Self report technique Flashcards
What is a self report technique?
A method used for collecting information from a large number of people by asking them questions
What are the two types of self report technique?
- Interview
- Questionnaires
What are questionnaires?
They involve a pre-set list of written questions to which participant will respond
The participants give information to the researcher/provide details of their own feelings, thoughts or behaviour.
A questionnaire may be used as part of an experiment to assess the dependent variable
What two types of questions do you get in questionnaires?
- Open questions
- Closed questions
What are closed questions?
Answered that can only be answered in a limited amount of ways
(e.g rating on a scale of 1-5 or tick boxes)
They produce quantitative data
What are open questions?
These are questions which require the participant to write something for their answer. This means no two responses will be the same
Contain a range of different responses (in-depth) but difficult to analyse
They produce qualitative data.
Advantages of questionnaires
+ Large amounts of data can be collected quickly
+ Standardised questions means that questionnaires can be replicated and thus reliability can be checked
+ Since questionnaires can be completed privately and often anonymously responses may be honest
+ The data that questionnaires produce is usually straight forward to analyse
Disadvantages of questionnaires
- Social desirability bias as participants give incorrect responses to try to put themselves in a socially acceptable light
- Distributing questionnaires can mean that any data collected relies upon responses to be returned and response rates are often poor
- Participants may misinterpret questions and are unable to ask for clarification
- Questionnaires may be flawed if some questions are leading
What are interviews?
A form of self-report technique but differ to questionnaires as they are face-to-face
They involve the researcher asking questions specific to the research aim for the interviewee to answer.
These answers given are recorded by the researcher. The data is later analysed and conclusions drawn.
What are the 3 types of interviews?
- Structured
- Unstructured
- Semi structured
What are structured interviews?
Pre-determined set of questions that are asked and can not be deviated from, they can be conducted face to face or over the phone
What are unstructured interviews?
More like a conversation (free flow). The interviewer does not have set questions so each interview will usually differ . The interviewer encourages the interviewee to expand and elaborate on their answers to maximise information
What are semi structured interviews?
There is a set list of questions decided in advance but the interviewer will ask follow up questions based on the interviewee responses
Advantages and disadvantages of structured interviews
+ Easy to replicate as a fixed set of closed questions are used which are easy to quantify which means it is easy to test for reliability
+ Fairly quick to carry quick to conduct which means many can take place in a short amount of time
- Answers for struc. interviews lack detail so unable to get a true whole picture
- Not flexible, meaning new questions can’t be asked
Advantages and disadvantages of unstructured interviews
+ more flexible as questions can be adapted and changed based on the respondents answers
+ Can encourage honesty if the interviewer and interviewee develop a bond
+ Increased validity because it gives the interviewer the opportunity to probe for a deeper understanding
- Time-consuming to conduct it and analyse the qualitative data
- Interviewer bias may undermine the validity of unstructured interviews - this is where the values of the researcher interfere with the result
