<p>I am conducting a case study on the topic of refugees and asylum seekers. My particular interest is: How aware is my test subject of the reasons (political persecution, famine, war, ...) why these people are leaving their home country?</p>

<p>I would like to avoid asking explicit questions like "How often do you think about the political situation in Syria?"</p>

<p>So, is there any standardized or way of investigating awareness (not knowledge) of a certain topic?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-20T16:13:45.573Z
@MaríaAnt: I just wanted to make clear that I'm not interested in the actual knowledge (e.g. there are 14.3m refugees worldwide) but rather the person's general interest in the topic. Is it something the person thinks about from time to time without being reminded? Or are they rather indifferent about these things?
Stefan Surkamp
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-20T19:25:12.967Z
You can look at the use of certain words in writing or spoken conversation to indicate that the person is thinking or aware of the subject. For writing, look for tools that can make a "tag cloud" out of a piece of text, and see if the words you are interested in appear there. For example, there was a very long suicide note which I examined this way a few years ago. Out of 100 or so pages, words like Nazis and Jews were on the top of the  tag cloud list, meaning that person was aware and thinking about the subject.
Alex Stone
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-20T21:22:06.477Z
Nice idea! Unfortunately, I'm only investigating this topic in a very short amount of time. So, I need to get this information directly from the person (interview or questionnaire).
Stefan Surkamp
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-21T17:21:40.500Z
How long are we talking? Ecological momentary assessment might be an option, otherwise you pretty much just have to ask them to estimate directly.
Christian Hummeluhr
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-08-21T21:24:24.823Z
I'll take a look at "EMA"! We're talking about a time frame of about 30 minutes.
Stefan Surkamp
<methodology><consciousness><attitudes><awareness>
How to examine person's awareness of a certain topic?
Stefan Surkamp
# How to examine person's awareness of a certain topic?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-08-20)

I am conducting a case study on the topic of refugees and asylum seekers. My particular interest is: How aware is my test subject of the reasons (political persecution, famine, war, ...) why these people are leaving their home country?

I would like to avoid asking explicit questions like "How often do you think about the political situation in Syria?"

So, is there any standardized or way of investigating awareness (not knowledge) of a certain topic?

**Tags:** methodology, consciousness, attitudes, awareness

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: @MaríaAnt: I just wanted to make clear that I'm not interested in the actual knowledge (e.g. there are 14.3m refugees worldwide) but rather the person's general interest in the topic. Is it something the person thinks about from time to time without being reminded? Or are they rather indifferent about these things?  
> **username_1**: You can look at the use of certain words in writing or spoken conversation to indicate that the person is thinking or aware of the subject. For writing, look for tools that can make a "tag cloud" out of a piece of text, and see if the words you are interested in appear there. For example, there was a very long suicide note which I examined this way a few years ago. Out of 100 or so pages, words like Nazis and Jews were on the top of the  tag cloud list, meaning that person was aware and thinking about the subject.  
> **username_0**: Nice idea! Unfortunately, I'm only investigating this topic in a very short amount of time. So, I need to get this information directly from the person (interview or questionnaire).  
> **username_2**: How long are we talking? Ecological momentary assessment might be an option, otherwise you pretty much just have to ask them to estimate directly.  
> **username_0**: I'll take a look at "EMA"! We're talking about a time frame of about 30 minutes.  

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## 0 answers

