Self Report techniques and designs (questionnaires and interviews)

Question 1

What is a self-report technique?

Answer 1

Where the participant gives information to the researcher, providing details of their own feelings and behaviour

Question 2

what a could self report technique involve?

Answer 2

Responding to questions on the questionnaire, or during an interview

Question 3

What is a questionnaire?

Answer 3

A technique using a structured set of questions, for asking a large sample of people about their views and behaviours

Question 4

Where may questionnaire surveys be conducted?

Answer 4

in person, by telephone, by post and via the internet

Question 5

what can the questions in a questionnaire be?

Answer 5

can be closed (require a simple answer) or open-ended (answer in own words)

Question 6

What are the strengths of questionnaires?

Answer 6

-more truthful responses
-Simplicity
-less social desirability bias
-easy to reproduce

Question 7

why may questionnaires have more truthful responses? (strength)

Answer 7

-because they can remain anonymous
-This leads to more reliable data

Question 8

why do questionnaires have simplicity? (strength)

Answer 8

-once constructed and piloted, questionnaires can be carried out with a minimum of training, unlike interviews, which require a researcher to be trained
-This means it is possible to access a large group of participants more easily

Question 9

Why do questionnaires have a less social desirability bias? (strength)

Answer 9

participants may feel less pressure to conform (increases validity)

Question 10

Why are questionnaires being easy to reproduce a strength?

Answer 10

-once the questionnaire has been created, it can be copied many times and distributed (in comparison to an interview)
-Increases population validity

Question 11

What are the limitations of questionnaires?

Answer 11

-More misunderstandings
-Unrepresentable sample

Question 12

why may there be more misunderstandings in a questionnaire?

Answer 12

-The way the question is worded may influence the responses given so the answers are not a true reflection of the participant
-For example, complex questions can be misunderstood, so maybe skipped or an invalid response is provided whereas in an interview researcher can be asked for clarification

Question 13

why can more misunderstandings decrease validity?

Answer 13

Only people who understand the questions can do it

Question 14

how can biased samples be created by questionnaires? (limitation)

Answer 14

-only the people that are most willing to respond, will return the questionnaire, meaning that the sample may not be representative of the population. (decreases population
validity)

Question 15

What are interviews?

Answer 15

-any face-to-face situation where one person (the interviewer) ask a series of questions to another person (the respondent)

Question 16

what may interview questions be?

Answer 16

-The questions can be predetermined (structured), or created in response to answers (unstructured), or a mixture of the two types (semi-structure)

Question 17

What’s are structured interviews?

Answer 17

Set of pre-determined questions

Question 18

what are strengths of structured interviews?

Answer 18

-Replication is possible because standardised questions are used- answers from different participants can be compared and answers are easier to analyse compared to unstructured
-Any misunderstood questions can be explained this is advantageous compared to questionnaires and improves the validity of the answers given

Question 19

What are limitations of structured interviews?

Answer 19

-social desirability bias- interviewees may give answers they think will create a favourable impression
-Requires a skilled personnel- need to be trained in effective interviewing skills, this would not be necessary with a questionnaire

Question 20

What are unstructured interviews?

Answer 20

questions created in response to answers

Question 21

what are the strengths of unstructured interviews?

Answer 21

Rich due to the use of open ended questions- all types of interviews can collect rich, detailed data of both complex and personal issues
-Flexibility- structured interviews can enable complex issues to be explored in further depth by tailoring questions, which may not be possible with other methods, such as structured interviews and questionnaires

Question 22

what are the limitations of unstructured interviews?

Answer 22

-requires skilled personnel, especially due to the need to develop new questions on the spot- interviewers need training
-more difficult to analyse the data due to lack of standardised questions and amount of data gathered

Question 23

what should the questions be when structuring a questionnaire or an interview?

Answer 23

-clear
-free from bias
-Lead to answers that are easy to analyse

Question 24

What are aspects to consider when constructing appropriate questions?

Answer 24

-sequence of questions
-Filler questions
-Options questions
-Avoid leading questions
-Avoid presumptive questions
-avoid double barrel questions
-avoid social desirability questions

Question 25

How do you improve the sequence of questions? (constructing appropriate questions)

Answer 25

start with easier factual questions to relax the respondent

Question 26

what are filler questions and why should they be used? (constructing appropriate questions)

Answer 26

-including some irrelevant questions to distract the respondent from the main purpose of the survey
- May reduce demand characteristics

Question 27

what are options questions? (constructing appropriate questions)

Answer 27

ensure options are clear and cannot be interpreted differently

Question 28

why should you avoid leading questions? (constructing appropriate questions)

Answer 28

they prompt respondents to respond in a certain way

Question 29

Why should you avoid presumptive questions? (constructing appropriate questions)

Answer 29

they assume respondents are able to answer

Question 30

Why should you avoid double-barrelled questions? (constructing appropriate questions)

Answer 30

combining two or more questions, make it confusing to answer

Question 31

why should social desirability bias be avoided? (constructing appropriate questions)

Answer 31

asking questions that are sensitive, can lead respondents to answering in a way that they think is acceptable rather than truthful

Question 32

What are the features of questionnaire design?

Answer 32

-Closed and opened questions

Question 33

what are closed questions? (questionnaire design)

Answer 33

-Require simple answers, with no option for expansion
-typically, the questionnaire will provide a fixed number of responses from which the participants selects the one that applies to them

Question 34

what are examples of closed questions? (questionnaire design)

Answer 34

-likert scales- (strongly agree to strongly disagree)
-rating scales

Question 35

what do closed questions obtaining numbers produce?

Answer 35

-quantitative data which are easy to analyse

Question 36

what do closed question answers often lack.

Answer 36

Depth and detail associated with other questions

Question 37

what are open questions? (questionnaire design)

Answer 37

-allow for the respondent to answer freely without constraint

Question 38

what type of data do open questions lead to?

Answer 38

they allow the respondent to develop their viewpoint and answer more in depth often providing rich qualitative data.

Question 39

what may the answers from open questions be difficult to do? (questionnaire design)

Answer 39

-They may be difficult to analyse

Question 40

what is a structured interview? (interview design)

Answer 40

-questions are decided in advance
-They are easier to replicate and answers can be easier to analyse, but the questions are more restrictive

Question 41

what type of questions do structured interviewers contain? (interview design)

Answer 41

-fixed set of predetermined questions (1-10)

Question 42

what’s a unstructured interviews? (interview design)

Answer 42

-an interview starts with a question or topic, but forms further questions based on answers given by the interviewee.
-They provide rich data, but are difficult to analyse

Question 43

what should the skill of the interviewer be like? (interview design.)

Answer 43

interviewers should be trained to ensure they can build rapport with interviewees to put them at ease to gain full and detailed answers

Question 44

How is the reliability of questionnaires improved?

Answer 44

-A questionnaire with low test-retest reliability may require that some of the items be removed or rewritten so participants have a consistent understanding of

Question 45

How is the reliability of an interview improved?

Answer 45

-use same interviewer each time, if not possible, all interviewers must be similarly trained in order to record interviewee responses in a consistent manner

Question 46

why are structured interviews more likely to be reliable than unstructured?

Answer 46

due to having ctrl over the fixed questions compared to the free flowing nature of unstructured interviews

Question 47

How can the internal validity of self report techniques be improved?

Answer 47

-If a pilot study reveals participants have misunderstood a question, the
items can be revised, replaced or omitted.
-Lie scale involves including certain questions to assess if a participant is being truthful. If they aren’t, their responses can be omitted.
-Assuring respondents that data will be anonymous may encourage them to be more honest.

Question 48

How can the population validity (EV) of self report techniques be improved?

Answer 48

-may be low if a certain type of person provides responses.
-can be improved by using a more randomised sample method to obtain a
more varied sample.

Question 49

How can the population validity (EV) of self report techniques be improved?

Answer 49

-may be low if a certain type of person provides responses.
-can be improved by using a more randomised sample method to obtain a
more varied sample.

Question 50

How can the temporal validity (EV) of self report techniques be improved?

Answer 50

-may be low if questions being asked are specific to an earlier time period.
-Such questions will need updating to ensure they are understood by participants in a later era.