1. Quantitative and Qualitative data

2. Quantitative and qualitative data
Questionnaires can gather both sets of data, as can interviews.
This is called a mixed method
Some research only used one type of data
Quantitative: Involve numbers (percentages, number of yes/no answers)
Closed-questions are used to produce quantitative data
Qualitative: ideas, opinions and attitudes
Open questions produce qualitative data

3. Decide whether these are open/closed and what type of data is produced (qualitative or quantitative?
How would you describe obedience to authority?
Do you agree that everyone should have the same job? Yes or no?
Rate on a scare of 0-5 (0=not at all and 5= totally) how much you agree with the statement ‘everybody should have the same job opportunities’.
What do you think about people who discriminate against others because of their race?
How happy are you? Please rate on a scale from (0 very sad to 5 very happy)

4. 5 mins
Similar points as open and closed questions evaluation (pg.287)
Quantitative:
Qualitative
Strengths:
Weaknesses:

5. Issues with self report designs

6. Please define the following:
Social desirability pg. 288
Demand characteristics pg.288
Response bias pg. 285
Researcher effects: The interviewer may have certain characteristics that can influence the respondent’s answers. i.e. If the interviews is female/male, their age, manner & personality. i.e. interview about female discrimination in work place with a female interviewer and male respondent. They may not feel comfortable providing them with a detailed response.
How would these effects affect the validity of the research?
Provide an explanation for each term.

7. How to avoid these issues when conducting research:
Provide an example of a way you can avoid response bias when constructing questions for a questionnaire:
How can we reduce the problems associated social desirability?
How can we try and avoid demand characteristics?
In an interview about female discrimination in the work place with a female interviewer and male respondent – how can we control for researcher effects in this example?

8. Evaluating self report as a research method
We can evaluate questionnaires according to validity
Construct validity: the questions must measure what they are supposed to measure
Internal validity: no other variables (except the IV) could have caused the effect
Ecological validity: uses the respondent's natural setting And results can be generalised to other settings.
Predictive validity: results would predict a real life situation and
Demand characteristics and social desirability

9. Evaluating self report as a research method
Questionnaires can be evaluated by considering reliability
If the questionnaire was carried out again, would the same results be found?
Closed questions have forced choice answers- reasonably reliable
Questionnaires are set out and repeated exactly (standardised) – this is a condition for reliability
Open questions allow for opinions to be given- so are less reliable
Internal reliability –
Will participants respond in the same manner on different occasions (consistent).
To test this (Test-retest method) – same person given the questionnaire to complete for a second time on a different occasion
Do all questions measure the same concept (i.e prejudice) and are the questions consistent?
Spit half method – splitting questions into two halves and comparing the results from each half
Similar scores for each half – all questions are measuring the concept
Different scores – not all of the questions are measuring the same concept.

10. Methodological terms covered so far – recap to ensure understanding
Terms about questionnaires: pilot study, Likert-scale questions, ranked scales, personal data, respondent, open questions and closed questions
Types of data: qualitative and quantitative
Evaluation terms: validity, reliability, objectivity/subjectivity, generalisability, and credibility
Terms about bias in studies: social desirability, demand characteristics, response bias, researcher effects
Terms to control bias: controls, standardised instructions
Pilot study

11. Extension Task
Give one strength and one weakness of using self report as a research method (4 marks)
2 marks for strength
2 marks for weakness
All A03 – evaluation