1. Collecting data

2. Collecting data
How do we collect our data?
Questionnaires
Interviews

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Questionnaires
When a study uses a questionnaire, it is asking participants to answer a series of questions in the written form.
A psychologist can use a variety of question types in a questionnaire based study

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Likert Scales
These are statements (e.g. “Owning a pet is good for your psychological health”) that participants read and then state whether they “Strongly agree”, “Disagree”, etc. with the statement.

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Rating Scales
These are questions or statements where the participant gives an answer in the form of a number (e.g. “On a scale of 0-10, how happy are you today?”
Answer based on the scale 0 = not at all happy and 10 = very happy).

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Open ended questions
These are questions or statements that allow participants to develop an answer and write it in their own words, as an answer, for example to “Tell me about a happy childhood memory”.

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Closed questions
These are questions that can be answered “yes” or “no” or instructions with a set amount of options, for example “Pick the emotion that best describes how you feel today: happy, sad, cheerful, moody.” Participants choose which answer best fits how they feel.

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Strengths of questionnaires
Participants may be more likely to reveal truthful answers in a questionnaire as it does not involve talking face to face with someone.
A large sample of participants can answer the questionnaire in a short time span, which should increase the representativeness and generalisability of the findings.

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Weaknesses of questionnaires
Rather than giving truthful answers, participants may give socially desirable answers because they want to look good. This lowers the validity of the findings.
If the questionnaire has a lot of closed questions participants might be forced into choosing an answer that does not reflect their true opinion.

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Weaknesses of questionnaires
There are many problems with writing a questionnaire, however one of the biggest problems is leading questions*, loaded questions, double-barrelled questions and absolutes.

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Leading questions / Why?
Bad Question: How short was Napoleon?
The word “short” immediately brings images to the mind of the respondent. If the question is rewritten to be neutral-sounding, it can eliminate the leading bias.
Good Question: How would you describe Napoleon’s height?

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Leading questions / Why?
Bad Question: Should concerned parents use infant car seats?
The term “concerned parents” leads the respondent away from the topic at hand. Instead, stay focused by only including what is needed in the question.
Good Question:  Do you think special car seats should be required for infant passengers?

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Loaded questions
Sometimes questions will be written in a way that forces the respondent into an answer that doesn’t accurately reflect their opinion or situation. This top survey mistake will throw off your survey respondents and is one of the leading contributors to respondents abandoning surveys.

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Loaded questions
Bad Question:  Where do you enjoy drinking beer?
By answering this question, the respondent is announcing that they drink beer. However, many people dislike beer or will not drink alcohol and therefore can’t answer the question truthfully.

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double-barrelled questions
It’s one of the most common survey mistakes. And it’s when you force respondents to answer two questions at once. It’s also a great way to ruin your survey results.
Survey questions should always be written in a way that only one thing is being measured. If a single question has two subjects, it’s impossible to tell how the respondent is weighing the different elements involved.

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double-barrelled questions
Bad Question:  How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the pay and work benefits of your current job?
it makes sense to break the question into two; satisfaction with pay and satisfaction with work benefits. Otherwise, some of your respondents will be answering the question while giving more weight to pay, and others will answer giving more weight to work benefits.

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double-barrelled questions
Good Question: How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the work benefits of your current job?
Good Question:  How satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the pay of your current job?

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double-barrelled questions
Bad Question: How useful will this textbook be for students and young professionals in the field?
Now the respondent is forced to give a single answer for both parties. Instead break the question into two; one measuring usefulness for students and one measuring usefulness for professionals.

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double-barrelled questions
Good Question:  How useful will this textbook be for students?
Good Question: How useful will this textbook be for young professionals in the field?

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Absolutes in questions
Absolutes in questions force respondents into a corner where they can’t give useful feedback. These questions usually have the options Yes/No and include wording such as “always,” “all,” “every,” “ever,” etc.

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Absolutes in questions
Bad Question:   Do you always eat breakfast? (Yes/No)
Read literally, the example above would force almost any respondent to answer “No.” Even then, there would be some respondents who would interpret the question as asking whether they always eat a full breakfast when they have a chance.

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Absolutes in questions
Good Question:   How many days a week do you usually eat breakfast? (Every day/ 5-6 days/ 3-4 days/ 1-2 days/ I usually don’t eat breakfast)

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Questionnaires
Read through the handout, and identify the problems with the questionnaire.

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Interviews
These are similar to questionnaires but answers are given in the spoken form not written. Interviewers ask a series of questions using open ended or closed questions.

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Interviews
They may record the interview so they can go back and transcribe exactly what participants said. Depending on what the psychologist is studying, there are three main types of interview.

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Interviews / Structured
Structured interviews use set questions. Each participant will be asked the same questions in the same order.

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Interviews / Unstructured
Unstructured interviews involve the interviewer having a theme or topic that needs to be discussed. The interviewer may have an initial question to begin the interview but each subsequent question is based on the response given by the participant.

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Interviews / Semi-structured
Semi-structured interviews involve certain questions that must be asked of participants. However, the interviewer can ask them in a different order and/or ask other questions to help clarify a participants’ response.

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Strengths of interviews
If the interview has a lot of open questions participants will reveal more reasons why they behave in a certain way or have a certain opinion.

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Weaknesses of interviews
Participants might be less likely to give truthful answers in interviews (maybe due to social desirability) as they are actually face to face with the interviewer and might not want to be judged.

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Watch the following video and identify the problems with the interview and questionnaire
You will need a pen and paper to make notes

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