Self Reports Flashcards
What do self reports include?
Questionnaires, interviews
What strength does self report have over simply observing someone?
Ppt’s can be asked about their feelings and cognition’s winch gives more information as reasoning behind behaviour
How are self reports less time consuming than observations?
Scenarios can be asked about hypothetically without having to physically set them up and observe ppt’s behaviour
what are some weaknesses of self reports?
Ppt’s may lie and try to make them seem more acceptable to society
(social desirability bias)
What are closed questions?
They are questions which provide limited choice. For example a ppt’s age or their favourite colour
What is a strength of closed questions?
They provide quantitative data which is easy to analyse.
What are open questions?
They are questions which invite the respondent to provide their own answers and provide qualitative data
What is a weakness of open questions?
They are difficult to compare and analyse data as qualitative data can vary.
What is a strength of open questions?
They produce more in-depth responses relating to what the ppt actually thinks rather than being restricted by categories.
What are fixed question?
They are phrased so that the respondent has to make a fixed choice answer, usually “yes or no”
How can we improve reliability of self report measures?
By splitting a test into two and having the same ppt doing both halves of the test. If the two halves of the test provide similar results this would suggest that the test has internal reliability
How are self reports invalid?
Ppt’s may lie; give answers that are desired
How can you check for validity of a self report?
You could compare the results of a self report with another self report on the same topic. (This is called concurrent validity) e.g questionnaire to interview
How can you improve self report techniques?
Leading questions could be avoided,open questions could be added to allow respondents to expand upon their replies and confidentiality could be reinforced (ethics) to allow respondents to give more truthful responses.
What is a likert scale?
A scale used to represent people’s attitudes to a topic (strongly agree to strongly disagree)
