Posted by alexandra_k on November 5, 2004, at 17:33:07
In reply to Re: artifacts, posted by gardenergirl on November 5, 2004, at 16:42:45
> I don't know what hypothesis(es) they are studying or the design of the research. It certatinly appears to be a qualitative design, but still, I'm guessing.
Do you think you need to know that to be able to write on the areas of interest? Maybe they are waiting for us to say what our experience is before they decide what to write. I mean, it isn't an experiment, so they don't really need a hypothesis. I guess that I was just thinking that online support seems to currently have a pretty low profile. I doubt that the mental health system that I am in would pay for me to have online group or individual therapy. I doubt that they would pay for my participation in babble (if we had to pay). While this kind of research probably wouldn't impress on them just how much it helps (as they are interested in those nice operationalised measures of improvement) it seems to me that this kind of research can give online support a higher profile which might lead to some experiments with hypotheses and some quantitative measures of improvement.
> Well, I would like to agree with you. But there appears to be some strong feelings here. And I've noted more than one poster (via actual posts and personal correspondence) who are currently feeling too upset to participate, though for a variety of reasons.Yes, I know. And like I have said, I think that is a shame. Once again I want to say that surely we are all getting something out of our participation in this community or we wouldn't be here. Maybe we feel it is in spite of certain people rather than because of them some of the time. But the fact remains: we are still here.
> A self-selected sample is a convenience sample who's members choose to participate, versus are chosen randomly. In addition, the members of Babble are self-selected in that we find Babble and choose to post. A self-selected sample does not necessarily represent the entire population being studied. Rather it represents those who for whatever reason decided to participate. Thus, this presents some limitations to the generalizability of results.Ok. But then it is clear that we are self-selected. The impression I get is that the intention is to raise the profile of online support. It isn't an experiment so we don't need to worry about a control group or random sampling or whatever. I do take your point, though.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:411567
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20041027/msgs/412321.html