Research Request: Identity and Social Anxiety

[Jarle]

Hi all, 

 

We received the following from Tom from Case Western Reserve University: 

 

Quote

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University are studying the interactions between identity and anxiety in certain social situations.  Participants will complete an online survey that includes questionnaires and example scenarios.

 

We hope to use the information from this study to improve the experiences of gender and sexual minorities in potentially anxiety-inducing situations such as medical appointments, employment, and legal matters. Participants must be at least 18 years of age. Participants who complete the survey can be entered into a raffle to win gift cards for their participation.

 

If you would like to participate please follow the following link: https://tinyurl.com/y4t3427o

This study has been approved by the Research Approval Board. 

[SithLord]

Done. Took 30 min, dang.

[Rynn]

This one is really long.

 

I got a whole lot of questions on whether I've been discriminated against based on my gender identity, but none based on my sexual orientation. This is going to get them inaccurate results, because I have had a bunch of shit happen to me because I'm ace, but I keep my gender identity more hidden. I feel like the researchers just thought 'well aces don't get discriminated against, so they won't need to fill in these pages, we'll have them skip those.' I'm kind of offended by that. And that's really poor research standards. You can't just assume aces don't experience discrimination when that's exactly what you're researching.

 

And it's also dumb that they only ask about sexual orientation, and completely leave out romantic orientation. I was waiting for an opportunity to fill in that I'm also pan, but I guess that got ignored too now.

 

And there's a question which goes (after naming a bunch of negative stuff that can happen to you) 'what do you think the main reason is for these things happening to you?' and then they list 'gender' and 'gender identity' separately? Why?

 

And I think this questionnaire is meant for Americans, because at one point they go 'In this country, people come from a lot of different cultures and there are many different words to describe the different backgrounds or ethnic groups that people come from. Some examples of the names of ethnic groups are Mexican-American, Hispanic, Black, Asian-American, American Indian, Anglo American, and White.'

I'm pretty sure I filled in that I was from the Netherlands though.

 

And there's a part where they ask you 'Please indicate how often you have engaged in each of the following behaviors during the past 12 months, based on the indicated aspects of your identity at the top of each column.' But it only has space for 3 minority identities haha. the rest falls off the page. 

[LeChat]

3 hours ago, Laurann said:

This one is really long.

 

I got a whole lot of questions on whether I've been discriminated against based on my gender identity, but none based on my sexual orientation...

 

And it's also dumb that they only ask about sexual orientation, and completely leave out romantic orientation. I was waiting for an opportunity to fill in that I'm also pan, but I guess that got ignored too now.

 

And there's a question which goes (after naming a bunch of negative stuff that can happen to you) 'what do you think the main reason is for these things happening to you?' and then they list 'gender' and 'gender identity' separately? Why?...

Yeah, I agree: this was a long one!

 

Hmm, I thought the survey asked about discrimination based on sexual orientation/being ace. I remember they had a fill in option (after the questions about how comfortable you'd feel around a doctor, lawyer, boss, etc. who said they were gay/pansexual, etc.) which asked whether or not you'd personally been discriminated against, like any of those scenarios mentioned. There was also an option to fill in more info at the end of the survey.

 

As to why "gender" and "gender identity" were separate, my guess was that because the former option gave examples of "male" cis female," etc. that the researchers might've been thinking about how, in some countries and cultures, women are still mistreated and thought of as lesser than men (there were some survey questions which asked how a person feels about this) and that the "gender identity" option might've been asking more about whether someone has been discriminated against for being trans, non-binary, etc.

[Rynn]

@LeChat I mean I got several pages of questions about discrimination related to my gender identity.

If you didn't fill in you were some form of trans, you weren't going to get those pages.

I just checked, and if you filled in you were gay, you also get those pages of questions, but related to being gay.

Those full pages of questions were the point, not those couple of loose questions at the end.

[KathyHoh]

On 11/28/2019 at 7:19 AM, Laurann said:

This one is really long.

 

I got a whole lot of questions on whether I've been discriminated against based on my gender identity, but none based on my sexual orientation. This is going to get them inaccurate results, because I have had a bunch of shit happen to me because I'm ace, but I keep my gender identity more hidden. I feel like the researchers just thought 'well aces don't get discriminated against, so they won't need to fill in these pages, we'll have them skip those.' I'm kind of offended by that. And that's really poor research standards. You can't just assume aces don't experience discrimination when that's exactly what you're researching.

 

And it's also dumb that they only ask about sexual orientation, and completely leave out romantic orientation. I was waiting for an opportunity to fill in that I'm also pan, but I guess that got ignored too now.

 

And there's a question which goes (after naming a bunch of negative stuff that can happen to you) 'what do you think the main reason is for these things happening to you?' and then they list 'gender' and 'gender identity' separately? Why?

 

And I think this questionnaire is meant for Americans, because at one point they go 'In this country, people come from a lot of different cultures and there are many different words to describe the different backgrounds or ethnic groups that people come from. Some examples of the names of ethnic groups are Mexican-American, Hispanic, Black, Asian-American, American Indian, Anglo American, and White.'

I'm pretty sure I filled in that I was from the Netherlands though.

 

And there's a part where they ask you 'Please indicate how often you have engaged in each of the following behaviors during the past 12 months, based on the indicated aspects of your identity at the top of each column.' But it only has space for 3 minority identities haha. the rest falls off the page. 

There is some serious discrimination against Asexuals. Like the orientation, the discrimination is also invisible. Mostly because the orientation is misunderstood by allosexuals and they are a majority. There should be a study about asexual discrimination in the workplace, in the eyes of the law etc. Even the reactions when someone comes out as asexual are bullying and sometimes offensive.