Survey Methods Flashcards
What are the characteristics of questionnaires? (4)
- A schedule (list) of questions asked to the PPT
-can be same type of question or made up of several, e.g open and closed questions
-usually 30 mins to an hour
-involves PPT’s opinions, ideas and thoughts.
What are the strengths to questionnaires? (5)
-Given to lots of people quickly
-cheap to run
-easy to replicate so can be easily checked for replicability
-anonymity enables ppts to be more honest, they wont be affected by SDB
-requires less training and experience than interviews
What are the weaknesses to questionnaires? (4)
- response rates can be quite low (often around 30%
-ppts who respond can be a biased sample as they may have more free time/ interest in the topic.
-hard to generalise results as they may not represent the target population - no follow up questions can be asked
What are leading questions?
These give away the answer that you are wanting
What are ambiguous questions?
These have two/ several meanings when you may have only planned for one.
What are double barrelled questions?
These contain two questions in one.
What are structured interviews?
These involve asking a person questions like it were a questionnaire.
What are the strengths to structured interviews? (2)
quicker to run and needs less training
easier to replicate and check test re-test reliability than unstructured interviews as you can easily hand out the same questionnaire again.
What are the weaknesses for structured interviews?
Some people may show Social Desirability Bias or the Hawthorne effect.
What are unstructured interviews?
These don’t use set questions– follow up questions are asked after a first main one.
The interview flows like a natural conversation.
What are the strengths to an unstructured interview?
Often has high ecological validity as it is a real person being asked these questions
Easier to tell if someone isn’t being truthful
What are the weaknesses to unstructured interviews? (6)
-hardest to run out of three interview types as you need most training
-easy to not have asked the right questions, as there is no set list
-to ask the right questions requires lots of expertise and experience
-takes a long time to analyse the interview than interview itself (often takes x10 longer)
-each ppt is different, making comparison difficult
-higher chance of SDB.
What is a semi-structured interview (clinical interviews)?
This involves starting with a schedule of questions, then asking unstructured follow up questions
What is the main strength to semi-structured interviews?
-unlike unstructured interviews, they are often easier to compare the answers between ppts as there is a schedule initially.
what are the weaknesses to semi-structured interviews?
-requires lots of training to run
-chance of SDB
What are semi-structured interviews also called?
clinical interviews
what are follow up questions?
An interviewer adds an extra question in to the interview to gain more information after the PPT has said something of interest.
What are the characteristics of closed questions?
-collects quantitative data
-either a simple yes/no, a section of different options or a questionnaire
-often have an instruction to tick, cross out or circle the correct or most suitable answer.
Give an example of a closed question
’ Do you currently own an Xbox?’ Yes or No.
Give an example of a different option question.
Do you currently own any of these consoles? (select all that apply to you)
-Xbox
-Ps4
-nintendo wii
-nintendo switch
Give an example of a numerical question
How many lessons do you have on a friday?
Give an example of a different choices question.
How many xbox games do you currently own?
less than 5, 6-10, 11-20, 21+
Give an example of a likert scale
’ I prefer Xbox over PS4’
1- strongly agree
2- agree
3- neither agree/disagree
4- disagree
5- strongly disagree
What is the strength to closed questions?
They produce quantitative data which is easier to analyse
What is the weakness to closed questions?
PPTs may had to choose an answer they didn’t really agree with
What are the characteristics to open questions?
- PPT asked for their own thoughts, feelings + opinions
-no set answer
-lots of detail with no limits
What are the strengths to open questions?
- provide more detail than closed questions
-allows ppts to say what they want - most flexible with answers
what are the weaknesses to open questions? (4)
-harder to analyse as they include a range of beliefs, ideas and opinions between diff ppts
-takes an exceptionally long time to analyse data
-researcher bias
-subjectivity when researcher allows their personal beliefs to influence the results.
What is the step to creating a schedule of questions?
-researcher carefully identifies aim of the questions + what type of data is wanted before end of study.
If data is needed quickly and needed to be analysed soon are open/closed questions used?
closed
If detailed answers which reflect ppts opinions/ beliefs are needed and there isn’t a rush for answers, are open/closed questions used?
open
What must an interviewer decide before making a schedule of questions? (3)
- open or closed
- how many questions to include
-make sure ppts don’t get bored, as ‘screw you’ effect may occur
What are the two ways to check for validity in a survey?
Face validity
Concurrent validity
What is face validity?
this can be said when the questions “look” like they are testing the right thing ‘ on the face of it’.
What is concurrent validity?
Comparing the new questions with a similar questionnaire that already exists, the new questions should have similar answers to the existing questions.
What are the two ways to check for reliability in surveys?
Test re-test and “split half”
What is a test re-test?
This involves giving the same schedule of questions to the same ppt twice and if reliable, they should get same results.
What is “split half”?
researcher compares scores/ answers in first half to those in the second half. If the schedule of questions is reliable there should be similar scores/ answers.
What is a meta analysis?
A larger than usual analysis- a beyond normal analysis of data.
what are the three steps to forming a meta analysis?
- researcher selects as many relevant previous studies as they can find
- they combine the data from each study and carefully put it together to build one larger (meta) data set
- This meta data set is then analysed.
What are the strengths to meta analyses? (3)
-excellent at showing patterns/ trends on a large scale
-allows large numbers of studies to be joined together giving greater power to results.
- much cheaper than running a single study of the same size with same size of ppts as it uses secondary data.
What are the weaknesses to meta data analyses? (2-3)
- hard to do as data is being fitted together when it was never intended for that purpose
- secondary data can be difficult to use in a valid way as each original researcher had a different aim- the data may not fit exactly with the intended outcome of the meta analysis- losing validity.
What is the example study for meta analyses?
Van Lizendoorn and Kroonenberg’s cultural similarities in attachment study- used secondary data from 32 studies from 8 countries
What are the characteristics of longitudinal studies? (3)
- take place over a long time, usually months or years or even decades
- track changes over time and can help show impact of things like a bad childhood on adult behaviour
-Uses other methods to collect data
What are the characteristics of reviews? (3)
- researcher collects all the previous studies on a topic and summarises them into one large article.
-they don’t analyse the data, just examine the research methods used, and the conclusions drawn by previous researchers. - simplifies many previous studies into one more accessible and quicker-to-read paper.
what is the strength and what are the weaknesses to longitudinal studies?
strength- only way to measure changes over time
weaknesses- high number of ppts drop out ‘attrition’
can be very expensive to run as they take a long time to do
