self-report techniques

Question 1

what is a self-report technique?

Answer 1

any method in which a person is asked to state or explain their own feelings, opinions, behaviours and / or experiences related to a given topic

Question 2

what are questionnaires?

Answer 2

a pre-set of written questions to which a participant responds

Question 3

what is a questionnaire often used to assess?

Answer 3

• thoughts and / or feelings
• the dependent variable eg. whether views change with age

Question 4

what are the 2 types of questions that can be asked in a questionnaire?

Answer 4

open questions and closed questions

Question 5

what are open questions?

Answer 5

• does not have a fixed range of answers and respondents are free to answer in any way they wish
• tend to produce qualitative data that contains a wide range of different responses but may be difficult to analyse

Question 6

what are closed questions?

Answer 6

• offers a fixed number of responses
• tends to produce quantitative data which is easy to analyse but may lack the depth

Question 7

evaluation of questionnaires: strengths

Answer 7

• cost-effective
• can gather large amounts of data quickly because they can be distributed to large numbers of people
• can be completed without the researcher being present

Question 8

evaluation of questionnaires: strengths of data

Answer 8

• if questionnaire consists of mainly fixed-choice closed questions, data produced is usually straightforward to analyse
• data lends itself to statistical analysis and comparisons between groups of people can be made using graphs and charts

Question 9

evaluation of questionnaires: demand characteristics

Answer 9

• responses given may not always be truthful

> respondents may be keen to present themselves in a positive light, which may influence their answers

• this is a form of demand characteristic called social desirability bias

Question 10

evaluation of questionnaires: response bias

Answer 10

• respondents tend to reply in a similar way

> eg. always answering ‘yes’ or at the same favoured end of a rating scale

• this may be because respondents complete the questionnaire too quickly and fail to read questions properly
• a particular form of response bias is acquiescence bias; the tendency to agree with items of a questionnaire regardless of the content of the question

Question 11

what is an interview?

Answer 11

an interaction between an interviewer and an interviewee where the interviewer asks a set of questions to assess an interviewee’s thoughts and / or experiences

Question 12

what are the 3 (broad) types of interview?

Answer 12

• structured interviews
• unstructured interviews
• semi-structured interviews

Question 13

what are structured interviews?

Answer 13

• made up of a pre-determined set of questions that are asked in a fixed order
• basically like a questionnaire but conducted face-to-face (or over phone / internet) in real time ie. interviewer asks the questions and waits for a respnse

Question 14

what are unstructured interviews?

Answer 14

• works like a conversation
• no set questions
• there is a general aim that a certain topic will be discuss, and interaction tends to be free-flowing
• the interviewee is encouraged to expand and elaborate their answers as prompted by the interviewer

Question 15

what are semi-structured interviews?

Answer 15

• there is a list of questions that have been worked out in advance but interviewers are also free to ask follow-up questions based on previous answers
• common interview type which falls somewhere in between other types eg. job interview

Question 16

evaluation of interviews: strengths of structured

Answer 16

• like questionnaires, they are straightforward to replicate due to their standardised format
• the format also reduces differences between interviewers

Question 17

evaluation of interviews: limitations of structured

Answer 17

• due to the nature of the structured interview, it is not possible for interviewers to deviate from the topic or explain their questions
• this will limit the richness of the data collected and limit unexpected information

Question 18

evaluation of interviews: strengths of unstructured

Answer 18

• much more flexibility in unstructured than structured
• interviewer can follow up points as they arise ad is much more likely to gain insight into the worldview of the interviewee, including eliciting unexpected information

Question 19

evaluation of interviews: limitations of unstructured

Answer 19

• increased risk of interviewer bias
• analysis of data is not straightforward

> researcher may have to shift through much irrelevant information and drawing firm conclusions may be difficult

• as with questionnaires, there is a risk that interviewees may lie due to social desirability
• however, a skilled and experienced interviewer should be able to establish sufficient rapport with the participant so that even when sensitive and personal topics are discuss, any responses given are more truthful