Self Report Flashcards
Rating scales
This is when a participant has to decide on a scale to rate their answer to a question
Self report data
This is data self reported by the participant themselves usually through written questionnaires
Interview
A research method that involves a face to face interaction with another individual and results in the collection of data
Quantative data
Information that can be reduced to numbers or quantities
Unstructured interview
- A face to face survey method where there is a broad agenda of areas to talk about but no pre-set questions
- the questions are open and the structure of the interview is flexible rather like a guided conversation allowing the interview to take its own path
- most likely to produce qualitative data
Closed questions
Questions that are limited in the way they can be answered
Qualitative data
In depth information in a written form - word,texts and ideas
Structured interview
Any interview in which the questions are decided in advance
Questionnaire
A survey method consisting of a series of pre-set questions for participants to answer involving both open and closed questions that are written down
Open questions
Questions that allow the respondents to answer in any way they choose
Semi-structured interview
A face to face survey method where the questions are set out at the beginning but the researcher has the freedom to follow up on some answers as the interview progresses
What do questionnaires allow ?
- a researcher to discover what people think and feel in contrast to observations which rely on guessing what people think and feel on the basis of how they behave as with a questionnaire one can ask people directly
Interview bias
The effect of an interviewers expectations ,communicated unconsciously on a respondent’s behaviour
Strengths of questionnaires
- easy , cheap and quickly distributed to large numbers or people enabling a researcher to collect data from a large sample of elope
- may Elict more personal responses from respondents as with face to face they may feel more self conscious and cautious
- impersonal nature may reduce social desirability bias compared to an interviewer
Weaknesses of questionnaires
- take a long time to design as a means of data collection
- only filled In by people who can read and write ( literate ) and are also willing to spend time filling them in
- meaning that the sample is thus bias
Strengths of interviews
personal contact and being face-to-face may allow an interviewer to able to observe the interviewee
Weaknesses of interviews
- Different interviewers may behave in different ways
- interviewer bias may take place
Strengths of structured interviews
- easily repeated as questions are standardised meaning answers from different people can be compared and also means they are easier to analyse than an unstructured interview because answers are more predictable
Weaknesses of structured interviews
- compatibility may be a problem if the same interviewer behaves differently on different occasions
- different interviewers behave differently - low reliability
- social desirability may still occur
- data collected will be restricted by a pre-determined set of questions
Strengths of unstructured interviews
- more detailed information can generally be obtained from each respondent than in a structured interview
- can gain deeper insights into the respondents thoughts and feelings
- can tailor questions to specific responses
- good raport - high in validity
Weaknesses of unstructured interviews
- require interviewers with more skill than a structured as the interviewer needs to develop new question’s extemporaneously
- such questions are more likely to lack objectivity than those that are pre-determined because of the instantaneous nature with no time for the interviewer to reflect on what to say
- the requirements for well trained interviewers makes unstructured interviewers more expensive to produce compared with structured interviews which don’t require specialist interviewers
- hard to analyse answers
- low reliability - interviewer may behave differently or ask different questions
Weakness of both interview types
- interviewers expectations may influence the answers the interviewee gives
- all interviewers have to be skilled to prevent this as far as possible
Strengths of quantifying data
- becomes easier to see patterns in the data
- easier to summarise and present it
- statistical analysis can be carried out
Limitations of quantifying data
- care is needed to avoid bias in defining coding units or deciding which behaviours fit particular units
- qualitative data has more detail which is lost when converted into numbers
