Application: Self-Report Measures

Methods in Psyc inquiry

Application: Self-Report Measures

Self-report measures are widely used for data collection for psychological studies. There are two types of self-report measures: free-format and fixed-format. Both formats have advantages and disadvantages. As a researcher in psychology, you need to be aware of the benefits and limitations of the formats. If you are designing a study involving math anxiety among freshman students, you could ask them to freely express their thoughts and feelings about math anxiety and record the responses exactly as given. Or, you could present students with a set of questions to measure their levels of math anxiety in which they selected their answers from a given list of options. What could be the challenges in using each of the formats? What could be the benefits in using each of them? You need to be able to answer such questions before you decide on a format for your study.

For this Assignment, you compare the advantages between free-format and fixed-format self-report measures.

To prepare:

• Review pages 72–80 in Chapter 4 of the course text.
• You may also review and research materials (hard copies or online) outside this week’s Learning Resources that are relevant to the Assignment, if you wish.

The Assignment (2 pages):

• Explain what free-format self-report measures and fixed-format self-report measures are and provide specific examples. Plan to devote a paragraph to describing each.
• Compare the advantages of free-format self-report measures and fixed-format self-report measures in a table similar to the one provided below. Provide at least three advantages for each. Paraphrase (put in your own words) rather than directly quoting from the Learning Resources.
  

  Free-format advantages	Fixed-format advantages
  Advantage 1	Advantage 1
  Advantage 2	Advantage 2
  Advantage 3	Advantage 3

• Respond to one of the following two questions (A or B):
  1. Briefly describe a research study in which a free-format self-report measure will be preferred over fixed-format self-report measure and justify your rationale. Which free-format self-report measure (e.g., projective measure, associative, list etc.) would you prefer to administer if you were a researcher for your chosen study? Justify your rationale for the selection.
  2. Briefly describe a research study in which a fixed-format self-report measure will be preferred over free-format self-report measure and justify your rationale. Which fixed-format self-report measure (e.g., Likert scale, semantic differential, etc.) would you prefer to administer if you were a researcher for the study? Justify your rationale for the selection.