Self Report Techniques: Questionnaires and Interviews Flashcards
What is a questionnaire?
-Set of Qs used to collect data from a large sample of participants
-Face-to-face, by post, phone, internet or left in public places
-Usually assess thoughts/feelings and often assess the DV
-Can collect quantitative data - numerical info, usually closed Qs or
-Quantitative data - info cannot be counted, comes from open Qs
What are 2 strengths of questionnaires?
Can be quicker and cheaper than interviews:
-Can be distributed by post, mail -> result in large amounts of info gathered quickly
-Generally quicker and cheaper to to others such as interviews where they would have to ask question one-by-one
-Can be completed without researcher present -> reduces the effort involved
Easy to analyse:
-Esp true if comprises of closed questions
-Answers can be pre-coded for computer input and almost instant analysis -> lends itself to statistical analysis
-Comparisons between participants can be made using graphs or charts
-Preferable to qualitative data from interviews = difficult and time-consuming due to subjective nature
What are 2 limitations of questionnaires?
Problems with misunderstanding of the question:
-If this is the case then they don’t have the opportunity to ask the researcher for clarification
-They may not answer or give a response that doesn’t reflect true beliefs/attitudes
-Isn’t a problem with interviews where they can ask interviewer to explain Q
Low response rates lead to lack of generalisation:
-Only suitable for people who are literate and willing to spend time filling them in
-Can lead to low response rate -> only a small proportion of target pop can complete it
-Often as little as a 5% return rate
-Individuals who do respond are very rarely representative of the target pop -> difficult to draw generalisations from the sample
What are the 3 main guidelines when writing a questionnaire?
- Clarity - needs to be written so respondent understands what is being asked, there should be no ambiguity
Unclear Qs = double negatives e.g. ‘are you against banning capital punishment?’,
or double-barrelled e.g. ‘do you suffer from sickness and headache?’ - Bias - may lead to respondent more likely to give particular answer (leading Qs) -> reduces validity of findings
- Analysis - should know exactly how they will analyse the responses - dictates whether use open or closed Qs
What are 2 strengths of closed questions?
Easy to analyse:
-Multiple choice or scales = answers can be quickly counted or fed into computer system that can collate info quickly
-Can be quickly turned into graphs and charts -> provides visual representation of their results
-Enables them to interpret answers quick and easy
-Preferable to open Qs = difficult to analyse due to subjective nature
Easy for participant to respond to:
-Little time to complete if multiple choice or ‘tick-box’
-Not as long as it would to express similar info in an open Q where they would have to write out response
-Usually avoids participants getting bored -> more truthful answers
What are 2 limitations of closed questions?
Can result in ‘response bias’:
-May not read Q carefully -> provide rushed answers, may always tick ‘yes’ or answer at same end of scale
-True thoughts and feelings may not be represented in options provided with -> may choose response that doesn’t reflect attitudes
-Could result in response bias - reducing validity of findings - hasn’t accurately measured behaviour they claimed to
Can lack depth of open Q:
-Don’t allow participants to provide any depth to answers - researchers can’t get an understanding of their thoughts or feelings
-Psychologists can’t obtain an understanding of reasoning e.g. behind why a participant might agree or disagree with an issue
-Would be easier to obtain with an open Q like ‘explain whether or not you agree that …’
What is a strength of open questions?
Allows researcher to collect detailed, qualitative data:
-Participant can open up and provide rich and detailed info
-Able to elaborate thoughts and feelings
-Gives researchers an insight into participants - not possible with closed Qs
What is a limitation of open questions?
Difficult to analyse:
-An open Q put to 100 different participants could elicit 100 different responses
-Qualitative nature makes it hard to assess data using statistical techniques
-Content analysis could be used to make this possible, but extremely time-consuming
What is an interview?
-The researcher asks participants questions directly, face-to-face
-Can be structured or unstructured
What are 2 strengths of interviews?
Allows the interviewer to gain an understanding:
-Can explore complex issues that may be difficult to investigate through experimental techniques, questionnaires or observation research
-Interviewer can tailor Qs to responses of an interviewee so issues can be explored in depth -> gathering an accurate and valid picture of participants thoughts/feelings/behaviours
Allow interviewers to ease any misunderstandings:
-Researcher can clear up e.g. if participant doesn’t quite understand how the Q is worded
-This isn’t possible when using questionnaires
-Avoids participants providing incorrect responses or simply leaving out info -> increases validity of responses
What are 2 limitations of interviews?
Can be affected by interviewer bias:
-Interviewers may inadvertently bias their response - could occur through the interviewer’s appearance e.g. a male may be less willing to admit sexist views to a female interviewer
-Less obvious characteristics e.g. accent, tone of voice, non-verbal communication (eye-contact, smiling) could influence results
-Research found male interviewers are more pleasant and friendly with female participants
-They may pick up on this and not act as normal, reducing validity of the responses obtained
Interviews are much costlier and more time-consuming than questionnaires:
-For a good interview to be conducted, the interviewer must be skilled - takes time, training and lots of money
-Each participant will have to be interviewed one-by-one
-Each set of responses need to be individually analysed by trained researchers
-These problems don’t exist with questionnaires as they don’t need administered by trained researchers, can be done by huge numbers of participants at once and can be analysed easily due to quantitative nature
What are structured interviews?
Made up of pre-determined set of Qs asked in a fixed order - interview will usually have a focus
What are 2 strengths of structured interviews?
Increase validity and decrease interviewer bias:
-Interviewer and interviewee are less likely to deviate from topic that is desired focus
-Increases validity of findings as researcher obtains the exact info they want in the way they want
Easier to replicate and analyse:
-If all questions are standardised, all participants will receive info in identical format -> reduces interviewer bias
-Makes responses from interview easy to analyse -> responses can be compared participant to participant
What is a limitation of structured interviews?
Participants may not have an opportunity to elaborate on their responses:
-Due to structured and pre-planned nature - researcher cannot follow up any new lines of enquiry that become apparent during interview
-Could reduce validity of responses as participants may not be giving their true opinions
What are unstructured interviews?
-Less rigid, more like a conversation
-No set Qs, usually a general aim that will be discussed
-Often start with 1 or 2 set Qs, further Qs picking up on issues the interviewee raises
What is a strength of unstructured interviews?
Allow participants to elaborate:
-More detailed info can generally be obtained from each respondent
-Interviewer tailors Qs to specific responses and can get a deeper insight into respondents’ feelings/thoughts
-Increases validity of responses as more likely to be a true reflection of participants’ actual opinions/attitudes
What are 2 limitations of unstructured interviews?
Difficult to analyse:
-Interviewees will be more likely to report what they wish to say - interviewers can be flexible in their approach
-Makes it difficult for researchers to compare findings from participant to participant as may differ vastly
-May affect validity of findings as researcher won’t obtain same type of info from all participants
Require skilled, trained interviewers:
-Interviewer has to develop new Qs on the spot
-Should be trained to est a rapport with participants
-Should be able to spot when participant is uncomfortable, particularly when personal and sensitive issues are discussed
-Training takes a lot of time and incurs a lot of cost to research team - much more than self-report methods such as questionnaires or structured interviews
What other issues should an interviewer consider when designing an interview?
Recording the interview:
-May take notes throughout - likely to interfere with listening skills
-May make respondent feel frustration as not written everything down - respondent would feel what they said was not valuable
-If recorded and listened/watched back to by interviewer and/or another- they can reassess the responses to ensure they haven’t missed anything and they they have analysed correctly
The effect of the interviewer:
-An interviewer being interested in the respondents answers may increase the amount of info provided
-This means interviewers need to be aware of behaviours that demonstrate interest
e.g. non-verbal communication = sitting with arms crossed, frowning, disapproval come across as disinterest, head-nodding, leaning forward may encourage respondent
e.g. listening skills = interviewer needs to know when and how to speak e.g. should not interrupt too often and should speak with encouraging comments e.g. ‘how interesting’ to show they are listening
Questioning skills in an unstructured interview:
-Need to be highly skilled, involves training them
-Ideally an interviewer will have well-developed communication skills and lots of practice interviewing
-Must know how to make the participant feel at ease and appear trustworthy to elicit truthful and full answers
