Analyzing Responses
Since the last time I journalled, I have ventured into the thick of my project. I conducted a survey to see if Frank’s theory held true amongst high schoolers. I truly was shocked at the flood of results which poured it, reaching 200 within a day. The 305 responses were split almost evenly among the four grade levels. This wasn’t the case when it came to gender however. Approximately 65% of the respondents were female. Also, 87% of the respondents had a sibling.
Looking at the survey questions, the responses didn’t show any polarization. In fact, most of the data was spread out between 1-6. This wasn’t surprising as personalities tend to be diverse in a population. I definitely am starting to eye some trends though. For example, it makes sense that for the question “I prefer being alone or with a small group of people”, most respondents chose 6. This is because a majority of the respondents were also first born which, according to Frank, means that they tend to introverted.
What did surprise me are the results to the influences. This data was extremely polarized; it was either it affects me, affects me to an extent or it doesn’t. There were clearly popular answers for these questions. Since there isn’t much information available about the impact of influencing factors, I’m intrigued to see what correlations I can make. Nature isn’t a minor part of personality. In fact, I’d say it’s just as important than nurture. Therefore, I expect some significance from this data.
The next step, which has already begun, is to process this data. While the data has been analyzed by the survey generator and exhibited in graphs, this analysis is simply not enough. My goal with this data, as I said, is to see if Frank’s theory aligns with the data provided by the respondents. In order to do this, each respondent’s data must be reverse scored and given numerical scores and subscores. By taking this information, I can conduct a comparison with Frank’s standard for the respondent’s birth order to see if there are any similarities or differences. In addition to this, I must also look at the the factors which impact the respondent’s personality and behavior . This analysis can help me understand where nature fits into personality, a topic which Frank simply ignored in his study. Also, it may help me explain some of the discrepancies between the respondent’s and Frank’s data.
Image shows an example of scoring a respondent’s answers.
