Aim
To investigate generalised anxiety disorder in university students using a questionnaire with open questions.
Research method
This study will be conducted as a questionnaire using paper and pencil technique.
Sample & Sampling method
The sampling method used will be opportunity sampling. The questionnaire will be given out to all university students from year 1 to year 4 taking degree in xxx in xxx University. Sample will consists of 500 students.
Exclusion criteria
Students should not be diagnosed of other mental disorders such as bipolar depression disorder or schizophrenia.
Ethics
Prior being given the questionnaire, the students will be given a consent form and are allowed to withdraw if they feel uncomfortable answering the questions and their data will be deleted.
Questionnaire structure
Questionnaire form will consists of 20 open questions related to generalised anxiety disorder and 5 filler questions in open question format as well.
Example questions
Explain one time you felt really nervous and on edge.
Describe your thoughts when you are in a situation that makes you nervous or have trouble relaxing.
Describe your physical symptoms that was experienced when you have to deal with an anxiety-provoking situation.
Filler questions
Describe one recent time you felt really happy.
Explain what makes you feel happy usually.
Controls and Standardisations
The question order will be randomised for all participants to reduce order effect, but all questions will be worded the same.
Procedure
Students will be given the questionnaire paper and seated in a quiet room to complete it independently with no social or physical presence of researcher. All will be given 30 minutes to complete the questionnaire and hand it in to the researcher waiting outside of the room together with a consent form.
Question Interpretation
Two researchers will interpret the responses collected. The data will be coded based on categories and converted from qualitative data to quantitative data for better analysis and comparison. Researchers will look for words such as 'heart beat increases', 'sweating' and 'nausea' to rate the participants' physical symptoms. If the frequency of such words is high, the researched will rank the students for 5 from a scale of 0-5 with 0 being normal and 5 being severe.
They will also look for words such as 'worried', 'uneasy' and 'something bad will happen' to rate for participants' cognitive symptoms with the same scale.
Data analysis
Quantitative data is collected. The two researchers will rate independently and compare the scores between each other. If the scores correlate, the questionnaire has high inter-rater reliability. Filler questions will be excluded for analysis. Out of maximum score of 100, the higher the score the more likely the subject has GAD. The data will be plotted into a bar chart to compare between different subjects of different university years.