You show me yours...

While wandering around news websites this morning, I found a link and an article regarding this 2010 study. While I don't think something like this should be forced, the participants were volunteers, contributing to the advancement of psychology.

The gist of the study was can we make being in a relationship accessible to laboratory study and experimental manipulation?

I found it fascinating, but the cynical part of my insides was jumping up and down hollering Whatttt??? They paid someone to come up with this???

I always want to know more. How did they come up with the questions they asked/answered in their sessions? How much honesty/validity is there when the participants know that all their conversations are being monitored and that they're being controlled/manipulated? (PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!)

Anyway. There were three sets of questions. Some superficial, some with a little more depth. And although it's been a long time since I saw a meme go around on blogger (does anyone besides me actually blog all the time anymore?) with a list of questions and a tag or two to get other people to do the same questions/answers, that's sort of how it struck me.

The questions ranged from smarmy innocuous... 'Tell your partner something that you like about them already', to more serious  'Of all the people in your family, whose death would you find most disturbing? Why?'

Deeper thoughts than I'd share with someone I hardly know, but maybe that's just me.

I think that there's a lot of room for dishonesty, too. Not necessarily because the participant may be a liar, but because in a situation like that, it seems that you'd try to impress the person more than you ordinarily would. Make an effort to be likable and approachable and give the impression of being open. And a room full of psychology people would be evaluating your body language and tone of voice. Or I'd think so, anyway.

The people who wrote the study must have had some sort of preconceived notion(s) about proving their theory, thereby slanting questions and the process toward reaching that conclusion.

So there really is no point to this ramble. I found the study interesting but I can't think of a way to use the results to do much of anything other than write a research paper and get some more grant money to do another study.

Like most educrats, justifying their existence to they can continue to exist and justify their existence.

And do the really important questions ever get asked?