Structured interview

Structured interview

1. Practical

   • Less time consuming compared to questionnaires- quick to obtain answers
     • Inflexible and time restricted meaning less information is collected
   • Response rate is faster
     • Sticking to schedule means no chance to follow up responses
   • Cheaper as you only require one generic form or questionnaire to hand out
     • Only takes a snapshot of that moment and may disregard any theories or interviewees context
   • Close ended questions are easily quantifiable so it is quick and easy to administer
     • answers are vague and not detailed enough so the findings are harder to generalise

2. Ethical

   • Willingness to participate in research shows informed consent
     • Some questions may trigger emotional trauma- sensitive topics
   • Briefing and debriefing explains the purpose of the interview and makes the participant aware they are not obliged to answer any questions that make them feel uncomfortable
     • Questions may be blunt and close ended so participants may feel pressurised to answer as they don't have to go into context
   • Able to guarantee anonymity and confidentially as their name etc. is not needed
     • Feminists argue SI's cause social desirability to give correct answers

3. Theoretical

   • Positivists prefer this method as it produces quantitative data
     • Interpretivist don't like this research method as it is objective. It doesn't uncover meanings that society uses to construct social reality
   • Large amounts of data allows researcher to make correlations and comparisons which leads to trends and patterns that back up theories
     • Interpretivists think valid data can only be achieved through creating verstehen and rapport with the sample
   • Hypothesis testing can establish correlations between variables and back up theories
     • May be no context or out of date information