Self Report Techniques (RM) Flashcards
What is a self report technique?
Research method which requires participants to report on themselves
What are the strengths or a self report technique?
Allows more detailed access to participant through thoughts and feelings
Enables psychologists to investigate what participants might think, feel or do In the future
What are the limitations of self report techniques?
They rely on participants being honest, articulate and insightful which might not always be the case
Participants may feel the 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 the strengths of a questionnaire?
Can be cost-effective and time-effective since they can be quickly administered to large numbers of participants
When completed privately and anonymously they can provide honest data, improving reliability
The reduced involvement of the researcher reduces the risk of investigator influence on the behaviour of the participants
What are the limitations of a questionnaire?
Response rates can be poor when administered in the absence of the researcher
It can be difficult to generalise the findings
It may be that only certain people return them e.g. Those who have time or are motivated so results could only represent a certain type of person
It may be difficult to phrase questions in ways that are not open to interpretation by the participants
What are closed questions?
Question which only allow participants to respond in certain ways
What are the 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 the limitations of closed questions?
Have to guess the 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 restriction
What are the strengths of open questions?
Offers flexibility to the respondent
Good way of accessing motivations and feelings
Researcher isn’t putting ideas to the respondent
What are the limitations of open questions?
Provide qualitative data which is difficult to analyse and more time consuming
Questions may not be answered in a helpful way therefor making it difficult to interpret
What is an interview?
A self report method where participants answer questions face to face
What are the strengths of interviews?
A well conducted interview can address sensitive and complex issues that other methods are unable to roc
Interviews are a good source of qualitative data(descriptive fat that relates to how people think and feel about something)
What is a structured interview?
An interview that follows a predetermined set of questions
