Why can't I do these questionnaires if I'm not in a romantic relationship?

I am looking at the way people think about hurtful events specifically in the context of three types of relationships, including romantic relationships. There are no measures that currently exist that would allow me to accurately measure people's reactions to these events if they are basing them on past relationships. However, if you are really interested in this research, please keep an eye on this website. I will likely be running my next study in the middle of this year, which is likely to be concentrating on ongoing hurt from events in past relationships. Please also consider informing others about this research if you think it is interesting.

Will this study ask me about things that will upset or disturb me?

The first questionnaire will be asking you to recall in some detail the most hurtful event you can remember occurring in three current relationships. For some people, these events will not be distressing or upsetting to think about, whereas for others this will bring up memories that may be painful. As I do not wish to collect data at the expense of my participants' wellbeing, it is important that you think carefully about whether you are willing to revisit and think about some undoubtedly unpleasant events before commencing participation.

If you are uncomfortable recalling your own experiences, but still wish to participate, please consider completing questionnaire two, which asks you to read a number of hurtful scenarios and imagine they happened to you. Of course, this decision should be at your discretion.

Questionnaire one asks me to tell you about private events. Is there any chance that people will be able to find out what I have written in this questionnaire?

No. All data will be either looked at in aggregate (all together), or if the specific events need to be analysed, they will be looked at separate to any identifying information (such as your or your partner's/friend's/acquaintance's demographic details).

Why are you only using specific populations for your data collection?

I have been fortunate enough to have many kind people advertise and complete my questionnaires. These advertisements have been across as wide an audience as possible, which has been assumed will sufficiently combat most issues with recruitment bias my data may be prone to experiencing. Selection bias, unfortunately, remains a problem in any voluntary data collection!

Why can't I save my results and come back later to finish the survey? When I was sent the link for the study you said that I could.

Unfortunately there has been an issue with the 'save and continue later' function of this questionnaire. Sadly, I have had to abandon this function, and participants will now need to allow at least an hour to complete them in one sitting.

Why are there questions that seem similar or repeat themselves?

Relationships are complex and thus difficult to measure using any single measure. In order to measure the aspects of relationships that I am looking at more accurately, I have needed to use a number of measures that look at the same thing in slightly different ways.

There are questions that don't seem very applicable to me or that I had difficulty answering properly. How can I answer these?

As psychological tests are designed for the population in general, rather than tailored to individuals, it is difficult to always accurately capture the way a person feels about a concept in a questionnaire. In the cases where you are finding that a question doesn't really describe you perfectly, just give the answer you think best suits.

Why is questionnaire one almost identical to questionnaire two? Do I have to complete both?

Questionnaire one and questionnaire two are measuring the same thing  - people's reactions and thoughts about hurtful events across a range of relationships - but in slightly different ways. I am hoping to use the data from questionnaire two to extend the findings from questionnaire one, as well as exploring another way of measuring people's evaluation of hurtful events apart from their direct reports.

You do not need to complete both questionnaires in order to give me complete data. As they are so similar, it is unlikely that you would want to fill out both, as this is likely to be pretty boring. However, if you have filled out one, please consider passing the link to the other questionnaire onto a friend or partner.

I can't think of anything that my partner (or friend, or acquaintance) has done that is really hurtful. What should I put down for this answer?

It might be the case that you haven't had anything that you consider really hurtful happen in any of the relationships that I ask about in questionnaire one. What I am interested in is the most hurtful event for you, and how it made you feel. It is not really important whether other people would rate it as a very hurtful event, or whether "bad" things have happened but you would not rate them as very hurtful. Just put down the thing or series of things within each relationship that have hurt you the most.

Can you give me feedback on my results?

Unfortunately I will be unable to give anyone specific feedback on their results. The measures I am using do not provide meaningful results for individuals or their relationships. I am also unable to identify any individual's results because they are submitted anonymously.

I will be able to post the overall results from this study once my data collection and analysis is complete. I expect this to be early April 2010 at the earliest. I will be posting a selection of my results on this website, but you can also email me at info@hurtlab.com or jodie.burchell@anu.edu.au to have them emailed to you.

How are these results going to be used?

So far, this data has been part of a conference presentation at the APS Psychology of Relationships 9th Annual Conference in Brisbane, Australia, in November this year. All data that was used was presented in an aggregate fashion, so no particular person was able to be singled out. I will be presenting on further findings from this study at the International Association of Relationships Research Conference this year in Israel. Ultimately, I will be using these results as the first part of my thesis to meet the requirements for a PhD at the ANU in Canberra. I also hope to write these results up in a paper for publication should the results prove interesting.

Why are your participants such awesome people?

I'm not sure. I guess I'm just lucky. Thanks for the generous sparing of your time and effort, everyone!