QUESTIONNAIRES & INTERVIEWS
SPECIFICATION: Self-report techniques, questionnaires, and interviews, both structured and unstructured. Questionnaire construction, including open and closed questions; interview design
INTERVIEWS
“Conducting interviews is complex, labour intensive and uncertain business fraught with tricky issues that psychologists are often ill-equipped to address (Bannister et al., 1995).”
Despite these difficulties, the interview is a common way of carrying out research, it may form the basis of a case study or may be used as a way of measuring the dependant variable. It can also be used to collect data similar to questionnaire surveys.
There are several species of interviews, each with its advantages and disadvantages. Only the main types will be considered here.
STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
Structured interviews usually aim to produce quantitative data (closed questions) and include questions that are decided in advance to structure the interviewee’s response in their answer.
ADVANTAGES OF STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
The structured approach has several advantages. The interviewer and interviewee are less likely to deviate from the topic that is the desired focus of the interview.
Also, data analysis is pretty straightforward as the researcher is just counting quantitative measurements.
Training of interviewers is relatively straightforward and cheap because the position requires no expertise, so minimal training.
DISADVANTAGES OF STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
The researcher cannot follow new lines of inquiry that become apparent during the interview.
The results may lack internal validity as questions don’t match the experience of the interviewee so their answers have no validity.
UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
The interviewer has an aim in mind at the outset but is willing to be flexible about getting answers. The interviewer tries not to direct the interviewee but listens and lets the interview take its natural course.
ADVANTAGES
Lots of qualitative information can be gathered
The interviewee made to feel relaxed
DISADVANTAGES
Difficult to analyse, especially if different participants discuss different issues
Low reliability
Impossible to replicate
SEMI-STRUCTURED-INTERVIEW
Semi‐structured interviews comprise primarily prepared questions that can be supplemented with additional questions as the interviewer sees fit. As with unstructured interviews, the interviewer can deviate from the original questions, and consequently, this type of interview also typically produces rich qualitative data.
Evaluation of Semi‐Structured Interviews
The use of semi‐structured interviews can increase the validity of findings. The open questions in semi-structured interviews may encourage the participants to be honest in their answers, thus reducing social desirability bias as participants can justify their answers in their own words with opinions. However, the interviewer still retains control over the semi‐structured interview schedule compared to an unstructured interview, which can result in investigator effects that can affect the participants' behaviour negatively.
Semi‐structured interviews generate rich and interesting qualitative data. As with unstructured interviews, the interviewer can clarify the meaning of the participants’ responses and gain further information if required. This provides a unique insight into explaining human behaviour. However, as a result, analysis of such data can be more difficult, time-consuming and expensive to conduct compared to quantitative data, which is easier to statistically analyse without undergoing further processing beforehand.
CLINICAL INTERVIEW
These were made popular by Freud and, in particular, Piaget and are a type of informal interview. Piaget, for example, would read ‘moral stories’ to a child and start by asking the same questions to all the children, for example, ‘Who is the naughtier boy in the stories.’ However, follow-up questions would be informal and vary from child to child.
Freud practised psychoanalysis, which involved free recall techniques and analysis of dreams.
Note: sometimes the questions may be open and allow the interviewee to respond how they like, for example ‘how did you feel when Freddie ate your pet hamster?’ Or they can be closed and allow only a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response. For example ‘were you upset when Freddie ate your pet hamster?’
DISADVANTAGES
Psychoanalysis has subjective interpretations.
Piaget’s techniques were unscientific.
Participants could be reluctant to talk about private and personal information.
SOCIAL DESIRABILITY BIAS
We all like to create a favourable impression. When faced with an interviewer, we are less likely to be honest than when filling out an anonymous questionnaire. For example, people being questioned about their love life are likely to exaggerate in face-to-face interviews.
Lie scales can be introduced to assess how honest answers may be. For example if people were being questioned about their childhood a ‘lie question’ might be; ‘As a child did you always do as you were told first time and without moaning?’ A response of ‘yes’ would be assumed to be a fib and indicate that perhaps the interviewee’s answers may not be reliable.
QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEYS
We all know what questionnaires are and have all filled lots of them during our lifetimes. A questionnaire is a list of written questions that can quickly and cheaply gather relevant information.
However, when determining questionnaires from correlations and experiments that use questionnaires, things get trickier. It can be unclear to determine the type of research method used if questionnaires are in the mix. This is because questionnaires are not just used in surveys; they are also used in experiments and correlations. For example, the “Social Readjustment Rating Scale” (SRRS) by Homes and Rahe (1967) was developed to measure stress and given to participants to measure traumatic events in their lives.
If the SRRS were the only measure taken from participants, it would be considered a questionnaire survey. Still, the results from the SRRS were correlated with illnesses the participants had suffered from in the past year. Therefore, this study is not an example of a questionnaire survey; it is an example of a correlation that used questionnaires to gather its data.
The criteria for choosing a questionnaire survey over other methods is that in true questionnaire surveys, participants only do one thing, e.g., ALL participants are answering one questionnaire only, and no other measures or conditions happen.
SURVEY: A survey systematically gathers data from many people, usually questionnaires. Surveys are carried out on carefully selected representative groups (see sampling) so that the researcher can generalise to the broader population. Questionnaire surveys can be used in a wide range of research situations. They allow researchers to ask participants questions about, for example, their attitudes, behaviours, or intentions.
Questionnaires can be:
Written and sent by post or deposited in a drop box
Sent by email
Posted online
Answered when the researcher is present.
Some participants require personal data; others can be anonymous.
SURVEY EXAMPLES: Census, Social Trends,
QUESTIONNAIRE EXAMPLES: SRRS, Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAD scale); IQ tests; eating Attitudes test (EAT). Any test that measures psychological distress and well-being.
ADVANTAGES
Questionnaire surveys can be quick, cheap and easy to analyse if they are online, anonymous and need no researcher intervention. Other types of questionnaire surveys are more problematic, e.g., those that need personal data or require qualitative analysis.
Lots of people can be tested quickly
Data can often be analysed easily
Some participants might find it easier to express their feelings on paper, e.g., they are not articulate or embarrassed to talk about personal life events.
Questionnaire surveys can gather vast amounts of data; this allows more reliable generalisation to the overall population.
DISADVANTAGES
If the wording of the questions is unclear, then this will affect internal validity, e.g., the answers will be invalid. This may occur because the researcher has used jargon or did not anticipate literacy issues with some participants.
Leading questions may also influence responses given, for example it is clear what is being encouraged with the following question “ Do you think spending money on education is a good thing?
Researcher effects: If the researcher administers the questionnaire, the participants may be affected by their appearance, e.g., investigator effects such as gender, ethnicity, religion, class, occupation, accent, etc. Even body language, such as nods and smiles, can influence responses or create demand characteristics and social desirability bias.
Researcher bias: Researcher bias may arise when analysing qualitative data.
Low response rate: less than 30% of people respond to questionnaire surveys. Lots of questionnaires will not be returned!
Questionnaire surveys are not empirical; they do not show cause and effect. They are great for preliminary research or for situations where experiments would be unethical or impossible.
People may tell fibs. Even in anonymous questionnaires,, this may be an issue. Again, lie questions may be included, e.g., in Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire (EPQ).
DESIGNING QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEYS
One of the biggest problems with designing questionnaire surveys is the wording of the questions. Firstly there is the issue of ‘open’ or ‘closed’, questions. Open questions and closed questions collect quantitative data (see data handling and analysis if you are unfamiliar with these concepts).
Below is an example of a closed question using quantitative data.
Q. Why did you start vaping?
Please circle any reason below that caused you to start smoking:
PEER-PRESSURE STRESS COPIED-SOMEONE-YOU-ADMIRED BOREDOM TO-LOSE-WEIGHT TO-LOOK-COOL OTHER
An open-ended question is a question that cannot be answered with a "yes" or "no" response or with a static response. Open-ended questions are phrased as statements that require a longer personalised response.
FOR EXAMPLE:
Q) Why did you start vaping?
A)________________________________________________________________________________________________________
But more importantly, there is the issue of leading questions. These are a favourite of politicians or newspapers wanting to find support or criticism of a particular issue. For example, imagine you wanted to find out if people wanted more money spent on the NHS; a relatively neutral question might be
‘Should more money be spent on the NHS?’
The Mirror (presumably wanting a ‘yes’ response might get their pollsters to ask:
‘Should extra money be provided to the NHS to care for Britain’s sick and elderly?’
Whereas the Telegraph (being very stereotypical here) may get their pollsters to ask:
‘Would you be happy to pay more taxes to fund bureaucracy in the NHS?’
Rather extreme examples, admittedly, real surveys carried out by experienced pollsters would be far more subtle, but you get the idea! t is always a good idea to test your questionnaire in a pilot study first to ensure it doesn’t take hours to complete and that participants understand the questions. Feedback like this may provide ideas for follow-up questions in the real study.
OTHER DESIGN ISSUES IN QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEYS
OPEN OR CLOSED QUESTIONS, e.g., quantitative or qualitative data?: See above for examples.
QUESTION ORDER: For example, questions about demographic data (such as age, address, etc) come 1st and sensitive questions later.
AVOID UNNECESSARY JARGON: Don’t assume your respondents know the multi-store memory model. Use plain English.
AVOID LEADING QUESTIONS: For example, “Was the suspect’s dress green or blue?” See Loftus and eyewitness testimony for more on this and the cognitive interview.
AVOID EMOTIVE QUESTIONS: For example, “ Do you think killing defenceless animals in abattoirs is bad?”
AVOID DOUBLE BARREL QUESTIONS: For example, “Do you think life is stressful, or was it more stressful five years ago?”
AVOID VALUE JUDGEMENTS: For example, “What is your occupation?” or “How many children do you have?”
AVOID VAGUENESS OR AMBIGUITY: For example, How much do you smoke?: NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES OFTEN. These terms are subjective and need to be replaced with -
How much do you smoke?
0 1-5 6-10 11-20 20+
CONDUCT A PILOT STUDY TO ASCERTAIN THE READABILITY OF YOUR QUESTIONNAIRE.
TYPICAL QUESTIONS
Describe two disadvantages of investigations using correlational analysis (2 + 2 marks)
Identify the research method used in this study and explain one advantage and one disadvantage of this method. (2 + 2 marks)
Give one advantage of using a questionnaire in this study. (2 marks)
Following the survey, an observational study into under-age drinking was decided upon. Outline procedures for carrying out such an observation. (6 marks)
