self-report method

what are self-report method

involves p's giving information about themselves through questionnaires or interviews and are used to gather thoughts, feelings or opinions directly from individuals

what are questionnaires

p's provide infromation about their thoughts, feelings, or even their opinions

what different ways can questionnaires be comprised of

- open questions

- closed questions

- both

what are open questions

- allows p's to answer in as much detail as they wish

- generates qualitative data

- realistic as in everyday life we generally answer questions in our own way

- produce richer info then closed questions

what are closed questions

- restrict the p's to a predetermined set of responses

- generate quantitative data

- easier to score

- produce more consistent/reliable data

whats a strength of open questions

p's answer in own words so detailed insight of opinions

wats a limit of open questions

extensive responses = time-consuming to analyse and open to subject interpretation of researchers

what are strengths of questionnaires

- practical -> quick, easy, convienient way to gather data

- standardised -> replicated for reliability

what are limits of questionnaires

- response rate -> some just may never be completed

- lack of information -> can't get insight i.e body language

- social desirability bias -> people under-report negative aspects or over-report positive aspects, bias impairs findings

what are interviews

self-report technique which takes place primarily face to face, over phone, or online

what three types of interviews are there

- structured

- semi-structured

- unstructured

what happens in a structured interview

interviewer used a predetermined list of questions that are asked to all interviewees

what happens in a semi-structured interview

interviewer uses a few pre-determined questions but can deviate if interesting avenues arise

what happens in an unstructured interview

interviewer uses one or two prompt questions but the rest of the interview is determined by intervieww responses

how are responses recorded

- use of an interview schedule that the interviewer completes and or an audio/video recording

whats the strength of a structured interview

- standardised -> easy to replicate and test replicability in answers

whats the limit of structured interviews

- interviewer effects -> interviewer may unconsciouslt bias any responses given to the questions they ask by their tone of voice, intotnations, body language etc

whats the strength of unstrctured interviews

- validity -> reduces investigator effects, p's can justify themselves rather than guess aim of study

whats the limit of unstructured interviews

- insight -> generate large quanitites of rich data but is time-consuming and costly to analyse

whats the strength of semi-structured interviews

- validity -> reduces social desirability bias by open questions, but interviewer still remains in control so possible investiagtor effects

whats a limitation of semi-structured interviews

- detail -> gather large amounts of qualitative data, analysis difficult and tiem consuming, expensive to conduct