Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

All the students’ responses to the questions had to be completed on trust and it was
hoped that they completed them honestly and to the best of their ability. Dr. Long’s
experience of providing interviews and obtaining clear data was essential. She recapped,
checked answers and engaged conversationally with the students about the
answers to help them to think and react genuinely without showing prejudice or
judgment. Her knowledge in administering questionnaires and her wealth of
experience working with young people meant that the data collected was as reliable
and valid as possible. She knew the youth culture and was able to test for
misinformation, as in the following example.
Vignette 9.1
Towards the end of the 75 questions, one of the statements read: ‘I tell lies’ to
which one student ticked the response 'always'. At this point Dr. Long asked
him whether he had told any lies that morning and whether any of his answers
up to that point had been among them. He smiled wryly and said “yes”. He
agreed to go back over his other answers and point out the ones which he had
lied about. Dr. Long thanked him for his honesty.
Finally, due to the large number of questions on each topic (self-concept, anxiety and
disruptive behaviour), some students were likely to have become wary of the
interviewer’s motive and, on realising the theme, started to avoid giving honest
answers. Alternatively, students might have lacked understanding or given a kneejerk
reaction to the questions.
‘All self-reports are subject to response error. But validation studies, which
incorporate a comparison between self-reports and records, suggest that some
respondents sometimes perceive some topics as threatening… [and] seem to
elicit from some respondents a tendency to present themselves in a socially
desirable way. This tendency may lead to over-reports of socially desirable
behaviours or to under-reports of threatening behaviours’ (Schaeffer, 2000,
p.105).
! #"*!