Self Report Flashcards
What is a self report?
A method is a where a person is asked to state or explain their own feelings, opinions, behaviours and/or experiences related to a given topic
What are the examples of self report techniques
1) questionnaire
2) interviews
How can questionnaires be used?
- Used to gather data about people.
- Can be sent to people homes and returned by post, emailed or
completed and collected in person
What is an open ended question
A question that does not have a fixed range of answers / respondents can provide their own answers
- It produces qualitative data rich in depth and detail
What is a closed ended question?
Respondents must choose from a fixed range of possible answers
- It produces quantitative data – can count the number for each responses .
What are the practical advantages of questionnaires
- Quick = can gather large amounts of data from large numbers of people
- Cheap = No need to recruit interviewers or observers to collect data
- Widely spread geographically = especially if done online/ postal
- Easy to quantify and analyse = especially if using closed questio
What is a strength of questionnaire in regards to reliability
- high reliability
- Identical questionnaire (same questions, same order, same choice of answers)
- No researcher bias (no researcher present to influence)
What is a strength of questionnaire in regards to objectivity
- No researcher bias
- Little or no personal contact with respondents.
- Maintains detachment and objectivity
What is a strength of questionnaire in regards to representiveness
- Can collect information from a large number of people
- Results are more representative of the wider population to other methods
- Can make accurate generalisations about populat
What is a strength of questionnaire in regards to ethical issues
- Fewer ethical issues than most RM
- May ask intrusive or sensitive questions
What is a weakness of questionnaire in regards to practical problems
Data is brief and superficial because they need to be short to
ensure high response rate
• Expensive if incentives needed i.e. prize draw to encourage
respondents
• Lost mail / email = unsure if questionnaire has been received or
returned (in postal and online
What is a weakness of questionnaire in regards to inflexibility
Once finalised, can’t be changed to explore new areas of interest
What is a weakness of in regards to questionnaires being a snapshot
- Provides a picture of reality at only 1 moment in time (when
questions were answered) - Do not capture the way people’s attitudes and behaviour change
(not a fully valid picture).
What is a weakness of questionnaire in regards to detachment
• Questionnaires involve no direct contact between researcher
and respondent- so can’t see world from their perspective.
• May misunderstand questions/ no way to clarify questions
• No way to clarify answers/ may misinterpret
What is a weakness of questionnaire in regards to lying, forgetting and social desirability
Inaccurate answers can affect validity
- respondents may lie, forget, try to impress, not understand etc
- it can lead to Acquiescence bias which is the tendency to agree
with question – can be to please the researcher
What is a weakness of questionnaire in regards to imposing the research’s meaning?
Researcher chooses questions (bias)
- Closed-ended= respondents must fit their views into the ones on offer. No opportunity to answer differently (invalid picture)
- Open-ended= when coding researcher may lump answers together into the same category (even if they aren’t identical)
What are the 3 ways closed questions can be divided? designing questionnaires
- Likert scale - indicates their agreement (scale ranges from strongly agree to strongly disagree)
- Rating scales -identify a value that represents their strength of feeling about a particular topic
- Fixed choice option- includes a list of possible options and respondents are required to choose from
What is a structured interview?
Pre-determined questions in a fixed order. Cannot ask follow-up questions (mostly quantitive data) - standardised
What is an unstructured interview?
Like a free conversation - interviewer can vary the questions, their wording and order of interview. They can pursue whatever line of questioning seems appropriate by asking follow-up questions (mostly qual data)
What is a semi-structured interview?
Interviewer has set of questions but can also ask for more information/ ask follow-up questions where relevant.
What is interviewer influence?
The interviewer’s choice of questions can unintentionally guide responses, affecting the authenticity of the information gathered
What are the strengths of structured interview?
- easy to replicate > standardised format
- format reduces differences between interviewers
- easy to analyse (quantitative data)
What are the weaknesses of structured interview?
- more flexibility > can ask follow up questions & gain more insight
- can clarify misunderstandings
- build a rapport with interviewee > truthful answers= increases validity
What are the strengths of unstructured interview?
- more flexibility > can ask follow up questions & gain more insight
- can clarify misunderstandings
- build a rapport with interviewee > truthful answers= increases validity
What are the weaknesses of unstructured interview?
- qualitative date = harder to analyse
- interviewer bias/influence
- may lie due to social desirability bias
Overuse of jargon - research design error
- these are technical terms that are only familiar to those within a particular field or area
- best questions are simple & easily understood
Emotive language & leading questions - research design error
research attitudes towards a particular topic is clear from the way research questions are phrased
