Attitude Survey Essay

I created a survey for parents of adolescents to determine how important they think it is for their teens to be educated on environmental issues. This paper will explain the purpose of the survey and discuss the preliminary design issues that I experienced while creating the survey. Then, the paper will describe how this survey should be administered, scored and interpreted. Purpose of Survey The purpose of this survey is to get parents opinions on their adolescent’s involvement in environmental issues. The reason for this survey is that even people, who conserve natural resources, recycle and help keep the community clean are not always as aware of making their adolescents do their part. It is proven that, if parents are environmental and energy friendly in their actions then their children are more prone to be as well. (Sierra, 2009). If parents take it into their own hands to educate their adolescents they can rest assured the teens will do their part. This survey will show if parents feel that their children should have to take on this responsibility, or if they should be allowed to remain childish and carefree in their actions. This survey will also distinguish is parents held themselves accountable for teaching their adolescents to be conscious of their actions and how they influence the environment. Preliminary Design Issues Issues with the design of surveys include distinguishing which questions should be asked, and if these said questions would get true responses or false answers. The questions that are asked will determine the outcome of the survey. This survey was developed for parents of adolescents. The parents may or may not par take in activities that are geared to sustain the  environment such as conserving natural resources and recycling. This survey is not about the parents themselves, however, but rather about how educated about the environment that they think their teens are and should be. This survey can be taken individually, but would yield better results if given in a group setting, with an administer present so that the questions could not be discussed among the respondents. The survey is very brief and should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. It is a simple 12 question survey that is given in the Likert format, with the scale being 5 answers ranging from strongly disagree t o strongly agree. (Hogan, 2007). â€Å"A Likert-type scale assumes that the strength/intensity of experience is linear, i.e. on a continuum from strongly agree to strongly disagree, and makes the assumption that attitudes can be measured. Respondents may be offered a choice of five to seven or even nine pre-coded responses with the neutral point being neither agree nor disagree†. (McLeod, 2008). In my survey, there are five pre-coded responses, with the neutral point being unsure. It does not have to be a professional who administers the survey. The administer should have some knowledge in scoring and be well informed on the topic so that they may answer any questions the respondents may have. Specific Instructions for Administering, Scoring and Interpreting the Survey Individual questions will be asked to the respondents before they begin the survey. These questions will include things like name, age, gender, marital status, number of children in home, and age of adolescents. Simple questions about the respondent’s environmental views will also be asked. The only people present during the survey will be the respondents and the administrator. Since the survey has no right or wrong answers, all respondents will be urged to answer honestly so that the results will be accurate. The scoring of the survey will also be relatively simple. A five point scale, with numerical values will be issued. The assigned values will be as follows; -2 for strongly disagree, -1 for disagree, 0 for unsure, +1 for agree, and +2 for strongly agree. Once the surveys are scored the totals will be correlated. A respondent with a 0 score or mostly middle responses will be concluded as neutral or no opinion. A respondent with high scores would be seen as having favorable attitudes toward adolescents and their role in sustaining the environment. A respondent that had low scores would be seen as having a negative attitude about adolescents taking  responsibility for the environment. Then, the surveys would be tallied to determine the general attitude concerning adolescents and the environment. Conclusion This survey was created to determine the attitudes of parents with adolescents on how much responsibility the teens should have in sustaining the environment. The adolescents are the focus, but the survey will also allow results on the attitudes of the respondents as well. The results will also be able to be broken down into sub-categories based on the age, gender, and marital status of the respondents. References Hogan, Thomas, P. (2007). Psychological Testing: A Practical Introduction, 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons Langh, Sierra. (2009). 4 ways to encourage environmental awareness in your youth. Tampa Teen Issues Examiner. Retrieved From: http://www.examiner.com/article/4-ways-to-encourage-environmental-awareness-your-youth McLeod, Saul. (2008). Likert Scale. Simply Psychology. Retrieved From: http://www.simplypsychology.org/likert-scale.html