Studying Consciousness: Individual Information Provided

Question 1

Name an advantage and limitation of using self reports to study consciousness

Answer 1

They provide a rich source of qualitative data about the person’s thoughts and feelings during sleep, but may be subject to their memory loss or lying/experimenter bias

Question 2

What types of self reports can be used to study sleep?

Answer 2

Questionnaires/rating scales and sleep diaries.

Question 3

Define: sleep diary

Answer 3

A self-reported record of an individual’s sleep and waking time activities across a period of time.

Question 4

What types of recordings can sleep diaries provide?

Answer 4

-Time of trying to and actually falling asleep -Time of waking and getting out of bed -Disturbances -Food, drugs, exercise etc…

Question 5

An advantage of self reports?

Answer 5

Shows the person’s internal thoughts and feelings

Question 6

2 disadvantages of self reports?

Answer 6

Subjective data, so it is difficult to compare. Participant might not remember when they fell asleep