Self report techniques

• a technique that the ppt knowingly responds to questions revealing personal information
• interview- pps can give information in response to direct questioning from the researcher, can also be conducted in person, over the phone
• questionnaire- pps give info in response to a set of questions sent to them. can be in the post or completing a form online
• open questions- phrased in a way that allows the ppt to answer in any way they choose- eg. 'what do you think about X' this produces qualitative data, meaning non numerical in the form of words,
• closed questions- questions phrased in a way that limits participants' responses to only a few fixed options. e.g. 'do you like X, yes or no' how much do you like X out of 1-7, this produces quantitative data, meaning numerical data
• designing interviews and questionnaires- how the researcher conducts the study, avoiding complex terminology- pps may not understand the terms used and if feeling too embarrased to ask for an explanation, or unable to in a questionnaire they may guess the meaning resulting in inaccurate responses
• leading questions- bias responses in one direction, to avoid this questions should be written in a way that doesn't suggest a 'correct way' of responding. EG 'what did you prefer about condition A?'
• piloting questions- running a small scale version of the interview or questionnaire can identify questions that are confusin, give away the aim or don't produce a useful/detailed response. These can then be changed before the larger-scale study.
• structured interviews- interviewer reads out a list of prepped questions as they were written. The interviewer does not have to be highly trained to conduct the interview, the interview responses are easy to compare because the same Q's are used.
• unstructured interviews- no setlist of questions, an open conversation on a topic
• unstructured interview- makes it likely to develop a rapport with that participant- makes them more liable to provide you with some data
• unstructured interview- as every interview is different, comparing interview answers will be difficult