Self-Reports; including open and closed questions, questionnaires, interviews, and quantitative and qualitative data Flashcards
(30 cards)
What is meant by self-report methods?
Participants provide information directly to the researcher, often about thoughts, feelings, or behaviours, through questionnaires or interviews.
What are the two main types of self-report methods?
Questionnaires and interviews.
What is a questionnaire?
A written set of questions used to collect data from many people, often part of a survey.
What is the purpose of using questionnaires in research?
To gather data from a large sample to generalise findings to the target population.
What types of questions can questionnaires contain?
Open (qualitative) or closed (quantitative) questions.
Strength of anonymity in questionnaires?
Anonymity may reduce social desirability bias, increasing internal validity.
What types of questions can questionnaires contain?
Open (qualitative) or closed (quantitative) questions.
Limitation of self-report honesty in questionnaires?
Participants may lie to present themselves positively, lowering internal validity.
How do questionnaires reduce investigator effects?
The researcher doesn’t need to be present, so their influence is minimised.
Limitation of misunderstanding questions in questionnaires?
No clarification possible, leading to incomplete or inaccurate answers.
Strength of generalisability in questionnaires?
Can be distributed widely, increasing external validity.
What is an open question?
A question allowing participants to respond in their own words—produces qualitative data.
What is a closed question?
A question with fixed responses (e.g., Yes/No, Likert scale)—produces quantitative data.
Strength of open questions?
Rich, detailed responses increase depth and validity.
Limitation of open questions?
Harder to analyse; may be subject to researcher bias in interpretation.
Strength of closed questions?
Easier to analyse and compare responses across participants.
Limitation of closed questions?
Can lack depth and be prone to response bias (e.g., always ticking the same box).
Q: What are 3 key considerations when designing a questionnaire?
A: (1) Decide on data type (qualitative/quantitative),
(2) Use clear, unambiguous questions,
(3) Include distractors to reduce demand characteristics.
Why conduct a pilot study for a questionnaire?
To check for unclear questions and improve reliability and validity.
What is an interview?
A face-to-face (or remote) method of asking participants questions.
What are the two types of interviews?
Structured and unstructured.
What is a structured interview?
Pre-set questions asked in a fixed order to every participant.
What is an unstructured interview?
Flexible, open-ended questions guided by the participant’s responses.
Strength of structured interviews?
Easy to replicate and compare results; standardised format.
