10. Self Report Technique

Question 1

What is a self report technique?

Answer 1

Any method in which a person is asked to state or explain their own feelings, opinions, behaviours and/or experiences related to a given topic.

Question 2

What is a questionnaire ?

Answer 2

A set of written questions used to assess a persons thought and/or experiences

Question 3

Why is a question are used as part of an experiment ?

Answer 3

To assess the dependent variable

Question 4

What are open questions ?

Answer 4

It does not have a fixed range of answers and respondents are free to answer in any way they wish

Question 5

What are closed questions ?

Answer 5

They offer a fixed number of responses

Question 6

What type of data do you get from open questions ?

Answer 6

Qualitative

Question 7

What type of data do you get from closed questions ?

Answer 7

Quantitative data

Question 8

What is an interview ?

Answer 8

A live encounter where the interviewer asks a set of questions to assess an interviewees thoughts and/or experiences

Question 9

What is a structured interview ?

Answer 9

They are made up of a predetermined set of questions that are asked in a fixed order

Question 10

What is an unstructured interview ?

Answer 10

There are no set questions, so it works a lot like a conversation. There is a general aim that a certain topic will be discussed and interaction tends to be free flowing and the interviewee is the encouraged to elaborate on their answers

Question 11

What is a semi structured interview ?

Answer 11

There is a list of questions that have been worked out in advance but interviewers are free to ask follow up questions when they feel it is appropriate

Question 12

What are the strengths of questionnaires?

Answer 12

• cost effective
• less time consuming with minimal effort
• data is usually straightforward to analyse

Question 13

What are the limitations of questionnaires?

Answer 13

• social desirability bias is a demand characteristic
• response bias
• acquiescence bias

Question 14

What is response bias ?

Answer 14

This is where respondents answering questions on a questionnaire tend to reply in a similar way e.g always ticking yes

Question 15

What is social desirability bias ?

Answer 15

type of response bias that is the tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others

Question 16

What is acquiescence bias ?

Answer 16

Tendency to agree with items on a questionnaire regardless of the content of the question

Question 17

What are the strengths of a closed question ?

Answer 17

• produces quantitative data so you can easily analyse and compare it
• easier and quicker for respondents to answer
• less confused answers or irrelevant answers
• replication is easier

Question 18

What are the disadvantages of closed questions ?

Answer 18

• clerical mistakes
• less in depth and lack of detail
• simplistic responses

Question 19

What are the advantages of open questions ?

Answer 19

• infinite number of answers
• collect more detail
• gain unexpected insights on topic

Question 20

What are the disadvantages of an open question ?

Answer 20

• some answers may be subjective
• they can take longer to complete resulting in an increase in survey fatigue
• decrease in completion rate

Question 21

What are the advantages for structured interviews ?

Answer 21

• easy to replicate
• standardised format
• Structured interviews are quick to conduct which means that many interviews can take place within a short amount of time. This means a large sample can be obtained resulting in the findings being representative and having the ability to be generalized to a large population.

Question 22

What are the disadvantages of structured interviews ?

Answer 22

• not flexible in terms of elaborating their points

- lacks detail

Question 23

What are the advantages for an unstructured interview ?

Answer 23

• flexible as questions can be adapted and changed depending on the respondents’ answers
• qualitative data through the use of open questions. This allows the respondent to talk in some depth
• increased validity because it gives the interviewer the opportunity to probe for a deeper understanding, ask for clarification

Question 24

What are the disadvantages of an unstructured interview?

Answer 24

• It can be time consuming to conduct an unstructured interview and analyze the qualitative data
• social desirability bias
• Employing and training interviewers is expensive as they need to be able to establish a rapport