Self reports

Question 1

What are the two types of self reports

Answer 1

questionnaires and interviews

Question 2

what are questionnaires

Answer 2

a self-report research method that uses written questions through a paper and pencil or online technique

Question 3

What are the different types of questionnaires

Answer 3

-Open questions
-Closed questions
-Likert scales
-Rating scales

Question 4

Closed questions

Answer 4

questions which allow the participant to respond using a few, stated responses without the opportunity to expand on their answers e.g yes or no

Question 5

Open questions

Answer 5

questions which allow the participant to give detailed answers without any restrictions.

Question 6

Likert scales

Answer 6

questions asking respondents how much they disagree/agree to a statement or whether they like/dislike something.

Question 7

Rating scales

Answer 7

questions that require the participant to present their answer on the numerical scale provided to them

Question 8

Strengths of questionnaires

Answer 8

-Participants are more likely to give truthful answers as it does not involve talking to someone face to face

-A large sample can answer the questionnaire in a short time span which should increase the representativeness and generalizability of the findings

-Produces in-depth and detailed responses (open ended)

-Easy to analyse as they produce a total of each category of answers making it easy to summarise the findings (closed ended)

-Easy to replicate because of the standardised questions making it high in reliability.

Question 9

Weaknesses of questionnaires

Answer 9

Too many closed questions may force an answer that does not reflect the participant’s opinion(closed questions)

Participants may give socially desirable answers

Its easy for participants to ignore questionnaires which means the return rate is very low

People who reply to questionnaires may be similar e.g they have the time to respond to them because they are unemployed or retired.This would make the results low in generalisability

Answers to open questions have to be interpreted which could lead to a lack of reliability as the researcher may not be consistent in their interpretation. If more than one researcher is involved there may be differences between them.This would be lack of inter-rater reliability.

Question 10

how do researchers prevent the respondents from working out the aim of the study in questionnaires

Answer 10

Researchers use filler questions

Question 11

What are interviews

Answer 11

a research method using verbal questions asked directly to the participants.

Question 12

What are the different types of interviews

Answer 12

-Structured
-Unstructured
-Semi-structured

Question 13

Structured interviews

Answer 13

an interview with questions in a fixed order which may be scripted. Consistency might also be required in the interviewer’s posture, voice, etc., and hence these are highly standardized.

Question 14

Unstructured interviews

Answer 14

an interview in which most questions depend on the respondent’s answers. A list of topics may be provided that need to be covered for the interview

Question 15

Semi structured

Answer 15

an interview with a fixed list of questions, however, the interviewer could add more questions if required to clarify or get details on any previous answers.

Question 16

Strengths of interviews

Answer 16

structured;
-Easy to analyse data
-Easy to replicate the interview due to standardisation
-High reliability of data as the same set of data is obtained from all interviewees due to standardisation.

Unstructured;
-High validity of data because the data obtained is detailed and in depth

Semi structured;
-Questions are standardised increasing reliability
-data is detailed increasing validity

Question 17

Weaknesses of interviews

Answer 17

-Participants may be less likely to give truthful answers as they are face to face with the interviewer or because of social- desirability

-Less reliable because its not standardised(unstructured)
-Often time consuming

-Subjectivity of interpretation of data - the experimenters opinions , training , mood , religion can contaminate data/the interpretation of data(unstructured)