questionnaire

• what are the different types of questions that can be used?

  open

  closed

  forced choice

  rating style

  likert scale
• what is an open question?

  question with an infinite range of answers & provides qualitative data
• what is an example of an open question?

  what are your views on a-level psychology?
• what is a closed question?

  question with a fixed range of possible answers & produce quantitative data (includes Likert scale & forced choice questions)
• what is an example of a Likert question?

  'work is stressful' how far do you agree with this statement?

  strongly agree --> strongly disagree
• what is an example of a forced choice question?

  are you human? choose one.

  yes

  no
• what is an example of a rating style question?

  how happy are you at work? choose number that best describes how you feel.

  1 2 3 4 5
• what is are some strengths for open questions?

  • unlimited responses = provides more detail
  • provide rich qualitative data
• what are some weaknesses for open questions?

  • more difficult to summarise the data & detect clear patterns
  • lower response rate (more time consuming for partic to complete)
  • qualitative data = subjective = researcher bias
• what are some strengths for closed questions?

  • produces large amounts of quantitative data = increase pop validity
  • easier to analyse using graphs & measures like mean averages
• what are some weaknesses for closed questions?

  • limited range of answers provided to partic = low mundane realism
  • respondents may be forced to select answers that don't represent their real thoughts or behaviours
• where can questionnaires be filled out?

  face to face, postal or online
• what is response bias?

  refers to tendency to provide inaccurate, or even false, answers to self-report questions
• what are the 3 types of response bias?

  positive response bias

  positional response bias

  social desirability bias
• what is positive response bias?

  one response is selected significantly more than the other. when filling in questionnaire some people don't read questions properly so mark yes more than no
• what is positional response bias?

  tendency to mark the same point on a Likert scale
• how can we spot positive response bias?

  word questions so if answered honestly, one will say yes, the other no
• how can we spot positional response bias?

  wording questions so person with a single view will answer half with agree and half with disagree
• what is social desirability bias?

  occurs when participant responds in a certain way to appear more acceptable to society
• how can researchers reduce social desirability bias?

  • telling partic there is no right or wrong answers
  • assuring partic confidentiality
  • use 'red herring' filler questions to disguise nature of questionnaire