self report techniques

• self report techniques include

  • self report techniques
  • questionnaires
  • unstructured interviews
  • structured interviews
• self report techniques refer to techniques which ask people about their own throughs and feelings
• evaluation for self report techniques

  + may allow for greater understanding and so can find out what individuals are thinking and feeling rather than inferring

  -relies on participants ability to reflect internally

  -may lack generalisability

  -may be vulnerable to demand characteristics and social desirability bias
• questionnaires are a set of written questions designed to collect info about particular topic

  • permit researcher to discover what people think and feel directly
  • can be objective and scientific way of conducting research
  • always predetermined questions are structured
• questionnaires evaluation

  +easy to analyse data and normally closed predetermined questions

  + cheap and quick distribution

  + easy to replicate so high reliability

  -social desirability bias may occur

  -sample may be biased (only accessible to those who can read or write)

  -low response rate
• unstructured interviews have less structure meaning new questions are developed during course of interview

  • interviewer may begin with general aims and few predetermined questions but questions develop on basis of answers
  • sometimes called clinical interview as it is similar to kind of interview given by doctor
• unstructured interview evaluation

  + flexible with questions so you can follow up interesting or relevant points of discussion

  + greater depth and insight into issues being discussed

  -time consuming - smaller sample size with less data

  -requires trained interviewers to manage lack of structure meaning money spent

  -could be harder to analyse and replicate to due to changing questions
• structured interviews are predetermined questions and so there is no deviation from original questions

  • they are conducted in real time and interviewers ask questions
• evaluation for structured interview

  +easy to replicate as there are predictable questions -high reliability

  +easy to analyse - quantitative data due to closed questions so does not required interviewer to have specialist skills

  +can be quick

  -lacks detail as only generate quantitative data

  -could be interviewer bias