Interviews Flashcards
(28 cards)
What are structured/formal interviews?
- Those in which the interviewer asks the same interviewee the same questions in the same way to different respondents
- Typically involve reading out questions from a pre written and pre coded structured questionnaire
What are unstructured interviews?
- aka: informal or discovery interviews
- Interviewer has complete freedom to vary the questions between respondents
- Can follow whatever lines of enquiry they think are most appropriated, depending on responses given by each respondent
What is an interview schedule?
A list of questions or topic areas the interviewer wishes to ask or cover in the course of the interview
- more structured the interview, the more rigid the interview schedule will be
What are semi structured interviews?
Those in which respondents have a list of questions but they’re free to ask further, differential questions based on the responses given
What are focus groups?
- Type of group interview in which respondents are asked to discuss certain topics
What are group interviews?
Interviewer interviews two or more respondents at a time
- group interviews have their own unique strength and limitations
What are practical advantages to interviews?
Relatively quick method for gaining in depth data
- good method to combine with overt participant observation in order to get respondents to further explain the meaning behind their actions
What’s a practical disadvantage?
Impractical as you have to often combine them with other methods
Time consuming and costly to conduct large numbers of interviews
What are ethical disadvantages?
Assuming that informed consent is gained and confidentially ensured
- Researchers gaining in depth data and insight into the persons identity offers potential for the info to do more harm to the respondent if it gets into the wrong hands
- dependent on the topics discussed and the exact content of the interviews tho
What are examples of interviews?
- Becker - interviewed 60 high school teachers to discover how they label students
- Dobash and Dobash - unstructured interview with victims of domestic violence
- Fuchs - 27 semi-structured interviews with full time undergrad in Thailand into media usage
What about validity of interviews?
Strengths
- High validity for unstructured interviews: open indepth answers reflecting feelings and thoughts of participants
- Can clarify misunderstandings improving data accuracy
Limitations
- Social desirability bias
- Interviewer bias or leading questions reduce validity
What about reliability of interviews?
Strengths
- reliable structured interviews due to rigid interview schedule
Limitations
- Unstructured interviews less reliable due to flexibility: different answers may emerge depending on interviewer
- Personal interaction and interpretation can vary making standardisation hard
What about representativeness of interviews?
Strengths
- Structured interviews can reach large samples more easily
- Can target specifc groups via stratified sampling for example
Limitation
- Unstructured interviews often use small, non-random samples limiting generalisability
What are theoretical advantages to the interviews?
- Rapport and Empathy
- Checking understanding
- Good for sensitive topics
- Empowerment for respondents
What is meant by rapport and empathy as a theoretical advantage?
- encourage good rapport between interviewee and interviewer
- Unstructured interviews are more likely to make respondents feel at ease than with the more formal setting of a structured questionnaire or experiment
- Encourages openness, trust and empathy
What is meant by checking understanding as a theoretical advantage?
Unstructured interviews allow the interviewee to check understanding
- If an interviewee doesn’t understand a question, the interviewer is free to rephrase it or to ask follow up questions to clarify aspects of answers that weren’t clear in the first instance
What is meant by good for sensitive topics as a theoretical advantage?
- Unstructured interviews are good for sensitive topics because they’re more likely to make respondents feel at ease
- allow the interviewer to show more sympathy (if required) than with the colder more mechanical quantitative methods
What is meant by empowerment for respondents as a theoretical advantage?
Researcher and respondents are on more equal footing than with more quantitative methods, the researcher doesn’t assume they know best
- Empowers respondents
- Feminists researchers believe that unstructured interviews can neutralize the hierarchical, exploitative power relations that believed to be inherent in the more traditional interview structure
What are practical advantages for group interviews?
Time saving with multiple participants interviewed at once
Can generate alot of data quickly
What’s a practical disadvantage of group interviews?
Difficult to manage and record with a fairly large, talkative sample for one interviewer
Group dynamics: certain participants dominating reducing input from others
What are ethical advantages for group interviews?
Less intimidating than one-on-one interviews for some participants
Group settings encourages openness and comfort
What are ethical disadvantages for group interviews?
Confidentiality and anonymity may be compromised in a group setting
Peer pressuree might influence participant’s answers + link to social desirability bias
What is the degree of reliability of group interviews?
A rigid interview schedule may help with standardisation to some extent
What else can be said about the degree of reliability in group interviews?
Low degree of reliability as group dynamics can vary, hard to replicate responses
Participants may behave differently depending on who is present
