Interviews

Interviews

1. Unstructured: like a guided conversation

   • Advatages
     • Rapport
       • The informal setting/atmosphere makes it easy for the interviewee to be honest with and trust the interviewer.
     • Interviewees view
       • This method is more flexible which enables the interviewee to discuss other topics which can be useful
     • Checking uderstanding
       • The interviewer can clear up any misunderstandings of any questions so that the interviewee can answer it better.
   • Disadvantages
     • Practical issues
       • They take a lot of time to conduct and can possibly be several hours per person.
     • Reliability
       • Less reliable because they are not standardised.
     • Validity
       • Due to rapport being made, the interviewee and possibly interviewer can distort the information gathered.

2. Structured: spoken questionnaire

   • Practical issues
     • Training interviewers can be relatively straightforward but add to extra cost
     • A lot of people can be interviewed because they are fairly quick to carry out
     • Useful to gather factual information about individuals
     • Results are easily quantified due to closed ended questions
   • Response rate
     • Large amounts of people can be interviewed which increases representativeness.
   • Reliability
     • Structured interviews are more reliable because it is easy for the researcher to standardize and control.
   • Validity
     • Lack validity due to closed ended questions which give participants little freedom in answers. Participants may also lie
   • Inflexibility
     • The researcher's pre-constructed questions mean the researcher has decided what is important for the study. The participant may disagree.