BeautifulDay
Senior Member
- Messages
- 372
I need help writing a letter to my daughter's psychology teacher and the dean of the school at her university. This poorly written study is clearly written in a way that will find that parents who have unexplained illness are more likely to have their children in college have a higher risk for neuroses and perceived physical illness. Thank goodness my daughter is not a psych major at this school.
For those who want to express their views on how dumb the study is, how moronic and idiotic or poorly written, etc..... - I am in full agreement and I've set up another thread here ...
for those comments. http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...aughters-university-doing-flawed-study.54839/
I'd like to explore on this thread the wording of my letter to the teacher and dean in a manner that is politically correct (no using words like dumb, or idiotic, etc....) and provides the scientific study quotes and links to explain the errors in the study. It cannot be a personal attack. I'm a believer in educating the people in psych first time around. If they still don't get it, then coming around in a more direct and more assertive (yet still professional manner) at a later time. Keep in mind that my daughter still has a half semester left in this class.
Here are the details: My daughter is in a basic Introduction to Psychology class. As part of the class, she completed an hour questionnaire that had questions related to her relationship with each parent, and questions about her thoughts of suicide, etc..... Then I received this e-mail asking me to complete a 15 minute questionnaire that would be compared with my daughter's answers.
The letter began: "Dear Parent, Your son/daughter has agreed to participate in our research study examining the
Yep, there is a lot there already to be worried about. Clicking on the link in the email from the school resulted in this popping up:
The questions to me (the parent of the college student) within the study included:
"“Are you worried that you may get a serious illness in the future?”
“Does the thought of a serious illness scare you?”
"Has your doctor told you that you have a new illness now?"
"I have physical sensations that even doctors don’t understand." Answer from completely disagree to completely agree.
Then there were the various questions about how many times a year do you see a doctor and how many different types of doctors.
Many of the questions were about my perception of whether I was sick, whether I worried about getting sick, whether I went to a lot of doctors visits with no relief, and how I handle pain (do I go right to a doctor).
When I finished the questions, up popped this misleading statement:
Had I answered these questions a year ago prior to our recent diagnosis of Mitochondrial Disease due to genetic mutation then my answers would have looked like someone who had a diagnoses of Chronic Fatigue and had been on the decades of Medical Mystery Carousel where doctors were telling me to reduce stress, get more sleep and that I should try SSRI's. The finding of comparing my daughter and my answers back then would have likely led to the finding in the study that my neurotic attempts to prove that I was sick led to my daughter feeling she was sick.
Now we know my Chronic Fatigue, gastroparesis, intermittent foot drop, low pulse pressure, hypoglycemia, aminoaciduria, cognitive memory issues, and
my college daughter's chronic fatigue, toe walking, POTS, high AST (Aspartate transaminase), vocal cord and diaphragm partial paresis and anxiety, and
my high school son's autistic spectrum disorder and hearing loss, and our
8 year old daughter's intermittent foot drop, chiari malformation, and high AST (Aspartate transaminase)
are all related to this genetic mutation.
However, for most people with CFS who have not yet found their smoking gun (for us the Mitochondrial Mutation), this study will make it look like a parent with CFS who has a child in college will have more psychological issues, more neuroses, and more illness due to the influence of a neurotic parent in his/her life. Rather than the truth that a parent who is ill and has passed a gene(s) onto a child in school may result in that child also being ill.
Please help me find the right words and scientific quotes and links to educate these psychology professionals who are teaching young minds and shaping the future of the industry. Such studies must stop!
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!
For those who want to express their views on how dumb the study is, how moronic and idiotic or poorly written, etc..... - I am in full agreement and I've set up another thread here ...
for those comments. http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...aughters-university-doing-flawed-study.54839/
I'd like to explore on this thread the wording of my letter to the teacher and dean in a manner that is politically correct (no using words like dumb, or idiotic, etc....) and provides the scientific study quotes and links to explain the errors in the study. It cannot be a personal attack. I'm a believer in educating the people in psych first time around. If they still don't get it, then coming around in a more direct and more assertive (yet still professional manner) at a later time. Keep in mind that my daughter still has a half semester left in this class.
Here are the details: My daughter is in a basic Introduction to Psychology class. As part of the class, she completed an hour questionnaire that had questions related to her relationship with each parent, and questions about her thoughts of suicide, etc..... Then I received this e-mail asking me to complete a 15 minute questionnaire that would be compared with my daughter's answers.
The letter began: "Dear Parent, Your son/daughter has agreed to participate in our research study examining the
Yep, there is a lot there already to be worried about. Clicking on the link in the email from the school resulted in this popping up:
The questions to me (the parent of the college student) within the study included:
"“Are you worried that you may get a serious illness in the future?”
“Does the thought of a serious illness scare you?”
"Has your doctor told you that you have a new illness now?"
"I have physical sensations that even doctors don’t understand." Answer from completely disagree to completely agree.
Then there were the various questions about how many times a year do you see a doctor and how many different types of doctors.
Many of the questions were about my perception of whether I was sick, whether I worried about getting sick, whether I went to a lot of doctors visits with no relief, and how I handle pain (do I go right to a doctor).
When I finished the questions, up popped this misleading statement:
Had I answered these questions a year ago prior to our recent diagnosis of Mitochondrial Disease due to genetic mutation then my answers would have looked like someone who had a diagnoses of Chronic Fatigue and had been on the decades of Medical Mystery Carousel where doctors were telling me to reduce stress, get more sleep and that I should try SSRI's. The finding of comparing my daughter and my answers back then would have likely led to the finding in the study that my neurotic attempts to prove that I was sick led to my daughter feeling she was sick.
Now we know my Chronic Fatigue, gastroparesis, intermittent foot drop, low pulse pressure, hypoglycemia, aminoaciduria, cognitive memory issues, and
my college daughter's chronic fatigue, toe walking, POTS, high AST (Aspartate transaminase), vocal cord and diaphragm partial paresis and anxiety, and
my high school son's autistic spectrum disorder and hearing loss, and our
8 year old daughter's intermittent foot drop, chiari malformation, and high AST (Aspartate transaminase)
are all related to this genetic mutation.
However, for most people with CFS who have not yet found their smoking gun (for us the Mitochondrial Mutation), this study will make it look like a parent with CFS who has a child in college will have more psychological issues, more neuroses, and more illness due to the influence of a neurotic parent in his/her life. Rather than the truth that a parent who is ill and has passed a gene(s) onto a child in school may result in that child also being ill.
Please help me find the right words and scientific quotes and links to educate these psychology professionals who are teaching young minds and shaping the future of the industry. Such studies must stop!
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!
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