Self-report techniques and design

• Questionnaires are probably the most common type of self-report technique. They involve a pre-set list of written questions to which a particular participant responds
• Psychologists use questionnaires to assess thoughts and/or feelings. A questionnaire may be used as part of an experiment to assess the dependent variable
• An open question does not have a fixed range of answers and respondents are free to answer in any way they wish. Open questions tend to produce qualitative data that contains a wide range of different responses but may be difficult to analyse
• A closed question offers a fixed number of responses. Closed questions tend to produce quantitative data. Quantitative data is usually easy to analyse but it may lack the depth and detail associated with open questions
• There are three types of closed questions:

  • Likert scale
  • Rating scale
  • Fixed-choice option
• A likert scale is one in which the respondent indicate their agreement with a statement using a scale of usually five points. The scale ranges from Strongly agree to Strongly disagree
• A rating scale works in a similar way but gets respondents to identify a value that represents their strength of feeling about a particular topic
• A fixed-choice option item includes a list of possible options and respondents are required to indicate those that apply to them
• Some interviews may be conducted over the phone/internet, most involve a face-to-face interaction between an interviewer and an interviewee
• There are three broad types of interviews:

  • Structured interviews
  • Unstructured interviews
  • Semi-structured interviews
• Structured interviews are made up of a pre-determined set of questions that are asked in a fixed order. Basically this is like a questionnaire but conducted face-to-face in real time
• Unstructured interviews work a lot like a conversation as there are no set questions. There is a general aim that a certain topic will be discussed, and interaction tends to be free-flowing. The interviewee is encouraged to expand and elaborate their answers as prompted by the interviewer
• Semi-structured interviews: the sort of interview one is most likely to encounter in everyday life. e.g. a job interview. There is a list of questions that have been worked out in advance but interviewers are also free to ask follow up questions based on previous answers
• Most interviews involve an interview schedule, which is the list of questions that the interviewer intends to cover

  This should be standardised to reduce the contaminating effect of interviewer bias

  Typically, the interviewer will take notes throughout the interviewer, or alternatively, the interviewer may be recorded and analysed later
• Interviews usually involve an interviewer and a single participant, though group interviews may be appropiate especially in clinical settings

  In the case of one-to-one interview, the interviewer should conduct the interview in a quiet room, away from other people, as this will increase the likelihood that the interviewee will open-up
• It is good practice to begin the interview with some neutral questions to make the interviewee feel relaxed and comfortable, and as a way of establishing rapport

  Of course, the interviewees should be reminded on several occasions that their answers will be treated in the strictest confidence

  This is especially important if the interview includes topics that may be personal or sensitive
• Standardisation of questions within an interview is one way of controlling for the possible effects of bias

  However, this may not remove bias entirely

  This is especially true if the interview is unstructured because the interviewer controls the way the discussion develops, and the lines of enquiry followed
• Forms of bias in psychological research & the steps taken to minimise these

  • Extraneous and confounding variables - standardised procedures, controlled laboratory environment
  • participant variables - random allocation
  • order effects - counterbalancing
  • demand characteristics/ investigator effects/ participants reactivity - randomisation, standardisation, single-blind procedure, double-blind procedure
  • observer bias - behaviour checklists, inter-observer reliability
  • sample bias - random sampling, stratified sampling
• Before the study begins, questionnaire and interview questions should always be piloted
• How a pilot study of a questionnaire/interview would be carried out:

  The interview/questionnaire would be conducted with a small group of participants to determine if all the questions were clear, unambiguous, ethical and understandable
• What would be gained from conducting the pilot study and what the researcher might do as a result:

  Any questions that did not meet this criticism would be rewritten perhaps as a result of suggestions from the participants involved in the pilot
• Clarity is essential when designing questionnaires and interviews

  If respondents are confused by or misinterpret questions, this will have a negative impact on the quality of the information received
• Avoid:

  • overuse of jargon
  • emotive language and leading questions
  • double-barrelled questions and double negatives

  in question designs
• Jargon refers to the technical terms that are only familiar to those within a specialised field or area
• Sometimes, a researcher's attitude towards a particular topic is clear from the way in which the question is phrased
• A double-barrelled question contains two questions in one, the issue being that respondents may agree with one half of the question and not the other
• Designing a self-report study:

  • aims and hypothesis
  • decide items for your questionnaire
  • pilot the questionnaire
  • sampling
  • consider ethical issues
  • analysis of data
• Advantages of questionnaires:

  • Cost effecttive
  • Gather large amounts of data quickly
  • Lack of effort needed by researcher
  • Data is straightforward to analyse (easier in fixed-choice Q's)
  • Statistical analysis
  • Comparison between groups of people can be made using graphs/charts
  • Research doesn't have to be present, e.g. postal questionnaire
• Disadvantages of questionnaires:

  • Given responses may not always be truthful
  • Respondents may want to present themselves in a positive light - influence answers
  • Demand characteristics - social desirability bias
  • Response bias (e.g. answering at the same favoured end of a rating scale)
  • Questionnaire completed to quickly by respondent who fail to read question properly
  • Acquiescence bias ("yes" saying)
• Advantages of structured interviews:

  • Like questionnaires, are straightforward to replicate due to their standardised format
  • Reduces differences between interviews
• Disadvantages structured interviews:

  • It's not possible for interviewers to deviate from the topic or explain their questions and this will limit the richness of the data collected as well as limit unexpected information
• Advantages of unstructured interviews:

  • More flexibility
  • The interviewer can follow up points as they arise and is much more likely to gain insight into the worldview of the interviewee, including eliciting unexpected information
• Disadvantages of unstructured interviews:

  • Lead to an increase of interviewer bias
  • Analysis of data is not straightforward
  • Researcher may have to sit through irrelevant information and drawing firm conclusions may be difficult