Self Report Techniques Flashcards
Advantages of a questionnaire
- Can be distributed to lots of people
- Easily replicable
- Closed, fixed choice questions are easy to statistically analyse
Disadvantages of a questionnaire
- Social desirability bias
- Anonymity can cause difficulty in knowing if pps have told the truth
What are open questions?
Respondent provides answers expressed in own words
What are closed questions?
Respondent has limited choices (or a numerical answer)
How to write good questions
- Avoid jargon (subject specific terminology)
- Avoid leading questions
- Use appropriate language
- Use filler questions
Advantages of an interview
Better awareness of truthfulness of interviewee e.g body language
Disadvantages of an interview
Risk of interviewer bias
What are structured interviews?
List of predetermined questions asked in a fixed order
What are unstructured interviews?
- No set questions, general topic to be discussed
- Interaction is free flowing, interviewee encouraged to elaborate
What are semi-structured interviews?
List of questions that have been worked out in advance, interviewer asks further questions
What is social desirability bias?
Giving socially favourable answers due to presence of an interviewer
What is the interviewer effect?
Causes bias, effect of the interviewer’s presence
What is a case study?
- Detailed analysis of individual (sometimes small group)
- Longitudinal study (follow up with individual)
- Gather large amounts of qualitative data from many sources
- Idiographic method of researching behaviour
Adv of case study
- Detailed insight enabling the study of unusual behaviour
- Often used to support/challenge other larger scale research
- Longitudinal
Disadv of a case study
- Can be prone to researcher bias
- Not reliable, very little population validity (can’t be generalised)
Adv closed questions
- Present pps with options for their response so researchers can display the info easily
- Easy to compare specific response to questions researchers wanted answered
Adv open questions
- Allows pp to interpret questions as they wish/develop a detailed answer
- Allows the researcher to pursue a line of inquiry that may not have come to light otherwise
