Self report techniques Flashcards
What is a self report technique?
Research method which requires participant to report on themselves
What are strengths of self-report techniques?
Allows more detailed access to the participants thoughts and feelings
Enables psychologists to investigate what participants might think, feel or do in the future
What are limitations of self-report techniques?
They rely on RPS being honest, articulate and insightful which mightn’t always be the case
Participants may feel they need to give socially desirable answers
What is a questionnaire?
a self-report method where participants are presented with a set of predetermined written questions
What are strengths of questionnaires?
Cost-effective
Time-effective
When completed privately and anonymously, they can provide honest data, improving reliability
Reduces influence of the researcher, lessens potential investigator influence and bias
What are limitations of questionnaires?
Response rates poor when researchers isn’t present
Hard to generalise the findings
Only certain people might return them
May be difficult to phrase questions in ways that are not open to interpretation by the participants
What are closed questions?
Questions which allow participants to respond in certain ways
What are strengths of closed questions?
Good when asking questions with finite, clear-cut answers
Provides control by requiring answers in a particular way
Require minimum effort to answer and analyse
What are limitations of closed questions?
Have to guess a range of answers
Respondent may have an answer which is not there
Lack engagement/longer questions cause fatigue
What are open questions?
Questions in which the respondents are allowed to respond freely and without restrictions
What are strengths of open questions?
offers flexibility to the respondent
good way of accessing motivations and feelings
researcher isn’t putting ideas into the respondent
What are limitations of open questions?
Provide qualitative data which is difficult to analyse and it is more time consuming
Questions may not be answered in a helpful way
They may be difficult to interpret
What are interviews?
A self-report method where participants answer questions face to face
What are strengths of interviews?
A well-conducted interview can address sensitive and complex issues that other methods are unable to do
Interviews are a good source of qualitative data, descriptive data relates to how people think and feel about something
What are limitations of interviews?
Participant responses can be influenced by the researcher
Interviews work best with participants who are confident, honest and articulate
