Primary Quantitative - Structured Interviews Flashcards
What do structured interviews involve?
Involves an interviewer reading out the question from a questionnaire and recording the answers the respondents give
What are prompts?
Guidance to help participants answer the questions
What is an interview schedule?
The order in which questions in an interview must be asked
Why is an interview schedule important?
It keeps the interview standardised
Why is it important for the interviewer to keep an emotional and personal distance in structured interviews?
It may effect the reliability and therefore the interview couldn’t be repeated to obtain similar results because it wasn’t standardised
Why must prompts used in a structured interview be carefully planned in advance?
Must be carefully planned in advance otherwise the interview wouldn’t be standardised which would effect the reliability of the interview
How might the presence of the interviewer in a structured interview effect participants?
Might have an effect on the answers the respondents provide because the respondent may give answers they think the interviewer will like (social desirability) which will lower the validity of the interview
Why are structured interviews high in reliability?
High in reliability because it has a standardised procedure so the interview can be repeated to obtain similar results
Why might structured interviews lack validity?
May be less valid because the presence of an interviewer may lead to social desirability from the respondents and therefore data collected wont be valid
What are the advantages of structured interviews?
Standardised - high reliability
Cheap and easy to do
Large sample size
Easy to quantify and identify correlations
Positivists like high reliability
Can be representative and high response rate
Interviewer can clarify questions
Few ethical issues
Can ensure correct person completing survey
What are the disadvantages of structured interviews?
Inflexible - cannot change questions otherwise it will be less reliable
Interpretivists criticise closed questions - restrict responses therefore no verstehen
Imposition problem - researcher chooses questions and possible answers
People may lie, exaggerate- less valid
Social desirability and interviewer bias may occur - less valid
Only those with time and interest will complete - less representative
More time consuming and expensive than questionnaires
What is interviewer bias?
Refers to unintended affects the interviewer’s presence and characteristics have on the respondents answers
