Lesson 5 - Self Report Techniques

Question 1

What is an interview?

Answer 1

This involves researchers asking questions in face-to-face situations

Question 2

What are the three main types of interview?

Answer 2

• Structured Interview
• Unstructured Interview
• Semi-structured interview

Question 3

What is a structured interview?

Answer 3

All participants are asked the same questions in the same order. This provides quantitative data, which is data what can be counted or expressed numerically.

Question 4

What is an unstructured interview?

Answer 4

An informal in-depth conversational exchange between the interviewer and the interviewee. This provides qualitative data, non-numerical data that uses words to give a description of what people think and feel.

Question 5

What is a semi-structured interview?

Answer 5

This type combines a mixture of structured and unstructured techniques producing both qualitative and quantitative data.

Question 6

Advantages of interviews?

Answer 6

• Complicated or sensitive issues are best dealt with in an interview.
• If participants misunderstand the question this can be clarified in an interview

Question 7

Disadvantages of interviews?

Answer 7

• Risk of interviewer effects (when the interviewer may inadvertently affect respondents answers). This can be unintentional and may even be a result of the interviewers appearance, manner or gender.
• Risk of social desirability
• Training is needed for interviewers and the process can be time consuming and expensive.

Question 8

What is a questionnaire?

Answer 8

Participants are given a written set of questions and instructions about how to record their answers. These mostly focus on the individual’s behaviour, opinions, beliefs and attitudes.

Question 9

What are the two different types of questions?

Answer 9

• Closed questions

- Open questions

Question 10

What are closed questions?

Answer 10

Requires participants to answer yes or no or choose from fixed responses (quantitative data)

Question 11

What are open questions?

Answer 11

This allows participants to answer in their own words (qualitative data)

Question 12

Advantages of questionnaires?

Answer 12

• Quick, easy and relatively cheap to have a large sample and collect a large amount of data.
• Questionnaires are time efficient because the researcher doesn’t have to be present in order for the questionnaire to be completed.
• Questionnaires are very easy to replicate and this means their reliability can be established.

Question 13

Disadvantages of questionnaires?

Answer 13

• Questions can be ambiguous and the researcher is not there to explain so questions may be misunderstood or misinterpreted
• Questionnaires can have a low response rate
• Questionnaires can have a biased sample as they are only suitable for people who can read, are willing and able to spend time on them. Certain types of people would be more willing to fill in questionnaires (eg people without busy careers) and so the sample may not be representative of the target population.

Question 14

What is a case study?

Answer 14

A case study is a collection of detailed information from a single individual or a small group of individuals.
They often, but not always, involve interviews.

Question 15

Advantages of case studies?

Answer 15

• They permit the collection of unusually detailed information about a given individual
• Some case studies have reported findings that are inconsistent with an influential theory
• Case studies can provide suggestive evidence that leads to the development of new theoretical approaches
• Case studies allow researchers to study a situation that would be unethical to create in a laboratory.

Question 16

Weaknesses of case studies?

Answer 16

• Typically do not permit generalisation to any larger group or population
• Not representative of the whole population
• The experiment may exhibit bias in the way they collect and interpret the data.