Advatages and Disadvantages of Self Reports

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Advatages and Disadvantages of Self Reports

Advantages

  • Questionnaires-Easy to administer can be sent or emailed to participants which makes them time and cost effective.
  • Questionnaires- Data is usually quantitative data which means that it can be statistically analysed.
  • Interviews-Structured interviews are easy to analyse as they collect quantitative data.
  • Interviews- Semi and unstructured interviews allow the interviewer to gain specific detailed information that other methods would miss.
  • Rating Scales-Produce quantitative data which can be easily analysed.
  • Rating Scales- When several questions are used they can improve validity as some items can be reversed to reduce response bias.
  • Likert Scales-They can be retested for reliability via the test retest method and can be improved by changing and removing unreliable items.
  • Likert Scales- They allow the measurement of more complex attitudes than rating scales can.
  • Open Questions-Collects qualitative data which allows the participant to expand on their answers therefore this provide extra detail.
  • Open Questions- Analysis allows the detail that the participants give to be included into the results and not lost through averaging them out.
  • Closed Questions- Easy and quick for the participant to respond to as its a simple answer which means that large amounts of data can be collected quickly. Also if a wider sample is found it can be more generalisable to the rets of the population.
  • Closed Questions- Quantitative data is produced which means that the data is easy to analyse.

Disadvantages

  • Questionnaires- Response bias for example always ticking the box on the left can lead to invalid results.
  • Questionnaires- Doesn't allow for collection of new data like an interview does as it would be unexpected.
  • Interviews-Structured interviews are limited by they questions that they ask as they are already pre fixed questions.
  • Interviews- Investigator bias could become a problem as it may mean that the expectations of the interviewer could affect  the way they ask there questions in order to get a similar response that they want. Or they could interpret the response differently.
  • Rating Scales-They cant be used to assess complex variables as they may require a more than a simple  numerical response.
  • Rating Scales- Only produce quantitative data which lacks detail of response so participants cant express their opinions fully.
  • Likert Scales- The meaning of the middle value is ambiguous, as it could indicate an undecided or no opinion .
  • Likert Scales- Risk of response bias as they may only tick answers in the middle or at one extreme of the scale.
  • Open Questions- They produce qualitative data which can be time consuming as it needs to be extracted and analysed.
  • Open Questions- The researchers interpretation of the qualitative data can be subjective leading to bias from different researchers this lowers inter rater reliability.
  • Closed Questions- Risk of response bias as the participants could just answer 'yes' or 'no' all of the time.
  • Closed Questions- The score for all participants on each question is only a total which is nominal data which means that the data can only be used to calculate a mode.

Evaluation

Using a variety of question types and using both methods of self report would increase the chances of the participants answering the questions thoughtfully which then means that response bias can be eliminated or considerably reduced.

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