Self-report Techniques : Questionnaires

Self report techniques

Describes methods of gathering data where participants provide information about themselves without the researcher’s interference. Provide information about their feelings/thoughts/behaviour

Questionnaires

A pre-set list of written questions for the participant to answer. Always predetermined

Closed questions/fixed response questions

Offer the respondent a set of responses to choose from. Only useful if you have a understanding of the range of possible responses. Numerical data, limits the answers respondent can give. Quantitative data, easy to analyse but lacks depth

Open questions

Doesn’t have a fixed range of answers. Respondents are free to answer as they wish, they can state their attitudes and opinions. Useful for capturing new ideas. Qualitative data, detailed but difficult to analyse

The three types of closed questions

Likert scales, rating scales, fixed choice option

Likert scales

The respondent indicates their agreement with a statement using a scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree

Rating scales

Gets respondents to identify a value that represent their strength of feeling about a certain topic

Fixed choice option

Includes a list of possible options and respondent are required to indicate those that apply to them

Social desirability

A form of demand characteristics. A tendency for respondents to answer questions in a way that will represent them in a better light. May not be honest, they think someone will judge them or not agree. May be with a sensitive topic

First strength

P - Simplicity. E - Can be administered by a person with minimum training. Closed questions, use quantitative data, easy to analyse and compare answers. No need for the researcher to be present, saves time. L - Benefit, as it allows you to gather a large sample of data, increases population validity

Second strength

P - Less influence of interpersonal variables. E - Researcher don’t always sit with the participant, less opportunity for the researcher to influence info. Reduces the chance of social desirable answers or demand characteristics. L - If participants answer honestly, gives you an accurate and more valid representation of behaviour, increase internal validity of results

First limitation

P - Responses given by participants may not always be truthful. E - Participants may give social desirable answers. May believe the info they reported or give an answer to conform to socially acceptable values. An issue for socially sensitive questions. L - Lowers the internal validity

Second limitation

P - Potential problems with question wording. E - If the wording is ambiguous, respondent may interpret the question in different ways. Leading questions may influence the response. L - Meaningful analysis of the respondents would be difficult, may not have internally valid results