Self Report

Question 1

What is the self-report technique?

Answer 1

Any method in which a person is asked to states or explain their own feelings, opinions, behaviors, and/or experiences related to a given topic.

Question 2

What is a questionnaire?

Answer 2

A set of written questions used to assess a person‘s thoughts and/or experiences.

Question 3

What is a fixed option question?

Answer 3

A question with the predetermined number of answers.

Question 4

What is a closed question?

Answer 4

A question that offers a small number of explicitly stated, alternative responses and no opportunity to expand on answers. They generate quantitative data.

Question 5

What is an open question?

Answer 5

A question that allows participants to give full and detailed answers in their own words. They generate qualitative data.

Question 6

What is a rating scale?

Answer 6

It means of assessing attitudes or experiences by asking a respondent to write statements on a scale. Eg 1-10.

Question 7

What is a likert scale?

Answer 7

Respondents can indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with a statement. Usually five levels; strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree.

Question 8

Define social desirability bias.

Answer 8

The tendency for respondents to answer questions in such a way that presents themselves in a better light.

Question 9

Define response bias (acquiescence bias).

Answer 9

The tendency for interviewees to respond in the same way to all questions, regardless of context.

Question 10

What is a leading question?

Answer 10

A question which, because of the way, it is phrased, suggests a certain answer.

Question 11

What is an unstructured interview?

Answer 11

The interview starts out with some general aims and possibly some questions, unless the interviewee’s answers guide subsequent questions.

Question 12

What is a structured interview?

Answer 12

Any interview where the questions are decided in advance, basically a questionnaire delivered by a person.

Question 13

What is a semi-structured interview?

Answer 13

An interview that combines some predetermined questions (as in a structured interview) and some questions developed in response to answers given (as in an unstructured interview).

Question 14

What makes a good question?

Answer 14

• concise and unambiguous.
• avoid double questions.
• ask for precise answers.
• avoid questions with double negatives.
• avoid leading questions.
• avoid social desirability bias.
• consider years of analysis.

Question 15

What are the strengths of questionnaires?

Answer 15

• easy to administer. Can be sent or emailed to many participants, making them time and cost-effective.
• they are easily repeated.

Question 16

What are the weaknesses/limitations of questionnaires?

Answer 16

• social desirability bias may be a problem.
• response bias/acquiescence bias may be a problem.
• no flexibility to allow for collection of unexpected data.

Question 17

What are the strengths of structured interviews?

Answer 17

• they are easily repeated.
• interviews are standardized, so require less skill to administer.

Question 18

What are the weaknesses/limitations of structured interviews?

Answer 18

• data is restricted.
• social desirability bias may be a problem.

Question 19

What are the strengths of unstructured interviews?

Answer 19

• they enable the researcher to deal with any ambiguous questions by giving further explanation.
• more detailed information can be obtained that may not be accessible to predetermined questions.

Question 20

What are the weaknesses/limitations of unstructured interviews?

Answer 20

• interviewer/researcher bias is an issue.
• responses are more difficult to analyze, especially because they may be unpredictable.