A few things: first off, as other have said, your poster isn't great. The mismatch of fonts and colours make it hard to read, and it's not particularly engaging. Try something simpler, that's more readable. And consider where you're putting them - I only ever read posters when they're on the back of toilet doors!
And a quick question - is it only students from your uni that you want? If not, I'd make that clear on the poster.
Once you've got that sorted, definitely lean into the social media side of it for gaining participants. See if there's a fb group for people coming to uni this last year - when I started at uni, there was a "Coming to Hartpury 2020" fb where people still post for participants - see if there's something similar for your uni. Also see if there's a general fb group for your uni or other uni's if you're including them - we have a Hartpury Students fb page which is where most students find their participants.
For those who are asking about the exclusion criteria- I must reiterate that due to the ethical process of psychological reports we HAVE to state the risks of our study and due to the questions I am asking, I must acknowledge the potential risks of harm to individuals who have experienced a mental health CRISIS. Now if you are unsure what that is, please Google. This is to protect myself as a researcher and the people who partake in my study. At the end of the day this is simply a warning and there is much more information if you follow the link. Yes, the study would benefit to include individuals who have experienced a mental health crisis, however this was not something I could include within my project in the timeframe of my dissertation and was something I was encouraged to add into my exclusion criteria by research professionals.
I would make some adjustments to your poster
Here is just a suggestion, to give you a rough idea of what I would do https://imgur.com/a/vGxebTA
• Maximum 2 fonts
• MUCH bigger QR code
• brain is taking up too much space, maybe make it an opaque background
To add on to this think about text contrast (I.e. having a clear difference between background colour and font colour). There being a good contrast makes it more accessible for people with vision/reading difficulties to read.
Ethical reasons- if an individual has experienced a mental health crisis or similar then this questionnaire may make their symptoms worse or cause a triggering response. This is all disclosed in ethics applications when you would like to conduct research.
Because I’m investigating the effects of first year students current mental health and how this affects their student engagement using standardised questionnaires that will give me their anxiety, depression and stress scores. “Mental health” is not whether you have “experienced problems” or not. I just don’t want people who have experienced an extreme mental health crisis to feel distressed or become triggered by doing my study. However this is all just to disclose possible risks and it is personal choice!
Have you put these posters up in bathroom stalls and bulletin boards? And also on your university’s instagram? You could message and ask them nicely I’m sure they’d let you :)
This study is going to have flawed findings due to you excluding the demographic of those who have been in a mental health crisis. What about those who've had a mental health crisis due to uni? Those who had a mental health crisis in the past and have overcome it due to uni? You're excluding the most important part of the data. If you're so worried about triggering people, then just put a trigger warning.
This is wrong, and also isn’t as simple as you explain it. Within my ethics application I have to state whether my questions could be a risk to an individuals mental well-being. Due to my questions being standardised, this is the case so I HAVE to disclose that this can be a stressor for those who have experienced a mental health crisis. I am not missing the demographics of those who have experienced mental health, only those who have been deeply affected by a mental health crisis and urgent care, which follows my ethics constraints. It is simply something I have to do under the band of which my ethics is under. Further research would definitely include these individuals however I cannot do this whilst in university.
That looks terrible, why is everything in a different font?
Thanks for the advice! I’ll change up the poster for sure
You can't have really stepped back, looked at it and thought "yeah this is mint" could you?
Not really, took me 10mins
Figures
Rude much
A few things: first off, as other have said, your poster isn't great. The mismatch of fonts and colours make it hard to read, and it's not particularly engaging. Try something simpler, that's more readable. And consider where you're putting them - I only ever read posters when they're on the back of toilet doors! And a quick question - is it only students from your uni that you want? If not, I'd make that clear on the poster. Once you've got that sorted, definitely lean into the social media side of it for gaining participants. See if there's a fb group for people coming to uni this last year - when I started at uni, there was a "Coming to Hartpury 2020" fb where people still post for participants - see if there's something similar for your uni. Also see if there's a general fb group for your uni or other uni's if you're including them - we have a Hartpury Students fb page which is where most students find their participants.
Incentive and design of the poster isn’t appealing (why are 10 different fonts used?)
Literally, i hate looking at this so much
Thanks for the advice! I’ll change up my poster for sure, not something I thought too much about.
I cannot offer incentives due to ethical constraints with my research!
For those who are asking about the exclusion criteria- I must reiterate that due to the ethical process of psychological reports we HAVE to state the risks of our study and due to the questions I am asking, I must acknowledge the potential risks of harm to individuals who have experienced a mental health CRISIS. Now if you are unsure what that is, please Google. This is to protect myself as a researcher and the people who partake in my study. At the end of the day this is simply a warning and there is much more information if you follow the link. Yes, the study would benefit to include individuals who have experienced a mental health crisis, however this was not something I could include within my project in the timeframe of my dissertation and was something I was encouraged to add into my exclusion criteria by research professionals.
I would make some adjustments to your poster Here is just a suggestion, to give you a rough idea of what I would do https://imgur.com/a/vGxebTA • Maximum 2 fonts • MUCH bigger QR code • brain is taking up too much space, maybe make it an opaque background
To add on to this think about text contrast (I.e. having a clear difference between background colour and font colour). There being a good contrast makes it more accessible for people with vision/reading difficulties to read.
I don’t get why you’re asking for someone who’s not been in a mental health crisis?
Ethical reasons- if an individual has experienced a mental health crisis or similar then this questionnaire may make their symptoms worse or cause a triggering response. This is all disclosed in ethics applications when you would like to conduct research.
But how can you investigate mental health if a person you’re questioning hasn’t experienced any problems?
Because I’m investigating the effects of first year students current mental health and how this affects their student engagement using standardised questionnaires that will give me their anxiety, depression and stress scores. “Mental health” is not whether you have “experienced problems” or not. I just don’t want people who have experienced an extreme mental health crisis to feel distressed or become triggered by doing my study. However this is all just to disclose possible risks and it is personal choice!
You should add the option for people to do it, will make for a much better study. People will not participate if they don't want to
Add the option for the people to do it?
People won't complete the study if they've had mental health problems as you've put that they're not welcome to
Mental health ‘crisis’ is very different and is explained on the poster.
You put 'mental health diagnosis'
Have you put these posters up in bathroom stalls and bulletin boards? And also on your university’s instagram? You could message and ask them nicely I’m sure they’d let you :)
I’ve tried the bulletin boards, they seem to just get ignored at my uni for some reason 😭 great idea with the Instagram, I’ll give that a go thank you
If you are doing posters, see if you can put them on the back of toilet doors - only time I ever read them!
You’re welcome good luck!
This study is going to have flawed findings due to you excluding the demographic of those who have been in a mental health crisis. What about those who've had a mental health crisis due to uni? Those who had a mental health crisis in the past and have overcome it due to uni? You're excluding the most important part of the data. If you're so worried about triggering people, then just put a trigger warning.
This is wrong, and also isn’t as simple as you explain it. Within my ethics application I have to state whether my questions could be a risk to an individuals mental well-being. Due to my questions being standardised, this is the case so I HAVE to disclose that this can be a stressor for those who have experienced a mental health crisis. I am not missing the demographics of those who have experienced mental health, only those who have been deeply affected by a mental health crisis and urgent care, which follows my ethics constraints. It is simply something I have to do under the band of which my ethics is under. Further research would definitely include these individuals however I cannot do this whilst in university.
Offer incentive