interviews

Question 1

structured interviews

Answer 1

• a series of questions asked to a participant usually face to face but can be over the phone.
• every respondent gets asked the same questions which are closed - lead to quantitative data so preferred by positivist

Question 2

semi structured interviews

Answer 2

• more informal then structured interviews, have no rigid structure or listed questions
• open ended questions -
• leads to qualitive data so preferred by interpretivists
• need good social and communication skills.

Question 3

unstructured interviews

Answer 3

• they have no pre planned interviews/questions the interviewer must be reactive to what the participants says and probing further when necessary.

Question 4

focus groups

Answer 4

• a group of people who discuss a topic - the researcher could start with a probing question or stimulus
• participants are then asked to freely discuss with each other and ‘bounce ideas’ off each other

Question 5

advantages and disadvantages of focus groups

Answer 5

advantages - responsibility of asking questions is not up to the researcher - the group interacts with each other/spark ideas
disadvantages - likely to be peer pressure with people conforming with the majority view in the group or disagreeing playing devils advocate rather giving their own opinion

Question 6

PET - focus groups - practical factors

Answer 6

strengths: since the focus groups are prearranged you gain access to required participants for research and response rate is higher and reflects the characteristics of target populations
weaknesses- observations can be time consuming therefore less may be carried out.

Question 7

PET - focus groups - ethical factors

Answer 7

strengths -informed consent given to participants - know emotional harm due to relaxed environment giving valid data
weaknesses - the researcher could become too involved - research could be biased reducing validity

Question 8

PET - focus groups - theoretical factors

Answer 8

strengths - interpretivists favour it as it gives an in-depth insight which can be gained - increase of validity
weaknesses - positivists would not like this method as its difficult to replicate, reliability is reduced