nice work.
Scuba Diving Survey Results
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okay, I'll comment...
It shows that any comment from SB is not indicative of the "real world". Folks here are passionate about scuba. Instructors are at the top of what we would expect (and take offence when we point out how "bad" things have become. Divers here care about diving, and rarely represent the masses of "holiday divers".
That is what you identified (though I appreciate your efforts).
I "exited" this sport for 8 years, and once getting back (parallel to when I entered the world of SB), I realized that there were really different cultures in diving. I dare say most are not the folks here...... those that are, are "over the top".
Thanks for letting me in. Hi, my name is Bob, and I have a passion for diving.......
(I may only get 20 dives a year here in the climate I am in, but life also gets in the way)
It shows that any comment from SB is not indicative of the "real world". Folks here are passionate about scuba. Instructors are at the top of what we would expect (and take offence when we point out how "bad" things have become. Divers here care about diving, and rarely represent the masses of "holiday divers".
That is what you identified (though I appreciate your efforts).
I "exited" this sport for 8 years, and once getting back (parallel to when I entered the world of SB), I realized that there were really different cultures in diving. I dare say most are not the folks here...... those that are, are "over the top".
Thanks for letting me in. Hi, my name is Bob, and I have a passion for diving.......
(I may only get 20 dives a year here in the climate I am in, but life also gets in the way)
OP
Only an engineer would design a survey to force the results to fit their assumption of what the shape of the answer should be.
:d
The researcher can't "center their data" as they don't know who will respond to a random recruit. (It's different if I were doing a large quant study designed to be statistically representative of a certain population.)
But the more important point is that in market research the mathematical average/mean age of any group of people is immaterial. Why? Imagine a group of people: one hundred 10yr olds, a hundred 20yr olds, one hundred 70yr olds, and a hundred 80yr olds. The mean age is 45, right? So what? You can't draw any conclusions based on "the average person" in the group, because the group doesn't actually contain a single "average" person. In fact, there's no one even close.
Ok, you might say "You're right... It's a bimodal distribution, so we need to look at two clusters, one young, one old. Nope. While 70yr olds and 80yr olds are probably fairly homogenous, 20yr olds have nothing in common with 10yr olds. When we group ages in market research we cluster ages bases on psychographics (groups of people that are likely to think/behave similarly rather than differently) which results in age groups being narrower on the young end (a20yr old is 100% older than a 10yr old) and wider on the higher end. (An 80yr old is only 12% older than a 70yr old.). So you get groups that are six years wide, 10yrs wide (x2) and 25yrs wide. With a large enough sample you end up with clusters of mini "normal distributions" grouped around the ages of roughly 21, 30, 43, and 56. Bracketed by "under 18" and "65 and older.
Truth be told, in the perfect survey I would ask for the respondents exact age in years and create my own clusters based on the other responses. But many people are reluctant to accurately report their precise age, where it decreases participation... and I didn't have the time or inclination to do the statistics necessary to perform a discriminant or cluster analysis on a sample that I already knew was flawed.
PS - short answer is that I am not surprised to see that the age skewed older. I knew the sample would be ****ed up! I just didn't know exactly how.
---------- Post added February 25th, 2014 at 09:01 PM ----------
Interesting hypothesis, and while I would tend to agree that it's probably correct, the survey does not support your assertion. Neither does it support the converse position.
You're pointing out a limitation of the survey, not a finding.
:d
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Being mauled by a bear qualifies as 'an experience' in the connotative sense, does it not? Not a good experience, but certainly 'an experience'. An adventure has a more positive implication, but the real question is what are the differences, exactly, between memorable experiences and adventures? Certainly, a great many things are both, simultaneously. Does the respondent flip a coin? More importantly, will the average respondent make the precise distinctions between two words with similar implications that the test expects?
I wasn't sure if you meant it to be like bungee jumping, or riding a new roller coaster. I know some try diving as an "experience" and then move on, but I don't think they would be the type to take the survey. To me, diving is a means to an end. I want to learn about the life I see underwater and document as best as I can. I don't consider diving to be fun or exciting except on rare occasions when I see something completely unexpected. I've been diving for 25 years and I get even more enjoyment out of it than I did when I was a newbie.
drrich2
Contributor
Coupling these findings with the rather older age I think your sample skews to, it surprises me that many people 'stopped' (no offense) at the AOW or equivalent level.
I suspect this reflects the more thorough nature of 'old school' OW training, and from what I understand people didn't used to pursue as many cert.s.
So, some of these findings will likely change due to cultural changes in the hobby, where as the years go by people get more formal courses/cert.s.
Richard.
OP
Faulty premise, and one that is the underlying problem of traditional market research/survey design. The methodology that I use does't "expect" anything in particular.
The only way to find something... is to avoid the temptation to look for something else.
---------- Post added February 25th, 2014 at 09:26 PM ----------
To some people. Sometimes. In some settings. If my wife comes home from the grocery store and says "well, that was certainly an adventure" I'm going to know with a high degree of certainty that she did NOT have a positive experience.
t4e
Contributor
i strongly disagree to this being an accurate response
i can see a small % answering "strongly disagree", those being the select few that got a chance to try it before deciding to get certified
OP
You cannot disagree with it being an accurate response. It is exactly what the 1,243 people who answered the question responded. It is therefore 100% accurate.
:d
Seriously.
You have sort of swerved into the truth. You just need know how to REALLY read the chart. Care to hazard a guess at how this chart should actually be read? (Keeping in mind the limitations of the survey...)
---------- Post added February 25th, 2014 at 09:33 PM ----------
Didn't matter what I meant by it. I wasn't taking the survey... you and twelve-hundred other people were. I was interested in what YOU thought the word meant.
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Faulty premise, and one that is the underlying problem of traditional market research/survey design. The methodology that I use does't "expect" anything in particular.
The only way to find something... is to avoid the temptation to look for something else.
You make my point. The terms are not easily distinguishable, are frequently synonymous in the way they are commonly interpreted, and ambiguous. All that is being measured is the association of a specific word with diving, not the respondents actual attitude or individual experience. Perhaps nothing more than a measure of what word might best be employed in a marketing context
Your faulty premise, I think. The result of a survey is obviously never presumed, never anticipated or expected. What is a proper expectation, in fact a prerequisite if the survey is to have any validity, is that the tester and the respondent have a common understanding of the essential terminology. Otherwise the classic measure of validity is not met; the test is not measuring what it was designed to measure.
This is basic stuff, Statistics 101, means, medians, and modes; reliability and validity.
---------- Post added February 25th, 2014 at 09:26 PM ----------
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