Methods of data collection

• what is the self-report technique

   when participants are asked to provide information about their own thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
• two types of self-report

  1. interviews
  2. questionnaires
• strengths of closed questions over open questions

  • easier to count-up, faster process
  • Closed questions are easier and faster for participants to answer, making them more likely to take part in the study and making the study more representative.
• strengths of open questions over closed questions

  • more detailed responses over closed, fixed questions allowing researchers to get More in-depth information
  • The answers are more likely to be representative of the participants actual feelings making the results more valid.
• structured interviews are more reliable than unstructured interviews

  unstructured interviews enable to get more information about participant then structured interviews
• limitations of self-report

  • people are not always objective and accurate due to personal bias
  • participants could be provoked to social desirability bias
• why are questionnaires sometimes better than interviews?

  the data can be collected a lot quicker due to easily distributed questions

  less chance of investigator effects
• why are interviews better then questionnaires?

  A first advantage is that the data collected in interview is often of better  quality and more detailed than the information that can be collected from a questionnaire.A second advantage of interviews over questionnaires that interviews may lead to a less  biased sample than in a questionnaire
• The observational technique is…

  when researchers watch participants, and measure or record their behaviour.
• features of controlled observation:

  • conducted in a controlled environment
  • involves standardising the procedure and selecting the participants
  • might lack ecological validity
  • control over extraneous variables
• covert observation 


  when the participants do not know they are being observed
• what is an advantage to covert observations

  • participants are less likely to display social desirability bias
  • less likely to have investigator effects
• disadvantage of covert observations

  • less ethical because participants cannot give informed consent
• what is participant observations?

  when the researcher participates in the observation
• one advantage of participant observations

  researcher may gain more insight and understanding into the behaviour of the participants by taking part in the activities.
• one limitation of participant observations

  • investigator effects might surface
• Event sampling is…

  When researchers focus on one or more specific behaviours, and counts up every time those behaviours occur.
• Time sampling is…

  when researchers categorise behaviours at regular intervals
• what is observer bias?

  The tendency for the researchers to see what they expect to see when conducting observations, making them less accurate and objective.
• one way to reduce observer bias:

  One thing that helps to reduce observer bias in observations is to break down the behaviour into  behavioural categories .
• limitation of observer technique

  A limitation is that it doesn’t tell us much about people’s thoughts and feelings.
• what is inter-rater reliability?

  observations of studies to see how similar data collected is
• what does inter-rater reliability assess

  external reliability of observations in an observational study