self report techniques

Question 1

self report techniques

Answer 1

Any method where a person is asked to state or explain their own feelings, opinions, behaviours and/or experiences related to a given topic.
Examples include questionnaires, interviews and surveys.

Question 2

questionnaires

Answer 2

A set of written questions that participants respond to either on paper or electronically.
Researcher does not need to be present while the participant fills in the questionnaire.

Strengths:
Prevents feeling intimidated or embarrassed.
Cost effective.
Easy to analyse (quantitative)
Comparisons between people can be made into groups.

Weaknesses:
Social desirability bias - participants may lie about answers.
Response bias - people may respond in a similar way.

Question 3

questionnaire construction

Answer 3

Questionnaires can produce both quantitative and qualitative data so the range of design options is wide.
Whether the researcher uses a very structured approach such as ticking boxes or a completely unstructured approach such as open ended questions will depend on the sort of information needed.
There are several points to consider in the construction of questionnaires.
1) Use of open and closed questions - qualitative data will only be produced by open ended questions.
2) The order the questions are in - sensitive questions are more likely to be placed near the end to gain trust and prevent putting people off.
3) Use of jargon - specialist terms can be off putting to participants therefore plain english is essential.
4) Use of leading questions - a question that makes an assumption would be difficult for the responder to answer honestly.
5) Use of double barrelled questions - if a question has 2 parts to it, the respondent may wish to give different answers to each part.
6) Use of emotive questions - certain topics will always produce emotion therefore if the questionnaire is on a sensitive issue this needs to be made clear to the respondent, giving them a choice whether to proceed. For this reason, an emotive question in the middle of a non-emotive question is to be avoided.
7) Use of vague or ambiguous questions - if the data is to be useful, the question must be interpreted in the same way by all respondents.
8) Use of inappropriate assumptions - it may be embarrassing or upsetting for the respondent if the questions make assumptions about them.

Question 4

interviews

Answer 4

Interviews involve asking the questions face to face and the interviewer records the participant’s answers.

Question 5

structured interview

Answer 5

All questions to be asked are decided on beforehand. The questions may have a limited range of answers (yes or no).
Easy to replicate - uses a standard format.
Cannot deviate from questions - limits richness of data.

Question 6

semi-structured interview

Answer 6

List of questions that have been worked out in advance, but interviewers are also likely to ask follow-up questions based on previous answers.

Question 7

unstructured interview

Answer 7

Interviewers will have a topic in mind that they wish to discuss but can ask any questions they feel like the participant will respond to.
Flexible - can ask follow up questions to get more detail.
Analysis is more difficult as there is a lot of info to get through.
Interview bias.
Time consuming.

Question 8

design of interviews

Answer 8

Structured interviews are like face-to-face questionnaires.
Unstructured interviews will generate long, detailed answers from participants.
Important that the interviewer has a clear plan, or the research will be too vague and impossible to analyse.
Interviewer may take notes during the interview. This allows you to remember information and go back to it. However there may be missing information
Interviewer may record the interview.
This means they can watch it back.
However, participants can become anxious if they know they are being recorded - may cause them to lie.