Thursday, March 15, 2007

VALS Survey

I just took the VALS online survey. The results were that I am a striver/experiencer. These types were described with words such as trendy, fun loving, young, enthusiastic. Some of these are true, but then it also said that I spent too much time and spend all my money on shopping, which is totally not true. It also says that I lack skills and focus to get ahead which I also do not think is true. I never really believed surveys like this. I look at them as being like reading horoscopes. They put some stuff in there for each type that could characterize any personality. This survey was very easy to take. Just a few clicks of a mouse and it was done, but like we mentioned in class it has some set backs to the paper type. With the paper type I could have asked the proctor to clarify some questions which may have helped me to not be evaluated incorrectly. On the other hand, the online type is very quick and easy and also cheap. I probably would not have taken that survey if I had to go to some place to take it, but it was convenient to take on my own computer. I have also taken surveys for classes through Survey Monkey which I would have never done if I had to take them in person because that is just not convenient. So, in my opinion, online surveys are very good and useful innovations in technology.

2 comments:

Andrea said...

So I also took the VALS survey and I also thought that my results were nothing like the person I am. I came out as an experiencer and innovator and after reading the descriptions of both of these groups I found that although there were some characteristics that described me, most of them were completely wrong. I thought the questions were too cut and dry in that you HAD to have an opinion on every category. I remember that when I was taking it there were many questions where if there were a "neutral" option I would have chose it. I truly feel that by making people choose a side (agree or disagree) the results are skewed.

Kathleen Albright said...

Yeah you make a good point with the neutral option. With surveys like that sometimes I feel none of the options are responses I would choose. That does make the results skewed and they probably do that on purpose so they force your answers to fit into the four personailty types they have come up with. Also like you said in class one day this could be a downfall of online surveys. If this were a written survey with a proctor then you may have the option to ask the proctor to clarify a question if you feel no answer applies to you which might make the results less skewed. So, with everything there will be some positives but there will always be negatives like we have pointed out.