I shall leave my questionnaire in circulation until October which is when my dissertation should be coming together and this primary research needed (especially for writing the introduction) when deciding what my definition for great shall be. I would like to do the analysis of my questionnaire at the beginning of October but I cannot give myself a specific date by which to do it because I have no way of telling where I will be in my dissertation beyond looking at my long term plan which itself is quite flexible. I therefore determine to have it analysed and evaluated between 1st October and 15th October 2015 which gives me flexibility in case my EPQ isn't as progressed as I currently plan it to be or other commitments in that time delay my EPQ.
Below: beginning of the questionnaire as seen by those who complete it.
Below: beginning of the questionnaire as seen by those who complete it.
When I looked over what kind of sources I could get my research from I initially thought that it would be very difficult to send out a questionnaire because my EPQ is a historical one and therefore very fact based, however I recently realised that in order to answer my question I needed to define what it is to be 'great' and what effects a person's greatness. I obviously couldn't do this alone so this became the premise of my questionnaire and one part of my primary research.
To create my questionnaire I created a plan (came up with all the questions) and then transferred it into a Google Form on Google Drive and pasted the link into the document shared with all EPQ students which has links to all of the questionnaires. An advantage of using Google Forms to do this is that when people complete it their results automatically go into a ready made spread sheet for me to analyse so I don't have to waste time organising the results.
Here is a copy of my questionnaire for my blog and its evaluation:
*Required Question
1. What is your definition of ‘great’/’greatness’?* [typed answer]
This is my initial question, the positives of this as a question is that because it is my first one it gets people into the mindset of thinking about greatness and gets their initial gut reaction which wouldn't be affected by the rest of my questionnaire so it should be an honest opinion. Furthermore I should get lots of depth in this as it is an open question, therefore giving me insight into how other people think. However a negative would be that as an open question the answer will be very hard to analyse, I will try to overcome this by attempting to spot trends in the answers rather than creating a separate analysis of each answer.
2. Of the following, which attributes would most make a person ‘great’?*
Their ancestry / Their achievements / Their deeds / Their personality / Their legacy / The perceptions of other people of them / How influential they are / How inspirational they are / How talented they are (at whatever they do) / Other (please state)
The strengths of this as a question is that it furthers the work of the first question but in a more precise way which should be easier for me to analyse, furthermore with the 'other' option I may even get answers I haven't yet considered which could open me up to new interpretations of my title as well as the rest of the options helping me consider what is the most significant factor to consider when thinking about a person's greatness. However the negatives of this question is that because it is a closed question I don't really get any depth on why they chose what they did which lessens (to a slight degree) the usefulness of this question just because it gives me no insight however the previous question did so it should balance out.
3. Which of the following character traits do you most associate with being ‘great’?*
Bravery / Intelligence / Being a natural leader / Ruthlessness / Authoritativeness / Compassion / Being Tyrannical / Being Merciful / Perseverance / Selflessness / Other (please state)
This is very similar in style to the previous question so shares the same positives and negatives. However a further advantage of this question is that it takes greatness from a different angle which will give me another perspective into it which should allow greater depth in the analysis of what makes a person great.
4. Of the following historical figures who do you believe is the greatest?*
Hitler / Martin Luther King Jr / Stevie Wonder / Alexander the Great / William the Conqueror / Caesar / Emily Pankhurst / I don't know any of them
5. Why? [typed answer]
These are two separate questions which link together, the first one I used so I could see how Alexander is considered in relation to other significant figures of history and the second so I could get an understanding of the sort of things people consider when actually asked to describe someone's greatness, I can then analyse this with the previous questions to see if they all match up and say similar things. An advantage of this question is that it gives me perspective on Alexander in relation to the rest of history, it will question whether for political, social, military, cultural reasons do people most consider figures to be worthy of greatness and therefore help me define what it means. However a disadvantage with this is that people may not know who all of these figures are and this may change their answer, say if they knew everything about all of them they may say a different person to what they would really believe which would give an inaccurate response and reduce the validity of my questionnaire.
6. Of the following historical figures who do you believe is the least great?*
Hitler / Martin Luther King Jr / Stevie Wonder / Alexander the Great / William the Conqueror / Caesar / Emily Pankhurst / I don't know any of them
7. Why? [typed answer]
This shares the same ideas and therefore the same strengths and weaknesses as questions 4 and 5 but takes it from the opposite perspective. I did this because I also wanted to see why people wouldn't consider someone to be great, my predictions for this would be that the majority of people will select Hitler just because his atrocities are well known but it will be interesting to see how they justify it because for his intellect and some of his achievements there is a controversial argument that he can be considered great, not a good man but arguably someone who did great things in their life time. Great does not necessarily mean good and I want to see if other people may take that line which is the same reason that I included the option "ruthless" in a previous multiple choice question. This will aid my work on Alexander as it will give me ideas for a more balanced argument as he committed questionable acts in his life and if people consider other leaders who caused lots of death in history to not be great it suggests that perhaps Alexander should be considered similarly.
After publishing my questionnaire I decided to edit the questions concerning historical figures and change their options to include Queen 'bloody' Mary this is because I realised Hitler was the only truly controversial figure in the mix, all of the others had very clean cut arguments for greatness so it was obvious people would go for Hitler out of all of them. With her burnings of the protestants Mary is also a controversial figure so it would be interesting to see if this lessens my predicted votes for Hitler (though they remain high because Hitler is just so well known).
8. In your opinion why should a person not be considered ‘great’ (what things shouldn't a person do/be if they want to be called ‘great’)? [typed answer]
This is my final question which is basically me trying to further my understanding of what the last two questions tried to reach, the advantage of this question is that it doesn't constrain people to discuss their feelings about only one individual but gives them room for a much broader, less restrained, answer. This should aid my understanding of why a person shouldn't be considered great in the minds of others and may give me, like the previous two questions, some good ideas on the other side of the argument when considering Alexander.
To create my questionnaire I created a plan (came up with all the questions) and then transferred it into a Google Form on Google Drive and pasted the link into the document shared with all EPQ students which has links to all of the questionnaires. An advantage of using Google Forms to do this is that when people complete it their results automatically go into a ready made spread sheet for me to analyse so I don't have to waste time organising the results.
Here is a copy of my questionnaire for my blog and its evaluation:
*Required Question
1. What is your definition of ‘great’/’greatness’?* [typed answer]
This is my initial question, the positives of this as a question is that because it is my first one it gets people into the mindset of thinking about greatness and gets their initial gut reaction which wouldn't be affected by the rest of my questionnaire so it should be an honest opinion. Furthermore I should get lots of depth in this as it is an open question, therefore giving me insight into how other people think. However a negative would be that as an open question the answer will be very hard to analyse, I will try to overcome this by attempting to spot trends in the answers rather than creating a separate analysis of each answer.
2. Of the following, which attributes would most make a person ‘great’?*
Their ancestry / Their achievements / Their deeds / Their personality / Their legacy / The perceptions of other people of them / How influential they are / How inspirational they are / How talented they are (at whatever they do) / Other (please state)
The strengths of this as a question is that it furthers the work of the first question but in a more precise way which should be easier for me to analyse, furthermore with the 'other' option I may even get answers I haven't yet considered which could open me up to new interpretations of my title as well as the rest of the options helping me consider what is the most significant factor to consider when thinking about a person's greatness. However the negatives of this question is that because it is a closed question I don't really get any depth on why they chose what they did which lessens (to a slight degree) the usefulness of this question just because it gives me no insight however the previous question did so it should balance out.
3. Which of the following character traits do you most associate with being ‘great’?*
Bravery / Intelligence / Being a natural leader / Ruthlessness / Authoritativeness / Compassion / Being Tyrannical / Being Merciful / Perseverance / Selflessness / Other (please state)
This is very similar in style to the previous question so shares the same positives and negatives. However a further advantage of this question is that it takes greatness from a different angle which will give me another perspective into it which should allow greater depth in the analysis of what makes a person great.
4. Of the following historical figures who do you believe is the greatest?*
Hitler / Martin Luther King Jr / Stevie Wonder / Alexander the Great / William the Conqueror / Caesar / Emily Pankhurst / I don't know any of them
5. Why? [typed answer]
These are two separate questions which link together, the first one I used so I could see how Alexander is considered in relation to other significant figures of history and the second so I could get an understanding of the sort of things people consider when actually asked to describe someone's greatness, I can then analyse this with the previous questions to see if they all match up and say similar things. An advantage of this question is that it gives me perspective on Alexander in relation to the rest of history, it will question whether for political, social, military, cultural reasons do people most consider figures to be worthy of greatness and therefore help me define what it means. However a disadvantage with this is that people may not know who all of these figures are and this may change their answer, say if they knew everything about all of them they may say a different person to what they would really believe which would give an inaccurate response and reduce the validity of my questionnaire.
6. Of the following historical figures who do you believe is the least great?*
Hitler / Martin Luther King Jr / Stevie Wonder / Alexander the Great / William the Conqueror / Caesar / Emily Pankhurst / I don't know any of them
7. Why? [typed answer]
This shares the same ideas and therefore the same strengths and weaknesses as questions 4 and 5 but takes it from the opposite perspective. I did this because I also wanted to see why people wouldn't consider someone to be great, my predictions for this would be that the majority of people will select Hitler just because his atrocities are well known but it will be interesting to see how they justify it because for his intellect and some of his achievements there is a controversial argument that he can be considered great, not a good man but arguably someone who did great things in their life time. Great does not necessarily mean good and I want to see if other people may take that line which is the same reason that I included the option "ruthless" in a previous multiple choice question. This will aid my work on Alexander as it will give me ideas for a more balanced argument as he committed questionable acts in his life and if people consider other leaders who caused lots of death in history to not be great it suggests that perhaps Alexander should be considered similarly.
After publishing my questionnaire I decided to edit the questions concerning historical figures and change their options to include Queen 'bloody' Mary this is because I realised Hitler was the only truly controversial figure in the mix, all of the others had very clean cut arguments for greatness so it was obvious people would go for Hitler out of all of them. With her burnings of the protestants Mary is also a controversial figure so it would be interesting to see if this lessens my predicted votes for Hitler (though they remain high because Hitler is just so well known).
8. In your opinion why should a person not be considered ‘great’ (what things shouldn't a person do/be if they want to be called ‘great’)? [typed answer]
This is my final question which is basically me trying to further my understanding of what the last two questions tried to reach, the advantage of this question is that it doesn't constrain people to discuss their feelings about only one individual but gives them room for a much broader, less restrained, answer. This should aid my understanding of why a person shouldn't be considered great in the minds of others and may give me, like the previous two questions, some good ideas on the other side of the argument when considering Alexander.