1.1 Research Methods and Techniques Self-report

Starter Given personality questionnaire to complete (http://personality-testing.info/printable/big-five-personality- test.pdf)

Self-report Self-report is a direct way of gathering data. It involves directly asking participants their opinion. This can be done via questionnaires or interviews. Self-report is often the most valid way of assessing a participant’s thoughts, feelings and beliefs.

Types of self-report Interviews – These involve direct verbal questioning by the researcher and vary in terms of how structured the questions are. Questionnaires – These are written methods of gathering data. They do not necessarily require a researcher to be present.

Using your A3 Capture Sheet… What is a questionnaire Types of questions (Incl. advantages and disadvantages) Likert scales (incl. advantages and disadvantages) What is an interview Types of interviews (Incl. advantages and disadvantages)

Let’s look at some interviews and questionnaires….

Example interviews What type of interview is this? What’s wrong with this interview? And sometimes this might happen…

What is wrong with these questions? 1/How many times did you shop here in 2010? 0‑5, 5‑10, 10‑15, 15‑20, 20‑25, 25‑30, 30‑35, 35‑40, 40‑45, 45‑50, 50‑55, 55‑60, 65‑70, 75‑80, 80‑85, 85‑90, 90‑95,95‑100. 2/ What is your annual income? 3/ Do you live in Worthing? 4/ Why do you prefer out‑of‑town shopping?

What is wrong with these questions? 5/ Have you ever shop‑lifted? 6/ Do you have a busy life? YES/NO? 7/Do you think socio‑economic and political factors are militating against centralising forces in the retail‑merchandising sector? 8/ Would you describe yourself as a)upper class b)middle class or c)lower class?

What is wrong with these questions? 9/ Do you shop a) every day or b) once a week? 10/ Recent research by scientists in several universities shows that people are too busy nowadays. Do you agree? 11/ If you had a lot of shopping to do and several appointments in one evening and the car had broken down and you had just been paid, would you consider taking a taxi or a bus to an out‑of‑town shopping centre because everything is under one roof or would you feel that it would be more sensible to do your shopping in the town‑centre where you have to visit the greengrocers, bakers etc. separately? YES/NO

Choose a topic… You will create a questionnaire based on this topic. You should include open and closed questions, alongside questions which involve Likert scales. You will give your questionnaire to three pupils in the class Evaluate your own questionnaire! Take note of what other people had in theirs. What could you do to improve yours?

Now… it is your turn to interview the person sitting next to you Think of a topic you wish to explore. You should have an aim in mind for what you wish to find out. As an interviewer you must select to have a: Structured interview Semi-structured interview Unstructured interview Evaluate the use of the style of interview you used Compare the types of information you gathered Be prepared to share your evaluations with the class

Validity Whether the method is measuring what it is supposed to be measuring.

Validity Do the following improve or reduce validity? Why? Getting people to put their names on the questionnaire. Asking questions about sensitive subjects. Using smokescreen questions (questions in a questionnaire that mask the critical/important questions). Telling participants the aim of the research. Using open questions.

Reliability How consistent the measure is within itself. Can be tested using a split-half method: Correlating the results of half the items against the other half. If the correlation has a high and positive coefficient, then internal reliability is deemed high.

External reliability How consistent is the measure when repeated over time? Can be examined with the test-retest method: Correlating the results from one time to another. If the correlation has a high and positive coefficient, then external reliability is deemed high.

Reliability Why do the following increase reliability? Having a large sample. Making sure that all participants complete the questionnaire in the same conditions. Getting participants to complete the questionnaire twice (with a few days in between). Making sure that all participants complete the same questionnaire.

Data What type of data would open questions produce? Qualitative What’s good and bad about this? Indepth information Small data set Specific - Cant be generalised What type of data would closed questions produce? Quantitative Wealth of data Generalisable Numbers, figures, no insight

Homework: RM Workbook pages 13-14