help needed with Msc research on personality and gossip in the workplace!

alyk

hi (again )

im currently looking for people to take part in my MSc research into the relationship between personality and gossip in the workplace.

it is in the form of an online survey that takes 10 mins or so to do and you get instant feedback at the end, along with further information about the study (bottom of feedback page) if u are interested in reading more!just click on the link below:

http://www.psych-research.com/s/workgossip

I really appreciate anyone who takes the time to take part!hope you find the feedback interesting and informative!

Naikon

The employment section is seriously flawed.

alyk

Naikon wrote: »

The employment section is seriously flawed.

in what way?

are you relating to the demographics at the start? these are meant to give an overall indicator of types of jobs people are working in, in terms of job status and whether its part/full time etc. and do not impact the results of the feedback given.

Naikon

alyk wrote: »

in what way?

are you relating to the demographics at the start? these are meant to give an overall indicator of types of jobs people are working in, in terms of job status and whether its part/full time etc. and do not impact the results of the feedback given.

Self employed + Unemployed catagories.

alyk

Naikon wrote: »

Self employed + Unemployed catagories.

Sorry my apologies, i should have clarified this in my initial post.

I’m looking at personality and work gossip in people who are currently or have previously worked in an organisation environment. So if anyone is in the two categories above wants to take part, they can base their responses on their previous experience.

Naikon

alyk wrote: »

Sorry my apologies, i should have clarified this in my initial post.

I’m looking at personality and work gossip in people who are currently or have previously worked in an organisation environment. So if anyone is in the two categories above wants to take part, they can base their responses on their previous experience.

****. You got me:(

Odysseus

alyk wrote: »

hi (again )

im currently looking for people to take part in my MSc research into the relationship between personality and gossip in the workplace.

it is in the form of an online survey that takes 10 mins or so to do and you get instant feedback at the end, along with further information about the study (bottom of feedback page) if u are interested in reading more!just click on the link below:

http://www.psych-research.com/s/workgossip

I really appreciate anyone who takes the time to take part!hope you find the feedback interesting and informative!

Have you asked permission from the Mods for this? We try to be helpful with stiff like this, but you still need to contact one of us. Apologies if you already had.

alyk

Odysseus wrote: »

Have you asked permission from the Mods for this? We try to be helpful with stiff like this, but you still need to contact one of us. Apologies if you already had.

i have been in contact with one of the moderators (JC), and was given persmission to post this yesterday.

Odysseus

alyk wrote: »

i have been in contact with one of the moderators (JC), and was given persmission to post this yesterday.

That's great then, I just wasn't aware. Nothing personal it's just we have a few people post without asking first. As I said nothing personal and thanks for asking one of us before you posted.

Cheers and best of luck with your research.

alyk

thank you to anyone who has taken part in response to this thread!

im still looking for participants for my study, so if anyone is interested in finding out about their personality and tendency to gossip, i would really appreciate people taking part!

link is in the 1st post!

sambuka41

Hi alyk

Hope this goes well for you. I was wondering, how honest do you think people will be about their gossiping, or wanting to pass the gossip on? In my experience people don't like to think of themselves as gossips but the the same folks are gossiping every chance they can!!! Its seen as such a negative thing I wonder if people will be able to admit it to themselves?

Its interesting research, Ive worked in so many places where the environment is completely toxic due to gossip and poor communications.

alyk

sambuka41 wrote: »

Hi alyk

Hope this goes well for you. I was wondering, how honest do you think people will be about their gossiping, or wanting to pass the gossip on? In my experience people don't like to think of themselves as gossips but the the same folks are gossiping every chance they can!!! Its seen as such a negative thing I wonder if people will be able to admit it to themselves?

Its interesting research, Ive worked in so many places where the environment is completely toxic due to gossip and poor communications.

hi,
its hard to know how honest people have been/will be in relation to gossiping, though i have asked for people to answer honestly in the study and the feedback given is a result of the responses people have given. i know alot of people dont tend to see themselves as gossips or admit they gossip, and yes gossiping can be seen as negative, but it all depends on how its used or its purpose. for example, it can just be a means of sharing information that isnt always negative.
i've worked in places like that too and poor communication on various levels can have that impact!so thought it would be interesting to look into that, along with personality.

thanks for taking part!!:)

PepePareja

Hi,

I just participated in your research. The feedback at the end is very comprehensive and interesting. Thank you.

I think that there may be a problem with the last batch of questions however, 12-21. There is no explanation of the rating scale on the page. i.e. no explanation of whether 1 is strongly agree, or strongly disagree. As a result, I just chose the middle option for each of those question - which I suppose invalidates my participation - If so, sorry about that.

Best of luck with it. I hope my feedback is of help.

alyk

PepePareja wrote: »

Hi,

I just participated in your research. The feedback at the end is very comprehensive and interesting. Thank you.

I think that there may be a problem with the last batch of questions however, 12-21. There is no explanation of the rating scale on the page. i.e. no explanation of whether 1 is strongly agree, or strongly disagree. As a result, I just chose the middle option for each of those question - which I suppose invalidates my participation - If so, sorry about that.

Best of luck with it. I hope my feedback is of help.

hi, thanks for taking part and glad u found your feedback interesting!:)
all explainations of the rating scales for each part are given at the start of each questionnaire in the instructions. so should be applied to all parts of that questionnaire, not sure if the confusion relates to maybe the questions carryin on to another page. thanks for your feedback though and i will double check that!:)

PepePareja

alyk wrote: »

hi, thanks for taking part and glad u found your feedback interesting!:)
all explainations of the rating scales for each part are given at the start of each questionnaire in the instructions. so should be applied to all parts of that questionnaire, not sure if the confusion relates to maybe the questions carryin on to another page. thanks for your feedback though and i will double check that!:)

That's it - my confusion arose from the questions carrying on to another page, with no rating scale at the top of the last page. Ideally, I would have memorised what each of the buttons on the scale referred to, but to be honest, my attention was more focused on the questions.

hotspur

I was thinking of this research last night as I was reading (well listening to the audio book of) this:
http://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-Modern-Ancient/dp/0465028012

Those who have an interest in evolutionary psychology will know that altruism has co-evolved with a sense of injustice or anger at cheats. One of Haidt's chapters was on reciprocity and he described various research on gossip. Haidt's main area of expertise is morality, and he has conducted research (or he may have been reporting it) on what people gossip about.

People gossip mainly about negative behaviours by other people. His thinking was that gossip is probably a valuable form of sharing information about the trustworthiness of other people. He drew attention to the fact that people seem to really get pleasure out of "juicy" gossip which describes really bad behaviour by someone we know.

Intuitively that strikes me as being very plausible.

alyk

PepePareja wrote: »

That's it - my confusion arose from the questions carrying on to another page, with no rating scale at the top of the last page. Ideally, I would have memorised what each of the buttons on the scale referred to, but to be honest, my attention was more focused on the questions.

no worries, good to be focused on the questions!!
thanks for taking part!!

alyk

hotspur wrote: »

I was thinking of this research last night as I was reading (well listening to the audio book of) this:
http://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-Modern-Ancient/dp/0465028012

Those who have an interest in evolutionary psychology will know that altruism has co-evolved with a sense of injustice or anger at cheats. One of Haidt's chapters was on reciprocity and he described various research on gossip. Haidt's main area of expertise is morality, and he has conducted research (or he may have been reporting it) on what people gossip about.

People gossip mainly about negative behaviours by other people. His thinking was that gossip is probably a valuable form of sharing information about the trustworthiness of other people. He drew attention to the fact that people seem to really get pleasure out of "juicy" gossip which describes really bad behaviour by someone we know.

Intuitively that strikes me as being very plausible.

thanks for your response, indeed alot of what u say makes alot of sense (i actually did evolutionary psychology in my undergrad!) and maybe morality of gossiping can be linked to the preconceived notion that all gossip is negative.
its true that gossip can be a way of gaining information socially about other people. i guess reactions/pleasure derived from bad behaviour of others can be again down to the individual. though i guess in a wider frame people are more interested in what famous people and politicians are doing wrong.
i think there is alot of elements to gossip esp. in work, which is why i thought it would be interesting to research. also, u can chose who u work with...!:)

alyk

http://news.ninemsn.com.au​/national/8277634/woman-sa​cked-for-workplace-gossipi​ng

just goes to show that workplace gossip can impact employees!