Self-Report Design

Question 1

What are self-report techniques?

Answer 1

Measure feelings, opinions, behaviours and/or experiences

Question 2

What are questionnaires?

Answer 2

Include a pre-set of written questions to which participant respond. A questionnaire can be used within experiments to assess the dependent variable

Question 3

What are open questions?

Answer 3

There’s no fixed answer and the respondent can answer in any way

Question 4

What are closed questions?

Answer 4

Questions have a predetermined range of answers from which the respondents select one

Question 5

What are the 3 principles of writing good questions?

Answer 5

• Clarity: There should be no ambiguity. Doubles negatives and a double barrelled question reduces clarity.
• Bias: Leading questions may lead to social desirability bias
• Analysis: Questions need to be easy to analyse

Question 6

What are the 4 things to consider when writing a good questionnaire?

Answer 6

• Filler questions: Distracts the respondent from the aim of the survey, reducing demand characteristics
• Sequence of questions: easy ones first helps relax the respondent
• Which sampling technique is used
• A pilot study can mean questions can be refined if difficulties where encountered

Question 7

What are advantages of questionnaires?

Answer 7

• Questionnaires can be given to large numbers of people relatively cheaply and quickly. Enables a researcher to collect data from a large sample of people
• Respondents may be more willing to give personal information in a questionnaire than in an interview, as there is less social desirability bias as no one is asking them the questions

Question 8

What is a disadvantages of questionnaires?

Answer 8

Only filled by people who can read and write and have the time to fill them in, so the sample if biased

Question 9

What is a structured interview?

Answer 9

A set of pre-determined items that the interviewer asks and doesn’t deviate from

Question 10

What is an unstructured interview?

Answer 10

The questions are developed during the interview based on the responses of the participants

Question 11

What is a semi-structured interview?

Answer 11

There are a set of pre-determined items by the interviewer but they can deviate from then and do follow-up questions

Question 12

Describe the importance of recording the interview

Answer 12

• An interviewer may document answers but this can interfere with their listening skills
• The respondent may feel a sense of evaluation as the interviewer may not write everything so they may feel that what they said wasn’t valuable
• Alternatively interviews can be audio or video recorded

Question 13

Describe the importance of the effect of the interviewer

Answer 13

The presence of an interviewer who’s interested in the respondent’s answer can increase how much information is given
- Non-verbal communication (head nodding and leaning forward) may encourage the respondent to speak
- When and how the interviewer speaks (encouraging comments) can show that they’re listening

Question 14

Describe the importance of questioning skills in an unstructured interview

Answer 14

Special skills should be learned about what kind of follow up questions should be asked. It’s important to be aware of not repeating questions

Question 15

What is a Likert scale?

Answer 15

Used to allow an individual to express how much they agree or disagree with a particular statement

Question 16

What is a rating scale?

Answer 16

A numerical scale where a participant indicates the extent or strength of a measure