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 feeling, opinions, behaviours and/or experiences related to a given topic

Question 2

What is a questionnaire?

Answer 2

A set of written questions used to assess a person’s thoughts and/or experiences

Question 3

What is an interview?

Answer 3

A ‘live’ encounter (face to face or on the phone) where one person (interviewer) asks a set of questions to assess an interviewee’s thought and/or experiences

Question 4

What are structured interviews?

Answer 4

Pre-set questions that the researcher cannot deviate from

Question 5

What are unstructured interviews?

Answer 5

No set questions, there is a general aim that a certain topic will be discussed and the interaction tends to be free-flowing

Question 6

What are semi-structures interviews?

Answer 6

Many interviews are likely to fall somewhere between the two types other types. It is the sort of interview that one is most likely to encounter in everyday life e.g. a job interview

Question 7

What are open questions?

Answer 7

Questions for which there is no fixed choice of response and respondents can answer in any way they wish

Question 8

What are closed questions?

Answer 8

Questions for which there is a fixed choice of responses determined by the question setter

Question 9

What is interviewer bias?

Answer 9

When the researcher’s unconscious actions lead to a different outcome of the interview

Question 10

What type of question collects quantitative data?

Answer 10

Closed questions

Question 11

What type of question collects qualitative data?

Answer 11

Open questions

Question 12

Strengths of open questions

Answer 12

A wide range of different responses
Allows you to understand the respondent’s feelings and attitudes

Question 13

Weaknesses of open questions

Answer 13

May be difficult to analyse
Takes more time and effort to respond to the questions
Answers may differ in levels of detail and response

Question 14

Strengths of closed questions

Answer 14

Quantitative data is usually easy to analyse
Questions take less time to answer, more likely to get more responses

Question 15

Weaknesses of closed questions

Answer 15

Lacks depth and detail associated with open questions
Doesn’t allow respondents to show their true opinions

Question 16

How to write good questions

Answer 16

Use jargon
Use emotive language and leading questions
Avoid double negatives in questions

Question 17

Strengths of questionnaires

Answer 17

They’re cost effective, can gather lots of data quickly as can be distributed to lots of people
More anonymous so may be more honest when answering, yielding more valid data

Question 18

Weaknesses of questionnaires

Answer 18

Researcher not present so participants cannot ask questions, so may interpret differently and and answer incorrectly
May be hard to express all of their thoughts in writing so they summarise

Question 19

Strengths of structured interviews

Answer 19

Easy to replicate as they are standardised
Reduces differences between interviewers (and potential bias)

Question 20

Weaknesses of structured interviews

Answer 20

It is not possible for interviewers to deviate from the topic or explain their questions
The richness of the data collected is limited
Unexpected information is limited

Question 21

Strengths of unstructured interviews

Answer 21

Much more flexibility as the interviewer can follow up points
Data has more insight into the interviewee’s world, including unexpected information

Question 22

Weaknesses of unstructured interviews

Answer 22

Increased risk of interviewer bias
Analysis of data is not easy
Risk that the interviewers may lie for various reasons e.g. social desirability bias

Question 23

What is a naturalistic observation?

Answer 23

Watching and recoding behaviour in the setting within which it would normally occur, all aspects of the environment are free to vary e.g. Which objects are present.

Question 24

What is a controlled observation?

Answer 24

Watching and recording behaviour within a structured environment, i.e. one where some variables are managed

Question 25

What is an overt observation?

Answer 25

Participants’ behaviour is watched and recorded with their knowledge or consent, the researcher is clearly visible.

Question 26

What is a covert observation?

Answer 26

Participants’ behaviour is watched and recorded without their knowledge and consent, the researcher is not clearly visible.

Question 27

What is a participant observation?

Answer 27

The researcher becomes a member of the group whose behaviour they are watching and recording

Question 28

What is a non-participant observation?

Answer 28

When the researcher remains separate from those they are studying and records behaviour in a more objective manner

Question 29

What is a structured observation?

Answer 29

The main focus of the observation uses behavioural categories

Question 30

What is an unstructured observation?

Answer 30

When the researcher writes down everything they see, and tends to produce accounts of behaviour that are rich in detail

Question 31

What are behavioural categories?

Answer 31

When a target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable and measurable (operationalisation)

Question 32

What is a sampling method?

Answer 32

In what way the observation is recorded (continuous, time or event)

Question 33

What is continuous sampling?

Answer 33

Key feature of unstructured observations in which all instances of target behaviour are recorded in detail to give qualitative data

Question 34

What is time sampling?

Answer 34

A target individual or group is first established then the researcher records their behaviour in a fixed time frame, say, every 60 seconds

Question 35

What is event sampling?

Answer 35

A target behaviour or event is first established then the researcher records this event every time it occurs

Question 36

Strength of naturalistic observations

Answer 36

Tend to have external validity as findings can be generalised to everyday

Question 37

Weaknesses of naturalistic observations

Answer 37

Lack of control makes replication difficult
May be many uncontrolled confounding/extraneous variables

Question 38

Strengths of controlled observations

Answer 38

Lots of control, replication is easier
Controlled extraneous/confounding variables

Question 39

Weakness of controlled observations

Answer 39

Low mundane realism, findings cannot be easily applied to everyday life

Question 40

Strength of overt observations

Answer 40

Less likely to encounter ethical issues

Question 41

Weaknesses of overt observations

Answer 41

Higher likelihood of demand characteristics
Low internal validity

Question 42

Strengths of covert observations

Answer 42

Less demand characteristics as participants do not know they are being studied
Higher internal validity

Question 43

Strength of participant observations

Answer 43

Researcher can gain an insight into the lives of people being studied, so higher external validity

Question 44

Weakness of participant observations

Answer 44

Researcher may lack objectivity, where the line between being a researcher and being a participant becomes blurred

Question 45

Strength of non-participant observations

Answer 45

Objective psychological distance remains, less likely for researcher to adopt a local lifestyle

Question 46

Weakness of non-participant observations

Answer 46

May lose valuable insight into participants as they are too far removed from the people they are studying

Question 47

Strengths of structured observations

Answer 47

Behavioural categories use so data recording is easier and more systematic
Likely to be quantitative data - easier to analyse and compare observed behaviours

Question 48

Weakness of structured observations

Answer 48

May lack depth and detail

Question 49

Strength of unstructured observations

Answer 49

More rich and in-depth detail from observations

Question 50

Weaknesses of unstructured observations

Answer 50

Usually produce qualitative data which may be more difficult to record and analyse
At risk of observer bias, may only record data that ‘catches their eye’, as opposed to recording anything in the behavioural categories

Question 51

How observations may be better than self report techniques

Answer 51

An observation allows us to see people’s actual behaviour rather than what they say they will do.
Younger participants may be unable to express themselves fully in self-report techniques and so observing them may be more effective
Participants may become disengaged with the self-report technique e.g. Boredom from answering lots of questions.

Question 52

How self report techniques may be better than observations

Answer 52

If we’re exploring thoughts and feelings, the participant has a greater insight into this than a researcher will and therefore getting them to report their thoughts and feelings is more effective than observing them.

Question 53

What is inter-rater reliability

Answer 53

When two observers create behavioural categories separately, they get together and compare categories. They can only use the ones they agree on.
They then do the whole observation separately but at the same time with the same categories.
Then they get together at the end to compare their results through a correlation using a statistical test. If the correlation is strong and positive (+0.8 or above), then they can argue they were reliable (consistent).

Question 54

Strength of event sampling

Answer 54

Behaviour won’t be missed outside of time frames because you are always watching, data may be more representative

Question 55

Weaknesses of event sampling

Answer 55

If too many observations happen at once, it may be difficult to record everything, and so results are less reliable
If the observer cares about how much time is spent doing each behavioural category, this won’t be reflected in the results and so the results may be less representative

Question 56

Strengths of time sampling

Answer 56

Observer has time to record what they have seen (works particularly well for large samples) so results may be more reliable
If the observer cares about how much time is spent doing each behavioural category, this will be reflected in the results and so the results may be more representative of how people spend their time.

Question 57

Weakness of time sampling

Answer 57

Some behaviours will be missed outside the intervals and so the results may not be representative