Self Report Methods: Questionaires Flashcards
What is a Strength of Questionnaires?
They are cost effective. It’s relatively easy to manufacture and distribute questionnaires. If closed questions are used then the data analysis is also likely to be relatively easy. Therefore they are ideal for cheaply gathering and analysing a lot of data.
What is a Limitation of Questionnaires?
They are vulnerable to Acquiescence bias. Acquiescence bias means it biases respondents to provide a particular type of untruthful answer, not reflecting how they genuinely feel, think 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 are Self Report Techniques?
Self report Methods are a way of gathering data where participants provide information about themselves without interference from the experimenter to measure the dependant variable in an experiment.
What is a Questionnaire?
Questionnaires provide the participant with a list of written questions (these questions are sometimes referred to as items.)
What is the difference between open and closed questions?
Open questions do not have a fixed range of answer. Closed questions have a fixed range of responses.
What is an Advantage of closed questions?
The responses to closed questions can easiest be turned into quantitive data. Statistics can be used to analyse large amounts of this data.
What is a Disadvantage of closed questions?
The respondent to give a fixed and simplistic response. Produces artificial data that lacks detail, as respondent can’t answer questions.
What is a Advantage of an Open Question?
They produce rich and detailed qualitative data that is much higher in ecological validity than closed questions.
What is a Disadvantage of Open Questions?
They may be hard to analyse due to rich detail
What are the THREE things you should consider when constructing a Questionnaire?
- Type of Question (open vs closed)
- How responses are recorded in closed questions (fixed choice option, rating scale, Likert Scale)
- Writing an effective question (avoiding certain language)
What is a Fixed Choice Option?
> Respondents are given a list of answers
Appropriate to use when answer uses different categories and lacks a meaningful order
What is a Rating Scale?
> Give respondents a statement and ask to respond
Appropriate to use when answers are numerical and in a meaningful order
What is a Likert Scale?
> Participants are given a statement and asked to respond
Appropriate when answers are a set of verbal categories, where the categories are in a meaningful order
