65° - 01.09.1967, Síða 23

to cover all of Iceland in one summer, an aim
both over-ambitious and unrealistic. Since such
a plan would have involved gathering responses
by mail, and since Icelanders have a reputation
for not answering mail, the plan was revised, and
formal, personal interviews were used instead.
Because of time, the study had to be limited to
Reykjavik, and thus is not representative of the
whole country, but it represents the majority of
the population, nevertheless.
One June 20th, the researcher began by analyz-
ing statistical records from the Statistical Bureau
of Iceland, evaluating historical data, selecting a
representative, random sample of the inhabitants
of Reykjavik, constructing a questionnaire and
pre-testing it. Finally on July 14th the survey
began, and ended July 24th.
The questionnaire contained 202 questions and
could be split into the following 14 divisions:
1. The respondent’s upbringing — his family of
orientation.
2. The indoctrination (formal and informal) of
his own and his future children.
3. His economic status, his parents’ and parents
in laws’. His and their income, expenditures
and division of labor within the family.
4. Residence rules, the size of residence, housing,
sleeping arrangements.
5. “Rules” governing building one’s own home
and their effects upon family life and interac-
tions between the husband and wife.
6. The relationship and intensity of interactions
between the respondent’s family of orientation
and his family of procreation.
7. Pre-marital sexual relations, actual, and at-
titudes toward.
8. Intensity and duration of interactions between
members within family of procreation.
9. Relationship between the spouses, both in
general and in minute detail about their sexual
relations.
10. Actual pre-marital cohabitation and attitudes
toward it, also actual (and attitudes toward)
common law marriages.
11. Attitudes toward legitimate vs. illegitimate
children, and towards married vs. unmarried
mothers.
12. Divorce and the right of the female vs. the
right of the male.
13. The formation of marriage, preferred mar-
riages, ideal husbands and wives, etc.
14. Biographical data.
Each respondent received one third of the
questionnaire by mail prior to the personal inter-
view in order to reduce the interviewing time
from three to two hours, and to give the respon-
dent the “feel” of the subsequent interview. This
form contained mostly biographical questions and
questions over which the respondent had to
ponder.
150 persons were selected from the Election
Register in Reykjavik with respect to age (over
21), sex, marital status, length of residence in
Reykjavik, and education. Since some were de-
ceased, others had moved, and a few bluntly re-
fused to answer, only 132 were interviewed. Of
these, 88 were married, 32 single, 4 legally sepa-
rated, 4 legally divorced, and 4 in common law
marriages.
“They’ll throw you out”, “They’ll slam the
door in your face”, “They’ll laugh at you”,
“They’ll call the police”, “They’ll lie to you”,
“Icelanders are so reserved”, were the encourag-
ing words the researcher heard from everyone
from his younger sister to skeptical scholars. In
short, almost everyone predicted that the study
would be a complete fiasco from the very begin-
ning. But the researcher found that the reverse
was the case. True, Icelanders interviewed were
not so open as, say, Americans, but when they
opened their secret doors, the researcher believed
they did it completely. The researcher attributed
this frankness to a human need to talk about such
problems, since it is not accepted and rarely
practiced that Icelanders talk to their closest kin
about personal problems, much less psychologists,
psychiatrists and ministers, and to the Icelanders’
extreme helpfulness and goodwill.
Not everyone answered with the same ease,
however, nor were all sections of the questionnaire
answered without hesitation. Generally speaking,
single women, aged 40—50, were the least co-
operative respondents, and married men, aged
21-—30, were the most open. Even more open,
however, were unmarried women who had been
cohabiting for many years.
Contrary to expectation, the sex questions did
not cause as much hesitation as those pertaining
to economic matters. The researcher felt this
reluctance might have been due to the fact that
most Icelanders cheat on their taxes in one way
or another.
Questions about the respondent’s family of
orientation were most willingly answered, as well
as most suppositional, non-committant questions,
i.e. about attitudes. “Why do you want to have
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