Interviews: Positives and Negatives

Interviews: Positives and Negatives

1. Structured Interviews

   • Practical issues
     • Positives
       • Training is inexpensive
       • Can cover a large amount of people
       • Suitable for gathering factual information
       • Information is relatively easy to quantify
     • Negatives
       • Can't match the high amount of people covered by email questionaires
       • Could be more cheaply out-performed by questionnaires
   • Response Rate
     • Positives
       • High response rate
       • Many people find it harder to turn down face-to-face interviews
       • Can be improved with persistent call backs
     • Negatives
       • Lower response rate than questionaires
       • Possible ethical issues if someone feels pressured to disclose information
   • Reliability
     • Positives
       • Each interview is conducted the same way
       • High reliability meaning easy comparisons
     • Negative
       • Reliability can be difficult if there are multiple researchers.
   • Validity
     • Positives
       • The presence of an interviewer may support honesty
     • Negatives
       • The close ended questions restrict interviewees to pre-set answers
       • Very little room to clarify or explain
       • People may lie or exaggerate
   • Inflexibility
     • Negatives
       • Inflexible due to questions being developed in advance
       • Lack of flexibility causes damage to validity
   • Femenist Critiques
     • The researcher is in a position of authority
     • Survey methods treat people as isolated and in complete control often ignoring power relationships oppressing them
     • Surveys impose researcers catagories on interviewees

2. Unstructured Interviews

   • Rapport and sensitivity
     • Positives
       • The informality of unstructured interviews is allows for Rapport to be developed
         • Rapport: A relationship of trust and understanding
       • Allows for the research of more sensitive topics comfortably for the interviewee
     • Negative
       • Rapport should be used ethically and exploitation shouid be avoided
   • Interviewee's view
     • Positives
       • Gives interviewee's the ability to speak about what they think are important
       • More likely to create fresh insights
   • Checking understanding
     • Positives
       • If the interviewee does not understand a question it can be clarified
       • If the interviewer is unsure of what the interviewee means they can ask follow-up questions
   • Flexibility
     • Positivies
       • The interviewer isn't restricted to a set of pre-made questions
       • The researcher can formulate new hypothesis and ideas and test them during the interview
   • Exploring unfamiliar topics
     • Positives
       • Unstructured interviews are more useful in exploring unknown topics
       • Interviewers can find initial ideas about a topic and develop questions from there
   • Practical negatives
     • Time and sample size
       • These in depth explorations often take longer to do and can be very costly as they require more interviewers
     • Training
       • The large amount of interviewers result an expanded need for training costing more money
     • Interpersonal skills
   • Representativeness
     • The smaller sample size means that it is less representativeness
     • Representativeness is damaged as there are not enough people to accurately represent wider society
   • Reliability
     • Researchers are able to ask whatever questions they want meaning that it would be difficult to replicate
     • The participant is free to answer as they see fit
   • Quantification
     • The questions are open-ended meaning answers can't be pre-coded
   • Validity
     • Critics argue that interaction between interviewer and interviewee damage validity
     • However they typically produce valid data