Self-reports/Questionnaires

Question 1

What is a self-report?

Answer 1

Any method which involves asking a participant about their feelings, attitudes, beliefs etc.

Question 2

Give 2 examples of a self-report.

Answer 2

• Questionnaires

- Interviews

Question 3

What are self-reports often used as a way of gaining participants responses within?

Answer 3

• Observational studies

- Experiments

Question 4

What are questionnaires?

Answer 4

A type of self-report method which consists of a set of questions, usually in a highly-structured written form

Question 5

What two types of question might an interview or questionnaire contain?

Answer 5

• Open questions

- Closed questions

Question 6

How are answers recorded in a questionnaire?

Answer 6

Participants record their own answers

Question 7

What are interviews?

Answer 7

A type of spoken questionnaire where the interviewer records their responses.

Question 8

Explain how interviews can be either structured or unstructured.

Answer 8

• Structured – there may be predetermined set of questions

- Unstructured – no questions are decided in advance; spontaneous

Question 9

What are closed questions, as can be found in interviews or questionnaires?

Answer 9

Questions which provide a limited choice

Question 10

What is a question asking a participant’s age or their favourite type of cheese an example of?

Answer 10

Closed questions

Question 11

What type of data do closed questions provide?

Answer 11

Quantitative

Question 12

What do closed questions not allow the participant to do/

Answer 12

Open up and give more in-depth answers

Question 13

What are open questions, as can be found in interviews or questionnaires?

Answer 13

Questions which invite the respondent to provide their own answers as much as they wish

Question 14

What type of data do open questions provide?

Answer 14

Qualitative data

Question 15

Give a strength of closed questions.

Answer 15

Provides quantitative data which is easy to analyse

Question 16

Give a weakness of closed questions.

Answer 16

Do not allow the participant to give in-depth responses.

Question 17

Give a strength of open questions.

Answer 17

Produces more in-depth responses relating to what the participant actually thinks rather than being restricted by categories.

Question 18

Give a weakness of open questions.

Answer 18

Provides qualitative data which is harder to analyse

Question 19

What is the most common example of a rating scale?

Answer 19

Likert scale

Question 20

How does a Likert scale work?

Answer 20

A statement is used and the participant decides how strongly they agree or disagree with the statements

Question 21

Give 2 strengths of Likert type scales.

Answer 21

• They can give us an idea about how strongly a participant feels about something. This gives more detail than a simple yes/no answer.
• Gives quantitative data which is easy to analyse

Question 22

Give 3 weaknesses of Likert type scales.

Answer 22

• Tendency for people to respond towards the middle of the scale, perhaps to make them look less extreme.
• Participants may answer in the way they think they should
• Data is quantitative so does not provide in-depth responses

Question 23

What is a fixed-choice question?

Answer 23

Phrased so that the respondent has to make a fixed-choice answer, usually ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Question 24

Give 2 strengths of a fixed-choice question.

Answer 24

• Easy to measure and quantify due to quantitative data given
• Forces the participant not to choose a middle option

Question 25

Give a weakness of a fixed-choice question.

Answer 25

Respondents may not feel that their desired response is available and of course the answers are not in-depth.

Question 26

Give 3 ways in which you could improve the validity of self-report techniques.

Answer 26

• Leading questions could be avoided
• Open questions could be added to allow respondents to expand upon their replies
• Confidentiality could be reinforces to allow respondents to give more truthful responses.

Question 27

Give 2 strengths of questionnaires (a type of self-report).

Answer 27

• Easy to gather lots of information quickly, so we can test large samples and generate conclusions more readily
• Can generate quantitative data through fixed-choice answer or Likert scales. This makes it easy to make comparisons between participants between participants to identify any differences.

Question 28

Give 2 weaknesses of questionnaires (a type of self-report).

Answer 28

• Participants can’t elaborate on their answers, so data is not in-depth and could lack validity as participants cannot answer how they want to
• Participants may lie, due to demand characteristics or social desirability bias. Results in a lack of validity as their answers are false and not a true reflection of their feelings.

Question 29

What is a way of assessing the validity of self-report measures?

Answer 29

To compare the results of the self report with another self report on the same topic - this is called concurrent validity.

Question 30

What is concurrent validity?

Answer 30

Comparing the results of the self report with another self report on the same topic

Question 31

What is concurrent validity used to do?

Answer 31

Assess the validity of self-report measures

Question 32

What is the following an example of?

If an interview is used to investigate the attitudes of 6th form students on smoking, the scores could be compared with a questionnaire of 6th former’s attitudes to smoking.

Answer 32

Concurrent validity (where results are compared from one self report with another on the same topic)

Question 33

Why might questionnaires be said to often lack validity?

Answer 33

• Participants may lie

- Participants may give an answer that they think is desired (demand characteristics and socially acceptable answers)

Question 34

Give a way that can improve the reliability of self-report techniques.

Answer 34

• Ambiguous questions could be clarified

- Interviewers can be given training.

Question 35

How might reliability of self-report measures (such as psychometric tests and questionnaires) be assessed?

Answer 35

Using the split half method

Question 36

What is the split half method used to do?

Answer 36

Assess the reliability of self-report measures, such as psychometric tests and questionnaires

Question 37

What is the split half method?

Answer 37

Involves splitting a test in two and having the same participant 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.

Question 38

What does it infer if the two halves of a split-half method test provide similar results?

Answer 38

The test has internal reliability.

Question 39

How might you infer a test has internal reliability using the split-half method?

Answer 39

If the two halves of a split-half method test provide similar results

Question 40

Give 2 strengths of interviews (a type of self-report).

Answer 40

• Lots of qualitative data, so it’s more in-depth and we can find explanations of behaviour more easily
• Can be tailored to the individual to account for individual differences, allowing us to explore individual differences and increases validity as the questions are right for the person.

Question 41

Give 2 weaknesses of interviews (a type of self-report).

Answer 41

• Participants may lie, either due to demand characteristics or social desirability bias, so results lack validity as participants’ answers are false and not a true reflection of their feelings
• Can be interpreted subjectively by different psychologists who might think a verbal description means different things. This lacks reliability as conclusions drawn are not consistent with each other.