Participation in a University Psychological Experiment

[Adam Raoof]

I write to you to request the participation of your chess team in a psychological experiment that I must complete for my BSc Psychology degree at Middlesex University.
The experiment is to discover a relationship between the personality types of sports persons and their views of control and fate. The questionnaire should take no longer than 40 minutes to complete.
All psychological experiments conducted by anyone associated with Middlesex University are subject to review by an ethics committee to protect the welfare of its participants. This experiment has been submitted to the ethics committee and has gained ethical approval; therefore, your team should not suffer any psychological harm as a result of their participation.
I have enclosed a sample copy of the questionnaires and information sheet as it will be delivered to the participants. If you require more information concerning the details of the experiment, or of when or where it will need to be done please write. You can alternatively email me at [email protected].

Alexander R. Stamp - Middlesex University, Department of Psychology, The
Burroughs, Hendon, London NW4 4BT.

[Justin Hadi]

Interesting experiment. I'm going to talk about the elephant in the room here and say that the results of this questionnaire are going to be very interesting for chess players......

[Anthony Taglione]

I see there are a lot of repeated or opposing questions but I suspect this is common on a psychology test. I had to chuckle, though, at the related questions: 8.I leave my belongings lying around and 28.I often forget to put things back in their proper place. Some might suggest that lying around is an item's proper place.

Good luck with the experiment.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"I see there are a lot of repeated or opposing questions but I suspect this is common on a psychology test. "

It is - the idea is to try to avoid someone giving "biased" answers. E.g. if someone usually agrees with statements, you get different answers if you ask for comments on the statements, "I like to...." or "I don't like to ....". By asking the question both ways round, you either get an average "correct" answer or you see if the person generally likes to agree (or they may disagree all the time of course). It also overcomes bias in the questions -the wording may encourage a certain answer.

[Adam Raoof]

I'm pleased that so many of you have downloaded the questionnaire! If I had a version that you could fill in online, I would add that too. However I think I need an upgraded version of Acrobat to do that. Send Alexander your results as soon as you can!