Subject Areas and Background

When surveying visitors to the museum, a wide variety of questions can be used, depending on the objective. For example, questions can be asked about the age of the visitors, about the satisfaction of a visit to the museum, or about their educational background. The questions can be divided into four areas: museum-related questions, demographic information, socio-economic status and pedagogical-psychological characteristics.

Museum-related Questions

Museum-related questions can be used to collect information about museum attendance. This includes, for example, the frequency of visits to museums or specific museums, the accompanying situation, the duration of the visit, the time of the last museum visit, or even which museum exhibitions were viewed.

Demographic Information

Demographic characteristics are specific information that can be used to describe groups of people. These include, for example, age, gender, place of residence, year of birth, marital status or religious affiliation.

Socioeconomic Status

In summary, socioeconomic status describes a person’s position within society. It determines cultural and social capital and has an influence on educational success, skills development, lifestyle and health, among other things. In addition, a correlation between high social congestion and participation in specific cultural events has been demonstrated.

Educational-psychological Characteristics

Individuals are characterized by their different beliefs, attitudes, needs, values, and feelings. They exhibit different manifestations of psychological characteristics that make up a person’s personality and influence their cognitive as well as affective interactions with the social environment. For museums, empirical results are of particular importance, which allow conclusions to be drawn about visiting behavior or visiting expectations on the basis of the personality characteristics of museum visitors.