Research Methods- Self Report Technqiues

Question 1

Self-report techniques:

Answer 1

The participant reveals personal information about themselves (e.g. behaviours, emotions, beliefs, attitudes and memories) in response to a series of questions.

Question 2

Interview:

Answer 2

Participants give information in response to direct questioning from the researcher. Can also be conducted in person over the phone/video call.

Question 3

Questionnaire:

Answer 3

Participants give information in response to a set of questions that are sent to them. This can be in the post or completing a form online.

Question 4

Open questions:

Answer 4

The question is phrased in a way that allows the participant to answer in any way they choose. e.g. “What do you think about X”. This produces qualitative data, meaning non-numerical data (in the form of words).

Question 5

Open questions
Evaluation
✅

Answer 5

• As the participants have the freedom to choose their responses, this can be argued to lead to more valid (true) responses.

Question 6

Open questions
Evaluation
❌

Answer 6

-Qualitative data makes data analysis between large numbers of participant responses much more difficult, making it harder to spot patterns in responses.

Question 7

Closed questions:

Answer 7

The question is phrased in a way that limits participants’ responses to only a few fixed options. e.g. “do you like X, yes or no”, “how much do you like X out of 1-7”. This produces quantitative data, meaning numerical data.

Question 8

Closed questions
Evaluation
✅

Answer 8

• As the participants have the freedom to choose their responses, this can be argued to lead to more valid (true) responses.

Question 9

Closed questions
Evaluation
❌

Answer 9

• Qualitative data makes data analysis between large numbers of participant responses much more difficult, making it harder to spot patterns in responses.

Question 10

Designing interviews and questionnaires:

Answer 10

How the researcher constructs the study.

Question 11

Designing interviews and questionnaires:

Avoiding complex terminology:

Answer 11

Participants may not understand the terms used and if feeling too embarrassed to ask for an explanation, or unable to in a questionnaire they may guess the meaning resulting in inaccurate responses.

Question 12

Designing interviews and questionnaires:

Rewording questions:

Answer 12

Rewording questions: Using a skilled interviewer means questions that participants don’t understand can be reworded, this should be in a way that doesn’t change the questions meaning so responses can be compared to other participants.

Question 13

Designing interviews and questionnaires:

Leading questions:

Answer 13

These bias the responses in one direction. To avoid this questions should be written in a way that doesn’t suggest a “correct way” of responding. E.g.
“what did you prefer about condition A?”, “why did you find that task difficult?”.

Question 14

Designing interviews and questionnaires:

Filer questions:

Answer 14

questions that are not linked to the research aim, but can be added to interviews to put the participant at ease and build rapport before more challenging questions. Or can be added to interviews or questionnaires to act as red herrings and help hide the resi earch am, reaueing demand characteristics.

Question 15

Designing interviews and questionnaires:

Piloting questions:

Answer 15

Running a small scale version of the interview or questionnaire can identify questions that are confusing, give away the aim or don’t produce a useful/ detailed response. These can then be changed before the larger-scale study.

Question 16

Structured:

Answer 16

The interviewer reads out a list of prepared questions as they are written.

Question 17

Structured
Evaluation
✅

Answer 17

The interviewer does not have to be highly trained to conduct the interview.

The interview responses are easy to compare because of the same Q’s used.

Question 18

Structured
Evaluation
❌

Answer 18

• Responses by the participants cant be followed up with additional questions that can provide more detail.

Question 19

Unstructured

Answer 19

No setlist of questions, an open conversation about a topic.

Question 20

Unstructured
Evaluation
✅

Answer 20

-Rapport is more likely, the participant feeling more comfortable to answer.
Interesting responses can be followed up with additional questions.

Question 21

Unstructured
Evaluation
❌

Answer 21

-highly trained interviewer to think up appropriate questions in the moment.
Every interview will be very different, making comparisons difficult.

Question 22

Semi structured

Answer 22

Combination of prepared questions with ability to ask additional Q’s.

Question 23

Semi structured
Evaluation
✅

Answer 23

• The interview responses are easy to compare because of the same Q’s used.

• Interviewer can ask follow up questions in response to interesting answers.

• Rapport is more likely, the participant feeling more comfortable to answer.

Question 24

Semi structured
Evaluation
❌

Answer 24

highly trained interviewer to think up appropriate questions in the moment.

Question 25

Self report techniques
Evaluation
✅

Answer 25

-When the same set of questions are used they are very easy to replicate.

-The use of closed questions allows data analysis and the use of closed questions give the participant the opportunity to freely report their experience

Question 26

Self report techniques
Evaluation
❌

Answer 26

-Suffer from bias for example social desirability bias, participants responding in a way that makes them look good Infront of the researcher.

Question 27

Self report techniques
Evaluation

Some other examples of potential bias in self-report techniques.

❌

Answer 27

• Demand characteristics, it’s often easy to work out the aim from the questions, resulting in the participant answering in a way they think the researcher wants.

• Researcher bias, the researcher interpreting responses to open questions in a way that confirms their research hypothesis/ their beliefs. (This can be unintentional)

• Investigator effects, the personal characteristics of the interviewer, or the body language used by the interviewer, influencing the responses given by participants.

Question 28

Questionnaires
evaluation
✅

Answer 28

-Don’t require a trained interviewer and can be distributed easily, making collecting a large amount of data a cheap and easy process.

-When using closed questions researchers can compare many thousands of responses easily.

Question 29

Questionnaires
evaluation
❌

Answer 29

-Questions the participants don’t understand cannot be rephrased.

-Questionnaires are often not taken seriously, this can result in acquiesce bias, the participants responding “yes” to every question. (this can be tested for by asking the same question again later in the questionnaire but in reverse

Question 30

Interviews
Evaluation
✅

Answer 30

• Can rephrase questions that are difficult to understand.

• Can build rapport making it more likely the participant will take the interview seriously.

Question 31

Interviews
Evaluation
❌

Answer 31

-Requires an interviewer, this significantly increases the cost per participant especially if the

-interviewer needs to be trained.
Interviewer effects, the personal characteristics of the interviewer can alter the response of the participant.