self report techniques AO1

Question 1

explain the two types of self-report techniques

Answer 1

• questionnaires
• interviews

Question 2

explain the self report technique of questionnaires

Answer 2

• they are the most common self-report technique
• they involve a pre-set list of written questions (or items) to which a participant responds.
• psychologists use this to asses thoughts and/or feelings
• may be used as part of an experiment to asses the dependant variable

Question 3

what are the two types of questions to be asked in a questionnaire?

Answer 3

• open questions
• closed questions

Question 4

explain what open questions are

Answer 4

OPEN QUESTIONS
- does not have a fixed range of answers
- respondents are free to answer in any way they wish
- tend to produce more qualitative data that contains a wide range of different responses
- may be difficult to analyse

CLOSED QUESTIONS
- offers a fixed number of responses
- gives ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers- restricts them to two options.
- can give them a scale from 1-10 - quantitative data
- can be both qualitative and quantitative
- quantitative data like this is usually not easy to analyse and may lack depth
- close questions that produce qualitative data can be turned into quantitative data

Question 5

what are the three types of interviews?

Answer 5

• structured
• unstructured
• semi-structured

Question 6

explain structured interviews

Answer 6

• made up of a pre-determined set of questions that are asked in a fixed order
• like a questionnaire but conducted face-to-face (or over the phone/internet) in real time. The interviewer asks a question and waits for a response.

Question 7

explain what unstructured interviews consist of

Answer 7

• works a lot like a conversation
• there are no set questions.
• there is a general aim that a certain topic will be discussed
• interaction tends to be free-flowing
• the interviewee is encouraged to expand and elaborate their answers as prompted by the interviewer.

Question 8

explain what semi-structured interviews consist of

Answer 8

• someone is likely to encounter this in everyday life e.g. a job interview
• there is a list of questions that have been worked out in advance but interviewers are also free to ask follow-up questions based on previous answers