oli2842

Feel free to think what you like, but I am who I say I am (Olivia Hare, the main researcher). I only created an account on here today, yes, as i'm not fussed about these sites to be perfectly honest (thus had no need for account on here until today). Adam asked if he could post the link on here, to which I said yes, and that is why I came on, to have a look at the responses the study received. I'm only posting again as I don't want there being doubt over the authenticity of my previous answer, addressing the questions/criticisms about my study. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but I feel that reading the full publication would be a good idea before passing judgement. Oli

As a member of the research team for this study (the jumper), I'd like to clarify a few things after some of the comments I have read here... Firstly, this was an undergraduate dissertation project for a BSc, and as such, was not a funded piece of research. The limited funds available could not, therefore, stretch to cover the extensive number of participants we would have liked (had this been a funded study). We were also limited to collecting data between the end of October and February, which as UK jumpers will be aware, aren't known to be the best months for skydiving (not only due to bad weather, but also due to DZ closure over winter) therefore it wasn't possible to collect data every weekend. Regarding criticisms of the categorisation of jumpers, the experience level at the DZ I was collecting the data from was not generally very high, therefore the decision was made to use a jump number by which many would probably have their 'A' licence. The point in the study was to compare the stress response in individuals jumping for the first time and those who had experienced repeated exposure to the activity. We were not deeming these people to be the most experienced skydivers in the sport by any means, but comparing people who had (and hadn't) jumped before. The range of jumpers included people with a considerable number of jumps. Only a few participants had numbers close to our minimum of 30, we had many around 350 (as you will see if you look at the mean jump number of the participants, provided in the abstract) and there were also jumpers with over 1000 jumps. The results however, revealed no differences in the physiological stress response (cortisol levels), despite there being considerable differences in psychological stress between the first time jumpers and those who were qualified. With regard to the types of jumps for each individual: This was of course recorded, and is included in the research paper. The novice jumpers were static line jumpers (it was important that the jumpers were all responsible for themselves and first-time jumpers, hence no level 1 AFF or tandems), and the 'experienced' were carrying out FF and flat jumps (mostly with others). I am aware that ideally they would have all been the same jump type, and I would have liked to compare the different types had the sample been bigger, but as I explained, for a number of reasons (weather, collecting data from October-February- with the DZ closed over winter period etc), we had to work with the sample available. I hope this clears a few things up. I for one, am very happy with what was achieved under the time and financial restraints, but I am of course aware that if these factors were not an issue, the methodology of the study could have been improved. Oli (Olivia) P.s. Thank you Wendy P for considering the constraints that we were working with and not jumping to conclusions where some others have...