Methodologies - Self-Report Techniques Flashcards
What are self-report techniques?
When participants give details of their own feeling, thoughts or behaviours to the researcher
What are the different self-report techniques?
Interviews
Questionnaires
What are interviews?
When researchers ask questions in face-to-face situations
What are the different types of interviews?
Structured interviews
Unstructured interviews
Semi-structured interview
What are structured interviews and what information do they give?
All participants asked same questions in same order
Provides QUANTITATIVE data
What are unstructured interviews and what information do they give?
Informal in-depth conversation between interviewer & interviewee
Provides qualitative data
What are semi-structured interviews and what information do they give?
Use both structured and unstructured techniques
Provided quantitative & qualitative data
What are the pros of interviews?
Complicated/sensitive issues are best dealt in an interview
If participants misunderstand a question, it can be clarified
Often get extra information which you didn’t set out to get
What are the disadvantages of interviews?
Risk of interviewer effects
Risk of social desirability bias
Interviewers need training
Process can be time consuming & expensive
What are interviewer effects?
When the interviewer can unintentionally affect the respondent’s answers (can be a result of the interviewer’s appearance, manner or gender)
What is social desirability bias?
When people lie to present themselves better (making info gathered from interviews invalid)
What needs to kept in mind when designing interviews?
How to record the information
The effect of the interviewer
What are the different methods of recording an interview?
Written notes (can affect listening skills)
- if nothing written can make interviewee feel like nothing they said was valuable
Audio/video recorded
What are involved in questionnaires?
Participants given a set of questions & instructions on how to answer
Mainly focus on an individual’s behaviour, opinions, belief & attitudes
What are closed questions?
Require participants to answer from fixed responses to give QUALITATIVE DATA
What are open questions?
Allow participants to answer in their own words to give QUALITATIVE DATA
What are the pros of closed questions?
Easy to compare responses
Can be sure that there will be certain information as there are restricted options to choose from
What are the pros of open questions?
Allows the participants to develop their response with detail - lots of info
Allows researchers to get information they may not have predicted
What are the pros of questionnaires?
Can easily collect a large amount of data relatively quick
Easy to score/collate closed questions
Easy to replicate
What are the disadvantages of questionnaires?
Low response rate
Participants may misunderstand questions and the researcher can’t clarify
Can be biased (only people who are bothered participate)
What do you need to keep in mind when making questionnaires?
Writing good questions - how to word them
Writing good questionnaires - variety of questions
How do you write good questions?
Good Clarity
No Bias (leading questions)
Easy to analyse
How can you include good clarity?
Questions should be clear
Avoid double negatives
Avoid double-barrelled questions
How do you avoid bias?
Don’t write leading questions
