Self-report Flashcards
types of questions found in a questionnaire
- closed
- open
- rating scale
- likert
- semantic differential
what is a closed question
question that gives answers to the participant, have to chose the most appropriate answer for them (often produce quantitative data)
what is an open question
participants asked to respond to a set question but with a blank underneath to respond in whatever style they choose (often produce qualitative data)
advantages of closed questions (2)
- easier and quicker for participant to respond
- data collected easier to compare and analyse
disadvantages of closed questions (3)
- can force participants to select an option which isn’t true for them
- lacks reason for why they selected the option they did
- lacks detail
advantages of open questions (2)
- provides more rich, detailed data
- doesn’t force participants to give a particular response
disadvantages of open questions (2)
- time consuming for participants to complete + for researchers to analyse responses collected
- responses may not be relevant to what the researcher was interested in collecting
what is a rating scale
person makes a mark at an appropriate point along a numerical dimension to indicate the direction and strength of their attitude
(e.g. on a scale of 1-10, where 10 is really happy and 1 is really sad, how happy do you feel when driving?)
advantages of rating scales (3)
- gives researcher idea of how strongly participants feel about something (more detailed than yes or no)
- gives quantitative data which can be compared
- easily repeated
disadvantages of rating scales (3)
- participants tend to use the middle scale (so it doesn’t look so extreme)
- doesn’t give an idea on why participants chose that option
- might not be consistent in how participants interpret the scale
what is a likert scale
where participants comprise a number of statements for each of which the participants indicate whether they strongly agree/ agree/ undecided/ disagree/ strongly disagree
what is standard response set and how is it controlled
the tendency to give the same answer in response to all the different statements
( for half the statements, ‘agree’ represents a positive attitude, and the other half a negative attitude)
what are semantic differentials
participants given a word/statement, bipolar adjectives are placed at either end of a scale of 5-7 spaces (no numbers or words attached to this)
what is a structured interview
interviewer asks same questions to each participant in the same order
what is a semi-structured interview
interviewer given a set of pre-prepared questions to ask and is expected to ask all of them, other questions are then developed from the responses given by the interviewee
what is an unstructured interview
researcher has topics to discuss, not all in the same order for each participant (interview more like a conversation)
what is the highest level of data
interval/ratio
describe interval data
involves use of carefully calibrated instruments of measurements (e.g. temp in degrees celcius)
- analysis made of actual scored by participants
describe ratio data
same as interval but must have a ‘true zero’ (for example measuring height in Ms- you can’t have a negative value of height)
describe ordinal data
data places in some kind or order or scale
- no standardised differences between actual scores (analysis is made of individual scores but only in relation to each other)
- e.g. a happiness rating scale from 1-10
what level of data is ordinal
medium level data
describe nominal data
nominal is named data
(it gives a ‘headcount’ of the number of participants who do/have one thing over the other)
e.g. gender, eye colour, hair colour etc…
