self-report techniques

• Self-report technique


  A research technique in which the participant knowingly responds to questions revealing personal information about themselves
• Self-report techniques


  • Questionnaires
  • Interviews
• Questionnaire


  A list of pre-prepared questions that gets sent to the participants, who then fill out the questions and send them back
• Interview


  A real-time conversation with a researcher, usually face to face but could be over the phone or via text message
• Open question


  A question in which the participant is able to answer in any way they want
• Closed question


  A question in which the participant has a limited number of options, such as yes/no, a series of fixed choices, or points on a scale
• Open questions


  • Give qualitative data (data in the form of words)
• Closed questions


  • Give quantitative data (data in the form of numbers)
• Biased/leading question


  A question that subtly suggests how the participant should respond, often in a way that will support the researcher's ideas
• Piloting


  Running the questionnaire or interview with a few participants to check for problems
• Filler question


  A question that won't be used in the data analysis, but can put the participant at ease or hide the true aims of the study
• Structured interview


  An interview where the researcher has a full list of questions that are asked in order
• Structured interviews


  • Advantages: Don't need a fully trained interviewer, easier to compare interviews as all interviewees have the same experience

  Disadvantages: Can't develop on interesting points made by the interviewee
• Unstructured interview


  An interview where the interviewer hasn't prepared every question, it's a free-flowing informal conversation with a general topic to discuss
• Unstructured interviews


  • Advantages: Likely to develop rapport with participants, can develop interesting points made by the interviewee

  Disadvantages: Need a highly trained interviewer, hard to compare multiple interviews
• Semi-structured interview


  An interview that is a mix of prepared questions and the ability to ask new ones
• Semi-structured interviews


  • Advantages: Can compare answers to fixed questions and ask new questions to develop unexpected insights

  Disadvantages: Still need a highly trained interviewer
• Strengths of self-report techniques


  • Easy to replicate

  Use of open and closed questions gives data that can be analysed with statistics

  Opportunity for participants to give detailed information
• Weaknesses of self-report techniques


  • Suffer from bias, especially social desirability bias (participants want to be seen in the best light)

  Problematic questions can't be dealt with in the moment in questionnaires

  Participants may not take questionnaires seriously
• Questionnaires vs Interviews


  Questionnaires don't require a trained interviewer and can be posted online, making them cheaper for large numbers of participants

  Interviews allow the interviewer to rephrase hard to understand questions and build rapport with participants
• Acquiescence bias is when participants just put "yes" to every question in a questionnaire
• Interviewer effects can influence the responses in interviews, such as the gender, ethnicity, and personality of the interviewer