4.2.3 - Self-report Techniques

Thursday 7th December ‘23

Tuesday 12th December ‘23

• Any method in which a person is asked to state / explain their own feelings, opinions, behaviours or experiences related to a given topic.

• Questionnaires - pre-set number of written questions.

  • Open questions

    • How are you today?; how much exercise do you do in a week?; what makes a good chocolate bar?

  • Closed questions

    • EG Which of these describes your mood? (very happy → very sad); do you perform rigorous exercise for longer than 30 minutes per day? (yes/no); what is your favourite chocolate? (Hershey’s/Reese’s/Tony’s).

    • Likert scale - uses an agreement scale.

    • Rating scale - number scale.

    • Fixed choice - multiple choice selection.

  • Evaluation

    • Cost effective - can collect loads of data quickly and easily; researcher doesn’t need to be present; use of close questions can allow for straightforward analysis.

    • Social desirability - participants may not be truthful; response (acquiescence) bias - where participants always tick yes or select option at a favoured end of rating scale.

• Interviews - researcher asks participant questions.

  • Structured - pre-set questions asked in a fixed order.

  • Unstructured - conversation, free flowing, prompts from interviewer.

  • Semi-structured - list of questions but can be asked in different orders or involve follow up quesions based on responses, eg job interview.

  • Evaluation

    • Structured interview are easy to replicate due to standardised format; unstructured interviews can elicit unexpected info and greater insight.

    • Limited richness of data in structured interviews; risk of interviewer bias in less structured interviews (training).

  • Good questions…

    • avoid use of jargon; avoid overly emotive language; not leading; no double negatives; no double barelled questions.

What are the types of data?

• Quantitative - numerical, formed closed questions, lacks depth and detail.

• Qualitative - wide range of different responses, from open questions, can be hard to analyse due to being so varied.

How can I apply my knowledge?

• Aim: to find out about what views on current school rules are and how they can be changed.

• Types of question: 8 X closed with a mix of rating and likert; 2 X open.

  • To what extent do you agree; 'the school rule system helps to encourage me to improve my behaviour.' - CLOSED LIKERT

  • If you could change one rule in the school, what would it be? - OPEN

  • To what extent do you agree with the school rules? - CLOSED LIKERT

  • If you could add one new rule to the school system, what would it be? - OPEN

  • On a scale of 1-10, to what extent do you feel that your opinions on school rules are listened to by teachers? - CLOSED RATING

  • Do you feel that there is an even split of 'unfair' school rules between girls and boys? - CLOSED FIXED CHOICE

  • To what extent do you agree; 'I have a teacher that I know I can go to if I feel I have been unfairly punished by the C1-3 system in a lesson.' - CLOSED LIKERT

  • If you could change the C1-3 system in one way, what would it be? - CLOSED FIXED CHOICE

  • Which of the following rules do you think needs to be changed the most urgently? - OPEN

  • On a scale of 1-10, to what extent do you feel that the school rules treat you fairly? - CLOSED RATING

• How we’ll get our sample: sending it by email to Year 9 students and to their teacher so there are a range of sources where they can receive the questionnaire.

• Ethical issues

  • Access to responses from a teacher so they can flag safeguarding concerns - does this break confidentiality? This issue could be flagged by including this in the briefing.

  • Reduce harm

How do we protect people in psychological studies?

• Ethics from BPS

1. Prevention from lasting harm - optional to answer

2. Deception - purpose in brief

3. Informed consent - purpose

4. Right to withdraw - you don’t have to answer or can stop at any time

5. Confedentiality - email not collected, no name box

6. Debriefing - follow-up thank you message

How can we analyse qualitative data?

• Content analysis - made up of ‘coding units’, a technique to transform qualitative data into quantitative.

  1. Data collected.

  2. Researcher familiarises themselves with the data.

  3. Researcher identifies coding units (these should be operationalised and defined).

  4. Data analysed by applying coding units.

  5. Tally made for number of times the coding unit appears.

  • Strengths

    • Reliable

    • Not time-consuming

    • Statistical analysis can happen

    • Can have high external validity so generalisable (especially one of a real-world info)

    • Replicable

  • Weaknesses

    • Causality can’t be established

    • Cannot explain or reason for data patterns - instead, it is descriptive

    • Research / observer bias

    • Untruthful accounts (unreliablie)

  • Testing for reliability

    • Test-retest reliability

    • Inter-rater reliability

  • Analysis of my data

    • If you could change the C1-3 system in one way, what would it be?

      • Coding units: Enforcement of the system; Punishment; Reasoning for getting punishment; No change

      • Identification used through colouring the blocks on a spreadsheet.