Self Report Methods: Interviews Flashcards
What is a strength of open questions?
It’s high ecological validity since responses aren’t fixed, participants can frame the answers in the way that best reflects their behaviour, thoughts or feelings. Therefore less artificial answers thus higher ecological validity.
What is a limitation of open questions?
They produce data which is difficult to analyse. Open questions do not restrict how a person can answer. This means they produce qualitative data that is rich in detail but difficult to analyse quickly.
What is a limitation of interviews?
They are vulnerable to acquiescence bias. Acquiescence means it biases respondents to provide a particular type of untruthful answer, not reflecting how they truthfully think, feel or behave. Some respondents have a tendency to agree with statements (yes -saying) or disagree (no-saying) regardless of the content. Distorts results. Acquiescence bias is therefore an extraneous variable.
What is a strength of closed questions?
They produce data that is easy to analyse. Closed questions restrict participants and force them to choose from a fixed set of responses. The limited range of responses can easily be quantitative data, meaning it is easier to analyse that qualitative data generated by open questions.
What is a Limitation of Closed Questions?
Their low ecological validity, because the responses are fixed, participants can’t frame the answer in the way that best reflects their behaviour, thoughts or feelings. Meaning their answers are artificial and therefore have lower ecological validity.
Why is a Strength of Unstructured Interviews?
Unstructured interviews are flexible thus allow the interviewer to ask whatever questions they view as relevant. Including follow up questions which can help clarify answers or add useful additional details.
What is a Strength of Structured interviews?
They are easy to replicate, their standardised format means other teams of researchers can carry out the interview in the same way, and so check if the results are replicable.
