What is the difference between open and closed questions in a questionnaire?
A: Open questions are used at the start; closed questions are used at the end
B: Closed questions offer a fixed set of responses (e.g. rating scales, multiple choice); open questions allow participants to respond freely in their own words
C: Open questions measure attitude strength; closed questions measure attitude direction
D: Closed questions are scored by participants; open questions are scored by the researcher
Correct: Closed questions offer a fixed set of responses (e.g. rating scales, multiple choice); open questions allow participants to respond freely in their own words
Closed questions constrain the response options: Likert scales ("strongly agree" to "strongly disagree"), yes/no items, multiple-choice options. They generate quantitative data that is easy to analyse statistically and to compare across large samples, but they restrict what participants can say and may not capture the nuance of their actual views. Open questions invite participants to write or say as much or as little as they wish, generating qualitative data rich in detail and unexpected content — but harder to quantify and compare. Most questionnaire research uses a mix: closed items for standardised measurement and statistical comparison; open items to capture additional depth. The choice should match the research question.
What is a leading question and why is it a problem in questionnaire design?
A: A question placed first in the questionnaire to guide participants into the research context; a problem because it introduces order effects
B: A question whose wording suggests an expected or desired answer, thereby biasing the responses in a particular direction rather than capturing genuine attitudes or experiences
C: A question with more than four response options; a problem because it increases cognitive load
D: A question that only applies to some participants; a problem because it forces non-relevant responders to skip items
Correct: A question whose wording suggests an expected or desired answer, thereby biasing the responses in a particular direction rather than capturing genuine attitudes or experiences
Leading questions contaminate the measurement of the construct of interest by suggesting the "right" answer. The classic psychology demonstration comes from Loftus and Palmer (1974): witnesses asked "How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?" gave higher speed estimates than those asked "How fast were the cars going when they contacted each other?" — the verb "smashed" led to higher estimates. In questionnaire design, a question like "Do you agree that sleep deprivation harms concentration?" leads respondents toward agreement more than the neutral "Does sleep deprivation affect concentration?" Avoiding leading questions requires careful wording, piloting items with a sample, and ideally having the questionnaire reviewed by researchers not invested in the outcome.
What characterises a structured interview, and what advantage does it have over an unstructured interview?
A: A structured interview is conducted in a laboratory; advantage is control over the environment
B: Every participant is asked the same predetermined questions in the same order; advantage is standardisation — responses are directly comparable across participants, and the format is more reliable and easier to analyse quantitatively
C: Questions are developed collaboratively with the participant; advantage is participant engagement
D: The interviewer can probe any topic they find interesting; advantage is flexibility to follow unexpected leads
Correct: Every participant is asked the same predetermined questions in the same order; advantage is standardisation — responses are directly comparable across participants, and the format is more reliable and easier to analyse quantitatively
A structured interview uses a fixed question schedule — the interviewer asks exactly the same questions in the same order to every participant, with no deviations. This mirrors the format of a questionnaire delivered verbally, producing data that can be quantitatively compared across participants. The main advantages are reliability (different interviewers or the same interviewer on different occasions will conduct essentially the same interview) and ease of analysis. The main disadvantage is inflexibility — if a participant raises something interesting that falls outside the schedule, the interviewer cannot explore it. This contrasts with unstructured interviews (conversational, following the participant's lead, highly flexible but difficult to analyse systematically) and semi-structured interviews (predetermined themes with flexibility to probe).
What is a semi-structured interview, and for what type of research question is it best suited?
A: An interview lasting exactly half of a standard interview; suited to studies with tight time constraints
B: An interview with a set of predetermined topic areas and key questions, but where the interviewer is free to probe, rephrase, and follow unexpected directions within those topics; best suited to exploring participants' experiences and meanings in depth while retaining comparability across interviews
C: An interview where half the questions are open and half are closed; suited to mixed-methods designs
D: An interview conducted by two researchers simultaneously; suited to sensitive topics requiring co-facilitation
Correct: An interview with a set of predetermined topic areas and key questions, but where the interviewer is free to probe, rephrase, and follow unexpected directions within those topics; best suited to exploring participants' experiences and meanings in depth while retaining comparability across interviews
Semi-structured interviews occupy the middle ground: the researcher prepares a topic guide (key questions and themes to cover) but exercises discretion about how to phrase questions, how much to probe a particular answer, and whether to follow up on unexpected but relevant material the participant raises. They are the most commonly used interview format in qualitative psychology. They are best suited to questions about participants' experiences, perceptions, meanings, or accounts of complex situations — topics where standardised closed questions would oversimplify, but where some structure is needed to ensure all participants address the same core issues. The resulting data, while not as easily quantified as structured interview data, is richer and more sensitive to individual variation.
What is naturalistic observation and what is its principal advantage?
A: Observing animals rather than humans; advantage is that animal behaviour is simpler to code reliably
B: Observing behaviour in the participant's everyday environment without manipulation or intervention; advantage is high ecological validity — the behaviour observed reflects what actually happens in real life, unaffected by artificial experimental conditions
C: Observing without any predetermined coding categories; advantage is openness to unexpected findings
D: Observing only natural, spontaneous behaviour rather than elicited responses; advantage is that no ethics approval is required
Correct: Observing behaviour in the participant's everyday environment without manipulation or intervention; advantage is high ecological validity — the behaviour observed reflects what actually happens in real life, unaffected by artificial experimental conditions
Naturalistic observation involves watching and recording behaviour as it occurs in participants' natural settings — playgrounds, workplaces, homes, public spaces — without the researcher introducing any experimental conditions or interventions. The principal advantage is ecological validity: because no artificial situation has been created, the behaviour observed represents what people actually do in those contexts. This makes naturalistic observation particularly valuable for studying phenomena that might not transfer to a laboratory (e.g. aggressive behaviour in social groups, attachment behaviour between caregivers and infants, social norms in public spaces). The main limitations are lack of control (extraneous variables cannot be managed), inability to establish causation, and potential observer effects.
What is the difference between overt and covert observation?
A: Overt observation takes place in public; covert observation takes place in private settings
B: In overt observation, participants know they are being observed; in covert observation, they do not — the researcher disguises their presence or blends into the setting
C: Overt observation uses video recording; covert observation uses written field notes
D: Overt observation codes pre-specified behaviours; covert observation is open-ended
Correct: In overt observation, participants know they are being observed; in covert observation, they do not — the researcher disguises their presence or blends into the setting
Overt observation: participants are aware they are being watched (they may have consented to the study, or the researcher is visibly present). This is ethically cleaner but introduces observer effects — participants may behave differently because they know they are being watched (the Hawthorne effect). Covert observation: participants are unaware of being observed, typically because the researcher is concealed or has adopted a natural role in the setting. This eliminates observer effects and yields more genuine behaviour, but raises significant ethical concerns — participants cannot consent to observation they don't know is occurring. Covert observation in public settings (where people have no reasonable expectation of privacy) is less ethically problematic than in private spaces, but must still be justified to an ethics committee.
What is participant observation, and what unique insight does it offer?
A: Observation where participants choose what to do while the researcher watches; offers insight into natural choice behaviour
B: A method where the researcher joins the group being studied — taking on a role within it — to observe behaviour from the inside; offers an emic (insider) perspective that may reveal norms, meanings, and dynamics invisible to an outside observer
C: A method where participants observe each other and report their observations; offers peer-rated behavioural data
D: Observation conducted with the participant's active co-operation in designing the coding scheme; offers ecologically valid measurement categories
Correct: A method where the researcher joins the group being studied — taking on a role within it — to observe behaviour from the inside; offers an emic (insider) perspective that may reveal norms, meanings, and dynamics invisible to an outside observer
In participant observation, the researcher becomes embedded in the group or setting they are studying — joining the community, taking on a role (disclosed or undisclosed), and observing from within rather than from outside. This ethnographic approach is common in social and cultural psychology and sociology. It can be overt (the group knows one member is a researcher) or covert (the researcher's role is concealed). The unique advantage is access to tacit, informal, and context-dependent knowledge that participants might not articulate in an interview and that an outside observer might not recognise as significant. The limitation is researcher bias: prolonged immersion may lead to over-identification with the group (going native) and loss of analytical distance.
What is inter-observer reliability in observational research, and how is it typically checked?
A: The consistency of observations across different settings; checked by running the same observation protocol in multiple locations
B: The consistency of coded results between two independent observers watching the same behaviour; typically checked by having two trained coders independently code the same recording or observation session, then calculating the percentage agreement or Cohen's kappa
C: Whether the same observer gives consistent ratings across different observation sessions; checked by comparing scores from the first and last sessions
D: Whether the observation findings replicate in a second, independent sample; checked by conducting a conceptual replication
Correct: The consistency of coded results between two independent observers watching the same behaviour; typically checked by having two trained coders independently code the same recording or observation session, then calculating the percentage agreement or Cohen's kappa
Observational data is only as good as its coding, and coding requires human judgement — which introduces subjectivity. Inter-observer (inter-rater) reliability tests whether two independent, trained observers watching the same behaviour reach the same conclusions when they apply the coding scheme. It is calculated as percentage agreement (simpler but inflates agreement by including chance coincidences) or Cohen's kappa (adjusts for chance agreement; kappa ≥ 0.7 is typically considered acceptable). Low inter-observer reliability indicates that the behavioural categories are ambiguously defined, that observers need more training, or that the behaviour itself is genuinely difficult to classify. Establishing high inter-observer reliability is a prerequisite for making observational data scientifically credible.
Research Methods: Questionnaires, Interviews & Observations
What is the difference between open and closed questions in a questionnaire?
About this quiz
Experiments are just one tool in psychology's kit. Questionnaires, interviews, and observational methods each offer different windows into human behaviour — and each comes with a characteristic set of strengths, limitations, and design decisions that shape what you can learn.
This quiz covers open and closed questions, the problems of leading questions, structured and unstructured interviews, and the key distinctions in observational research: naturalistic vs controlled, overt vs covert, and participant vs non-participant observation.