SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY PHASE 4
Problems on attitudes values opinions and others may not be tackled by the use of observation; it would require the use of survey method, which involves questionnaires, rating scales or interview. Questionnaires consist of carefully formulated questions in the area of interest. Questionnaire can either be structured or unstructured or the combination of the two. It is structured if alternative answers are provided from which respondents select one answer that corresponds their opinions on a particular question. For example, yes, No, I don't know or strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, strongly disagree etc. May be provided as alternative answers. The unstructured type leaves the answer open to respondents to respond freely sometimes, questionnaires are in form of test, scale, inventories etc. Whichever one that is adopted, a questionnaire must be valid; that is, it must measure what it purports to measure. It must also be reliable; meaning that, it must be consistent over time to make it replicable.
To formulate a good questionnaire, the following guidelines must be adhered to:
The language of the questionnaire must be carefully chosen for easy understanding.
Questions must be clear, precise and short but meaningful.
They must be properly arranged, clearly printed and neat.
A double-barrel question attracting more than one answer should be avoided.
Leading questions suggesting answer should not be asked.
Questions on sensitive personal issues which may be resisted by the respondent should not be included. Avoid asking two or more questions in one question.
A systematic assessment of am individual at intervals over a period of time. It is a special case of longitudinal approach which studied the same group(s) of individuals at regular intervals over time; that is more than assessed at different intervals.
This method is used in the clinical setting, guidance and counselling; but it is equally applicable in social psychology. The method aims at identifying past and present significant influences operating on the individual be gathered from sources like the members of his family, teachers, classmates and neighbours etc.
This method has both merits and demerits. It can yield data that can be used in the clinical setting, guidance and counselling, also a large data can be gathered on the individual. A major drawback of the method is inability to generalize it's findings since the data are collected on only one individual. Another problem is the difficult of !manipulating some variable such as sex, height, intelligent quotient etc. For example, an individual can not be male and female at the same time, neither can a person be both short and tall.
