Assignment: 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. If you are designing a study involving math anxiety among freshman high school students, you could ask them to freely express their thoughts and feelings about math anxiety and you could 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 select their answers from a given list of options. What could be the benefits and challenges in using each of these formats? You need to be able to answer such questions before you decide on a format for your study.

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

To prepare:

• Review Chapter 4 from the course text.

The Assignment (1 page):

Respond to the following:

• Explain which particular free-format self-report measure (e.g., select from projective measures, associative lists,) you would prefer to administer if you were a researcher, and explain why. Would you prefer a different one if you were a participant in the study? Explain.

• Explain which particular fixed-format self-report measure (e.g. Likert type scale, semantic differential) you would prefer to administer if you were a researcher, and explain why. Would you prefer a different one if you were a participant in the study? Explain.

Note: Support the responses within your Assignment with evidence from the assigned Learning Resources. Provide a reference list for resources you used for this Assignment.

Submit your Assignment by Day 7.

Resources to use:

Stangor, C. (2015). Research methods for the behavioral sciences (5th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Chapter 4, "Measures"
Chapter 5, "Reliability and Validity"