Dissertation: Whate motivates you to cave?

[mcglenr25]

Ladies and Gentleman,

My name is Ryan McGlen and I am in my third and final year of study at
the University of Cumbria on an Outdoor Leadership degree.

As part of our final year we are required to complete a dissertation
for which we must collect data to analyse. I have chosen to try to
investigate what it is that motivates us to go caving and I thought
that caving instructors would be an excellent place to start!

Please find attached a copy of the pilot questionnaire I have
generated, it only contains 8 questions so shouldn't take much more
than 15 minutes of your time. If you could please complete it at you
earliest convenience that would be exceptionally helpful to me and very
much appreciated.

Let me take this opportunity to thank you for your time, I know it's
valuable!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

Regards.

Ryan McGlen
s1006009@uni.cumbria.ac.uk
mcglenr25@aol.com

Thank you very much for taking the time to complete this short survey. The primary purpose of the study will be to explore some of the factors that motivate outdoor practitioners to participate in caving. The purpose of this pilot study is to ascertain or identify specific themes or factors which may reoccur and warrant further investigation. With this in mind and with your permission, you may be contacted at a later date to provide a more detailed account of your own perspectives. You are assured that any information that is gained from this study will be kept secure and your anonymity and confidentiality will be protected in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.   

1. Please state your age, gender and which area of the UK you currently live:

2. How long have you been involved with caving?

3. How regularly would you say you go caving?

4. Do you normally cave in groups, solo, in a professional capacity? Do you have a preference?

5. Would you consider caving to sometimes be an unpleasant activity and if so, why?

6. Did you ever consider caving to be unpleasant? What, if anything, changed your perception?

7. What aspects of caving do you particularly enjoy? What motivates you?

8. What has been your most memorable caving trip? What elements made it particularly significant?

 

[Blakethwaite]

Sorry,not answering your post at all but I'd amend Q4 to differentiate between groups & clubs which are vastly different beasts. I'd also lose the next two questions which echo the views of Alf Garnettesque non-cavers but probably not of anyone who actually goes underground.

 

[Pitlamp]

I'm not sure that starting with people who are instructors is entirely wise. They're a minority group, in a sense - and at least one of their motivations is the need to try and earn a living. This is not really a factor for most cavers, so if you target instructors rather than normal cavers you may get unrepresentative responses. This comment isn't intended to denegrate instructors in any way - it's just that their reasons for going underground are often different from regular club (or independent) cavers.

Of course quite a few instructors are normal cavers anyway - but I hope you see what I'm getting at.

One other thought; if you want to look into an interesting aspect of caving, perhaps it's worth focussing on cavers who actively explore new caves, rather than enjoying trips in known caves. People who have reached that stage of their caving career may well give you some very rewarding material (and you may well identify very different motivations from non exploratory cavers).

Hope that helps anyway.

 

[TheBitterEnd]

Sorry,not answering your post at all but I'd amend Q4 to differentiate between groups & clubs which are vastly different beasts. I'd also lose the next two questions which echo the views of Alf Garnettesque non-cavers but probably not of anyone who actually goes underground.

I don't know, I sometimes (...often...) find caving unpleasant but then, perversely, I suspect that's part of the challenge.

 

[Blakethwaite]

Sorry,not answering your post at all but I'd amend Q4 to differentiate between groups & clubs which are vastly different beasts. I'd also lose the next two questions which echo the views of Alf Garnettesque non-cavers but probably not of anyone who actually goes underground.

I don't know, I sometimes (...often...) find caving unpleasant but then, perversely, I suspect that's part of the challenge.

Absolutely though perhaps incorrectly I assumed it meant from a generally scarediness from being in the dark rather than say from being face down in a puddle whilst grovelling through muck.

 

[mcglenr25]

Apologies, there was a slight mistake in the OP, this questionnaire is open to ALL cavers, instructors or not, the more the merrier! Also, all these observations about motivations are fantastic! If you could include them as part of the questionnaire, that'd be amazingly useful. Thank you again for your time.

 

[Amy]

Would you be interested in those who do not live in the UK as a comparative sample?

 

[Laurie]

Hey guys 'n' galls, don't give Ryan a hard time, he's only trying to advance his knowledge.
Apart from answering his questions maybe it would be worth suggesting some questions to add to his list.
Making him feel 'at home' would help.

 

[droid]

Wouldn't you be better collecting objective data to analyse rather than the rather subjective 'data' you actually are collecting?

Bearing in mind that the plural of 'anecdote' is NOT 'data'...

Sorry Laurie. Once a scientist always a scientist. Objective data would also allow positive conclusions to be drawn.

 

[Pitlamp]

Droid has a fair point Laurie; better to spend a little extra time now and get the questionnaire as comprehensive as possible than to have to agonise over whether the data are actually useful later.

Certainly my remarks were only meant in the spirit of helpfulness. As a result mcglenr25 has already clarified who his target sample is (i.e. not just people who instruct).

Anyway, good luck with the project. Let everybody have a summary of your findings at the end of the process.

 

[graham]

Anyway

Some answers with comments:

1.  Please state your age, gender and which area of the UK you currently live: 59, Male, Bristol (All standard background stuff - easy to analyse)

2.  How long have you been involved with caving? since 1969. (again quantitative & thus easy to analyse)

3.  How regularly would you say you go caving? On average weekly, record spoilt by ill health this past year. (I remember some hilariously inaccurate answers to this when the NCA asked a similar question way back when)

4.  Do you normally cave in groups, solo, in a professional capacity? Do you have a preference? Always in a group, very rarely solo, I have been paid for it a few times. (needs work to get analysable answers)

5.  Would you consider caving to sometimes be an unpleasant activity and if so, why? Wallowing in cold liquid mud cannot really be described as fun, but all worthwhile activities tend to have obstacles to overcome if one wishes to attain a sense of achievement (very difficult to get solid data out of this, rather than anecdote).

6.  Did you ever consider caving to be unpleasant? What, if anything, changed your perception? Nope. (again anecdotal stuff is hard to analyse)

7.  What aspects of caving do you particularly enjoy? What motivates you? New exploration, achieving new knowledge, seeing rare and beautiful sights. (This would benefit from categorisation)

8.  What has been your most memorable caving trip? What elements made it particularly significant? This is wholly anecdotal & impossible to analyse. Better to give a list of alternatives - for the second part -  after a preliminary root through answers to this question. For me, probably Le Tuc D'audobert and the immense sense of privilege of going somewhere so rare and delicate that so few others have been allowed, allied with the fact that we gained new knowledge about the site from our visit. The latter fact lifts it above similar trips such as to Grotte Chauvet or the original Altamira. Another might be to the Reseau Clastres. a wonderful trip to a place that I was previously reconciled to never being able to visit.

 

[Amy]

^Great analysis Droid.

To the OP: is there someone at your university who specializes in writing surveys? Most universities (here, at least, I realize I'm speaking from the US) have such a person, usually on the team of those who approve such human studies. They are a great resource to write scientifically useable survey questions.

 

[mcglenr25]

Would you be interested in those who do not live in the UK as a comparative sample?

Hi Amy, YES! Definitely any and all results will be gratefully received, thank you

 

[NOZ]

1 40 Male Sheffield
2 22y
3 3 times per month
4 Normally groups, sometimes solo, sometimes professionally
5 Yes, but short lived, and worth it
6 No
7 Exploration. Visiting places that are new to me, new to the people I am with or new to everybody.
8 Discovery of Hang Son Doong, big new unexpected.

 

[Amy]

1.  Please state your age, gender and which area of the UK you currently live: 26, Female, Huntsville (city) Alabama (state), USA

2.  How long have you been involved with caving? 2.5 years

3.  How regularly would you say you go caving? Every week

4.  Do you normally cave in groups, solo, in a professional capacity? Do you have a preference? Groups, either on grotto (what we call caving clubs) trips or private trips but roughly the same crowd of folk

5.  Would you consider caving to sometimes be an unpleasant activity and if so, why? I've never had a bad time underground that was the cave's fault. Even shit crawls are fun challenges.

6.  Did you ever consider caving to be unpleasant? What, if anything, changed your perception?  Nope. Loved it from the start.

7.  What aspects of caving do you particularly enjoy? What motivates you? Untouched beauty, finding where no human has ever stepped foot before, the challenge.

8.  What has been your most memorable caving trip? What elements made it particularly significant? VERY hard question....I don't think I have a single favourite. There are about 10 trips that stick out in my mind as extra-awesome, but for different reasons.

 

[mrodoc]

1.  Please state your age, gender and which area of the UK you currently live:

2.  How long have you been involved with caving? 47 years

3.  How regularly would you say you go caving?Currently, once a week

4.  Do you normally cave in groups, solo, in a professional capacity? Do you have a preference? with a group of friends

5.  Would you consider caving to sometimes be an unpleasant activity and if so, why? You can get into unpleasant situations as a result of error.

6.  Did you ever consider caving to be unpleasant? What, if anything, changed your perception? No.

7.  What aspects of caving do you particularly enjoy? What motivates you? Splashing around in water.

8.  What has been your most memorable caving trip? What elements made it particularly significant? Discovery of a massive cave chamber when I was the first person into it. However there are many more. It's the element of discovery and knowledge that few if any people have been where one goes. Even a cave new to me but is well known to others is a journey of exploration.

 

[zaphod79]

1. Please state your age, gender and which area of the UK you currently live: 33 Male West Yorkshire

2. How long have you been involved with caving? on and off for 13 years

3. How regularly would you say you go caving? 2 - 3 times a month

4. Do you normally cave in groups, solo, in a professional capacity? Do you have a preference? With a club, but occasionally as a pair with my wife

5. Would you consider caving to sometimes be an unpleasant activity and if so, why? Yes, I always find it difficult to motivate myself to go, despite loving caving.  This could be the early start on a Sunday that the club run.  It could be the prospect of a long tight crawl, or a free hanging pitch over a long distance (I hate spinning)

6. Did you ever consider caving to be unpleasant? What, if anything, changed your perception? No never I have always loved the sporting challenge of it and the excitement. 

7. What aspects of caving do you particularly enjoy? What motivates you? I know some people love the idea of seeing lots of fantastic features, which I can look at and appreciate, but I much prefer the idea of visiting places very few people have visited, as well as the sporting challenge, and the enjoyment of sharing the experience with others.

8. What has been your most memorable caving trip? What elements made it particularly significant?  There have been so many good trips, but the three that stand out are


Croeser Roshydd the exciting mine in Wales - This was defiantly the most sporting trip I have been on.

Ariel cave (Blacknor Hole) on Portland as a through trip to Sandy Hole, this was a fantastic through trip which first involves abseiling down a cliff before swinging in to the entrance.  I have been back to do this trip since, and the rigging at the top has been cut, this saddens me, however I can say that I am one of a few that have done that trip.

My final best trip is also on Portland, this was the Grove Cliff Caves series.  I had done this before as a student, and as an assistant leader a few times, but what stands out is when I returned there with a friend on my own for the first time, and was able to explore it at my leisure.

 

[Gollum]

 

1. Please state your age, gender and which area of the UK you currently live: 49, male, derbyshire

2. How long have you been involved with caving? 18 - 20 years

3. How regularly would you say you go caving? 3 - 4 times a week fpr pleasure 2 - 3 times a week for work

4. Do you normally cave in groups, solo, in a professional capacity? Do you have a preference? groups or work but prefer personal caving with clubs and friends

5. Would you consider caving to sometimes be an unpleasant activity and if so, why? getting changed in the cold

6. Did you ever consider caving to be unpleasant? What, if anything, changed your perception? no

7. What aspects of caving do you particularly enjoy? What motivates you? challenge and seeing new things even in systems i've done hundreds of times there is always something that you've not noticed before

8. What has been your most memorable caving trip? What elements made it particularly significant? cuato coventosa (probably spelt wrong) Long trip but the cave just kept changing and kept the interst through out the trip

 

[TheBitterEnd]

Just a suggestion, and you may already have done this - it might be worth getting some forms put in the club huts or asking the bigger clubs to distribute around their email lists. I suspect getting a statistically meaningful sample via this forum alone may be difficult.

 

[mcglenr25]

1.  Please state your age, gender and which area of the UK you currently live: 26, Female, Huntsville (city) Alabama (state), USA

2.  How long have you been involved with caving? 2.5 years

3.  How regularly would you say you go caving? Every week

4.  Do you normally cave in groups, solo, in a professional capacity? Do you have a preference? Groups, either on grotto (what we call caving clubs) trips or private trips but roughly the same crowd of folk

5.  Would you consider caving to sometimes be an unpleasant activity and if so, why? I've never had a bad time underground that was the cave's fault. Even shit crawls are fun challenges.

6.  Did you ever consider caving to be unpleasant? What, if anything, changed your perception?  Nope. Loved it from the start.

7.  What aspects of caving do you particularly enjoy? What motivates you? Untouched beauty, finding where no human has ever stepped foot before, the challenge.

8.  What has been your most memorable caving trip? What elements made it particularly significant? VERY hard question....I don't think I have a single favourite. There are about 10 trips that stick out in my mind as extra-awesome, but for different reasons.

Fantastic Amy thank you! Awesome to have a different perspective!