Questionnaires and Interviews

• Questionnaires AO1

  • List of questions or items used to gather self-report data from respondents about their attitudes, experiences, or opinions​
  • Quantitative or qualitative data. ​
  • Questions written down so that they are standardised​
  • Open or closed questions​
• Eval for questionnaires

  :) Large sample size – validity

  :) Cheap and quick ​

  :( Social desirability bias

  :( Misunderstandings can occur​
• Interviews AO1

  • Structured conversation where one participant asks questions and the other provides answers​
  • Generally face to face​
  • Researcher verbally asks Q's, and ppant verbally responds​
  • Ppant responses recorded either by audio tape or notes
• Eval for Interviews

  :) Questions can be explained and explored. Semi/unstructured interviews both allow for researcher to delve deeper. T/f very high internal validity​

  :( Subjective – produce qualitative data, researchers may thematically code the themes to suit their hypothesis. T/f may generate invalid findings that cant be generalised, due to a misinterpretation of the data​
• Structured interviews

  • Predetermind questions in a set order​
  • Predominantly quantitative
  • Often closed questions​
• Semi-structured interviews

  • General plan but no particular phrasing or order
  • ​Often open questions​
  • Some Q's generated from ppant responses
• Unstructured Interviews

  • No predetermined questions​
  • Not standardised
  • Questions generated from ppant responses​
• 4 Practical issues with implementation of surveys

  1. Wording of questions - loading/leading, open/closed, different language or diction
  2. Choosing sample - ethnocentric/androcentric, range of ages and backgrounds, large sample size
  3. How questions asked - open/closed/mixed, face to face/online
  4. Other - location, bias, standardised instructions, deception, debrief