Steroids Research

[lucymossmason]

Hi there

 

My name is Lucy Moss-Mason and I am a postgraduate student at Victoria University of Wellington. I am currently doing research into how and why some men in New Zealand use steroids and other drugs for sports/fitness/body image reasons.

 

As part of my research, I am conducting interviews with men over the age of 18 who currently use, or have previously used steroids or other sports/fitness drugs. If you are in Wellington and would be interested in talking about your experiences, you can email me at lucy.moss-mason@vuw.ac.nz. Interviews are confidential and you will receive a $20 supermarket voucher in exchange for your time. I have also attached a poster with further information. 

 

If anyone has any questions, feel free to email me or post them below. 

 

Cheers. 

PIEDs study poster 3.pdf

[Daz69]

Why just Wellington, aren't you limiting yourself somewhat to a very small group...

[PETN]

Criminology related research by any chance?

[lucymossmason]

4 hours ago, Daz69 said:

Why just Wellington, aren't you limiting yourself somewhat to a very small group...

 

I live and study in Wellington and I am doing face to face interviews so participants need to be able to be physically present in Wellington for an interview. It is unfortunate though, I completely understand what you are getting at.

[lucymossmason]

1 hour ago, PETN said:

Criminology related research by any chance?

 

Hi PETN, yes I am studying in the Institute of Criminology at Victoria. I'm not at all pro-criminalisation of people who use though, if that was a concern. I'm more interested in how steroid users are portrayed and their motivations (how and why they use steroids).

[hamdanz]

Dudes start using steroids so girls will look at them.

 

Dudes go to far, starts getting more attention from guys.

 

/thesis

[Daz69]

On 23/05/2017 at 8:20 PM, lucymossmason said:

 

I live and study in Wellington and I am doing face to face interviews so participants need to be able to be physically present in Wellington for an interview. It is unfortunate though, I completely understand what you are getting at.

 

Then you will limit yourself to an even smaller group (if any).. you'd get a better response from online questions here..

[Realtalk]

what made you choose this subject?

[lucymossmason]

2 hours ago, Realtalk said:

what made you choose this subject?

 

I'm really interested in the social stigma surrounding steroids/PIEDs use. There has been a bit of academic research about it overseas, but none in NZ - only media coverage which is exaggerated and has a lot of scaremongering. I think it's important to hear directly from users about their use, instead of blindly buying into stereotypes and assumptions. 

[hamdanz]

I did a qualitative research based thesis a few years back using indepth interview as the main data collection method, with the grounded theory methodology.

 

So i understand why you want the interviews done in person.  And it doesn't limit the data like people are saying.  This kind of research is about more of an understanding of a particular culture, not about generalisation like typical market research that treats people like a number.

 

However, I think some netnography data collection from pre-existing information sources such as forums, or using skype for an indepth interview for people around the country, will allow you to uncover much richer data.

[lucymossmason]

5 minutes ago, hamdanz said:

I did a qualitative research based thesis a few years back using indepth interview as the main data collection method, with the grounded theory methodology.

 

So i understand why you want the interviews done in person.  And it doesn't limit the data like people are saying.  This kind of research is about more of an understanding of a particular culture, not about generalisation like typical market research that treats people like a number.

 

However, I think some netnography data collection from pre-existing information sources such as forums, or using skype for an indepth interview for people around the country, will allow you to uncover much richer data.

 

Thanks for your advice on this. It is a relatively small project at the moment (only a dissertation at Honours level) and I originally intended to do 3-5 interviews. However, I have had a lot of interest, so I am going to do as many interviews as possible and then possibly develop it further into Masters/PhD. My supervisor is also interested in publishing a larger research piece based on the dissertation, so I'll see how it goes.

 

I am definitely following a number of forums/subreddits for further data, and I'm doing a wide literature review in the area. I would love to interview people through Skype/internet as well, but at the moment I don't have the capacity for it. If anyone is interested in potentially doing an internet-based interview, feel free to email me. I most likely won't be able to complete any such interviews for this dissertation, but I would be happy to grab contact details from people if they would be interesting in participating in a larger research project, so that I could contact them in the future (potentially late this year or next year).  

[hamdanz]

2 hours ago, lucymossmason said:

 

Thanks for your advice on this. It is a relatively small project at the moment (only a dissertation at Honours level) and I originally intended to do 3-5 interviews. However, I have had a lot of interest, so I am going to do as many interviews as possible and then possibly develop it further into Masters/PhD. My supervisor is also interested in publishing a larger research piece based on the dissertation, so I'll see how it goes.

 

I am definitely following a number of forums/subreddits for further data, and I'm doing a wide literature review in the area. I would love to interview people through Skype/internet as well, but at the moment I don't have the capacity for it. If anyone is interested in potentially doing an internet-based interview, feel free to email me. I most likely won't be able to complete any such interviews for this dissertation, but I would be happy to grab contact details from people if they would be interesting in participating in a larger research project, so that I could contact them in the future (potentially late this year or next year).  

 

Cool!  Good luck!

 

I had my research presented at a consumer culture theory conference in Helsinki, and an article was published in the Australasian marketing journal or something,  so definitely recommend working towards a thesis.  It's a great topic I reckon, you could really get some new understanding in the area.

[Daz69]

6 hours ago, hamdanz said:

I did a qualitative research based thesis a few years back using indepth interview as the main data collection method, with the grounded theory methodology.

 

So i understand why you want the interviews done in person.  And it doesn't limit the data like people are saying.  This kind of research is about more of an understanding of a particular culture, not about generalisation like typical market research that treats people like a number.

 

However, I think some netnography data collection from pre-existing information sources such as forums, or using skype for an indepth interview for people around the country, will allow you to uncover much richer data.

 

I would respectfully disagree..  Most responsible, mature users of AAS would prefer to remain anonymous and don't discuss their use in public..

By insisting on in person interviews, you are likely to encourage reckless younger users, with no thought of consequence..

[hamdanz]

10 minutes ago, Daz69 said:

 

I would respectfully disagree..  Most responsible, mature users of AAS would prefer to remain anonymous and don't discuss their use in public..

By insisting on in person interviews, you are likely to encourage reckless younger users, with no thought of consequence..

 

In depth interviews doesn't mean you're not anonymous.  Similar data is pieced together, and a quote might be used to illustrate a point/finding etc, but that's about it.  

 

I don't know why you think people wouldn't be anonymous?  "Bob" - 45, M, Auckland, is hardly revealing somebody's identity.

[lucymossmason]

1 minute ago, hamdanz said:

 

In depth interviews doesn't mean you're not anonymous.  Similar data is pieced together, and a quote might be used to illustrate a point/finding etc, but that's about it.  

 

I don't know why you think people wouldn't be anonymous?  "Bob" - 45, M, Auckland, is hardly revealing somebody's identity.

 

I guess, in terms of research/ethics applications the interviews are not technically 'anonymous' as myself and my supervisor know the identity of those interviewed through the completion of the consent form and seeing their face etc. The ethics committee (at least at my university) only considers research to by anonymous when no one knows  the identity of the participants (e.g., internet surveys). However, they are definitely confidential in the sense that participants' identities are not shared with anyone else, and any identifying information will be changed or redacted. 

 

I have decided that I would like to do face-to-face interviews as they allow for a richness of qualitative data that cannot be achieved through the internet. That being said, I completely understand people's reluctance to talk to me - which is completely fine, I don't want anyone to talk to me if they don't want to! 

[Daz69]

I think you'll attract the wrong type of steroid user which will give the usual wrong impression...

 

I've been involved with exogenous hormones 36 years what the f*ck do I know..

[hamdanz]

The whole point of this style of research is to get as broad as possible snapshot of a particular subculture etc.  I don't think there is a 'wrong' type of steroid user in this context.

 

And Lucy, yes, you're right.  But I'm more just generalising that the average steroid user shouldn't have anything to worry about in terms of their identity being public with a 'taboo' research topic.  I had a friend do a similar study with sexual abuse victims, and she still got a sample size of about 12.  Which is decent amount for qualitative research.  If people can talk about that, then shit, finding steroid users will be a walk in the park.

[PETN]

Any voluntary survey, online or in person, will have potentially non representative data because you are automatically only selecting people who can be fucked wasting their own time doing it as the sample group. Often this will be correlated to the survey topic.

 

Also with reddit users you will probably be talking to people who think they are using steroids but likely actually aren't. You might well get a different response based on this as all they are experiencing is a placebo effect rather than the actual effects of steroids.

[Pseudonym]

I think Daz is right in saying that the types of people who put themselves forward for these sorts of things tend to be young and think they're bullet-proof. Look at virtually every current affairs show that's ever done a steroids story. However, as long as Lucy is aware of that natural bias in her research subjects, then maybe it's okay?

 

I must admit, I was surprised you'd only planned to interview 3-5 people, Lucy... I confess I don't understand how qualitative research works, but surely it still needs a large enough sample size to be vaguely representative of the whole?

[hamdanz]

Qualitative research isn't designed to be representative of a culture of people by generalisation. It is to get a deeper understanding of a subculture with little current understanding.  It's exploratory, setting the path for future more robust research.

[eddie]

I would be very careful in helping this person with there research i had a good friend help someone else out with there research similar subject and got totally screwed by them be careful.

 

[Realtalk]

To be honest the young and dumb are these days the majority of users. It is becoming more uncommon to find people who have good knowledge on the whole subject. So her results will probably represent the majority I would say. Personally I wouldn't meet someone I didn't know and spill my guts for $500 worth of vouchers, but that's just me and doesn't mean no one will do it. Anyway I hope you get enough info to make it successful.

 

[jimmybro1]

9 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

I think Daz is right in saying that the types of people who put themselves forward for these sorts of things tend to be young and think they're bullet-proof. Look at virtually every current affairs show that's ever done a steroids story. However, as long as Lucy is aware of that natural bias in her research subjects, then maybe it's okay?

 

Not always the case individuals like John Romano have approached the topic in the media/news. 

 

 

[ratz99]

1 hour ago, eddie said:

I would be very careful in helping this person with there research i had a good friend help someone else out with there research similar subject and got totally screwed by them be careful.

 

What happened? Just curious 

[Realtalk]

1 hour ago, jimmybro1 said:

Not always the case individuals like John Romano have approached the topic in the media/news. 

 

 

 

 

I think romano is an idiot.