Conducting a survey, help needed

[Kukulofori]

I'm making a survey to poll people in Portland to gauge class consciousness.
Right now I just have some stuff like "do you feel like you can trust your boss/the government" or "is Portland better off for being part of the United States", but what else would be good to include?

[Kayser_Soso]

I'm making a survey to poll people in Portland to gauge class consciousness.
Right now I just have some stuff like "do you feel like you can trust your boss/the government" or "is Portland better off for being part of the United States", but what else would be good to include?


I think the best tactic is to create questions that go like:

"How strongly do you agree with the following statement: 'Successful businessmen are naturally more intelligent and resourceful than others, and the government shouldn't be allowed to touch their wealth."

Then give a range from something like 1-5. This will probably get better, more honest answers because sometimes the wording of a question makes people hesitant to give an answer if it is something absolute.

[Kukulofori]

Nice.

Another intention of mine is to bring bourgeois dogma up for question in a serious context, so if you have any questions that won't actually be useful information, but will do that, that's welcome.

[which doctor]

"is Portland better off for being part of the United States"
This question gauges nationalist/regionalist consciousness much more than class consciousness.

[Kukulofori]

I hope for the destruction of the American identity. It's counterrevolutionary to the extreme.

I'm also working on a separate survey for homeless people. Stuff about feeling disenfranchised by electoral politics, etc.

[Felicia]

I hope for the destruction of the American identity. It's counterrevolutionary to the extreme.

I'm also working on a separate survey for homeless people. Stuff about feeling disenfranchised by electoral politics, etc.


umm.. I'm pretty sure the average homeless person isn't going to care or be in the frame of mind* to fill out a survey, and if some are, I don't think it'll be enough to get a sense of the population.


*I say frame of mind because mental illness is a common thread among the homeless. I'm NOT suggesting it is the case in most homeless, or even that it would impair their ability to think clearly to fill out a survey. I'm just saying. If I were homeless the last thing I'd want is some kid coming up to me asking me what I think about electoral politics, I'm probably hungry as fuck.

How does that saying go? If you're too busy trying to find your food, you can't exactly start developing in areas other than hunting and farming. ah, anyway. lol. I think you catch my drift.

[Stranger Than Paradise]

I would ask Ranma42. I seem to remember her having a survey which was on the same sort of subject. It was really good.

[Kayser_Soso]

I hope for the destruction of the American identity. It's counterrevolutionary to the extreme.

I'm also working on a separate survey for homeless people. Stuff about feeling disenfranchised by electoral politics, etc.

Actually I would say that the American identity may help destroy many of the most harmful identities like "white, black, Asian," etc. The fact is that as Americans, all of these people have more in common in the practical/cultural sense than they do with Europeans, Africans, East Asians(that "Asian" term in the US usually always refers to East Asians for some reason, as if Asia doesn't have huge, diverse population), respectively. Granted, this is a touchy subject and one must proceed very carefully, but look how much damage the arbitrary divisions of "races" has caused in the US.

[Invincible Summer]

I'm making a survey to poll people in Portland to gauge class consciousness.
Right now I just have some stuff like "do you feel like you can trust your boss/the government" or "is Portland better off for being part of the United States", but what else would be good to include?

I'll just rattle off stuff I remember from the survey course I did for sociology

Those questions are too threatening and almost leading the respondent. That's not good. Question types as suggested by Kayser are better, as is the ability to give the respondent a scale (As for analyzing the data of a scale, you could do "strongly disagree" is worth 1 pt, all the way up to "strongly agree" which is 5 pts, for example). Yes/No questions are okay, but sometimes it make the respondent feel forced to make a choice.

[Kayser_Soso]

Some kind of neutral position is also good. Even in a sliding scale type question, a person might feel that they are being led toward certain answers. The original F-scale survey had a lot of problems like this.

[mikelepore]

There are many related issues, but, in the most basic sense, class consciousness is the degree to which a person knows the correct answers to questions like these, and behaves accordingly:

1. In addition to the raw materials provided by nature, what is the source of real wealth, that is, goods and social services, being created?

(a) A capitalist shows creativity, has a good idea.
(b) A capitalist is willing to take a financial risk.
(c) Investors make investments.
(d) Businesses provide people with jobs.
(e) Government policy or government action.
(f) Workers perform labor. [THE CORRECT ANSWER]

2. What is the fundamental source of a capitalist investor making a profit?

(a) Smart planning on the part of the management.
(b) Fluctuations in the markets for stocks, bonds, etc.
(c) Realizing what consumers want and providing it to them.
(d) Clever advertising campaigns.
(e) Setting prices more wisely than other businesses.
(f) Extracting it from the workers' wages, by paying them wages which represent only a fraction of the wealth that they have produced. [THE CORRECT ANSWER]

3. What is the major cause of society's problems and crises?

(a) Defects in human nature.
(b) The politicians elected to political office have not been the best possible.
(c) The management role has been performed by incompetent individuals.
(d) Genuine shortages -- there isn't enough of something to "go around."
(e) Unfortunate environmental factors (weather, disease, etc.)
(f) Society is presently divided into economic classes, the owners and the workers. [THE CORRECT ANSWER]

Please improve or add to my list if you can think of some more!