8. AQA A-level psychology set 8

what are the advantages/disadvantages of event sampling

advantages : representative of all behaviours during the time period as all behaviours are recorded

disadvantages : may lose focus (lots to write)

what are the advantages/disadvantages of time sampling

advantages : more practical / manageable

disadvantages : unrepresentative of behaviours

what’s an issue with only having 1 observer

subjective

what’s an issue with having more than one observer

may disagree

what is inter-observer reliability

• 2 observers

• both need to agree on checklist categories

• observe same behaviours at same time

• correlate 2 observer tallies

• if reliable should show strong positive correlation

features of a questionnaire

usually concerned with people behaviour, opinions and attitudes

can be pen and paper based

researcher doesn’t need to be present

what are the 2 type of questions

open and closed

what are open questions

no restriction on range of answers, qualitative data

what are closed questions

researcher determines range of possible answers, often tick or cicle box’s

what are the types of closed questions

Likert scales, rating scales, fixed choice option

what is a Likert scale

indicates answers using scale usually 1-5 (strongly disagree etc)

what is a rating scale

identify a value that represents the strength of the feeling about a particular topic e.g. 1,2,3,4,5

what is a fixed choice option

includes a list of possible options and respondents are required to tick those that apply e.g. white and British

what are some key points to closed questions

• keep no of questions to a minimum

• use short questions

• phrase clearly

• pilot study

what are the advantages of questionnaires

simple so easy to compare

time efficient

what are the disadvantages of questionnaires

issues with question wording

biased sample- only suitable for those who are literate

low response rate

what are the interview types

structured, unstructured and semi-structured

what is a structured interview

quantitative data, mainly simple questions, easy to analyse

what is an unstructured interview

start off with 1 or 2 questions then picks up on issues the interviewee raises, more difficult to analyse, higher validity as more detail, interviewer is skilled

what is a semi-structured interview

use of some prepared questions but allow interviewee answer expansion