Group interviews

Question 1

practical

Answer 1

✓ Can interview more people in less time
✓ Less artificial situation – more like a conversation or a small group setting (e.g. pupils together in a familiar setting like a classroom which may put them at ease)

× Interviewer needs skills to keep the group focussed on the discussion topic & if they lack these skills this can have a big impact on the effectiveness of the interview

Question 2

ethics

Answer 2

✓ Group interviews are more relaxed

✓ In school pupils are more likely to open up in a safe peer environment that reduces the imbalance of power between adult interviewer & young interviewee.

Question 3

reliability

Answer 3

× Group interviews lack reliability as several responses are given & this means it is easy to move away from the research issue, making it much less likely that the interview could be conducted to get the same or similar results.

Question 4

validity

Answer 4

✓ Can uncover group dynamics & peer group interaction which can stimulate thinking in the group to find out commonly held views e.g. attitudes to authority.
✓ Meanings/attitudes can be clarified in the group.

× One or two individuals might dominate & peer pressure may mean the group conforms to the dominant view rather than an individual expressing their true opinion. This will reduce the validity of data.

Question 5

example

Answer 5

• Sue Sharpe – ‘Just Like a Girl’ (1976) Compared the attitudes of working-class girls in London school in the early 1970s & 1990s. She found that girls in the 1990s were more confident, assertive, ambitious & more committed to gender equality.

Question 6

Representativeness

Answer 6

× Lack representativeness: Although more representative than unstructured interviews conducted on one person, this method is still relatively expensive & time consuming which means that very few can be carried out. This often makes the sample gained from them small & unrepresentative. Therefore, generalisations cannot be made from the results.

Question 7

theory

Answer 7

✓ Interpretivists favour the flexibility of group interviews & the variety of responses they can produce, giving in-depth, valid, qualitative data.

× Positivists reject group interviews as the free flowing nature of the interviews makes it difficult to quantify & analyse the variety of responses.