Research Memo 1

Hypothesis:

            What are common displays pretaining to anxiety? Does GAD differ between sexes? GAD is an unfortunate disorder also known as General Anxiety Disorder. This disorder affects 40 million people in the United States. Through personal experience with anxiety I have found my most frequent manifestations are shaking, convulsing, and not being able to breath. The feeling of terror and getting squeamish when one occurs are also common indications I experience. I'm unsure if the manifestations differ between males and females though, even if it is a little different for each person. Much of our society does not receive treatment for GAD for fear of side effects from the medicines. Should there be more options to help treat this disorder? In my opinion people should have more options out there as treatment or for at least helping them better control their anxiety instead of an all or nothing treatment, like they have today.

Context:

            In my quest to answer my questions about anxiety's manifestations I am requesting help, targeting, persons who are between14 and18 years old that suffer from GAD or Social Anxiety Disorder. Having people in this specific group answer my questions will help me get a better understanding of all sorts of different ways anxiety affects each person individually and any unknown showings I myself have not experienced. Picking these types of citizens will be reliable for they deal with GAD on a daily basis, no one would know more about it than people that have to live with it.

Results: Just yes/no questions graphed.

Yes/No questions:	Males	Females
Experienced anxiety	Yes: 14/25 No: 11/25	Yes: 25/25
Know someone who has GAD	Yes: 25/25	Yes: 22/25 No: 3/25
Have GAD or any anxiety disorders	Yes: 17/25 No: 8/25	Yes: 23/25 No: 2/25
Experienced/witnessed an anxiety attack	Yes: 19/25 No: 6/25	Yes: 24/25 No: 1/25

Data Analysis:

            To better show any differences between males and females with anxiety I surveyed 25 males and 25 females the same survey, equaling up 50 total. My table above shows survey questions I went around and asked those in my target group. Out of 50 surveys I passed out, 39 people have experienced anxiety. From the people I asked more girls experience anxiety than boys. From those same people everyone, excluding 3 females who answered that they knew someone with General Anxiety Disorder, 90% of them answered that they themselves have GAD or another type of anxiety disorder. Throughout my research with my surveys I have still come to see that females are tending to experience anxiety more than males thus far.

Conclusion:

            This far into my research I have proved that females are more likely to have anxiety disorders than males. A question on my survey; "If you have answered yes to having an anxiety disorder, what are your common manifestations of it?", has given me some perspective on what the most common physical displays for males and females are. Most people seem to be experiencing the same manifestations as I do.

Follow Up:

            For research memo #2 I would like to continue on with surveys, maybe asking more in depth questions. The most important research question of mine is still lingering on what the most common manifestations are.