Evaluating the Use of Additional Questions in Sleep Quality Research

This essay will explore the researcher's rationale for incorporating additional questions into a questionnaire designed to assess students' perceived sleep quality, specifically focusing on mitigating demand characteristics.

Demand Characteristics and Validity in Research

Demand characteristics are cues within a research setting that might lead participants to infer the study's purpose and alter their behaviour, including responses on questionnaires, to align with those perceived expectations. This can significantly threaten the validity of the research, as participants' responses may not reflect their genuine experiences or opinions but rather their interpretations of what the researcher expects or desires.

The Strategic Use of Distraction

In this particular case, the researcher likely included additional questions to distract students from the primary focus on sleep quality. By introducing questions unrelated to sleep, such as those concerning academic workload, social activities, or dietary habits, the students' attention is diverted, making it less obvious that the study centers around sleep. This strategic distraction serves to reduce the salience of the sleep quality rating scale (1-10) and makes it less likely that participants will consciously or unconsciously manipulate their responses to fit a perceived hypothesis.

Reducing Demand Characteristics and Enhancing Validity

By masking the true aim of the study, the researcher effectively minimizes the potential for demand characteristics to contaminate the data. Students are less likely to suspect that the researcher is looking for a specific relationship between certain factors and sleep quality. This increases the likelihood that their responses on the sleep quality rating scale will be more honest and accurate reflections of their actual sleep experiences. Consequently, the validity of the study is significantly enhanced, as the findings are more likely to represent genuine patterns and relationships rather than artifacts of participant reactivity.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the researcher's decision to include additional, distracting questions in the questionnaire was a strategic move to mitigate demand characteristics and improve the validity of the study. By diverting students' attention from the central focus on sleep quality, the researcher aimed to elicit more authentic and unbiased responses, ultimately strengthening the reliability and generalizability of the findings.