Just took this survey, it was like 3 questions. Anyone else have a different experience?
same here … wonder if they are just collecting our names and email addresses.
There will be tons and tons of people (info they collect) vs 1 $250 gift card. Not worth it to me
They never say what kind of gift card it is, if one actually exists. Definitely a trick to collect info and email address of millions of people, and sell the list to whatever spammers. I prefer to do surveys or customer panels for reputable stores, which they give you their own gift card after certain number of surveys completed. Also a nice way is to do surveys for Psychology Department in universities, which they regularly have those psych chicks setting up survey booths on campus. You either complete a survey on site, or setup appointment to go to a psych lab. I completed tons of surveys with these psych chicks and got anything from chocolate bars, free food vouchers, to $5, $10, for each 15 minutes survey, to even $50 for a visit-twice research. There was one semester (3 months) that I made total of $500 in real cash plus lots of free food simply by doing psych surveys and research weekly. That was a help in living cost while I was in school.
Can somebody fill me in? Who’s giving away a $250 gift card?
I do wonder how many psychological study results are insanely biased because they are completed on college students (skews results based on age, educational levels, experience, probably race and class). But yeah, getting paid for this stuff can be nice.
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I do wonder how many psychological study results > are insanely biased because they are completed on > college students (skews results based on age, > educational levels, experience, probably race and > class). > Yes, you are right. The research are biased given the pool of subjects - college students at late teens and early 20s. However the studies were all screened and approved the the Research and Ethics Office of universities. Studies were all kinds about behaviour, attitude and feeling about almost every issue (such political, romantic, academic, atheletic, cultural, spiritual, religious, or even sexual, etc). Psych Dept targeted the group of subjects they were looking for, and sent the psych chicks (Junior and Senior year Bachelor’s in Psych) to the targeted locations throughout the campus. For example, booths beside the food court of the student building complex at lunch time for maximum traffic flow of general audience, or late afternoon at the Gym complex for atheletic and kinesiology study. Say, if they wanted to recruit non-caucasian international students for research in language and cultural adaptation, they looked up the class timetable and went into classrooms of the math and computer science classes during the 10 minutes between classes to strike their subject pool. But as long as they mentioned “Paid Psych Research”, “$10 for 15 minutes of your time”, “Food voucher” and put up posters all over the campus in all buildings, they will sure get a good response rate. The problem for recruiting age 25-35 is the graduate students usually stay in their own cozy offices, or at the grad pub, and they are less “transient” than undergrads. The money incentive is also weak since grad students mostly get sweet funding for being Tutor, TA or RA on a bi-weekly pay cheque, and they are also well fed with all sorts of free foods at department and faculty events, seminars, guest speaker talks, conferences, etc. They won’t bother with $10 or a free coffee+donut.
Well, if the goal is for senior students and junior graduate students to practice the protocol of doing psychological research and controlled experiments, then one can say that the sampling method is poor, but the pedagogical value of going through the rest of the exercise is worth it. But if this stuff ends up in research journals and influencing the advice and treatment that 50 year olds get when they are having trouble with their careers, lives, children, or whatever, well… …that can be a bad thing. “Hmm… you’re depressed because you lost your job and your husband ran off with someone else, and your child is addicted to crystal meth?? Well it says here that going to the beach and hanging out at all-night raves can really help you.”
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > But yeah, getting paid for this stuff can be nice. > Absolutely, it was nice. They paid better than the minimum wage, timewise, for the amount of time you need. A person could make thousands of dollars over 4 years of university life, tax-free, while saving the tuition tax deduction to future higher income years, and also help to pay off student loan faster. From investment, time value of money, and tax point of view, it is nice to make tax-free income now (as oppose to taxable wages from part-time jobs), while creating tax deductible expenses (tuition) for future high tax bracket income. BTW, these psych chicks were really nice to chat with, and I got paid to chat with them.