Self-report techniques

• Questionnaires - a set list of written questions to which a participant responds

  Pros:

  • Can be distributed to lots of people
  • Respondents may be more willing to 'open up'

  Cons:

  • Responses may not always be truthful
  • Response bias
• Interviews - face to face interaction between an interviewer and an interviewee. 


  Structured interview: a list of pre-determined questions asked in a fixed order.

  • Pro - easy to replicate
  • Con - interviewees cannot elaborate
• Unstructured interview - there are no set questions. There is a general topic to be discussed but the interaction is free and the interviewee is encouraged to elaborate.

  • Pro - greater flexibility
  • Con - difficult to replicate


  Semi-structured interviews are a list of questions that have been worked out in advance but interviewers are free to ask follow-up questions when appropriate.
• Design of questionnaires

  When writing good questions you must:

  • Avoid jargon
  • Avoid double-barrelled questions
  • Avoid leading questions
• Closed questions - respondent has limited choices, data is quantitative. 


  Pro - easier to analyse

  Con - respondents are restricted
• Open questions - respondents provide their own answers expressed in words, data is qualitative.


  Pro - respondents not restricted in their answers

  Con - difficult to analyse
• Design of interviews

  Interview schedule - a standardised list of questions that the interviewer needs to cover, can reduce interviewer bias.

  Quiet room - will increase the likelihood that the interviewee will open up.

  Rapport - begin with neutral questions to make participants feel relaxed.

  Ethics - remind interviewees that answers will be treated in confidence.
• Pilot studies

  • Used in all types of research.
  • A small-scale trial run of a research design before doing the real thing.
  • Aims to find out if certain things don't work so you can correct them before spending time and money on the real thing