Why do we use revised Bourdieu's questionnaires?
In Bourdieu's Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, he argues that one's social position (class position, education, profession and family background) influences his or her taste. We were inspired by his idea and wondered whether people's friend-making is also determined by personal factors, but not only limited to social position. We think questionnaire is a very useful tool for a good start because it can generate a huge a mount of responses in a short time so that we can quickly get a general view of people's perception of friendship in the first place.
We looked at Bourdieu's questionnaire and were impressed by his detailed questions on asking personal information. We thought these questions would be helpful for linking personal factors with people's preferences, so we kept the main structure of his questionnaire but altered some questions to the modern time. Also some questions were added, in order to relate more to our topic. Another point we learnt from Bourdieu is that we should be cautious not to ask directive questions or show our own judgments on the options listed in the questions. Bourdieu provides a very good example of how people's favorite TV program, clothes and decoration styles in their houses could reflect his social status. In our questionnaire, we aim to let our respondents do not think too much about what the questions are asking and answer based on intuition, so that we can get the most unbiased data.
How are we going to present our questions?
We want our questionnaire to be simple and interesting to answer so we did not ask a huge number of questions. From our experience, short answer questions often do not receive many responses, so we did not include them in our questionnaire. We leave more detailed questions to the interview where people could elaborate on their point.
In the first part of our questionnaire, we asked some questions about respondents' personal details including gender, age, ethnicity, personality and educational background, which we think might influence their preferences of friends. We did also consider economic background, but considering that respondents are from different countries over the world so it is not suitable to list UK income. In addition, listing options such as ''above/below average'' seems to be offensive to some people. For reasons above, we did not include economic background in our questionnaire.
1. What is your gender?
Female
Male
2. What is your age?
10 to 19
20 to 29
30 to 39
40 to 49
50 to 59
60 and above
3. What is your ethnicity?
White
Black
Asian
Mixed
Other (please specify)
4. What is the highest level of school you have completed or the highest degree you have received?
Secondary school degree
Bachelor degree
Graduate degree
5. Which of the following best describes your current occupation or degree of study?
Computer and Mathematical science
Life, Physical, and Social Science
Management, Business and Financial Operations
Law
Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media
Education, Training, and Library
Architecture and Engineering
Healthcare and Medicine
Other (please specify)
6. Would you describe yourself as more:
Outgoing
Introverted
Somewhere in between
This is the second part of our questionnaire, which asked more questions about people's views on good friends and how to make friends. In the last two questions, we applied the phrase "tend to", because we want our respondents to recall their actions when making friends, instead of what they think they would do. We think this could help us to get a more accurate result on behaviours of making friends.
7. Which do you prefer?
Having a few close friends at a time
Having a lot of friends around you
8. What is your biggest motivation for finding friends?
Sharing ideas with people of similar interests
Fear of being alone
Seeking benefits from friendship (eg. have a bigger social network, financial benefits etc)
Other (please specify)
9. Which is the best occasion for you to find friends?
Informal situations (eg. party, pub, club etc)
Formal situations (eg. social networking session, formal dinner etc)
Other (please specify)
10. Do you prefer friends with the same characteristic as you or an opposite characteristic would be better?
Same
Opposite
It does not matter
11. What characteristic you would like for your friend? (please choose no more than three options)
Honesty
Reliable
Humorous
Sensitive
Optimistic
Thoughtful
Assertive
Energetic
Extraverted
Dominant
Talkative
Humble
Cooperative
Other (please specify)
12. Do you prefer friends with the same hobbies as you?
Yes
It does not matter
13. Do you think it is difficult to make friends with people who are much older or younger than you?
Yes
No
It depends
14. Is physical appearance important for you when choosing friends?
Yes
No
15. Would you tend to make friends with people from similar cultural background?
Yes
No
16. Would you tend to make friends with people from similar family and class background?
Yes
No
After designing the questionnaire, we put it online and open to all people.
The clip below from the Big Ban theory shows how we want our research to be academic and objective but not to scare our respondents too much.
In Bourdieu's Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, he argues that one's social position (class position, education, profession and family background) influences his or her taste. We were inspired by his idea and wondered whether people's friend-making is also determined by personal factors, but not only limited to social position. We think questionnaire is a very useful tool for a good start because it can generate a huge a mount of responses in a short time so that we can quickly get a general view of people's perception of friendship in the first place.
We looked at Bourdieu's questionnaire and were impressed by his detailed questions on asking personal information. We thought these questions would be helpful for linking personal factors with people's preferences, so we kept the main structure of his questionnaire but altered some questions to the modern time. Also some questions were added, in order to relate more to our topic. Another point we learnt from Bourdieu is that we should be cautious not to ask directive questions or show our own judgments on the options listed in the questions. Bourdieu provides a very good example of how people's favorite TV program, clothes and decoration styles in their houses could reflect his social status. In our questionnaire, we aim to let our respondents do not think too much about what the questions are asking and answer based on intuition, so that we can get the most unbiased data.
How are we going to present our questions?
We want our questionnaire to be simple and interesting to answer so we did not ask a huge number of questions. From our experience, short answer questions often do not receive many responses, so we did not include them in our questionnaire. We leave more detailed questions to the interview where people could elaborate on their point.
In the first part of our questionnaire, we asked some questions about respondents' personal details including gender, age, ethnicity, personality and educational background, which we think might influence their preferences of friends. We did also consider economic background, but considering that respondents are from different countries over the world so it is not suitable to list UK income. In addition, listing options such as ''above/below average'' seems to be offensive to some people. For reasons above, we did not include economic background in our questionnaire.
1. What is your gender?
Female
Male
2. What is your age?
10 to 19
20 to 29
30 to 39
40 to 49
50 to 59
60 and above
3. What is your ethnicity?
White
Black
Asian
Mixed
Other (please specify)
4. What is the highest level of school you have completed or the highest degree you have received?
Secondary school degree
Bachelor degree
Graduate degree
5. Which of the following best describes your current occupation or degree of study?
Computer and Mathematical science
Life, Physical, and Social Science
Management, Business and Financial Operations
Law
Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media
Education, Training, and Library
Architecture and Engineering
Healthcare and Medicine
Other (please specify)
6. Would you describe yourself as more:
Outgoing
Introverted
Somewhere in between
This is the second part of our questionnaire, which asked more questions about people's views on good friends and how to make friends. In the last two questions, we applied the phrase "tend to", because we want our respondents to recall their actions when making friends, instead of what they think they would do. We think this could help us to get a more accurate result on behaviours of making friends.
7. Which do you prefer?
Having a few close friends at a time
Having a lot of friends around you
8. What is your biggest motivation for finding friends?
Sharing ideas with people of similar interests
Fear of being alone
Seeking benefits from friendship (eg. have a bigger social network, financial benefits etc)
Other (please specify)
9. Which is the best occasion for you to find friends?
Informal situations (eg. party, pub, club etc)
Formal situations (eg. social networking session, formal dinner etc)
Other (please specify)
10. Do you prefer friends with the same characteristic as you or an opposite characteristic would be better?
Same
Opposite
It does not matter
11. What characteristic you would like for your friend? (please choose no more than three options)
Honesty
Reliable
Humorous
Sensitive
Optimistic
Thoughtful
Assertive
Energetic
Extraverted
Dominant
Talkative
Humble
Cooperative
Other (please specify)
12. Do you prefer friends with the same hobbies as you?
Yes
It does not matter
13. Do you think it is difficult to make friends with people who are much older or younger than you?
Yes
No
It depends
14. Is physical appearance important for you when choosing friends?
Yes
No
15. Would you tend to make friends with people from similar cultural background?
Yes
No
16. Would you tend to make friends with people from similar family and class background?
Yes
No
After designing the questionnaire, we put it online and open to all people.
The clip below from the Big Ban theory shows how we want our research to be academic and objective but not to scare our respondents too much.
Works cited:
Bourdieu, P. "Introduction" and "Appendix 1: Some Reflections on Method" in Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (London, 1984) pp. 17-, and 503-518.
The Friendship Algorithm, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf70HglUMYA&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 12/11/14].