Structured interviews

Structured interviews

1. Theories

   • Feminism
     • Reject this method. Believe it is representative of the exploitative naure of gender differences in society
     • Reinharz: "Research is rape". Researchers take the information they want and then dont offer anything in return and just break off the relationship.
     • Ann Oakley: masculine approach to research, high value on objectivity, detachment and hierarchy , science more important than furthering interests of people.
     • Interviewers take an active role: asking questions while interviewees have passive role: objects of study, milked for information
     • Instead they should use methods that allow researcher to understand women's experiences and viewpoint
   • Interpretvism
     • Concerned with uncovering meanings that actors use to construct social reality
       • Need a high validity method to do this
     • Structured Interviews provide a false picture of reality
       • forces interviewees to choose from limited number of answers. If they can't say what they want, the research is invalid.
       • Little room to explain meaning or to clarify misunderstandings
       • Subjects may lie/exaggerate which leads to invalid research
       • Sociologist draws up schedule with little prior knowledge of subject. They have to decide what is important.
     • Interviews as social interaction: social interaction may undermine the validity
       • Status difference: Could affect willingness to cooperate and honesty. Bigger the status difference, the more invalid.
       • Cultural differences: can lead to misunderstandings. Eg; different meanings given to words.
       • Social Desirability: Interviewees may give answers that make them seem more interesting or more normal.

2. Basics

   • Also known as formal interviews
   • Similar to questionnaires
     • Both use maily closed questions
     • Collect mainly quantetative data
   • Conducted in the same way each time; same questions same tone etc.

3. Links to other topics

   • Willmott and young -933 interviewed for symetrical family

4. Advantages

   • Practical
     • Easy for large numbers because they are relatively quick and cheap
     • Good for gathering straightforward simple information (age, gender, religion)
     • Easily quantified for qualitative data because of the closed question format
     • Higher response rate than questionnaires
   • Ethical
     • Very few ethical disadvantages; subjects have already given consent
   • Theoretical
     • Reliable; standerdised proccedure, others can repreat easily, no personal interviewer characteristics...
     • Because they are quick and cheap, you can do a larger number of them. This raises the cance of gaining a representative sample

5. Disadvantages

   • Practical
     • More costly than a questionnaire
     • Inflexible. Intresting leads cant be followed due to rigid nature.
   • Ethical
     • Subjects may feel as if they are being put under pressure with certain answers
   • Theoretical
     • Those willing and with time to participate may be untypical (eg; lonely) so it may not be as representative as it could be