Hi, my name is Renee and I'm a survey-aholic. Online, on the phone, or in the mail I always take the survey. I blame it partly on my sociology background, partly on my missionary rejection experience, and partly on vanity. I like to think that my opinions are important, or sometimes I like to skew their data. "No, I've never drunk alcohol EVER. Ha! Deal with that outlier!" Well, this past week I moved past the casual survey and participated in my first psychology experiment. I saw an add on Facebook saying you could earn $75 for participating in an experiment at Stanford. An easy $75 and I don't even have to go far...I just have to be White...check, and not diagnosed with any mental illnesses...thank my lucky stars, check.
So I reported to the Stanford Psychology department with some wariness because the only thing I've heard about this department is Phillip Zimbardo's sketchy prison experiment. As luck would have it, one of the first things I see when I walk in the building is Zimbardo's name with a room number. I guess he's still around. It's kind of weird when you realize that the people you've read about in textbooks are real people you might actually run into. I walked forward to the experiment anyway. This experiment involved LOTS of surveys, gruesome pictures, collections of my spit, and electric shock. You might wonder if $75 is really worth all that. I did too after I heard the electric shock part... But after hearing their reasoning I decided it made sense. They want to look at DNA (spit) and see if they can identify any connections with the way that people regulate their emotions. (Gruesome pictures and electric shock tend to create strong emotional reactions... and then the surveys and all kinds of wires give them feedback on how you react and regulate your feelings.)
It was interesting and almost fun, but there's got to be better ways to make $75.
Don't worry, the next post will be all baby:)
6 comments:
That's pretty funny. :) I remember reading about that prison experiment. Yikes.
Phil and I once agreed to be a part of a study at BYU that was suppose to measure blood pressure and marital stress. We had to be hooked up to some dumb machine for 3 days strait that would take our blood pressure every 20 minutes. I only lasted a day.
Some things just aren't worth it.
:)
three days?! Maybe the point was to see how long how long they could get people to hook themselves up to a machine:)
Yeah... making money for doing weird things is pretty common in college... although suggested by a roommate (jokingly) for one in Idaho Falls, i declined feeling that it probably falls under the breaking the law of chastity... or at least closer than I'd like to get... ewww...
D-man, you are hilarious!
Wow, Renee! You really are a tough mom. The idea of a Stanford psychology experiment immediately scares me. And it sounds like yours definitely wasn't a fluffy one.
But I do appreciate your willingness to do surveys, Hambleton Resources made me aware how difficult that is. And I can imagine how much harder it would be if you were asking questions about important things, and not just grocery stores and radio stations.
When I was in Georgia, the birthplace of your hubby, I participated in an experiment...well actually it was taste testing...of the future of McDonalds breakfast sandwiches...back then they didn't have breakfast stuff and I ended up tasting the Egg McMuffin...
And I got 25 bucks to do it...
Score!
Pops
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