Interviews

Interviews

1. Positivists vs Interpritivists

   • Positivists see interviews as revealing the attitudes and behaviours of people in their everyday lives
   • Interpritivists claim the interviews are artificial situations and only reveal what the interviewee wants the interviewer to know
   • Interpretivists prefer unstructured interviews because they are more valid
   • Positivists prefer structured interviews because they are more reliable

2. Interviewer bias

   • Answers in interviews may be distorted or influenced in some way by the presence, appearance, or behaviour of the interviewer. This means that the differences between respondents might be the result of interviewer bias, rather than the differences between people.
   • Interviewer bias can cause issues with validity

3. Structured/Formal Interviews

   • What are they?
     • Preferred by positivists
     • They are based around a structured, pre-coded questionnaire known as the "interview schedule"
   • Strengths
     • They overcome problems with literacy
     • They are reliable because all respondents answer the same questions and results can be compared with other groups and replicated by other interviewers to check findings
     • They are good for obtaining facts, such as age, sex and occupation.
     • They provide easily classified quantitative data
     • Interviewer bias is reduced because their is little contact between the interviewer and the interviewee, however, the interviewer is available to clear up any misunderstandings which may arise
     • There are few ethical problems because people are given a choice and are told what the interview is about
   • Weaknesses
     • They are more time consuming and costly than self-completion questionnaires and interviewers have to be paid and trained
     • Interpritivists argue that they suffer from the imposition problem due to the use of the structured interview schedule
     • There is the possibility of interviewer bias
     • Feminists believe that structured interviews are patriarchal as the interviewer may impose their own framework so that women can't express their feelings and give a distorted, invalid picture of their experience, therefore their answers are unreliable.
     • They are inflexible because you can't pursue any other ideas and don't measure change

4. Unstructured/Informal Interviews

   • What are they?
     • Unstructured interviews resemble a guided conversation. They may include open-ended questions or no questions at all. They might be carried out with groups, including focus groups, who might discuss a particular topic in depth
   • Advantages
     • Interpritivists claim that informal interviews offer greater flexibility, providing participants with the opportunity to be more open and say what they really feel
     • The researcher can develop ideas and change direction during the course of the interview if new ideas emerge
     • Ambiguities and other issues can be clarified easily and the interviewer can probe to uncover nuance
     • The interviewer can form a trusting relationship with the participant so they can open up on sensitive topics
     • Interviewers can assess the honesty and validity of replies during the course of the interview
     • They avoid ethical issues, as taking part implies informed consent and interviewees can refuse to answer questions
   • Disadvantages
     • They are very time consuming and costly, which might man that fewer interviews can take place
     • Because the data is qualitative, it takes longer to analyse findings
     • Positivists claim they are less reliable because of their unstructured design, making comparison and replication difficult
     • How successful an interview is, relies partly on how well the interviewer conducts the interview, differences in responses that may reflect characteristics, skills or personal qualities of the interviewer, rather than differences between respondents
     • Positivists claim it is difficult to compare responses from different people because they may express themselves in different ways
     • Critics may argue that the relationship between the interviewer and the participant makes their answers distorted and invalid.

5. Response Rate

   • Response rate is high because it is hard to turn down a face to face request and interviewers can persuade people to answer questions.
   • Therefore large numbers of responses make interviews more representative.

6. Group Interviews

   • Strengths
     • Participants feel more comfortable to open up
     • Participants stimulate each other's thinking, sparking debates and discussions, giving them a richer set of data.
   • Weaknesses
     • One or two people may dominate the interview
     • Peer pressure and conformity may inhibit their true thoughts being expressed, and instead participants conceal, distort, or exaggerate their responses.
     • Data is difficult to analyse