Self-report (techniques + design) Flashcards
What is self-report technique?
Any method in which a person is asked to state or explain their own feelings, opinions, behaviours and/or experiences related to a given topic.
What is a questionnaire?
A set of written questions used to assess a persons thoughts and/or experiences.
What is an interview?
A live encounter where one person (the interviewer) asks a set of questions to assess an interviewee’s thoughts and/or experiences. The questions may be pre-set or may develop as the interview goes on.
Name the two self-report techniques.
Questionaires
Interviews
What are the two types of questions involved in an interview?
Open and closed questions.
What are open questions?
A question which does not have a fixed range of answers and respondents are free to answer n any way that they wish.
Which type of data do open questions generate?
Qualitative data.
Positive of open questions.
Allows participants to give more detail.
Negative of open questions.
May be difficult for the researcher to analyse.
What is a closed question?
A question with a fixed number of responses. E.g yes or no or 1-10 on a scale.
What type of data do closed questions produce?
Quantitative
Positive of closed questions
Easy to analyse.
Negative of closed questions.
Lacks the depth and detail associated with open questions.
Name the three types of interview.
Structured interview
Unstructured interview
Semi-structured interview
What is a structured interview?
Made up of pre-determined questions that are asked in a fixed order. Basically a questionnaire conducted face to face or over the phone/internet in real time.
What is an unstructured interview?
Works a lot like a conversation as there are no set questions the interaction is free-flowing. The interviewee is encouraged to expand and elaborate their answers as prompted by the interviewer.
What is a semi-structured interview?
There is a list of questions that have been written in advance however interviewers are also free to ask follow-up questions based on previous answers.
Strength of structured interviews?
They are straightforward to replicate due to their standardised format. This also reduces differences between interviewers.
Limitation of structured interviews.
Not possible for interviewers to deviate from the topic or explain their questions as this will limit the richness of the data collected.
Strength of unstructured interviews.
There is much more flexibility in an unstructured interview as the researcher can follow up points as they arise and is more likely to gain an insight into the view of the interviewee.
Limitation of unstructured interviews.
There is an increased risk of interviewer bias. The researcher may ask questions with the intention of gaining a desired answer.
Unstructured interviews are more time consuming as the researcher may have to sift through much irrelevant information before drawing conclusions.
Strengths of questionaires.
Cost-effective as they can gather large amounts of data quickly as they can be distributed to large numbers of people.
A questionnaire can be completed without the researcher present e.g a postal questionnaire.
They usually produce straightforward date to analyse.
Limitations of questionnaires .
The responses given may not always be truthful as respondents may be keen to present themselves in a positive light. This is a form of demand characteristics and social desirability bias.
Questionnaires can also produce a response bias where respondents tend to reply in a similar way e.g always ticking yes or answering at the same favoured end of the scale.
Give three examples of types of questionnaires with closed questions.
-Likert-scale
-Rating scale
-Fixed-choice option.
What is a likert scale?
Where the respondent indicates their agreement with a statement using a scale of usually five points ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
What is a rating scale?
Gets respondents to identify a value that represents their strength of feeling about a particular topic. E.g 1-5.
What is a fixed-choice option.
Includes a list of possible options and respondents are required to indicate those that apply to them.
Why is it important to reduce the overuse of jargon when writing self-report questions?
The respondent may not understand the question and so therefore the results will not be accurate.
What is jargon?
Technical terms which are only familiar to those within a specialised field or area.
Why is it important to reduce emotive language and leading questions when writing self-report questions?
The researchers attitude towards a particular topic may be clear and this may influence the respondents to select a specific answer.
Why is it important to reduce the use of double-barrelled questions and double negatives when writing self-report questions?
Respondents may only agree with half of the double-barrelled question and not the other half or they may get confused with double negatives in questions. Both can make it difficult for respondents to answer.
What is a double-barrelled question?
A question which contains two questions in one.
