|
|
Hello and thank you for visiting AikiWeb, the
world's most active online Aikido community! This site is home to
over 22,000 aikido practitioners from around the world and covers a
wide range of aikido topics including techniques, philosophy, history,
humor, beginner issues, the marketplace, and more.
If you wish to join in the discussions or use the other advanced
features available, you will need to register first. Registration is
absolutely free and takes only a few minutes to complete so sign up today!
|
09-21-2006, 06:22 PM
|
#1
|
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 5
Offline
|
Aikido as Ph.D. Dissertation
Greetings:
I am soliciting input.
I am interested in conducting an experiment using aikido as an intervention against anxiety or depression (have not decided yet). Trouble is, I need to find at least 30 NEW aikido students who are willing to practice aikido for six months. I am concerned about attrition so I am likely to need about 50 new students. I would like to ask what people's experience is with respect to the number of new student membership. For example, how many new members does an aikido dojo experience in a given year who actually stay for at least six months. Thus far, my research into this has not been encouraging.
Thank you.
|
|
|
|
09-21-2006, 07:45 PM
|
#2
|
Dojo: Yoshin-ji Aikido of Marshall
Location: Wisconsin
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,224
Offline
|
Re: Aikido as Ph.D. Dissertation
Onegaishimasu. Good luck with this experiment. Discouragement is to be expected, and anyone who runs a small dojo will agree. If you give your experiment a ten year trial run, you may succeed; you also may not. That is the way it is.
In gassho,
Mark
|
|
|
|
09-21-2006, 08:06 PM
|
#3
|
Dojo: Aikido Eastside
Location: Bellevue, WA
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 2,670
Offline
|
Re: Aikido as Ph.D. Dissertation
Quote:
Marc Jacobs wrote:
Greetings:
I am soliciting input.
I am interested in conducting an experiment using aikido as an intervention against anxiety or depression (have not decided yet). Trouble is, I need to find at least 30 NEW aikido students who are willing to practice aikido for six months. I am concerned about attrition so I am likely to need about 50 new students. I would like to ask what people's experience is with respect to the number of new student membership. For example, how many new members does an aikido dojo experience in a given year who actually stay for at least six months. Thus far, my research into this has not been encouraging.
Thank you.
|
If you are starting a whole group completely from scratch, you mioght be able to reduce the attrition just a bit. The first students in a dojo really define the practice and that is very exciting and fun. They probably stay in a larger number than the students who join a mture dojo in which the practiec is already going on and they have to fit in . Hard to say...
I wouold guess that if you want 30 at the end of sic months who have al lput in the same amount of time consistently, say three times a week or so, then you'll need 60 to 80 folks starting out. You could probably decrease this if you paid them to take part...
It's hard to say. Possibly telling them they are part of a study would cvhange something... I've never run a class that had an ulterior purpose before. It might mitivate people to stay. My numbers are strictly based on how many people I would have to take through my dojo to have 30 left at the end of six months. Frankly it would probably have to be over a hundred...
|
|
|
|
09-21-2006, 08:58 PM
|
#4
|
Dojo: Aikido Kenkyukai International
Location: Ambler, Pennsylvania
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 232
Offline
|
Re: Aikido as Ph.D. Dissertation
Depending on what kind of assessment/measurement tool you plan to use, you could use (even more than 30) students from many dojo accross the country. Better sample that way too perhaps. Obviously there would be many variables difficult to measure/quantify. What would you use for a control group?
|
|
|
|
09-21-2006, 09:25 PM
|
#5
|
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 5
Offline
|
Re: Aikido as Ph.D. Dissertation
Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
Well one dissertation advisor suggested using a control group of 30 people who undergo cognitive behavioral therapy ostensibly b/c that mode of therapy is most easily quantifiable as effective. I've also considered using folks who are part of a regular exercise class, like spinning.
I am leaning toward not doing this experiment b/c of the difficulty invovled in finding the participants and may opt to devise some type of survey instead. Money and time are unfortunately real considerations.
Thank you
|
|
|
|
09-22-2006, 04:52 AM
|
#6
|
Location: Florida Gulf coast
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 3,902
Offline
|
Re: Aikido as Ph.D. Dissertation
IMHO, doing an original piece of research for a dissertation to like running up hill into the wind, very difficult. (I had to rewrite mine 12 times.)
You might opt for a more simple design (Internet survey) rather than the tough job of recruiting, screening, and maintaining such a high number of students all willing to admit from the beginning they have depression or anxiety.
Check with the good people at Aiki-Extensions for further ideas and support. Tell them I sent you.
Good luck.
If I can be of any support, encouragement, or help please feel free to contact me directly.
|
Lynn Seiser PhD
Yondan Aikido & FMA/JKD
We do not rise to the level of our expectations, but fall to the level of our training. Train well. KWATZ!
|
|
|
09-22-2006, 05:54 AM
|
#7
|
Location: Indiana
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1,311
Offline
|
Re: Aikido as Ph.D. Dissertation
I think it would be very interesting to see how aikido ranks amoung regular exercise and other methods at this task. I've always held the beleif that getting someone out and moving is the first step to getting rid of depression.
|
- Don
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" - Albert Einstein
|
|
|
09-22-2006, 06:15 AM
|
#8
|
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 56
Offline
|
Re: Aikido as Ph.D. Dissertation
Ideally, you'd do it the other way round. The subjects walk through the door, you match for age, sex, and other 'confounders' and then you randomly asign them to two treatment groups with and without aikido but matched as closely as possible for everything else. Follow up at six months (or other previously determined end to the study) should be on an 'intention to treat basis' (ie including the drop outs). The size of the group you need would depend on the magnitude of the effect you expect to observe and the anticpated drop out rate. Work that out and then speak to a statistician.
You would do it that way to make the study conform to real life. That is, it seems to me that the question you want to answer is 'will aikido benefit people with depression? In which case you need to know what happens to the group as a whole and not just the self selecting cohort who complete six months of therapy.
Sorry I wrote this in a bit of a rush, but I hope you get the gist of what I'm saying...
Last edited by Mike Grant : 09-22-2006 at 06:20 AM.
|
|
|
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 10:16 AM.
|
vBulletin Copyright © 2000-2024 Jelsoft Enterprises Limited
Copyright 1997-2024 AikiWeb and its Authors, All Rights Reserved.
For questions and comments about this website:
Send E-mail
|
|