Unstructured Interviews

Unstructured Interviews

1. An unstructured interview is a type of survey that takes place face-to-face. It shares many features with a structured interview, but there are many fundamental differences.

   • An unstructured interview, though it may have a loose base or general direction, allows the interviewer to vary the interview, what they say to each person and how they say it.
     • This allows much more in-depth data to be collected and the line of questioning to be more flexible: the data is also more valid.

2. PRACTICAL

   • Unstructured interviews can go on for a long time - maybe a few hours - and this is because they are so in-depth. Being time consuming, unstructured interviews therefore often have smaller sample sizes, especially if it's hard to find funding to interview over a longer time period.
   • Interviewers have to have sociological training, more so than in structured interviews, because they need to be able to recognise if something sociologically significant has been said.
     • This can add to both the time and the amount of money that is required to conduct the interviews.
     • Interviewers also need to have good interpersonal skills to help the interviewee give the best and most honest answers. Not everyone has these skills.

3. ETHICAL

   • Because the questions aren't set by the interviewer, this lessens the risk of the interviewer's own views affecting the information gathered. This is a major advantage of unstructured interviews.
     • Interviewees have the freedom to talk about what THEY deem to be most important, and this makes the data a lot more valid and less biased by preconceptions.
   • Informed consent is needed but it is usually not difficult to get.
     • With unstructured interviews, the interviewer can built a rapport with the interviewee. This allows them to feel more comfortable with topics which, if they were investigated in a less sensitive way, may make a person uncomfortable people may morally object to fewer topics, therefore.
       • Labov studied the language of black American children. In a formal setting they were tongue-tied, but in an informal setting with a friend they spoke openly and were more relaxed.
         • This was an ethical and unobtrusive way to study a potentially vulnerable group.

4. THEORETICAL

   • Smaller sample sizes mean representativeness is compromised.
   • Because questions are not in a standardised format and each interview is unique, unstructured interviews are usually not considered to be very reliable.
   • Unstructured interviews are not very good for establishing cause-and-effect relationships: answers have not been coded, so it's difficult to quantify responses.
     • Positivists usually don't favour this method.
       • However, interactionalists do!
         • Unstructured interviews can be said to give very valid data. HOWEVER...
           • Some would argue that the interaction between interviewer and interviewee can distort the the information that has been obtained.