social surveys - structured interviews

Question 1

what is a structured interview

Answer 1

asking standardised questions (usually closed) to a large number of people

Question 2

how does a structured interview occur

Answer 2

researcher asks questions and records the answers
can occur face to face or over the phone

Question 3

what is a specific example of structured interviews

Answer 3

. crime survey for england and wales - sample size approx 50,000
interviewed face to face

Question 4

t - advantage - responses
example

Answer 4

. response rate usually higher than other survey methods - 60-85%
. pushes up reliability and representativeness of the findings
e. crime survey response rate is 75%

Question 5

t - advantage - standardisation

Answer 5

. easy to standardise and control
. possible to compare answers
. if each interview done exactly the same way then more likely to get similar results
. standardisation means reliability increased

Question 6

t - advantage - no confusion

Answer 6

. no confusion over meaning of the questions or how to answer them
. can be explained by the interviewer
. ensures survey is completed fully increasing validity

Question 7

p - advantage - training

Answer 7

. interviewers can be trained up quickly and inexpensively
. just have to follow set procedures

Question 8

p - advantage - cost

Answer 8

. fairly quick and cheap to carry out compared to formal interviews

Question 9

t- disadvantage - interviewer bias
example

Answer 9

. can suffer from interviewer bias - way questions are phrased and the interviewer’s body language
. can distort results
. lowers validity
e. in schools research may be biased as interviewers may unintentionally emphasise certain words influencing how pupils answer questions

Question 10

p - disadvantage - cost
example

Answer 10

. more expensive than other surveys
. interviewers have to be paid
e. in crime survey the laptops used are a huge expense

Question 11

p - disadvantage - time
example

Answer 11

. can take longer than other survey methods
e. extra time has to be given to young students at school as they may not understand questions due to their less developed abilities

Question 12

t - disadvantage - flexibility

Answer 12

. lack of flexibility - cannot follow up due to standardisation
. limits validty and richness of data

Question 13

t - disadvantage - social desirability bias

Answer 13

. lowered validity
. respondents may change answers due to social pressure and prescence of interviewer