self-reports

• questionnaire

  • set of written questions used to asses a person's thoughts or experiences
  • may be used to assess the dependent variable.
• open questions

  • questions where there is no fixed choice of response
  • participants can answer however they want.
  • produce qualitative data
• closed questions

  • questions where there is a fixed choice of response by the question setter.
  • tend to produce quantitative data
• strengths of questionnaires

  • cost-effective
  • gather large amounts of data quickly
  • can be completed w/o the researchers being present.
  • straightforward data to analyse - can use statistical analysis
• limitations of questionnaires

  • responses may not be truthful
  • participants may try to present themselves in a positive light.
  • demand characteristics/social desirability bias.
  • often produce response bias
  • respondents will respond in a similar way - e.g. always ticking yes
• interview

  • interaction where one person asks a set of questions to assess the other person's thoughts or experiences.
  • face to face or over the phone.
  • structured or unstructured
• structured interview

  • predetermined questions that are asked in a fixed order.
• unstructured interview

  • no set questions - works like a conversation
  • general aim that a certain topic will be discussed
  • interviewee is encouraged to expand and elaborate.
• semi-structured interview

  • list of predetermined questions but interviewers are free to ask follow-up questions.
• strength of structured interviews.

  • straightforward to replicate due to standardised format.
• limitation of structured interviews

  • interviewers cannot deviate from the topic or explain questions so the richness of the data will be limited.
• strength of unstructured interview

  • there is more flexibility so more likely to gain insight into the interviewee.
• limitations of unstructured interviews

  • interviewer bias
  • hard to analyse - researcher may have to go through irrelevant information which makes it harder to draw conclusions.
  • interviewees may not be truthful.