Self Report

Self Report

1. Interviews

   • Structured
     • All participants are asked the same questions in the same order
     • Advantages
       • Replicable
       • Can be used to compare people's responses
     • Disadvantages
       • Time-consuming
       • People's responses can be affected by social desirability/demand characteristics
   • Unstructured
     • Discuss freely and the interviewer creates questions based on the response of the previous questions
     • Advantages
       • Detailed qualitative data
     • Disadvantages
       • Time-consuming
       • Participants affected by social desirability

2. Examples

   • Dement and Kleitman
     • Participants asked to report what they were dreaming
   • Griffiths
     • Participants were asked to 'think aloud' while playing on the fruit machine
   • Freud
     • Hans' father was asked about Hans' dreams and fantasies

3. Questionnaires

   • Written responses or face to face
     • Usually restrict participants with a narrow range of answers
   • Advantages
     • Can collect a large amount of information quickly
     • Replicable
   • Disadvantages
     • Questions could suggest a desirable response, affected by demand characteristics
   • Open questions
     • Advantages
       • Qualitative data
         • Collect detailed explanations of why people behave the way they do
     • Disadvantages
       • Difficult to analyse data
         • Can't be used to make statistical comparisons
         • May be misinterpreted by researcher
   • Closed questions
     • Multiple chose questions
     • Advantages
       • Quantitative data can be structurally analysed and used to makes comparisons
     • Disadvantages
       • Quantitative data
         • Don't know explanation for behaviour
   • Rating Scale
     • Score of response
     • Advantages
       • Numerical value with a subjective opinion
         • Analysed statistically, compared and presented on graphs
     • Disadvantages
       • Even if participants select the same value it doesn't mean they share the same opinions
         • Quantitative data may hide qualitative differences of opinion

4. Ethics

   • Should be protected from psychological harm
   • Should be free to withdraw
   • Protection of confidentiality

5. Advantages

   • Qualitative and quantitative data
   • Data from straight from participant
   • Reason for behaviour which cannot be done in obeservational and experimental methods

6. Disadavntages

   • Demand characteristics and social desirability bias