SELF-REPORT TECHNIQUES

Cards (12)

  • What are self-report techniques?
    Describes methods of gathering data where participants provide information about themselves without interference from the researcher.
  • What are structured interviews?
    Where the interviewer has a set list of questions to lead the conversation, a framework which will be rigidly stuck to.
  • What are unstructured interviews?
    Where the interviewer may have a list of topics or questions, but has extra flexibility to lead the conversation further, should participant responses lead to a more detailed discussion.
  • What are 2 strengths of self-report techniques?
    •  Participants can be asked about their feelings and thoughts, which can be more useful than simply observing behaviour alone.
    • Scenarios can be asked about hypothetically without having to physically set them up and observe participants’ behaviour.
  • What are 2 weaknesses of self-report techniques?
    • Gathering information about thoughts or feelings is only useful if participants are willing to disclose them to the researcher.
    • Participants may try to give the ‘correct’ responses they think researchers are looking for (or deliberately do the opposite), or try to come across in most socially acceptable way - social desirability bias, which can lead to giving untruthful responses.
  • What are interviews?
    Self-report techniques that involve an experimenter asking participants
    questions and record their responses.
  • What are questionnaires?
    A written self-report technique where participants are given a pre-set
    number of questions to respond to. They can be administered in person, online, or to a group of participants simultaneously.
  • What are open questions?
    Where there is no restriction on how participants make their response.
  • What are closed questions?
    Where there is a pre-determined set of answers to choose from.
  • What are 2 strengths of using questionnaires?
    • Questionnaires are a relatively cheap and quick way to gather a large amount of data.
    • Since questionnaires can be completed privately (and often anonymously), responses may be more likely to be honest.
  • What are 2 weaknesses of using questionnaires?
    •  Social desirability issues may arise, where participants give incorrect responses to try to put themselves in a socially acceptable light.
    • Distributing questionnaires via post or the internet means that any data collected relies on responses to be returned; response rates may be poor, and it may be that only a certain type of person returns questionnaires, so generalising the results to a large population can be unconvincing.
  • What are 2 weaknesses of using questionnaires?
    • Questionnaires may be flawed if some questions are leading.
    • If any questions are misunderstood, participants completing questionnaires privately cannot get clarification on the meaning from an experimenter, so may complete them incorrectly.