Self report- research methods

Question 1

Questionnaire

Answer 1

written methods of gathering data, which do not necessarily require researcher to be present
Those who answer a questionnaire are known as respondents
They can be used to gather a lot of detailed information from a wide sample.

Question 2

Interviews

Answer 2

involve direct verbal questioning by the researcher and vary in terms of how structured questions are

Question 3

Open Questions

Answer 3

Definition: Do not suggest possible answers, but leave respondent to consider their own answer. There are no options to choose from.
E.g. What is your opinion about eating in classrooms?

Question 4

Closed Questions

Answer 4

A form of fixed choice questions where the respondent is asked to select an answer from 2 or more choices
E.G Do you think eating should be allowed in a classroom? Yes / No

Question 5

Closed question advantages:

Answer 5

Easier and quicker for the participants to respond
The data collected is easy to compare and analyse

Question 6

Open questions advantages:

Answer 6

Provides more rich detailed data
Doesn’t force participants to give a particular response

Question 7

Closed questions disadvantages:

Answer 7

Can force participants to select an option which isn’t true for them.
Lacks reason for why they selected the option they did
Only thing we can calculate is mode

Question 8

Open questions disadvantages:

Answer 8

Time communing to complete by the participants and for the researcher to analyse the response collected.
Response may not be relevant to what the researcher was interested in

Question 9

Rating scales

Answer 9

require the respondent to mark how strongly they feel about a certain subject.

Question 10

Advantages of a rating scale

Answer 10

It gives the researcher an idea of how strongly a participant feels about something. It is more detailed than a simple yes or no answer.

It still gives quantitative data that can be compared.

It is easily repeated.

Question 11

Disadvantage of a rating scale

Answer 11

There can be a tendency for participants to choose the middle scale so they don’t look too extreme.

Rating scales still don’t give you an idea of WHY participants have chosen that option.
People might not be consistent in how they interpret the scale

Question 12

Likert Scales

Answer 12

One form of rating scales is called Likert Scales
These are attitude scales in which the respondent is given a statement and asked to indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with it

Question 13

Standard response set

Answer 13

If I have loads of similar looking scales, and you agree with the first few, you could easily find yourself always picking ‘agree’ on the scales

Question 14

Smoke screen questions

Answer 14

To try to avoid this you can vary the statement wording so that some are positive and some are negative

Question 15

Semantic Differentials

Answer 15

These make use of polar opposites and respondents indicate where they would place their feelings in relation to the topic in question.

Question 16

What is an ethics statement

Answer 16

An ethics statement informs participants of their rights such as being able to withdraw their data at any time from the research and checks that they give consent to take part.

Question 17

Advantages of interviews:

Answer 17

Can ask follow up questions based on response given.
Can get more detailed answers to questions than questionaries provide
You can build a report with interviews. read their body language

Question 18

Disadvantages of interviews:

Answer 18

may not get full answers to questions
Can be more time communing to complete
More difficult to analyse if open questions

Question 19

Advantage of questionaries:

Answer 19

Can answer then more anonymously so more likely to answer embarrassing questions.
Quicker to complete for participants (usually involve more closed questions)
Can collect large amount of data by sending out to participants.
Participants can take more time to consider response

Question 20

Disadvantage of questionaries:

Answer 20

People may not return questionaries leading to low response rate
People may misunderstand or interpret then differently to how intended (reduces validity)

Question 21

Structured interview

Answer 21

fixed predetermined questions – no room for follow up.

Question 22

Semi-structured interview

Answer 22

Interviewer asks some pre-planned questions but then is able to ask follow up questions based on interviewee’s responses.

Question 23

Unstructured interview

Answer 23

There is a topic but no fixed questions or ways of answering

Question 24

Strengths of structured

Answer 24

Using the same questions means the interview is standardised and replicable as it can be repeated in the same way for each participant.
Responses from each participant can be easily compared.

Question 25

Weaknesses of structured interview

Answer 25

The interviewer cannot ask any addition questions. This may prevent them from seeking further clarification on a point or not following up on an interesting point.

Question 26

Strengths of semi-structured interview

Answer 26

Allows the interviewer to use additional questions to seek clarification on a response, or to explore an interesting comment made during one of the set questions.

Question 27

Weaknesses of semi-structured interview

Answer 27

Although there is some flexibility the interview is still likely to be constrained around the pre-determined questions that are written.
Any additional questions not decided beforehand may vary from participant to participant – making it difficult to compare.

Question 28

Strengths of unstructured interview

Answer 28

The interview allows for information to be gathered that might not be revealed from pre-determined questions.
It allows the interviewer to have the freedom to ask on the spot questions which could be relevant.

Question 29

Weaknesses of unstructured interview

Answer 29

Difficult to compare responses from the different participants, as they may be asked very different questions from each other

Question 30

The questionnaire or interview contains leading questions

Answer 30

It would mean that participants aren’t expressing their genuine views-instead, they are expressing the view they feel led towards which reduces validity. To overcome the experimenter should avoid asking questions of this kind- make them deliberately non-leading

Question 31

Participants give answers that they think will present them in a good light (socially desirable)

Answer 31

Reduces validity as participants aren’t expressing their genuine view- instead, they are expressing the view that they think will make them look best. Therefore, do not ask respondents to record their name on the questionnaire.

Question 32

The questionnaire or structured interview contains forced-choice questions in which the respondents must choose one item from the limited range available.

Answer 32

This reduces validity as participants aren’t expressing their genuine views- what they are doing is expressing the view which is closet to their genuine view (although it may not be very close at all) Therefore ton overcome their should be an other option.

Question 33

Respondents try to work out the real aim of the researcher (respond ton demand characteristic) and give the researcher the answer they think the researcher wants

Answer 33

Reduces validity because Participants aren’t expressing their genuine views-instead, they are expressing the view that they think the researcher is looking for (and which will be of most help to her and her research.) To overcome it they have a smokescreen questions to disguise the aim of the study

Question 34

Respondents lapse into a standard response set, giving the same answer to all questions without really thinking about what is being asked (always ticking agree in the Likert scale)

Answer 34

Reduces validity because Participants aren’t expressing their genuine view-instead, they are just giving answers without really thinking about what they are doing. To overcome it you should reverse some of the statements so that ‘strongly agree’ doesn’t always express a positive attitude toward the object.

Question 35

Respondents are asked to record their name on the questionnaire or have it written down against the interview

Answer 35

Reduces validity because Participants aren’t expressing their genuine views- as they will be aware that their responses can be traced back to them, they might ‘censor’ some extreme views. To overcome guarantee participants anonymity.

Question 36

Data from open questions require a lot of analysis to group it together into categories. There is the risk of researcher bias (the researcher interpreting responses in a way that suggest they are supporting the theory)

Answer 36

Reduces validity because The way the data is analysed may not reflect participants’ genuine views-instead it reflects what the researcher had been hoping the participants would say. To overcome this get an independent researcher who is ‘blind’ to the aim of the study to analyse the data

Question 37

A large number of questions are asked about the same thing

Answer 37

Improves internal reliability because you can test to see if their responses to all the questions are consistent with each other

Question 38

A questionnaire is repeated with several different groups of people and similar results are obtained each time.

Answer 38

Improves it- helps to establish that the researcher has high external reliability as consistent findings are being found.

Question 39

The way the questionnaire is administered means that some respondents complete it on their own while others complete it in the company of their friends.

Answer 39

Reduces it- can’t compare participants to each other because they had a different experience of answering the questionnaire – some may be affected by the responses of those around them (internal reliability would be low)

Question 40

The questionnaire is sent out to a large number of people but the response rate is low, meaning that very few completed questionnaires are returned.

Answer 40

Reduces it- Not a large enough sample to suggest that the effect is consistent rather than due to fluke results (external)

Question 41

Unstructured interviews are used, meaning that different interviewees are asked different questions.

Answer 41

Reduces it- Different people have different questions to answer so it would be difficult to compare the results of each interview. Their experience of the interview is not consistent (internal).

Question 42

A questionnaire contains ambiguous questions (they are open to more than one interpretation.

Answer 42

Reduces it- participants answer the questions differently depending on how they interpret them (internal).

Question 43

The researcher compares the responses from the odd-numbered questions with those from the even-numbered questions. They find the answers are very similar across the two halves of the questionnaire/interview

Answer 43

Increases it- there seems to be a high split-half reliability means the questions are asking about similar concepts (so the questionnaire has internal reliability)