QUANTITATIVE - STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS

QUANTITATIVE - STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS

1. Structured

   • or formal interviews. each interview is conducted in the same standardised way, with precisely the same questions, wording, order, tone of voice

2. unstructured

   • informal, guided conversations. interviewer is free to vary questions, wording, order, asking follow up questions. group interviews are normally done like this e.g. focus groups - where they can discuss certain topics

3. semi-structured

   • interviews that have the same set of questions in common, but the interviewer can also probe for more information and ask additional questions

4. practical issues

   • can cover quite a large number of people because they are quick and fairly cheap to administer
     • young and willmott (1962) interviewed 933 people in this way in their research on families
   • suitable for gathering straightforward factual information such as a persons age, job, religion, daily routine
   • results are easily quantified because they use closed-ended questions and pre-coded answers. suitable for hypothesis testing
   • training interviewers in relatively cheap and straight forward
   • response rates are usually higher then questionnaires - maybe because people find it harder to turn down face to face
     • young and willmott had only 54 refusuals out of 987 people they approached
   • inflexible as interview has been drawn up in advance and must stick to it.
   • fail to capture the dynamic nature of social life

5. theoretical issues

   • positivism
     • hypothesis testing
       • attractive to positivist because enables them to test hypothesis and identify possible cause and effect relationships. establish correlations between variables
     • reliability
       • another sociologist can repeat and obtain the same results. easy to standardise and control. easy to compare their answers to identify similarities and differences
     • representativeness
       • quick and easy and large numbers can be surveyed. can use this data as a basis for making generalisations and cause and effect statements about wider population
   • interpretivism
     • tend to produce a false image. from close - end and pre-coded questions forces interviewee to chose an answer they may not wish which is invalid. little freedom. people may lie or exaggerate. the researcher in advance has decided what is important yet could coincide with the interviewee thinks is important
   • feminism
     • argue relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee reflects exploitative nature of gender relationships in patriarchal society
       • Reinharz (1983) calls this approach data collection 'research rape'
     • Ann Oakley (1981)
       • the researcher takes the active role in asking questions
       • interviewee have a passive role. to be milked for information by answering the questions, they have no role in deciding the subjects or direction of the interview
     • Graham (1983)
       • give distorted and invalid picture of women's experience. making it difficult for them to exposes their experiences and concealing the unequal power relationships between the sexes