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Self-Report Methods: Design & Application

Introduction to Self-Reports

What are Self-Reports?

Self-report methods, such as questionnaires and interviews, collect data by asking participants directly about attitudes, beliefs, or experiences. Designing these tools properly is crucial to gain accurate and meaningful responses.

Open Questions

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Strengths: Rich Qualitative Data Can provide rich, detailed qualitative data, capturing nuances and unexpected insights.
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Weaknesses: Analysis Difficulty Responses are diverse and may be hard to compare or analyse statistically. The response quality depends on participant expressiveness and interpretation.

Closed Questions

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Strengths: Statistical Analysis Easy to quantify and analyse statistically; straightforward for participants to answer.
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Weaknesses: Lack of Depth May limit responses and miss subtlety or depth of opinion.

Rating Scales

Rating scales ask participants to evaluate attitudes or feelings on a scale, turning qualitative opinions into quantitative data.

Likert Rating Scale

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Purpose

Participants indicate their level of agreement with statements, commonly using 5 or 7 points (e.g., Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree).
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Example

"I feel stressed at work," rated from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree).

Likert: Strengths & Weaknesses

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Strength: Captures Intensity Captures intensity of feelings and is easy to analyse statistically using averages and percentages.
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Weakness: Bias Responses can be influenced by social desirability, and midpoint responses ("Neutral") may reduce clarity.

Semantic Differential Scale

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Mechanism

This scale asks participants to rate something on a continuum between two bipolar adjectives, usually on a 7-point scale.
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Usefulness

Useful in measuring attitudes or perceptions by exploring their dimensions.

Semantic Differential: Interpretation Issues

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What's the main drawback of using bipolar adjectives?
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Interpretation can be subjective, and the meaning of the poles may not be equally understood by all.

Design Considerations: Reliability

1

Wording Quality

Clear, non-leading wording is essential to avoid confusion and bias.
2

Piloting

Piloting questions can help identify ambiguities and improve reliability.

Practical Pro Tip

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Reducing Social Desirability Bias: Responses should be collected anonymously where possible to reduce social desirability bias, and the method should suit the target population’s literacy and language skills.

Self-Report Methods Deck
Term
Self-Report Methods

What are self-report methods?

Answer
Definition

Techniques like questionnaires and interviews where participants provide data about their attitudes, beliefs, or experiences.

Term
Open Question

What is an open question in self-report methods?

Answer
Definition

A question allowing participants to answer in their own words with no fixed options.

Term
Strength of Open Questions

Name one strength of open questions.

Answer
Advantage

They provide rich, detailed qualitative data with nuanced insights.

Term
Closed Question

What is a closed question?

Answer
Definition

A question that limits answers to a fixed set of options, such as yes/no or multiple-choice.

Term
Advantage of Closed Questions

What is one advantage of closed questions?

Answer
Advantage

They are easy to quantify and analyze statistically.

Term
Data from Rating Scales

What type of data do rating scales produce?

Answer
Data Type

Quantitative data by converting qualitative opinions into numerical values.

Term
Likert Scale

Describe the Likert rating scale.

Answer
Definition

Participants rate their agreement with statements on a 5- or 7-point scale from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.

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Weakness of Likert Scales

What is a key weakness of Likert scales?

Answer
Weakness

Responses can be influenced by social desirability and neutral options may lessen clarity.

Term
Semantic Differential Scale

What does a semantic differential scale measure?

Answer
Definition

Attitudes or perceptions by rating on a continuum between two opposite adjectives.

Term
Design Consideration

What is an important design consideration for self-report methods?

Answer
Consideration

Use clear, non-leading wording and pilot test questions to improve reliability.

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📋 Survey Design Quiz

1. Which of the following is a strength of open questions?

Open questions allow participants to elaborate freely, offering depth and nuance that closed questions may lack.

2. Which scale asks participants to rate agreement from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree?

Likert scales measure levels of agreement with specific statements.

3. What is a main disadvantage of closed questions?

Closed questions restrict answers, potentially excluding important attitudes or nuances.

4. Why is pilot testing questions important in self-report design?

Piloting helps detect unclear or leading questions, enhancing the quality of data collected.

5. Which rating scale uses bipolar adjectives such as “Happy — Sad”?

This scale measures attitudes along a continuum between opposite adjectives.

📊 Results

  • Notes and Quiz
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