RM self reporting data

• Questionnaire :

  Participants record their on answers with predetermined questions (e.g structured questions) that are in written form. Can gather personal information in real life or online 
• Strength of questionnaire: Questionnaires are a self report method, which is a means of finding out what people actually think or feel rather than what they do.

  Because they are fixed questions, which are therefore standardised, questionnaires can easily be repeated and data can be collected from large numbers of people quickly.
• strength of questionnaire: Questionnaires allow for participants to reveal more personal or confidential information in a questionnaire compared to an interview as they feel more anonymous/are anonymous, therefore this is a good method when the questions may be embarrassing to answer face-to-face.

  Being standardised using closed questions means that questionnaires have high reliability, and being anonymous means that they may gather more valid data, even on personal topics, which increases the accuracy of findings from questionnaires.
• weakness of questionnaire: However, a weakness of self-report is that people don’t always tell the truth. Sometimes this is because they are unsure and some is because of the social desirability bias where people may not want to look stupid or unlikeable so answer dishonestly.
• weakness of questionnaire: The sample may also be biased because only certain types of people fill in questionnaires (those who are literate and have time to fill them in).

  Therefore, weaknesses of questionnaires are low internal validity due to social-desirability bias, and low generalisability as the sample may be unrepresentative of the target population.
• Structured interview: a type of interview that uses predetermined questions delivered by an interview who does not probe beyond the answers received but may answer questions from the interviewee 
• Structured interview Strength 

  Structured interviews are a good method for self – report as the interviewer uses the same questions each time therefore Structured interviews tend to have high reliability as they can be easily replicated.

  For example, Sherif used interviews to select participants, by talking to each boy’s family, teachers and school officials to select boys who were all healthy, sociable, well-adjusted etc.
• Structured interview Strength another strength of structured interviews is that the interviewer can provide extra information, for example explaining what a particular question means if the interviewee is confused. 
• Weakness of structured interview:

  However, within structured interviews, the interviewer’s expectations or demeanour may influence the answers the interviewee gives (researcher bias). This is a weakness of the method because it can lead to demand characteristics or social desirability bias because the interviewee may be influenced by the researcher or try to please the interviewer with their answers to seem more socially acceptable. This lowers the validity of the answers.
• Weakness of structured interview:

  Another weakness is that participants may feel reluctant to reveal personal information when face to face with an interviewer whereas in a questionnaire the participant tends to be more likely to be honest which is a weakness of structured interviews method.  This lowers the validity of the answers.
• Semi-structured interview:  a type of interview where some questions are predetermined but also new questions are developed by the researcher as the interview proceeds
• Unstructured interview: a type of interview where no questions are decided in advance
• Strengths

   A strength of Semi-structured interview types is that more detailed information can be obtained from each respondent than in a structured interview because subsequent questions are specifically shaped to the participant. This increases the validity of the data as it gives the interviewer the opportunity to gain more clarity and can allow the interviewee to steer the direction of the interview.

   Therefore, the interviewer can access information that may not be revealed by predetermined questions. 
• example of semi structured interview:

  Sheriff used an unstructured interview with open questions asking them who their best friends in the camp were, also measuring response to closed questions about how good they were at hitting a target in basketball as a ‘hit’ or ‘miss’. This is a strength as it makes the results from Semi-structured more valid whilst allowing the researcher to discover unexpected findings.
• Weakness

  However Semi-structured interviews require well-trained interviewers, which may be difficult to obtain and makes the research more expensive. Therefore, costs and funding need to taken into account when conducting these types of research.

  Furthermore, the researcher may be highly affected by interviewer bias than structured interviews because the interviewer is developing questions on the spot and may be prone to issues such as inadvertently asking leading questions. This lowers the validity of the respondents'' answers.
• weakness of semi structured:

  These interviews can be time-consuming to conduct and to analyse the qualitative data (using methods such as thematic analysis).

  This is a limitation as costs may prohibit the use of Semi-structured interviews and analysis of qualitative data  are subject