research methods: self report

Question 1

what does target population mean?

Answer 1

the group of people that your research applies to and the population from which the sample was drawn from

Question 2

what does sample mean?

Answer 2

the group that you conduct your research on

Question 3

what does representativeness mean?

Answer 3

the degree to which the sample matches the target population

Question 4

what’s gender bias?

Answer 4

having more of one sex than the other in a sample

Question 5

what is culture bias?

Answer 5

when a sample contains participants who are all of the same culture, from the same country or are of the same ethnicity or race

Question 6

what does gynocentric mean?

Answer 6

a sample that favours females

Question 7

what does androcentric mean?

Answer 7

a sample that favours males

Question 8

what does population validity mean?

Answer 8

degree to which the sample is accurate to the target population and therefore how accurately the results can be applied to the target population

Question 9

describe opportunity sampling

Answer 9

researcher uses participants who are there and available at the time that the research is conducted

Question 10

describe self selected sampling

Answer 10

participants volunteer in response to some sort of advertisement eg by contacting via the email on a poster
then the researcher selects eg the first 30 names and contacts then with how to take part

Question 11

describe snowball sampling

Answer 11

when each participant selects the next

Question 12

describe random sampling

Answer 12

when the target population all have an equal chance of selection
for example out all target populations names in a hat or random name generator, pick out the first (number) and then contact them with how to take part

Question 13

describe systematic sampling

Answer 13

select every nth person for example of out of all members of the target population select every 4th person to be in the sample

Question 14

describe stratified sampling

Answer 14

select factors in the target population and then match the sample perfectly to these proportions

Question 15

evaluation of opportunity sampling

Answer 15

+ most convenient efficient and easy way to obtain a sample

+ no costs

• might just use approachable people or people who the researcher sees as similar to themselves
• sample could be biased in terms of who is at the location and what the location is as these people are all in the same place at the same so may have things in common

Question 16

evaluation of self selected sampling

Answer 16

+ completely unpressured consent, they tell you they want to be involved

• could lead to a biased sample as maybe lots of extroverts volunteer for the study as they are confident or people who are interested in the topic of study
• bias based on where you put the advert, may only obtain people with a lot in common

Question 17

evaluation of snowball sampling

Answer 17

+ can help to obtain decent samples of hard to reach groups for example people with schizophrenia as only 1% of the population has it

• sample could be biased as similar person may be selected by the current participant so the sample may be very similar

Question 18

evaluation random sampling

Answer 18

+ no researcher bias as everyone has an equal chance of being chosen

+ no researcher bias people can’t purposely be picked to fit the researchers hypothesis

• could gather an unrepresentative sample as sample could coincidentally be biased

Question 19

evaluation of systematic sampling

Answer 19

+ free from researcher bias as researcher has no control over who the nth person is

• unrepresentative sample as it could be coincidentally biased

Question 20

evaluation of stratified sampling

Answer 20

+ gives the most representative sample of all the sampling techniques

• lots of factors may be involved so may be difficult to match proportions perfectly
• if someone drips out you have to replace them or the proportions won’t be perfect

Question 21

what are self reports?

Answer 21

when you ask a participant about their thoughts/behaviours/feelings/attitudes via questions (written or spoken) and record answers

Question 22

how can self reports be used as part of an experiment?

Answer 22

as a way of measuring the DV

Question 23

how can self reports be used as part of a correlation?

Answer 23

as a way of measuring one or both of the co-variables

Question 24

what are the two main types of self report?

Answer 24

questionnaires: a series of questions in written form, given in person, filled out online, or posted out to participants and returned

interviews: a series of questions given verbally, face to face between an interviewer and interviewee. answers usually recorded and transcribed later by interviewer

Question 25

self report general evaluation, interview specific evaluation and questionnaire specific evaluation

Answer 25

+ both types of self report allow for a participant to tell us directly about their experiences and thoughts rather than trying to infer these from other methods such as observation, leading to potentially higher validity with self reports participants know how they think and feel more than anyone else + some types (questionnaire and structured interview) are very standardised as they have set questions for all participants + questionnaires can be quick to administer as many people can fill them in at once - issues with social desirability especially if the topic is personal or sensitive. this lowers internal validity - issues with the participant misremembering events they are asked about which lowers internal validity - participants not understand question if complex language used or if they have poor literacy skills so may not be scale to accurately answer question. (applies to questionnaires as ps have to read questions themselves whereas in interview questions verbal and interviewer can tailor language to suit their interviewee if it isn’t a structured one) - in multiple choice questions their answer may not be an option so they choose the best fit answer lowering internal validity - interviews time consuming and costly to run

Question 26

what are closed questions?

Answer 26

questions that provide a limited amount of answers that participants must choose from

Question 27

what are open questions?

Answer 27

questions with no set options so the participant can answer freely, writing anything they want

Question 28

what is qualitative data?

Answer 28

non numerical data rich in detail, usually textual or verbal and provides descriptions

Question 29

what’s quantitative data?

Answer 29

numerical data, measurements of quantity, amount and how often something has occurred

Question 30

what’s a dichotomous question?

Answer 30

question where you pick from two possibilities like yes and no

Question 31

what’s a checklist question?

Answer 31

tick all possible answers that apply in the list given to you

Question 32

what’s ranking question?

Answer 32

put the given list in order could be from best to worst

Question 33

what’s a likert rating scale question?

Answer 33

scale with strongly agree, agree, neither, disagree, strongly disagree

Question 34

what’s a numerical rating scale question?

Answer 34

scale using numbers eg 1 is unhappy 10 happiest possible

Question 35

what’s a semantic differential rating scale?

Answer 35

two opposite words at each end and participants mark where they lie on the scale

Question 36

what’s better about a rating scale question in comparison to a dichotomous question?

Answer 36

they give an extent to which the individual has that opinion/attitude

Question 37

what are the strengths of using open questions and qualitative data?

Answer 37

greater detail gathered provides deeper meaning and insight into thoughts

Question 38

what are the weaknesses of using open questions and qualitative data?

Answer 38

harder to replicate harder to compare open to bias/interpretation can’t use inferential statistics

Question 39

what are the strengths of using closed questions and quantitative data?

Answer 39

can use inferential statistics less bias/misinterpretations easier to replicate easy to make comparisons between participants

Question 40

what are the weaknesses of using closed questions and quantitative data?

Answer 40

too restrictive superficial (lacks depth) lacks detail

Question 41

what is an interview?

Answer 41

participant responds verbally to questions from researcher

Question 42

what’s a structured interview?

Answer 42

questions are predetermined and these questions are set, no changes are allowed during the questioning from this set list. all participants asked exact same questions

Question 43

what’s a semi structured interview?

Answer 43

some questions are pre planned to ask however the interviewer can also ask follow up questions based on participants responses to previous questions

Question 44

what’s an unstructured interview?

Answer 44

a topic of discussion is picked, there are no fixed questions so it’s more like a conversation

Question 45

what are the strengths of structured interviews?

Answer 45

anyone can carry them out as the interviewer doesn’t have to have the skill to produce questions themselves in the interview can compare answers across participants as all are asked the same questions so analysis and comparison of results is easier reliable, can be replicated as questions asked are the same every time so are high in consistency, the interview can be repeated many times with different participants

Question 46

what are the strengths of semi structured interviews?

Answer 46

more flexibility as follow up questions can be asked which means participants can elaborate on their answers to the set questions more internally valid as more depth and detail is gathered

Question 47

what are the strengths of unstructured interviews?

Answer 47

gain more depth and detail into answers as can tailor questions to participants to elaborate build rapport, make participants comfortable so they will be more honest with you

Question 48

what are the weaknesses of structured interviews?

Answer 48

low in internal validity as can’t deviate from the set questions so researchers can’t ask participants to elaborate if they didn’t understand their answer of it was very brief lacks flexibility as can’t tailor the question to the person for example if they didn’t understand what the question was asking them

Question 49

what are weaknesses of semi structured interviews?

Answer 49

follow up questions are hard to analyse across participants not fully reliable as not all questions are consistent requires a confident interviewer not to go off topic

Question 50

what are the weaknesses of unstructured interviews?

Answer 50

less reliable as pps all asked different questions harder to compare results across pps need skilled well trained interviewer to keep on topic and not get stuck on what to ask next

Question 51

what’s ecological validity?

Answer 51

how accurately results apply to real life situations and environments

Question 52

what does reliability mean?

Answer 52

measure that uses standardised procedures and gets consistent results

Question 53

what’s internal reliability?

Answer 53

how consistent a measure is within itself

Question 54

what’s external reliability?

Answer 54

how consistent a measure is over time

Question 55

how do you check for internal reliability?

Answer 55

you can test this using the split half method. split questionnaire in half and person does both separately their scores on all questions should be similar or the questions aren’t consistently measuring what they are meant to be

Question 56

how do you check for external reliability?

Answer 56

you can check this using the test retest method the same measure should get the same results over time if not then it’s not consistent

Question 57

how do you make self report more valid?

Answer 57

removing leading questions avoiding open questions with qualitative data so answers are more accurate as ps can explain what they mean ensuring answers will be anonymous and confidential as this leads to more truthful answers having an experimenter present should the participants have any questions or words they’re unsure of so they can clarify not having others around when answering sensitive questions building a rapport with interviewee to help them feel comfortable so that they tell the truth ensuring there is an ‘other’ box if using multiple choice questions

Question 58

how do you make self report more reliable?

Answer 58

training interviewers so all conducting interviews in a standardised way providing standardised questions adding closed questions with quantifiable data using the split test method on questionnaires to ensure internal reliability using the test retest method on questionnaire or interviews to ensure external reliability conducting study in same environment or way for everyone (place time instructions researcher)

Question 59

what is positively skewed distribution?

Answer 59

mean is bigger than the mode and median

Question 60

what’s a negatively skewed distribution?

Answer 60

the mean is smaller than the mode and median