PAPER 2 - Research method - Self report techniques and design Flashcards
What is a self-report technique?
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.
What is a questionnaire?
A set of written questions (sometimes referred to as items) used to assess a person’s thoughts and/or experiences.
What are open questions?
Questions for which there is no fixed choice of response and respondents are free to answer in any way they wish.
What are closed questions?
Questions for which there is a fixed choice of responses determined by the question setter.
What are the strengths of questionnaires?
Cost-effective
Gather lots of info from lots of participants
Researcher does not need to be present
Data lends itself to statistical analysis
What are the limitations of questionnaires?
Responses may not be truthful
Social desirability bias - present themselves well
Response bias
Acquiescence bias
What are the 3 types of closed questions?
Likert scales
Rating scales
Fixed-choice option
What is a likert scale? +e.g.
A respondent indicates the extent of their agreement with a statement.
e.g. I love Psychology
1 = strongly agree
2 = agree
3 = neutral
4 = disagree
5 = strongly disagree
What is a rating scale? +e.g.
A respondent identifies a value that represents their strength of feeling about a particular topic.
e.g. How much do you like Psychology?
love 1 2 3 4 5 hate
What is a fixed-choice option? +e.g.
A list of possible options are given and the respondent indicates those that apply.
e.g. For what reasons did you pick Psychology? (Tick all that apply)
- For my future career
- My friends picked it
- It sounded interesting
- My parents made me
What is an interview?
A ‘live’ encounter where interviewer asks a set of questions to assess an interviewee’s thoughts and/or experiences.
What are the 3 types of interviews?
Structured
Unstructured
Semi-structured
What is a structured interview?
A predetermined sets of questions that are asked in a fixed order…like a face-to-face questionnaire.
What is an unstructured interview?
Like a conversation with no set questions, only a general aim that a certain topic will be discussed. The interviewee is encouraged to expand and elaborate their answers as prompted by the interviewer.
What is a semi-structured interview?
Most likely to occur in everyday life e.g. at a job interview!
A list of questions are provided but interviewers are free to ask follow-up questions based on previous answers.
Evaluate structured interviews.
Straightforward to replicate due to standardised format.
Richness of data is limited as interviewers cannot expand on a topic of explain their questions further.
Evaluate unstructured interviews.
Much more flexibility = elicits unexpected information.
Increased risk of interviewer bias.
Difficult to analyse.
Risk that interviewees may lie if questions are leading (A skilled interviewer should be able to establish sufficient rapport so responses are more truthful)
When designing an interview, what should be included?
An interview schedule that is standardised and reduces interviewer bias.
Comfortable, quiet setting.
Promises made to be confidential.
What 5 things need to be managed to write good clear questions?
Overuse of jargon (specialist language!)
Emotive language
Leading questions
Double-barrelled questions
Double negatives
