Self-Report Flashcards
What is self-report?
It is any method which involves collecting data on people by asking them questions about their feelings, attitudes, beliefs and thoughts
What are the two main self-report techniques?
Questionnaire
Interview
What is one strength of using self-report?
It can potentially enable the researcher to access peoples thoughts.
What are open questions?
Ask a participant to respond to a set question but leave a blank underneath the question so participants can answer in any style they like.
They assess a person’s emotions or the reason why people act in a specific way
What type of data do open questions provide?
Qualitative data- leave respondents to consider their own answer
What are closed questions?
Given answers/options for participants to chose from (chose the most appropriate)
What type of data do closed questions provide?
Provide quantitative data
What are the advantages of closed questions?
- Easier and quicker for participants to respond
- The data collected is easy to compare and analyse
What are the disadvantages of closed questions?
- Restricts participants answers
- Difficult to give real reasons for behaviour/answer
What are the advantages of an open question?
- Gives participants flexibility/options to gives their real reasons for behaviour
- Researchers gain real in depth reasons for participant behaviour
What are the disadvantages of open questions?
- Time consuming to complete by the participants and for the researcher to analyse the responses collected
- Responses may not be relevant to what the researcher desired
How are rating scales completed?
Person completes rating scale by making a mark at an appropriate point along a numerical dimension to indicate the direction/strength of their attitude
What can rating scales relate to and give an example?
Attitudes (eg. 1 = really bad and 10 = really good)
Emotions/feelings (eg. 1= really sad and 10 = really happy)
What can even-numbered rating scales cause?
They cause participants to have a FORCED CHOICE making them suggest a positive or negative leaning in their opinion even if they don’t have one
What are the advantages of rating scales?
- It gives the researcher an idea of how strongly a participant feels about something
- It is more detailed than a simple yes or no answer
What are the disadvantages of rating scales?
- There can be a tendency for participants to chose the middle of the scale so they don’t look to extreme
- Vulnerable to RESPONSE SETS (answer questions in a methodical manner unrelated to their subject)
What are likert scale?
Scales which comprise a number of statements for each of which participant indicates whether they strongly agree/ agree/ are undecided/ disagree or strongly disagree
How does a likert scale control for a standard response set?
Half the statements selected represent a positive attitude and the other half represent a negative attitude.
What is one issue with likert scales?
The number of internal they contain
- Normally contain 5 (odd) statements which enables an ‘undecided option’ if participants have no view in the matter
- An even number of statements can force a participant to have an opinion when in reality they don’t (reduces validity)
What are the two different types of rating scales?
Likert scales
Semantic differentials
What are semantic differential scales?
They are rating scales which make use if polar opposite terms such as good/bad, strong/weak
When would you use a questionnaire method?
If the researcher wishes to gain QUANTITATIVE data from a LARGE sample or participants fairly QUICKLY
When would you use an interview method?
If the researcher wishes to gain IN-DEPTH data from representatives of a fairly NARROW target population
What are the three different types of interviews?
- Structured
- Semi-structured
- Unstructured