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Here's how we came up with it...
In order to help me figure out if my theory is right or not (or somewhere in between right and wrong), I met with one of my advisors for this project: Dr. Jerry Wicks from the Department of Sociology at BGSU.
Through our discussions, I explained to him that a significant component of this project is examining the dynamics of our group in the hopes of figuring out what "makes us tick." I came to him looking for references of similar work, or background reading that may introduce me to the necessary concepts and ideas that I'd need to figure this out.
However, I quickly found out that most of what I needed was either common sense stuff or easily found in an introductory level Social Psychology textbook. As he explained, I should try and get some background information about the members of our group. Are we all in similar social classes? Do we listen to the same music? Do we share many of the same values and morals?
In a nutshell, at a fairly basic level, what is it that we all have in common? That's what I needed to find out.
I had tossed around the idea of talking to people and either taking notes or recording our conversations so that I'd be able to review later and try to find the information I was looking for. Instead, Dr. Wicks suggested that I put together a simple survey and ask each member of the group to complete one.
This had several advantages as far as we were concerned. Not only did it make less work for me in terms of collecting and organizing the information, I was able to make sure that everyone was asked the same questions, and had ample time to think about and compose their answers (unlike a verbal interview).
Because this was not meant to be any sort of definitive, scientific analysis of our group, I have chosen not to include the raw results in this presentation. Instead, you will read my interpretation and analysis of the results.
Of course, I have included a copy of the list of questions which made up the survey. As you can see, it covers a variety of topics: religion, music, financial status, drugs, and so on.
Updated: March 29h, 1997