Self Report

Question 1

What are the two main self report techniques?

Answer 1

-Questionnaires
-Interviews

Question 2

What are the two types of questions

Answer 2

-Open questions
-Closed questions

Question 3

What is an open question

Answer 3

Participants can answer in whatever style they choose.

Qualitative Data

Question 4

What is a closed question

Answer 4

Give the answers. Participants choose the most appropriate answer for them

Quantitative Data

Question 5

What are the advantages of Closed questions

Answer 5

• Easier and quicker for participants to respond

-The data collected is easy to compare and analyse

-Quantitative data is provided

Question 6

What are the advantages of open questions

Answer 6

-Provides more rich detailed data

• doesnt force participants to give a particular response
• Qualitative data

Question 7

What are the disadvantages of Closed questions

Answer 7

• Can force participants to choose an option which isn’t for them
• Lacks reasons for why they selected the option they did

Question 8

What are the disadvantages of Open questions

Answer 8

-Harder and slower for Participants to respond (time consuming)

-Data collected is hard to compare and analyse

-subjective (open to interpretation)

• responses may not be relevant to what the researcher is interested in

Question 9

What are rating scales

Answer 9

a scale where the participant marks at an appropriate point along a numerical dimension to indicate the direction and strength of their attitude

Question 10

Strength and weaknesses of the rating scale

Answer 10

Advantages
-more detailed than yes or no
-quantitative data
-easily repeated

Disadvantages
-no reasoning behind the option participant chooses
-tendency to choose middle to not seem too extreme
-interpretation of scale is not consistent with each participant

Question 11

What is a Likert Scale

Answer 11

likert scales comprise of a number of statements for each of which participants indicate wether they strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, strongly disagree.

Question 12

Strengths and weaknesses of a likert scale

Answer 12

-Greater level of understanding and feelings (make results more reliable)

-Subjective (the numbers may mean something different things to different people)

-Socially desirability Bias (portray themselves positively)

Question 13

What is Response Bias

Answer 13

-People answer incorrectly or falsely to questions
-E.G. picking the same option all the way down

Question 14

How to deal with Response Bias …

Answer 14

Can reverse the questions to see who’s response bias(improves reliability)

Question 15

What is the Split half method?

Answer 15

Ask similar questions to see if participants answer similarly to before- check reliability

Question 16

What are semantic differentials?

Answer 16

-Asks people to place themselves on a line between two extremes
- often used to measure attitudes
- the extremes can be reversed to catch people out who aren’t reading the questions properly

Question 17

What are the types of interviews

Answer 17

-Face to face
-Over the telephone
-Structured (plan what to ask)
-Unstructured (don’t plan what to ask)
-Semi-structured (plan what to ask then may ask other things)

Question 18

What are leading questions ?

Answer 18

Forcing respondents to give particular reply- researchers not usually aware of this (decrease validity- not their true feelings)

Question 19

Strengths of Self Report.

Answer 19

-Allow participants to give views rather than inferring from observation
-Can study large samples easily and quickly
-Examine large number of variables
-Ask people to reveal behaviour and feelings experienced in real life situations (ecological validity)

Question 20

Weaknesses of Self Report

Answer 20

-Social Desirability Bias
-Questions might not be clear (validity issues)
-Response rates can be low
-Leading questions
-Quantitive data doesn’t give a lot of information about the reasons
-Qualitative data hard to analyse
-Reliability and validity issues.

Question 21

How to Improve reliability

Answer 21

• Make sure questions aren’t ambitious and clarify exactly what they’re saying
  -In interviews, train interviewers to ensure they ask things in the same way

Question 22

How to Improve validity

Answer 22

-Avoid leading questions
-Concurrent validity- doing two things that measure the same thing to compare the results - if they’re similar its measured
-Open questions could be added to allow respondents to expand on their answers
- Confidentiality allows them to be more truthful

Question 23

Strengths of Structured Interviews

Answer 23

• Standardised format- All participants are asked the same questions
  -Interviewer is present to avoid misinterpretation of the question

Question 24

Weaknesses of Structured Interviews

Answer 24

-Interviewer bias (may alter tone of voice) decrease validity
-Respondents may be Social desirability bias in-front of the interviewer
-Lack flexibility, can’t expand on their response

Question 25

Strengths of Unstructured Interviews

Answer 25

-More flexible as questions can be adapted and changed depending on the respondents’ answers.

Question 26

Weaknesses of Unstructured Interviews

Answer 26

• Produces more qualitative data - harder to analyse
  -Harder to replicate

Question 27

What are the ethical issues ?

Answer 27

• Informed consent- likely as they’re filling in the survey or being interviewed
  -Any deception must be debriefed afterwards
  -Questions must not cause harm
  -Must be confidential

Question 28

Advantages of semi-structured interviews?

Answer 28

comparable, reliable data, and the flexibility to ask follow-up questions.

The ability to design a thematic framework beforehand keeps both the interviewer and the participant on task, avoiding distractions while encouraging two-way communication.

Participants can be asked to clarify, elaborate, or rephrase their answers if need be.

Question 29

Weaknesses of semi structured interviews

Answer 29

Low validity
The flexibility of semi-structured interviews can also lessen their validity. It can be challenging to compare responses between participants, depending how far the interviewer departed from the predetermined list of questions.

Bias
The open-ended nature of semi-structured interviews can lead to the temptation to ask leading questions, biasing your responses. Conversely, your respondents may also seek to give you the answers they think you want to hear, leading to social desirability bias.

Semi-structured interviews can be difficult to conduct correctly due to their delicate balance of prior planning and spontaneous asides. Every participant is different in their willingness to share. It can be difficult to be both encouraging and unbiased.