UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW

UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW

1. An unstructured interview is like an informal, open-ended chat.

   • Interviewer may use headings as guides for questioning, but many of the questions will just follow on from what the subject has said
     • Relaxed atmosphere is created
     • AKA in-depth interview or ethnographic interview
   • Subject led rather than researcher led
   • Qualitative data is collected therefore this method is preferred by interpretivist sociologists

2. ADVANTAGES

   • VALIDITY - Attempts to get at social reality. For this reason, they tend to produce data which is high in validity. Respondents can give detailed explanations and describe their feelings and experiences in depth.
   • VALIDITY - Interviewee can build up a relationship and rapport with the interviewer which can encourage the interviewee to talk about personal and sensitive topics.
     • i.e in Dobash and Dobash's study of domestic violence. They were able to extract data with regard to women's worst and severest experiences of violence.
     • ETHICAL - It is easy to gain informed consent. This ensures that the research is ethically acceptable and that the researcher is adhering to ethical codes of conduct.
   • OBJECTIVE - A trained interviewer should remain objective during the data collection process and should not let their bias influence their findings. Here, the interviewer does not dominate the conversation as it should mainly consist of the interviewee talking.

3. DISADVANTAGES

   • VALIDITY - Respondents can be affected by social desirability bias. They may want to present themselves in a positive light and not express their true feelings. i.e women in the Dobash' study may feel ashamed about their experiences of domestic violence.
   • ETHICAL - Due to the often sensitive nature of unstructured interviews, caution should be taken in regards to the intrusive nature of some questions. Women in the Dobash' study would have certainly found it difficult to talk of their abuse.
   • RELIABILITY - Positivists do not favour unstructured interviews as there are features that make them unreliable. This can come from the bias of the interviewer who might influence the direction of the interview, and it's conversational nature makes it difficult for it to be repeated.
   • REPRESENATIVENESS - Unstructured interviews are often very time-consuming [a practical issue]. i.e in Oakley's study, each of her 66 interviews took approx 2 hours and 30 mins to complete. This impacts the sample size as it is impractical to access a large audience.