Thesis Proposal on BDSM Practitioners

2. \To depict the factors of men and women being submissive and dominant varies among specific groups.

Hypothesis

The following hypothesis will be utilized in the study to be conducted;

1. To explore that if BDSM practitioners are carrying the risk of major depression, it is because they are hiding their true selves.

2. To determine whether the factors of men and women being submissive and dominant differ in specific groups.

In support of the above hypothesis, there is a belief that various BDSM practitioners are usually faced with problems since this form of sexual preference is quite hard to tell and show to other individuals as well. Besides, it is hard to find someone whom you share similar views. Most people have defined it as something abnormal. Other have perceived that such individuals are violent which is not true in general conditions. The essential thing here is to measure the approaches they employ on themselves and the description they apply as well. Additionally, the risk of depression and its rampant cause will be quite substantial.

Methodology

The study will utilize a quantitative approach where various tools will be used to carry out a comprehensive research on the topic of study. One of the procedures to be used in the study will be the utilization of questionnaires. Nevertheless, if a need arises, interviews will also be used as well. Interviews may be appropriate in case more information is needed or a higher level of clarification on an issue. Before resolving the type of scale to incorporate in the questionnaire, certain aspects will be considered. They include the way the information acquired will be used, a statistical method of analysis after data attainment and the type of data needed from the respondent. The data may be ordinal or interval among others. On the other hand, the questionnaires may be required to be published online to enable more information to be gathered.

It will be vital to identify the dependent and independent variables of the study that will allow for the data to be analyzed easily. One of the approaches that will be considered for testing of the hypothesis is the General Model Program of SPSS. Also, the BDSM Orientation will be regarded as a dependent variable.

Participants

For the study to be efficient and in line with the topic being researched, participants will be drawn from the field or scope of BDSM. As such, they will constitute the BDSM practitioners. They will be men and women who are between 18-65 or more years. Moreover, they will also be required to have a BDSM experience of two or more years. Culture is usually a vital issue to consider when researching as it may have an adverse impact on the results. It may also affect the perception of the society towards the entire research especially if a case of discrimination is detected. Participants will thus be multicultural to avoid any adverse effects with the results obtained from the study. There will also be a control group that will constitute of non-BDSM practitioners. They will thus be used as a benchmark to evaluate how the subjects that have been tested perform.

A demographic survey will be undertaken to obtain more information about the participants. It will thus seek to obtain information on the participants relationship frequency, whether they are dominant or submissive, their socio-cultural, education and income level and their relationship status as well. Besides, information will also be obtained on their mental health disorders, residency that it whether it is a big or small city, and their physiological and general health conditions among others.

Research ethics will be considered whereby the aspects of validity and reliability will be upheld. It will be vital to seek the consent of all the participants before they partake in the study. As such, this will be done through a letter that will be issued. The letter will inform the participants of their function in the project and thus describe the aims of the research as well as the data projection methods that will be employed. Participants will not be acknowledged at any point when undertaking the research. Their names will thus be coded using letter Y and then given numbers regarding whether one has the role of dormant or submissive. By coding, the anonymity and protection of data of the participants are attained. On the other hand, personal information will not be used without the participants consent (Ambler, Lee, Klement, Loewald, Comber, Hanson & Sagarin, 2017).

Tools

The research will utilize a wide variety of devices that are related to the main elements of the topic of study. They include relationship satisfaction, life satisfaction, attachment, life expectancy and significant depression. Also, there will also be the application of self-regulating assessment or emotional tools, true self-scale or real me scale commonly abbreviated as BARGH and questionnaire scales.

Limitations

In any research study, restrictions are bound to arise. Questioning people or asking for information on sensitive issues may push people away instead of attracting them to partake in the research. On the other hand, they may choose to participate in the study but provide false information. There is a lack of a wide variety of analyses conducted on the topic of study thus limiting the sources of information. The sample obtained may be observed to be imbalanced. For instance, there may be more male dominants as compared to the female dominants and more female submissives as compared to the male submissives. Social desirability is quite essential for application in the research. However, it has not been a part of various research studies conducted that are related to the topic (Rye, Serafinin & Bramberger, 2015). Online surveys are usually employed for researching alternative populations. The sample to be applied may fail to signify the general population of the BDSM practitioners. Grouping of the BDSM may create issues related to others who may not be a part of the groups to be utilized. The study will employ two teams for comparison to be undertaken. However, this may be described as a case of oversimplification. Literature has suggested various primary orientations on BDSM. They include tops, bottoms, dominants and submissives among others. The use of two orientations have some form of similarities, but they cannot be perceived to be alike. As such, it is probable to have other finer preferences of the BDSM that would reveal varying patterns concerning features of personality. The inclusion of a detailed conception should be allowed in future to attain efficacy (Leistner & Mark, 2016). Furthermore, the research may hugely rely on the culture thus findings may not be entirely efficient.

References

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