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