self-report techniques

• design good questionnaires

  analysis

  bias

  clarity
• analysis

  questions need to be written so that they are easy to analyse. closed questions are easiest to analyse, open questions are more difficult to analyse however may represent their real thoughts or behaviours.
• bias

  questions should be free of bias or this could lea the respondent to be more likely to give a particular answer due to leading questions or emotive language.
• clarity

  a question should be clear.
• questionnaires

  they should contain filler questions, irrelevant questions to distract participants from the aim of the study which may reduce demand characteristics.
• analysing interviews


  structured , unstructured.
• interviews

  structured- predetermined questions with no deviation from the origional questions.
• interviews

  unstructured- has less structure, new questions develop as you go along.
• designing good interviews

  • may take notes to document answers, however this could lead to social desirability, bias or demand characteristics, alternatively interviews may be audio recorded or video recorded.
  • the effect of the interviewer; non-verbal communication - body language which will make the person feel listened to.
  • listening skills- know when and how to speak.
• a03- questionnaires

  • can be easily repeated,
  • cheap and quick
  • social desirability bias- answers may not be truthful,
  • takes time to design,
  • biased sample as only certain type of people fill in questionaires.
• a03- structured interview

  • answers are more easy to analyse,
  • requires less interviewing skills
  • however, may have interviewer bias,
  • reliability may be affected by the interviewer behaving differently in each interview
• a03- unstructured interview

  • more detailed information can be obtained,
  • however, requires more trained interviewers which is more expensive,