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Recreating Experiences: Improving the Validity of Data

This paper explores the dynamics of peoples' responses to questions and uses case studies to explore ways in which the validity of data can be improved. Much social research takes for granted that the process of asking questions through interview, survey or focus groups provides accurate data about behaviour, perceptions and attitudes. However, the literature suggests that many questionnaires produce inaccurate data. Cognitive psychologists report that people tend to minimise the difficult recall or imaginative tasks when answering questions. Instead, respondents use ‘schemas’ or ‘scripts’ to interpret and respond to their immediate situation. A schema provides a ‘logic’ or ‘rationality’ that informs their responses. Some practitioners have found that they get more robust results by asking respondents to recreate mentally, specific events before asking questions based on those events.