As I started to think about who I would ask I thought to myself, "Hey, I'm a technical guy, why don't I just create an online assessment and send it out to a bunch of people!?!".
So, that is what I did. After researching several free online assessment programs, I finally used Survey Monkey.
I sent out the survey about 7 days before it was due, which gave enough time for most people to answer the survey that were going to.
After all was said and done, I had 28 people (21 male and 7 female) respond to the survey with ages ranging from 24 to 65 years.
Note: I sent out over 100 emails to various high school friends, college friends, family, and coworkers (past and present). I understand that my sampling is a little skewed towards those with a World View similar to mine, however, my intent was to get the most diverse sampling that I could without asking strangers.
Seeing that all the questions were open ended essay questions, it took me a while to compile the results into a semi-meaningful presentation.
The following contains a high level synopsis of those that answered questions 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. The other questions where either demographic questions or questions that didn't distill nicely into a small number of responses.
Note: If you examine the following charts closely you may notice that the numbers may not add up as you might expect. Since the responses came back in essay form, some people listed several answers within one question.
Also, the bars notated as "Other" represent single answers that didn't fit into another category. In order to keep the graphs simple, I combined those into their own "Other" category.
4. Considering the diversity of opinion that exists in our culture, in your opinion what is the best way to determine society's "rights and "wrongs"? (In other words, how is the standard to be set regarding the "why or why not" to behaviors: seat belts, prostitution, gambling, gay sex, marijuana, etc...)
5. For you, what are/have been the most important sources of knowledge from which you glean the most wisdom or truth for your life? (Examples might be: scientific opinion, psychology, religion, internal compass, philosophy.)
7. From what you read, see, and hear, what are some of the major messages of today's art, literature, music, movies, TV? (i.e., what is being said or not said about how or where people are finding purpose and meaning for their lives? In the 1960s music themes centered on personal freedom and breaking free from the establishment, and greater meaning through open love and drugs).
8. In your opinion, either from personal experience or observation, what kinds of challenges or situations do you see as the most threatening to individual happiness? (In other words--where are individuals (and families) taking the most hits? Examples people give: selfishness, greed, marital conflict, conflict with parents, conflict with teens, divorce, alcohol or drug abuse, debt.)
9. Given the conflict we hear about every day in the Middle East and in other parts of the world arising from things like economic interests to religious ideology, how do you make sense of it all?
I am interested to hear your thoughts, comments, and/or suggestions about the above survey.
If you participated in the survey...
- Did you think the questions were tough to answer?
- Were you surprised to see the above results?
- Did you learn anything about yourself while answering the questions?
