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SELF REPORT METHODS - INTERVIEWS AND QUESTIONAIRES - Coggle Diagram
SELF REPORT METHODS - INTERVIEWS AND QUESTIONAIRES
Questionaires
A set of questions designed to collect information from a large number of people
They can be administered in person, by post, online, over the phone, or to a group of participant simultaneously
Can collect lots of data easily
Can access people's thoughts
Questionaires are relatively cheap + quick way to gather a large amount of data
Questionaires can be completed privately + often anonymously, responses may be more likely to be honest
However, not having an experimenter to supervise its completion could present a problem
Social desirability issues may arise, where participants give incorrect responses to try to put themselves in a socially acceptable light
If any questions are misunderstood, participants completing questionnaires privately cannot get clarification on the meaning/responding accurately from an experimenter, so many complete them incorrectly
Types of questions
Closed questions
- there are a set number of responses which the participant selects from (quantitative)
Semantic differentials
- the participant makes a mark on a line to express the level of agreement with a particular view (quantative)
Open questions
- the participant can give any answer they wish (qualitative data)
Likert scales
- there are a number of responses to a question which often demonstrate a degree of agreement (qualitative)
Designing questions
Use of filler questions
- these are irrelevant questions that are used to distract the respondent form the main purpose of the study (reduce demand characteristics)
Pilot studies
- test on a small group first and then refine the questionaire
Clarity of question
- e.g. No double negatives (are you against banning capital punishment?)
Structured interviews
Predetermined set of questions asked in a fixed order
Structured interviews are easy to replicate as a fixed set of closed questions are used, which are easy to quantify – this means it is easy to test for reliability
The answers from structured interviews lack detail as only closed questions are asked, which generates quantitative data. This means a researcher won’t know why a person behaves in a certain way
Semi-Structured interviews
Contains mostly prepared questions that can be supplemented with additional questions
The interviewer can deviate from the original questions + therefore this type of interview typically produces rish qualitative data
Use of pre-determined questions provides uniformity
Provides valuable information from context of participants' experiences
Can be time consuming to collect + analyse data
Requires some level of training or practice in order to prevent interviewer suggesting answers
Unstructured interviews
Like a conversation, no set questions - a general topic will be discussed - interviewee can elaborate on answers
Provides potential to gather rich and detailed information from each participant – more so than questionnaires - more reasons for their choices
You can reword the questions to help children understand the question especially because they are young
There is a lot of time and expense involved when training interviewers, to conduct unstructured interviewers in particular