Self-Reports Methods in Psychology PDF

Self-reports Self-reports → research method in psychology where participants report about themselves Self-reports Self reports Questionnaires Interviews The participants provide the data themselves What do we use it for? Anything that the participant...

Self-reports Self-reports → research method in psychology where participants report about themselves Self-reports Self reports Questionnaires Interviews The participants provide the data themselves What do we use it for? Anything that the participants themselves can provide the data about, usually: their opinions, thoughts, emotions, views... Questionnaires The questions are presented in written form (printed paper or online survey) Questionnaires Compare these two questions : How exhausted do you feel after a psychology class? 1 2 3 4 5 What do you think about psychology? Questionnaires Closed questions - questions with a fixed set of possible responses E.g. How often do you consume alcohol? Very often Often Sometimes Rarely Never E.g. Do you drink coffee? YES/NO E.g. How much do you agree with the statement : I never lie  1 2 3 4 5 Questionnaires E.g. How much do you agree with the statement : I never lie  1 2 3 4 5 This type of question have a form of scale - respondents circle or tick the number to show the extent to which they agree with a statement. We call this a Likert scale Dichotomous questions like yes/no - to restrictive, but Open questions - allow the participant to express their opinions more freely They usually start with words What/Why/How/Describe/Explain Richer, more in-depth data is collected than with closed questions "Describe a significant life event that impacted your personality development?" "What are the primary stressors you in your daily life, and how do you typically cope with them?" "What do you think about psychotherapy or counseling?" "Why did you choose psychology?" 🙃 How would you interpret this answer? ‘‘I think that parents need to chill out a bit when it comes to their children’s school behaviour.’’ Grades? Attending school? Doing homework? Making trouble? Paying Attention Allowing them to have more non-scholar activities? Open questions Interpretation - can researchers be 100% consistent in their interpretations? More than one researcher - do they agree in their interpretation? Inter-rater reliability - The extent to which two (or more) researchers agree of their scoring or interpretation of a questionnaire or test Risks regarding validity ‘‘ I enjoy watching bad people suffer’’  1 2 3 4 5 Social desirability bias : Trying to present oneself in the best light by determining what a test is asking On a job interview: “Are you a team player?” Everybody are! How likely is a person to answer honestly to a question like this? I always tell the truth, even if it might hurt someone's feelings. I have never taken something that didn't belong to me, even as a child. I never hold grudges, even when someone has wronged me. If they know the aim of the study - they’ll alter their responses Solution? 1.Filler questions - items put to disguise the aim, by hiding the important ones among irrelevant (not analysed later in the study) 2. Another solution: I have never lied 1 2 3 4 5 (yeah, right...) Evaluate closed questions Evaluate open questions Interviews Face to face or via telephone *virtual face to face communication? → zoom, google meet Again - asking of the participants to provide the answers to the questions themselves In theory, interviews can also consist from both open and closed questions … but in reality they are mainly going to consist from the first one Interviews STRUCTURED UNSTRUCTURED SEMI-STRUCTURED Structured interviews The same predetermined questions for every participants and fixed order What does this ensure? (remember what we said is a strengths of lab experiments?) Standardised procedure - the same procedure for all the participants Unstructured interviews Only the main topics are predetermined BUT, there isn’t a set list or order of questions The next question is based on the answer to the previous one Hardly a standardised procedure - a problem, can we compare the results of different participants? Semi-structured interview There are some fixed questions, that guide the interview. They also ensure there is some comparable data. + but also we can ask some specific questions to gather some in-depth data and understand better that particular participant. Interviews Problems? (remember questionnaires) Again - social desirability bias and knowing the aim of the study Time-consuming Risk of subjectivity while interpreting But also: Evaluate interviews Group task Creating your own questionnaire Work in groups of three or four First things first - choose a topic you want to investigate and for which you’ll create a questionnaire Write the aim of your study (you don’t need to create hypothesis for this one) Use both closed and open questions You can use different types of closed questions (multiple choice, scales, contingency questions Remember what to avoid when creating questions Possible topics: Emotional Intelligence: Create a questionnaire to assess an individual's emotional intelligence, including their ability to recognize and manage emotions in themselves and others Stress and Coping Strategies: Develop a questionnaire to investigate the sources of stress in people's lives and how they cope with stress Social Media and Mental Health: Create a questionnaire to explore the relationship between social media usage and mental health, including feelings of anxiety, depression, or social isolation Sleep Patterns and Quality: Create a questionnaire to assess sleep patterns, sleep quality, and the relationship between sleep and daily functioning. Prejudice and Discrimination: Develop a questionnaire to measure people's perceptions of prejudice and discrimination in various social contexts Happiness and Life Satisfaction: Create a questionnaire to evaluate an individual's overall happiness and life satisfaction, including factors contributing to their well-being Eating Behaviors and Nutrition: Design a questionnaire to investigate eating habits, attitudes toward food, and their impact on physical and mental health Workplace Stress and Burnout: Design a questionnaire to investigate the causes and consequences of workplace stress and employee burnout.