Self report techniques Flashcards
What is a self report technique?
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
What is a questionnaire?
A set of written questions used to assess a person’s thoughts and/or experiences
What is an interview?
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
What are structured interviews?
Pre-set questions that the researcher cannot deviate from
What are unstructured interviews?
No set questions, there is a general aim that a certain topic will be discussed and the interaction tends to be free-flowing
What are semi-structures interviews?
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
What are open questions?
Questions for which there is no fixed choice of response and respondents can answer in any way they wish
What are closed questions?
Questions for which there is a fixed choice of responses determined by the question setter
What is interviewer bias?
When the researcher’s unconscious actions lead to a different outcome of the interview
What type of question collects quantitative data?
Closed questions
What type of question collects qualitative data?
Open questions
Strengths of open questions
A wide range of different responses
Allows you to understand the respondent’s feelings and attitudes
Weaknesses of open questions
May be difficult to analyse
Takes more time and effort to respond to the questions
Answers may differ in levels of detail and response
Strengths of closed questions
Quantitative data is usually easy to analyse
Questions take less time to answer, more likely to get more responses
Weaknesses of closed questions
Lacks depth and detail associated with open questions
Doesn’t allow respondents to show their true opinions
How to write good questions
Use jargon
Use emotive language and leading questions
Avoid double negatives in questions
Strengths of questionnaires
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
Weaknesses of questionnaires
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
Strengths of structured interviews
Easy to replicate as they are standardised
Reduces differences between interviewers (and potential bias)
Weaknesses of structured interviews
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
Strengths of unstructured interviews
Much more flexibility as the interviewer can follow up points
Data has more insight into the interviewee’s world, including unexpected information
Weaknesses of unstructured interviews
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
What is a naturalistic observation?
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.
What is a controlled observation?
Watching and recording behaviour within a structured environment, i.e. one where some variables are managed
What is an overt observation?
Participants’ behaviour is watched and recorded with their knowledge or consent, the researcher is clearly visible.
What is a covert observation?
Participants’ behaviour is watched and recorded without their knowledge and consent, the researcher is not clearly visible.
What is a participant observation?
The researcher becomes a member of the group whose behaviour they are watching and recording
What is a non-participant observation?
When the researcher remains separate from those they are studying and records behaviour in a more objective manner
What is a structured observation?
The main focus of the observation uses behavioural categories
What is an unstructured observation?
When the researcher writes down everything they see, and tends to produce accounts of behaviour that are rich in detail
What are behavioural categories?
When a target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable and measurable (operationalisation)
What is a sampling method?
In what way the observation is recorded (continuous, time or event)
What is continuous sampling?
Key feature of unstructured observations in which all instances of target behaviour are recorded in detail to give qualitative data
What is time sampling?
A target individual or group is first established then the researcher records their behaviour in a fixed time frame, say, every 60 seconds
What is event sampling?
A target behaviour or event is first established then the researcher records this event every time it occurs
Strength of naturalistic observations
Tend to have external validity as findings can be generalised to everyday
Weaknesses of naturalistic observations
Lack of control makes replication difficult
May be many uncontrolled confounding/extraneous variables
Strengths of controlled observations
Lots of control, replication is easier
Controlled extraneous/confounding variables
Weakness of controlled observations
Low mundane realism, findings cannot be easily applied to everyday life
Strength of overt observations
Less likely to encounter ethical issues
Weaknesses of overt observations
Higher likelihood of demand characteristics
Low external validity
Strengths of covert observations
Less demand characteristics as participants do not know they are being studied
Higher internal validity
Strength of participant observations
Researcher can gain an insight into the lives of people being studied, so higher external validity
Weakness of participant observations
Researcher may lack objectivity, where the line between being a researcher and being a participant becomes blurred
Strength of non-participant observations
Objective psychological distance remains, less likely for researcher to adopt a local lifestyle
Weakness of non-participant observations
May lose valuable insight into participants as they are too far removed from the people they are studying
Strengths of structured observations
Behavioural categories use so data recording is easier and more systematic
Likely to be quantitative data - easier to analyse and compare observed behaviours
Weakness of structured observations
May lack depth and detail
Strength of unstructured observations
More rich and in-depth detail from observations
Weaknesses of unstructured observations
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
How observations may be better than self report techniques
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.
How self report techniques may be better than observations
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.
What is inter-rater reliability
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).
Strength of event sampling
Behaviour won’t be missed outside of time frames because you are always watching, data may be more representative
Weaknesses of event sampling
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
Strengths of time sampling
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.
Weakness of time sampling
Some behaviours will be missed outside the intervals and so the results may not be representative
