Self-report techniques

• Self-report techniques definition: this describes methods of gathering data where participants provide information about themselves without interference from the experimenter
• Self-report techniques example: questionnaires, interviews, diaries, responses to pre set questions
• Strengths of self report techniques:

  • participants can be asked about their feelings and thoughts, which can be more useful than simply observing behaviour alone
  • scenarios can be asked about hypothetically without having to physically set them up and observe participants behaviour
• Weaknesses of self report techniques:

  • gathering information about thoughts or feelings is only useful if participants are willing to disclose them to the experimenter
  • participants may try to give the 'correct' responses they think researchers are looking for or try to come across in a most socially acceptable way, which can lead to untruthful responses
• Open questions: allows participants to write down their own answer, having more validity and giving qualitative data
• Strengths of open questions:

  • can provide depth and insight into answers that the researcher might not otherwise get
• Weaknesses of open questions:

  • they can make analysis difficult
• Closed questions: they provide participants with a selection of answers to choose from, less valid as it pre determines the selection of answers, gives quantitative data
• Strengths of closed questions:

  • easier to analyse and spot patterns
• Weaknesses of closed questions:

  • sacrifices the level of detail and insight that you would get with open questions
• Structured Interview definition: the interviewer reads out a list of prepared questions and does not deviate from the prepared questions
• Strengths of structured interviews:

  • the interviewer does not need to have intense training to ask the questions
  • answers are easy to compare
• Weaknesses of structured interviews:

  • responses by the participants cannot be followed with additional questions
  • the pre determined questions may not provide relevant data for the investigation
• Unstructured interview definition: the interviewer has a topic of interest they want to discuss, but no set list of questions as it is an open conversation