self-report

• self report


  asking a participant about their thoughts and behaviours and recording their answers
• self reports can be used as part of an experiment as a way of measuring the dependent variable (DV), self reports can also be used as part of a correlation, as a way of measuring one (or both) of the co-variables
• 2 main types of self-report methods

  questionnaires, interviews
• questionnaires


  a series of questions in a written form/computer
• interviews


  a series of questions given verbally, face to face/ or by telephone between an interviewer and an interviewee
• rating scale - ordinal data 


  a simple numerical scale on which a participant can indicate the extent or strength of some measure
• strengths of rating scales:

  • easy for participants to respond to - large amounts of data can be collected, reliable and more generalisable if wide sample is found
  • produces quantitative data - easy to analyse
  • can be tested for reliability - improved by changing or removing unreliable items
  • validity can be improved by reversing some items to reduce response bias
• weaknesses of rating scales:

  • produce quantitative data - lacks detail so participants cannot express opinions fully, reducing validity
  • risk of response bias - consistently giving answers in the middle or one extreme end
  • points on the scale are only relative (ordinal data)
  • cannot be used to measure complex variables that require more than a simple numerical responses
• likert scales


  type of question that measures attitudes - begins with a statement and asks the participant to respond to that statement by saying how much they agree with it
• strengths of likert scales:

  • easy for participants to respond to - large amounts of data can be collected, reliable and more generalisable if wide sample is found
  • produces quantitative data - easy to analyse
  • can be tested for reliability - improved by changing or removing unreliable items
  • allow the measurement of more complex attitudes than rating scales
  • validity can be improved by reversing some items to reduce response bias with several uses
• weaknesses of likert scales:

  • produce quantitative data - lacks detail so participants cannot express opinions fully, reducing validity
  • risk of response bias - consistently giving answers in the middle or one extreme end
  • points on the scale are only relative (ordinal data)
  • meaning of the middle value is ambiguous, could indicate no opinion or undecided
• semantic differentials


  participants' rate their response between an opposing pair of descriptive words such as weak and strong or honest and dishonest
• strengths of semantic differentials

  • reduces the chance of people going to the middle - most people pick 5 or 7 rather than going to an extreme end
• open questions

  allow participants to give full & detailed answers in their own words
• strengths of open questions:

  • produce qualitative data - provides detail, participants can express opinions fully, raising validity
  • analysis retains detail of participants' answers, so information, such as variation in responses, is not 'lost' through averaging
• weaknesses of open questions

  • produce qualitative data - time consuming to analyse as themes need to be identified and extracted
  • interpretation of qualitative data can be subjective - leading to bias from individual researchers and potentially reducing inter-rater reliability
  • findings are individual so less generalisable
• closed questions

  offer a small number of explicitly stated alternative responses and no opportunity to expand on answers
• strengths of closed questions

  • easy for participants to respond to - large amounts of data can be collected quickly, making data more reliable and a wide sample is more generalisable
  • produce quantitative data which are easy to analyse - find modes, medians and to plot graphs using data from many questions
• weaknesses of closed questions

  • only produces quantitative data - lack detail and meaning so participants cannot express opinions fully, lowers validity
  • risk of response biases such as consistently saying yes
  • score for all participants on each question is only a total (nominal data) - data can only be used to calculate a mode
• filler questions

  questions that are not used in the analysis - there to disguise the true purpose of the questionnaire, reducing demand characteristics
• lie detector questions

  included to try identify participants whose responses reflect a social desirability bias
• structured interviews

  predetermined questions in a fixed order - predominately closed questions, likely scripted so that they are standardised
• strengths of structured interviews

  • replicability - easy to replicate as fixed set of closed questions are used (easy to quantify)
  • analysing/comparing results - easy to analyse due to fixed questions/quantitative data
  • reliability - all participants are answering the same questions, standardised
• weaknesses of structured interviews

  • flexibility - not flexible as new questions cannot be asked, structure is followed
  • detail of answers are limited - closed questions so no room for expansion of answers
  • internal validity is limited - no ability to expand/follow up so responses may be ambiguous/lack detail
• semi-structured interviews

  uses a fixed list of open and closed questions - the interviewer can introduce additional questions if required
• strengths of semi-structured interviews

  • analysing/comparing results - quantitative data, easy to analyse
  • flexible as questions can be adapted/changed depending on answers
  • internal validity is good as it can probe for deeper understanding/clarification
  • detail of answers is moderate/good detail due to parts allowing expansion/follow up
• weaknesses of semi-structured interviews

  • replicability - difficult to replicate as only partial structure is used
  • analysing/comparing results - qualitative data is time consuming to analyse
  • reliability is limited as some consistency with closed questions, open questions hard to replicate (lack standardisation)
• unstructured interviews

  generally begins with a standard question for all participants, but from there on, questions depend on the respondents answers
• strengths of unstructured interviews

  • detail of answers is rich in detail due to open questions and ability to follow up/expand
  • flexible - questions can be adapted/changed depending on answers
  • internal validity is good as can probe for deeper understanding/clarification
• weaknesses of unstructured interviews

  • hard to replicate - no structure
  • time consuming to analyse qualitative data - looking for themes and difficult to compare
  • less reliable as open questions that deviate from schedule are hard to repeat (not standardised)
• interviewer/researcher bias

  the appearance or behaviour of the interviewer may influence the answers of the respondent - this can bias the results of a study and make them invalid.

  the gender, ethnicity, body language, age and social status of the interviewer can all create an interviewer effect