Asking a question like,
‘What is your name?’
This question would be inappropriate as some of the individuals that are being questioned may not want to reveal their name or identity so that others can see the details that they have filled in for a particular question or even the whole questionnaire.
I will try to ask a mixed race of ethnic origins the questionnaire, so that I get a varied selection of answers. I will also ask the questionnaire to a member of each of the appropriate age ranges so I get a wider range of reactions.
I have printed out three copies of the questionnaire so that the individual filling in the questionnaire can write straight onto the paper. These copies can be seen on the next few pages. It includes their responses to the questions given.
Pilot Study – Questionnaire
Gender Male ( ) Female ( )
Age Group Under 20 ( ) 21-60 ( ) 61+ ( )
Ethnicity White ( ) Afro-Caribbean ( ) Asian ( ) Other ( ) please specify…………………………
- Are you married?
Yes ( ) No ( )
If not, what is your marital status?
Single ( ) Divorced ( ) Single parent ( ) Widow/Widower ( )
Cohabiting ( ) Other ( ) Please specify…………………………
If yes, at what age did you get married?
……………………………………………………………………
- In your family has anyone been divorced?
Yes ( ) No ( )
If yes, please state your relationship with them
……………………………………………………………………
- In your family, are there any couples that are living together but not married (cohabiting)?
Yes ( ) No ( )
If yes, please state your relationship with them
……………………………………………………………………
- What factors have played a part in divorces that you have some knowledge of?
a. Unemployment of 1 or 2 partners ( )
b. Arguments between the couples ( )
c. Arguments between parents ( )
d. Disagreement over how to bring up children ( )
e. Financial worries ( )
f. Other relationships (i.e. affairs) ( )
Other ( ) Please specify…………………………………………….
- If you were divorced, would you consider re-marrying?
Yes ( ) No ( )
Pilot Study – Findings
After observing my three copies of the questionnaires I have noticed that there are no major problems apart from the fact that there are not many people under the age of 20 that are married so I do not think that I will get a fair an outcome as I had first hoped for. To try and sort this matter out I will be splitting the age groups into smaller groups. I do not believe there is another way to overcome this problem, so I will continue my project with the suggestion I have written about above.
I have also found out that I may need to ask a couple more questions so that I can further my project and also get a better understanding of this task. The additional questions that I will be asking in my actual questionnaires are as follows :-
- What age do you believe is an appropriate age to get married?
16-20 ( ) 21-25 ( ) 26-30 ( ) 31-35 ( ) 36+ ( )
- Many people believe that divorcing is not a suitable approach to couples that are not getting along; Do you believe that there are other options that can be taken?
Yes ( ) No ( ) Don’t know ( )
If yes, please write what options that you would consider……………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
If no, why not…………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The last factor that I will be changing in my actual questionnaire is that on question 5, which is,
‘If you were divorced, would you consider re-marrying?,’
I have only given an option of ‘yes’ and ‘no’. I will also add another option, which will be ‘don’t know’ as two out of the three individuals I questioned were unsure of an answer for this particular question.
Other than this, I do not believe there were any other problems in my questionnaire.
Whilst completing the task of the pilot studies, I believe I have got a few ideas of what I am hoping to find out at the end of this project. I have noticed that from the three individuals surveyed, two of them have a ‘couple’ in their family who live together but are not married.
I will now begin the actual questionnaire and add these extra features and then draw various graphs to show my findings.
Questionnaire
In the next couple of pages, I have included two examples of the questionnaire that I presented to twenty people. One represents a male view point of the responses whilst the other represents a female view point of the responses.
After completing the twenty questionnaires, I will produce numerous graphs relating to my questionnaire as well as giving my views showing why I believe I obtained this outcome.
To make it as fair as possible, I will give my questionnaire to ten males and ten females and then generate the rest of the questions from there. I am hoping to get a general idea on the situation of marriage and divorce in Modern Britain.
Questionnaire Findings
Having completed my actual questionnaire, I have noticed that there are a number of interesting and fascinating findings. I will be representing these as well as others on graphs over the next couple of pages.
I asked my questionnaire to ten males and ten females so that I get a fair outcome. From the ten males and females questioned, I tried to even out the age range so that I get a wider range of answers ranging from children to the elderly. Here I have drawn a graph which shows the age range of the people questioned.
I tried to find an equal age range so that I could produce a fairer questionnaire. The graph above clearly shows the age range of the men and women questioned which totals twenty people. I also tried to ask each ethnicity equally, however I could not find many Afro-Caribbean men that would who be willing to answer my questionnaire. From the twenty people, I asked twelve members of the Asian community, six members of the White community and two members of the Afro-Caribbean community.
Below, I have produced a graph which shows how many of the people questioned were married or not married.
Questionnaire Findings (Cont.)
From the two pie charts on the previous page, I can notice that many of the people surveyed were married. I believe this will help me as I will get a better idea on what their opinions are on married life and also because they will have better experience on marriage so it will help me understand their views as well as unmarried people’s views. The people that were not married were mainly either single or a widower.
This next graph below shows what age the individuals believed is an appropriate age to get married.
The graph clearly indicates that the majority of people questionned believe the general age range for people to get married is between 21 and 30. Out of the twenty individuals questionned seventeen thought this was the appropriate age range. I think this is because many Asian families believe this, as from the twelve Asians questionned all twelve believed this was the appropraite age range. However, I think that in Modern Britain the time many men and women marry is when they are a bit older so I would believe this may change over the next few years.
The next question I presented to the people was if anyone in their ‘close family’ had been divorced. As the table below shows, many individuals had family members who had been divorced.
Questionnaire Findings (Cont.)
From the pie chart produced on the previous page, I can state that fourteen people had ‘close family’ that had been divorced. I think that this would have been much fewer a few years ago but I believe this may continue to grow over the next couple of years. This is because more and more people believe divorce is the only option if they are not getting along with their partners.
One of the following questions was if anyone had any ‘close family’ members cohabiting. Below I have shown a graph which shows the response that I received.
I was a bit surprised at this, as I thought there would be hardly any Asian people who had family members cohabiting. However this was only witnessed in some Asian families.
The penultimate question that I asked was what has played a part in divorces that the individual had any knowledge of. This ranged from their friends to their families as well as any other person. From the twenty people I recognised that nearly all of them thought arguments between the couples was the main reason for couples to get divorced. However, some also said that financial worries was the cause of divorcing. Two of the twenty people thought this, whereas fifteen of the twenty people found arguments between couples was the main reason for divorcing.
The last question that I asked the individuals was that if they were divorced, would they consider re-marrying. I got a variety of answers on this question, ranging from ‘Yes’, ‘No’ and ‘Don’t know’. Nevertheless many people ticked the ‘ Don’t Know’ box. I think many ticked the ‘Don’t Know’ box as they didn’t want to give a definate answer or reveal details which I find may be a bit personal.
Questionnaire Conclusion
Having completed the questionnaire, I believe I have found a general idea on what random people think about marriage and divorce. I think this has helped me in my project as it has shown me various ideas that I didn’t have much knowledge on when I began my project. I will be using these outcomes during the rest of the project and exploring on matters that I which to find more information on.
I was a little surprised on a few of the questions but overall I think I have found out what I thought will be the case before proceeding with the questionnaire.
There was one other question that I asked in my questionnaire which I will find suggestions to during the rest of my project. This was whether the individuals questioned believe there are other options that can be taken for people who are not getting along and would like to get a divorce. I gave them an option of ‘Yes’, ‘No’ and ‘Don’t Know’. I then told them to write an example of what options could be taken if they selected ‘Yes’ or told them to write why they believe other options shouldn’t be taken if they selected the ‘No’ box. However half of the individuals ticked the ‘Don’t Know’ box and so did not need to give a reason for what they wrote. If I was to do the questionnaire again, I would not include the ‘Don’t Know’ option as I wouldn’t get an answer for their reason. However, the people that selected the ‘Yes’ box gave an option of counselling or talking through the problem with their families especially if the couple have any children. The majority of people who selected ‘No’ said that if couples do not get along there is no point them staying together and trying to work things out.
I think that including a questionnaire in my project has been a very good idea as I can relate to other people and consequently find their views on the matter.
Marriage
Hypothesis: Marriage is becoming less popular.
The correct sociological meaning for ‘marriage’ is when two people commit the rest of their lives to each other and are officially married. It is proved with a marriage certificate which is given to the couple getting married.
However marriage does not always mean spending the rest of your life with your partner. This is due to the fact that divorces are becoming more and more popular.
One of the main matters that I wanted to investigate was if marriage was becoming less popular or not. My questionnaires clearly indicate that there may be less marriages occurring than previously before as couples are finding alternatives to married life. However, this will not give me a completely fair account of what I wish to find out as the population of Britain is increasing and so therefore more people will be getting married. Due to this I will try to find the number of marriages per 1000 people in Britain. I have looked in many various books and I have found a table which shows how the number of marriages in Britain over a period of years and whether it has increased or decreased. This can be seen below:-
The table above suggests that marriage has decreased in Modern Britain and that the ‘place of marriage in Modern Britain’ is differentiating throughout the past thirty or forty years. The reasons for the decline in marriage are a mixture of facts that I have already pointed out. These being the increase in cohabiting as well as people wishing to marry at a later age of their lives. I have looked very hard to find a news article which would back up my theory of individuals tending to marry at a later date and I finally found one from the newspapers.
Source: Leicester Mercury
Date: Friday 13th July 2001
Marriage (Cont.)
This article gives out the point that men are not as devoted to marriage as women and are also less enthusiastic about it than women, therefore wanting to marry at a later date. It also shows that men want to live together before getting married, which is if they ever get married. This is also known as cohabiting.
Below I constructed a graph of the table shown at the top of the previous page. This is to show clearly the decline in marriage.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………As the table clearly indicates the marriage rate is decreasing as it is getting lower and lower and therefore my hypothesis is correct.
Divorce
Hypothesis: Divorce rates are increasing
The word ‘divorce’ means when a couple who are officially married, separate or break-up as they are encountering problems in their lives.