Self-report questionnaires

• Define self-report

  Any method in which a person is asked about their feelings/ opinions/ behaviours
• What are two self-report techniques

  1. Questionnaire

  2. Interview
• What are questionnaires

  Written questions to assess a person's thoughts/ experiences
• What are open questions

  No fixed range of responses . Participants can give any answer.
• What are closed questions

  A fixed number of responses available
• What are 3 types of closed questions

  1 . Likert scale - uses a 5-point scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree

  2. Rating scale - participants give a value to represent their strength of feeling on a topic

  3. Fixed choice option - a list of possible options are given for participants to choose from
• Give an advantage of using closed questions

  Provides quantitative data which is easy to analyse
• Give a disadvantage of using closed questions

  Lacks depth and detail
• Give an advantage of using open questions

  Provides qualitative data which is rich/detailed
• Give a disadvantage of using open questions

  Hard to analyse
• What are two strengths of using questionnaires?

  1. Cost-effective - gather large amounts of data quickly

  2. Respondents more willing to give personal information in a questionnaire than in an interview where they might feel self-conscious
• What are two limitations of using questionnaires?

  1. Can result in social desirability bias - may not give truthful answers in order to present themselves in a more positive light

  2. Acquiescence bias - response bias where respondents tend to reply in a similar way (e.g. always ticking 'yes' or answering at the same favoured end of a rating scale)