Interviews (unstructured and group) Flashcards
what are unstructured interviews
less structured interviews and do not follow an interview schedule
freedom to ask follow-up questions and no list of standardised questions
what are the positives of unstructed interviews
allows researcher to build a rapport and to build empathy towards respondent particually with socially sensitative topics
interpetivists argue it allows researcher to gain an insight into the meaning and motives
what are some negatives of unstructured interviews
loss of objectivity on researchers part
can be time consuming and can go off topic
difficult to replicate = lack reliability
what is the case study for unstructured interviews
Dobash & Dobash
used unstructured interviews to gain an insight to domestic abuse, along side police statistics
gained strong verstehen and rapport = help participants to open up
they produced detailed and rich findings about the experiences of women who had suffered repeated domesticc abuse and discoveered things that werent mentioned in police reports
what is a group interview
follow the format of either structured, semi or unstructured interviews
commonly reffered to as a focus group and used in market research
involves researcher asking a group of people from a specific background about their opinions or experiences
what are some positives of group interviews
provides alot of data in a short space of time
validity of response is higher if respondents agree on experiences or motives behind behaviour
skilled researcher may be able to draw conclusions about people opinion based on body language (form of qualitative data)
what are some negatives of group interviews
presence of others may influence responses a respondent gives
people are unlikely to talk about personal matters in front of others
due to status differences people may still answer in a socially desirable way
what are the 2 case studies for group interviews
Learning to labour by Willis - 12 WC ‘lads’ from school in Birmingham conducted between 1972 and 1975
‘how and why WC kids get working class jobs’
included observation, interviews and group discussions to understand particpants point of view of everyday context
Wright et al. (2005)
reason why african- caribbean boys are five times more likely to be excluded from schools
group interviews with friends allowed particpants to open up and give more valid answers = boys felt labelled and discriminated against in the education system
