individuals with autism date? Would your research also benefit from looking at those who have been officially diagnosed too? Why only 18-30 years old, would this not lead to skewered results if you only look at a small proportion when there are older adults on the spectrum who also develop relationships? Why does age matter? What does living independently mean to affect your research? Are people considered unreliable data If they live at home?

what further ethical concerns may be raised?

answering a series of open-ended questions.
Of course, everything will be kept confidential and no real names will be used.

Can people not see the questions in advance? Why are they open ended? Wouldn’t a close answered survey have worked better as an alternative? And be more easily attainable...

From most universities, you have to fill a form in to say that the person who you interview agrees with you sharing information even if it’s not going to be shared on real names.

what are the outcomes that you hope from this? What, if you have one, Is your hypotheses?

It just seems like you’ve gotten an idea, sort of developed it a little but haven’t really considered anything further.

 

[Hypnalis]

As described, it's likely to be a trap of some kind, or maybe a "bait and switch".
Maybe a journalist, someone writing a clickbait "OMG LoOk at (and click on) this aMaZing (but not really) thing", or someone writing a book.

At first glance, I'd expect any information provided to be manipulated to support an existing position.

If it's science, they need at least 20 participants., and if there are interviews, there will be a setup process (survey (perhaps both before and after), reading or writing to be done, etc).

 

[iamlindsaythatisall]

Occupational therapist doing research about autism and dating? Sorry to be a skeptic, but that just seems odd. Therapists aren’t really known for doing research… especially occupational therapists. Can’t say I’ve ever run into an occupational therapist that was concerned about dating and relationships… just about how I can use my foot again after surgery, or whether or not my motor skills were affected after a head injury.

This whole thing just doesn’t seem IRB-friendly, either. You’d need to give your participants a lot more info to give proper consent.

This don’t pass the smell test for a myriad of reasons…

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Why is this your only criteria when your focus is looking at how individuals with autism date? Would your research also benefit from looking at those who have been officially diagnosed too? Why only 18-30 years old, would this not lead to skewered results if you only look at a small proportion when there are older adults on the spectrum who also develop relationships? Why does age matter? What does living independently mean to affect your research? Are people considered unreliable data If they live at home?

what further ethical concerns may be raised?

Can people not see the questions in advance? Why are they open ended? Wouldn’t a close answered survey have worked better as an alternative? And be more easily attainable...

From most universities, you have to fill a form in to say that the person who you interview agrees with you sharing information even if it’s not going to be shared on real names.

what are the outcomes that you hope from this? What, if you have one, Is your hypotheses?

It just seems like you’ve gotten an idea, sort of developed it a little but haven’t really considered anything further.

I wonder at the self diagnosis and living independently criteria. There were many of us not realizing we were autistic at those ages yet had to cope socially. Plus, living independently selects for people with a level of competence that may be indicative of better functioning in the dating scene. I see a strong possibility of bias.

 

[Atrapa Almas]

Hello,

I am an Occupational therapy graduate student doing research on the lived experiences of individuals with Autism and dating. I am looking for a participant who'd be willing to do an interview via zoom for about 20 minutes, answering a series of open-ended questions.
Of course, everything will be kept confidential and no real names will be used.
Only criteria is: self diagnoses ASD, between 18-30 yrs old, and living independently.
Please message me if interested or have questions, your help is greatly appreciated!

Hello Noemi,

Wouldnt you like to do a research of how autism people destroy your wishes of doing a dating research?

 

[iamlindsaythatisall]

Hello Noemi,

Wouldnt you like to do a research of how autism people destroy your wishes of doing a dating research?

No better group to nitpick and dissect every single detail!

 

[Tom]

Normally I think we get about 1-2 of these surveys/questionaires a month. But we have had 3 in the last week alone. Maybe it relates to semesters or some sort of school scheduling, or perhaps even financing.

But yeah, its hard to get excited or even interested in these after the first 90 or so.

Especially since they almost never return to share the results, link to the paper, etc.

In my time (6 years? I can't remember) here, I only definately remember one student who came back and shared the results. There might have been 2.

Added: Haha I'm a dummy. It says when I joined right below my name. So make that 5 years.

 

[Judge]

Seems like a request that is Dead On Arrival given they failed to provide a specific URL the mods are going to want to investigate to determine the legitimacy of such a request and alleged research.

 

[Judge]

I sort of feel a little bad sometimes for these people who need participants for research and projects. They have no idea what they are walking into.

In a world of online scammers and predators, it is incumbent upon them to learn what is or should be required of them in order to attain viable feedback. A process that requires their request to be as transparent as possible. Preferably starting with an .edu rather than just any URL.

Quid-pro-quo.

We all aren't as gullible as some stereotypes may imply.

 

[Shamar]

Ever feel like a guinea pig, with all these random new accounts asking us to participate in their studies, whilst never hanging around long enough to learn about, or become part of this forum community?

Ed

In a slightly related matter, has anybody ever seen the results of any of these research studies?

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I liked the Wizard of Oz analogy, who is behind the curtain.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Occupational therapist doing research about autism and dating? Sorry to be a skeptic, but that just seems odd. Therapists aren’t really known for doing research… especially occupational therapists. Can’t say I’ve ever run into an occupational therapist that was concerned about dating and relationships… just about how I can use my foot again after surgery, or whether or not my motor skills were affected after a head injury.

This whole thing just doesn’t seem IRB-friendly, either. You’d need to give your participants a lot more info to give proper consent.

This don’t pass the smell test for a myriad of reasons…

Occupational therapists up here require a graduate degree, so possibly a student trying to do a graduate thesis. They do a lot of tests of mental abilities, I had to deal with a few after the stroke. I was quite impressed with their education. being curious was quite inquisitive.

 

[Thinx]

Normally I think we get about 1-2 of these surveys/questionaires a month. But we have had 3 in the last week alone. Maybe it relates to semesters or some sort of school scheduling, or perhaps even financing.

But yeah, its hard to get excited or even interested in these after the first 90 or so.

Especially since they almost never return to share the results, link to the paper, etc.

In my time (6 years? I can't remember) here, I only definately remember one student who came back and shared the results. There might have been 2.

Added: Haha I'm a dummy. It says when I joined right below my name. So make that 5 years.

It says January 2015, so I make that 7 years. And 2 months. Time's flying!

I participated in a series of in depth email interviews with one student, he did tick all the ethical procedures boxes, but then he didn't use anything at all I said. Gutted.

 

[OkRad]

Dating? What are relationships? Nothing here to see sir or maam. We don't engage in that kind of activity.

 

[Aspychata]

I never dated a donut l didn't like. What kind of dates are these? Can you classify dating - like narrow it down more? Does one dinner count as a date? Does winking on a date site count? Why are they open-ended questions? If you are doing survey, they usually aren't open-ended.

Anyways.......

 

[Fino]

What incentive is there for someone to participate? Does it rely on altruism?

 

[Ban]

I am new the forums so I maybe don't have the experience of these kind of posts and am maybe being naive which I acknowledge but I thought that the issue around the "open ended questions" was worth mentioning.
Usually in research the information gathered is either quantitative or qualitative. Quantitiave being a survey with closed questions which creates absolute answers which can be plugged in to a data set and create statistics to talk about but nothing more. Also no answer which the researcher hadn't thought of can be given as they are usually multiple choice. However qualitative research is interviews with open ended questions. This allows participants to talk at length about the parts which are most important to them. The researcher would then look back over all the interviews and look for reoccurring themes. Any themes identified could then be said are "possibly" linked to autism. This would then be a foundation for further research.
I just feel that so much research in autism is looking at overall statistics and not trying to understand the genuine experience we have in these situations and therefore doesn't help us all that much. So just thought that it is really important to have some of this kind of research too.
Of coarse I did say compare themes across interviews and the post did say "a" participant. Obviously there is no way to pin down one person's experience to anything other than that's their individual experience unless the poster already had other participants from elsewhere and just needs one more.

 

[Alexej]

In a slightly related matter, has anybody ever seen the results of any of these research studies?

Yes I have participated in a study and had feedback about the results, by email.
However. I agree that them feeding back afterwards is appreciated