Dissertation research survey!! – Motivations to mountain biking,

Afternoon all,
I’m currently in my last year at uni and have decided to look into the motivations of mountain bikers. Alot of past studies have looked into motivations of elite road cyclists and the physiological tests, so i thought i would have a look and see what information i could find. To come up with my research method i have used a downsized version of the Sport Motivation Scale (Pelletier et al, 1995) and the online survey tool ‘Survey Monkey’. The link is below to take part in the survey, and i would greatly appreciate it if you could take part.

Survey – http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VBDB3CJ

Cheers.

done- (its super short guys)

Done – although there are many more motivating factors (for me) than the ones on your survey.

I got stuck on the immersid question.

What UnI are you at?

What UnI are you at?

Quite.

usully chiks wont tork 2 me but when i tel them im a montainbikker they think im kool

Completed.

when has ever telling a girl your a mountain biker been a good pick up line…unless the girl you are talking to is a mountain biker?

“I like to ride baby, sometimes for hours, and often in the woods.”

I’m at the University of Cumbria in Ambleside.

I’m at the University of Cumbria in Ambleside.

I thought that has gone.

Thanks for taking part aswell, appreciate it very much!

Shortest. Survey. Evar.

Completed, anyway. Buy a spellchecker.

that was it ? 😯

Spelling mistake corrected! Long story about Uni of Cumbria, they moved all of the teaching students to the Lancaster campus, and then have left 2nd-3rd year Outdoor Studies students in Ambleside, and began to take them on at the Penrith campus. Its still pretty much up in the air, i know as much as you do about it we rarely get imformed about the backroom stuff.

Very bizarre questions!

Are you doing a degree in something weird?

aye, eye, i.. I

why did you waste time making us select male and middle aged? **** noobs 🙄

When is the deadline?

Junkyard… Because then i can look if there are any differences in motivation from males to females and if it changes from age. CaptJon, my deadline is May 11.

Hi – I have completed it. A couple of points of feedback.

For the pleasure it gives me to know more about the sport that i practice.

1) I had to read this a few times and I am still not too sure I understood the sentence even then.

2) Surveys are usually generated after having done focus groups with your target audience. You then create questions using their vocabulary, and their ideas that they generate. This survey feels that you generated these questions with no reference to other bikers. Is that right?

Good luck but you may want to rethink this as for me there was nothing about stying fit, having fun with friends, getting a bit of a buzz, or just being out in the countryside etc…

Spelling mistake corrected!

You might as well get some more while you’re at it! It’s I, not i and you practise the sport (verb) rather then practice it..

(Completed, by the way)

that is the worst survey i’ve ever seen none are motivating factors for me

All done. Good look, dissertations are crap! 😆

Completed.

I’m glad I wasn’t high when I did that, it sort of freaked me out a little bit and I don’t know why.

Dun.

Yep – that was certainly short….and a bit weird! Odd choice of questions but completed anyway 🙂

I think they are studying the response to the survey and not the answers given!

What about questions about being outdoors, enjoying solitude, enjoying spending time with mates etc etc

Between you and me, I did the questionaire and it didn’t get close to why I mountain bike.

I totally understand that some of the questions are a bit strange. They look into different aspects of motivation, intrinsic, extrinsic and amotivational factors. So each of these questions looks into answering each of these categories.

Done the survey.

TBH the lad’s got plenty of time to sit down and do a second survey if he feels it would help.

I assume the questions are chosen to provide data which is comparable to existing stuff, but IMO they won’t – use the same entire set of questions, except ones that really aren’t applicable, survey only “elite” mountain bikers (people who actually race, or that bloke with the new Ragley who never stops), or include a question on whether the respondent races, and you’ll be closer. My motivations to nip out on the bike and Steve Peat or Lance Armstrong’s will be totally different most of the time.

Or take an entirely different tack and ask a set of questions that are more suited to mountain biking, include more possiblities (ie, nature / outdoors, etc), and recognise that you’re not going to produce comparable data. Ask different questions of a different group and try to compare it with the research that’s gone before and you’ll struggle.

I’m sure his tutor will be putting the fear of god into him at present, but to be honest, an undergrad dissertation is 10000 words. The guy’s got 5 weeks to write it up, with some spare time to proof and print it. By dissertation time you should know what’s a realistic per day word count, and know if you can realistically take more time to research. Online surveys have a huge advantage over traditional data collection in terms of speed of data collection and collation for one. They’re also the hallmark of someone writing in a hurry for that reason – maybe go to a race or trail centre for an afternoon and question a few people…

I’d personally stop now and do more research – starting with a decent Research Methods text like Bryman.

Having done a couple of dissertations myself, I know this is hardly music to anyone’s ears, but I reckon you’ve got the time to make some big improvements to the research, even a quick face to face survey would make a fair impact.

Edit: I’ve made the assumption that this is the main piece of primary research. If it’s an aside to something else / a dataset someone else has given you, then fair enough.

Benny, did you have to fill out an ethics form?