Week 7: Starting Data Analysis

Hey everyone, welcome back to my senior project!

This week, I focused on working with the data I collected from my survey. Since my survey is now closed, I started going through the responses more carefully and removed any that weren’t consistent to ensure the accuracy of my data.

I’m already starting to notice some interesting trends. For example, responses from teens seem a lot more varied compared to responses from other age groups. My guess is that this might be because teens are still forming their opinions on topics like this, and may not have as much exposure to strong societal views or misconceptions yet. On the other hand, older participants may have more fixed ideas based on what they’ve seen or heard over time, which could explain why their responses are more similar.

Another pattern I’m seeing is that people who have had prior experience or exposure to hoarding or object attachment tend to agree less with the misconception statements. This lines up with my hypothesis, since personal experience can lead to a better understanding of how complex these behaviors actually are. I still need to look more into other factors like sex and ethnicity, so I’ll be continuing my analysis next week.

For my research this week, I read “The Economic and Social Burden of Compulsive Hoarding” by Tolin, Frost, Steketee, and Fitch, and also read about a third of Frost’s book Buried in Treasures. Both of these sources focus on the real-world impact of hoarding, but in slightly different ways. The articles looked more at the larger scale effects, like financial strain, safety risks, and impacts on communities and public services. On the other hand, Buried in Treasures focused more on the personal and psychological side of hoarding, as well as strategies for managing these behaviors. Compared to Frost’s earlier work, which focused more on defining hoarding, these sources explained that by showing both personal experience and the broader social impact of hoarding.

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!