Talk About Your Feelings For Science!

on July 20, 2011

VERONICA'S TEAM PICK:

Sometimes, just sometimes, Autostraddle exists to make the world a better place in ways besides just letting you know what's up with Claire this week and where to buy boyshorts. Sometimes we help science happen! Like right now, when we point you towards this study on intimate relationships being conducted at Whittier College. It's super simple and just takes 30 minutes and only involves talking about yourself/your feelings, which you love doing anyway, and just has to be in bubble format as opposed to gchat or comments or whatever. The study organizers want to have a variety of identities represented, which means you, queermos!

There are various ways that relationships can be intimate, such as spending time together, sharing personal information, expressing feelings, being physically affectionate, or engaging in sexual behaviors. This study focuses primarily on intimate relationships that can be considered romantic or sexual. That includes dating, hooking up, seeing someone, having a girlfriend or boyfriend, courtship, marriage, and other casual or committed relationships.

How similar or different are intimate relationships across cultures? How are they influenced by social background, attitudes, and values? How do intimate relationships affect happiness and other aspects of well-being? This study will help researchers explore these issues. It will also provide a way for participants to evaluate their own intimate relationships and well-being. How satisfied are you with your intimate relationships? How happy are you with your life?

In order to participate you must be at least 18 years of age, so that you can legally consent. It should take about 30 minutes or longer to answer the questions, so begin when you have enough time to complete them. The questions are in four sections: Cultural and Social Background, Attitudes and Values, Intimate Relationships, and Well-Being.

Your answers will be entirely anonymous. No IP addresses are collected. You may terminate your participation at any time without penalty. If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant, you may contact Ann M. Kakaliouras, Ph.D., Chair of the Whittier College Human Subjects Protection Committee, at akakalio@whittier.edu.

Go forth and represent us well. Just don't discuss your answers with anyone! Seriously that's part of the study. But also do it! Thank you!

46 responses to “Talk About Your Feelings For Science!”

yodelmachine (member)
July 20, 2011 at 3:35 pm Permalink Reply Report user

i did that. it didn’t take too long. the end.

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Lissi (member)
July 20, 2011 at 3:49 pm Permalink Reply Report user

I started to do it. But, my gender isn’t female and my pronouns aren’t she. Felt like lying, so i gave up.

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1. Randahl (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 4:07 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  I did go through with it…It is asking for your CHOSEN gender identity. It later asks what sex you were born as. Granted, you still have to pick one of the binary. I wasn’t amused with the pronouns either. Why couldn’t they just say “You”?
  
  So Trans* people are included, Andro’s, not so much. Ah well, they are getting closer.
  
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  1. Alo
    July 20, 2011 at 5:50 pm Permalink Reply
    
    It’s poorly worded all around (pronouns and otherwise). I gave up on page two.
    
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Alo
July 20, 2011 at 5:42 pm Permalink Reply

Hey what’s the big idea here? Why do I have to be male or female here? Is this not Autostraddle? Is this not 2011?

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1. jifener25 (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 5:49 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  it’s not autostraddle, it’s the college.
  
  but i do agree,i hate having to identify as fully one gender.
  
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  1. Alo
    July 20, 2011 at 5:52 pm Permalink Reply
    
    Oh I know it’s the school. I just expect this website to forewarn me of such things. Also the pronouns are totally unnecessary in the first place.
    
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    1. Lissi (member)
      July 20, 2011 at 8:14 pm Permalink Reply Report user
      
      Yeah. They didn’t need to include them. Can we send these grievances to the school?
      
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      1. Rachel (member)
        July 20, 2011 at 9:24 pm Permalink Reply
        
        At the end of the survey there’s a comment box where you can share whatever you want with the researchers – I think letting them know your concerns would be a great idea, as unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot that we as Autostraddle can do. One of the research assistants on the study asked us to post about it so that she could be sure there were queer voices included, and I’m sure that your thoughts on this would be helpful so they can understand who their survey is representing and why.
        
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        Lissi (member)
        July 20, 2011 at 11:39 pm Permalink Reply Report user
        
        Thanks, Rachel!
        
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Lissi (member)
July 20, 2011 at 6:37 pm Permalink Reply Report user

Is autostraddle becoming genderstraddle?

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1. Randahl (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 8:19 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Hasn’t it always been?
  
  Also: there’s a club for that.
  
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kd15 (member)
July 20, 2011 at 7:02 pm Permalink Reply Report user

I totally misread the title of this article and thought it was going to be talking about our feelings re: science, cause science is cool and all

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1. c_loan (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 7:08 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  lol i thought the exact same thing. i was expecting xkcd comics or something.
  
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2. Randahl (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 8:21 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Lol me too, I was expecting a full on nerd-alert Which I am right now, I just finished Anatomy and Physiology today and my tired brain keeps buzzing on in Latin.
  
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3. discospider (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 9:35 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Seriously! I was overly excited about it.
  
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4. allie (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 9:36 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  fourth’d
  
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5. Ar (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 10:37 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  I also did this, and don’t feel so bad anymore. So: how tweaking awesome is science?! SO TWEAKING AWESOME. Aerospace majors forever, <3
  
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  1. Randahl (member)
    July 23, 2011 at 11:34 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    @Rawrosaur: Mos def, tweaking awesome! Aerospace is also tweaking awesome If you ever feel like it, I would really appreciate an explanation of worm holes tossed in my direction :3 Or is that more Astronomy?
    
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SaylaMarz (member)
July 20, 2011 at 7:23 pm Permalink Reply Report user

It felt very heteronormative, or at least gendernormative. ….even if it did allow for same sex relationships.

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1. Creatrix Tiara (member)
  July 23, 2011 at 11:43 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  To me it felt very mono-centric – as though you could only have *one* significant relationship at a time and anything else were just casual flings. Like uh, no…
  
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novastar (member)
July 20, 2011 at 7:36 pm Permalink Reply Report user

I sorta thought this would be where we geeked out all over how much we like science, but I guess a survey is cool too.

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Jill (member)
July 20, 2011 at 8:03 pm Permalink Reply Report user

Why isn’t the woman in the picture more excited about the contents of her Erlenmeyer flask? In my opinion it’s the second best kind of flask, with the Florence flask firmly in the lead.

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1. radiogirl (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 8:55 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  I just love the name “Erlenmeyer.” Florence is a cool name too though
  
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2. Toby (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 9:22 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  It’s full of what appears to be pure, concentrated love. How fascinating!
  
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3. Ar (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 10:40 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  There is an Erlenmeyer flask on my letter jacket from high school… it’s cuz I took AP Physics. Just thought I’d admit to that while we were on the subject.
  
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  1. radiogirl (member)
    July 20, 2011 at 11:45 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    That. is. awesome.
    Carry on with your bad self
    
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Jon (member)
July 20, 2011 at 8:23 pm Permalink Reply Report user

I could join the fray against the genderbinary stuff, but instead I choose to focus on this.

(I hope I did that right.)

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1. Toby (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 9:22 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  You did that right! Woo!
  
  Also, I severely enjoy this.
  
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2. christine (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 11:44 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  <3!
  
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3. Ar (member)
  July 20, 2011 at 11:51 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Good call.
  
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  1. Jon (member)
    July 21, 2011 at 6:08 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    Yay
    
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4. Randahl (member)
  July 21, 2011 at 6:09 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Is this site bbcode?
  
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  1. Randahl (member)
    July 21, 2011 at 6:15 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    P.S. That totally made my evening
    
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  2. Brianna (member)
    July 21, 2011 at 6:15 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    It’s HTML.
    
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5. Marika (member)
  July 21, 2011 at 8:08 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Jon, why am I so unsurprised that you posted this?
  
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vul (member)
July 20, 2011 at 10:55 pm Permalink Reply Report user

I felt weird about this question:

How often have you engaged in sexual activities with [the person you are in a current relationship] even though you did not want to?

Isn’t that, “How many times have you been raped?”

Finished it though. Took forever~

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1. Chandra
  July 21, 2011 at 10:01 am Permalink Reply
  
  Mmm, not necessarily. Haven’t there ever been times when you didn’t really feel like it, but consented anyway, either for the benefit of your partner or because you figured you’d get into it once you got going? I’m not talking about being coerced or pressured by your partner, because that’s clearly a different story – I mean making, in your own mind, the decision not to reveal to them that you’re not really feeling it in that moment, and doing it anyway. That’s how I took the question.
  
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  1. vul (member)
    July 21, 2011 at 3:24 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    If I don’t want to or she doesn’t want to, then it doesn’t happen. It doesn’t say, “if you were reluctant at first.” Just, “if you didn’t want to.”
    
    I think if you don’t want to and it happens, it’s necessarily rape.
    
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Lora (member)
July 20, 2011 at 11:39 pm Permalink Reply Report user

It didn’t take me too long because I completely skipped the part about “current partner,” or whatever CP stood for. I DON’T HAVE CP!

*wompwomp*

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Cara
July 21, 2011 at 1:17 am Permalink Reply

4. To what extent have you felt pressure to be married?

Lol.

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kristopolis (member)
July 21, 2011 at 8:29 am Permalink Reply Report user

i am casually seeing two people right now & i feel really awkward answering these questions about “cp”. also it’s like ARE YOU IN LOVE? & i am like idk it’s been like two months.

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1. vul (member)
  July 21, 2011 at 9:51 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Yeah, especially since CP has some weird associations.
  
  Cerebral palsy. copy & paste. specific heat. Not even gonna name the worst one.
  
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Chandra
July 21, 2011 at 10:05 am Permalink Reply

Anybody else a bit weirded out by how they ask for your current partner’s first initial, for no apparent purpose?

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1. annotations (member)
  July 21, 2011 at 12:21 pm Permalink Reply
  
  YES that weirded me out. Also, I thought it was odd that they wanted you to skip it if there was no “CP.” Couldn’t they have used “most recent relationship” or “longest lasting relationship?” I don’t know, that might have been more interesting, but maybe harder to get data from? But like, what if someone was in a long term relationship for five years, but is now dating casually and “CP” is really, “as of last week?” (hypothetical). Wouldn’t a study on intimacy be more interesting if it was about the actually intimate relationship as opposed to whatever people happen to be doing (or whomever, for that matter) at the moment? eh.
  
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Marika (member)
July 21, 2011 at 8:09 pm Permalink Reply Report user

Ok even though I’ve previously read this article, when I saw “talk about your feelings for science” I was like “I have a lot of feelings about science!” and got really excited to share them.

But then I realized that’s not what this is about. So I’m going to go make a powerpoint about my research so I can talk to people about my feelings for science tomorrow.

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