The methods used in order to gather data for this studied varied greatly. We conducted one public online survey through the website SurveyMonkey, and publicized this through posts on social media, asking classmates and friends to participate as well. To include more personal stories, we interviewed a couple random people on campus about their experiences with spiders and their opinions on the topic. We strategically framed our survey questions in a way that would allow a person to dig deep and find the root behind their fear of spiders, or lack thereof.
Another method we had used in order to gather information on the roots of spider fear was interviews. Three semi structured interviews and two structured interviews. We geared our questions in a way that allowed the interviewee to consider their own psychological patterns and outside factors and how that affects their feelings toward spiders.
To get at least one example of a popular children’s story where it portrays spiders in a frightening way, we also examined the story, Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets, by J.K Rowling.