Self-Report

• Self-report

  self-report is where the participant provides details of their own feelings or thoughts

  this could include;

  • answering interview questions, which could be structured or unstructured
  • answering questions from a questionnaire, which could be open or closed
• Data

  the information collected in a study is called data

  there are 2 different types of data;

  • quantitative (numerical data that can be displayed in a graph)
  • qualitative (non-numerical, detailed data that can be displayed with content analysis)
• Quantitative data

  Features of quantitative data include;

  • numerical
  • can be statistically analysed, using descriptive and/or inferential statistics (statistics can be compared)
  • often collected in experiments
• Qualitative data

  Features of qualitative data include;

  • non-numerical data (language)
  • analysed using qualitative analysis, such as content analysis
  • often collected in self-report methods
• Evaluation of quantitative data

  S - quantitative data is easy to analyse and compare

  W - quantitative data lacks rich detail
• Evaluation of qualitative data

  S - qualitative data is rich in detail

  W - qualitative data is difficult to analyse and compare
• Questionnaires

  questionnaires are known as self-report techniques: they involve asking a number of people about a specific topic to investigate their views, opinions and attitudes. The researcher tries to select a large and representative sample

  when designing a questionnaire the researcher needs to:

  • use a combination of open and closed questions
  • allow for a 'don't know' answer where appropriate
  • pilot it first so changes can be made if needed
• Open questions

  open questions allow respondents to write their own answers

  this would provide you with rich, detailed qualitative data
• Closed questions

  closed questions give participants a limited number of fixed responses to choose from. These are predetermined by the researcher

  this would provide you with quantitative data (how many people ticked yes and no)
• Evaluation of questionnaires

  S - easy to produce, analyse and compare

  W - lack detail

  W - social desirability bias
• Interviews

  features of an interview;

  • interviews are useful for gathering more detailed information and enabling a more natural and flexible approach to questioning. The interviewer usually has certain topics that they want to explore
  • interviews can be structured or unstructured
  • an interviewer can ask open and/or closed questions
• Structured interviews

  in a structured interview, the interviewer will mostly ask questions that have been prewritten however the interviewer may sometimes add follow-on questions to clarify a response. The questions can be closed or open
• Unstructured interviews

  in an unstructured interview, the interviewer will have few predetermined questions; rather they will have several topics they want to explore. This is more like a conversation. The questions tend to be open
• Evaluation of interviews

  S - allows researchers to collect rich detail

  W - time consuming to conduct

  W - time consuming to analyse