Structured Interviews - Advantages and Disadvantages

Question 1

Why can structured interviews cover quite large numbers of people? (Practical advantage)

Answer 1

Because they are quick and fairly cheap to administer

Question 2

What are structured interviews suitable for gathering? (Practical advantage)

Answer 2

Straightforward factual information such as a person’s age, job or religion

Question 3

Why is training interviewers relatively straightforward and cheap? (Practical advantage)

Answer 3

Because they simply have to read questions out loud and record answers

Question 4

Why are results of structured interviews easy to quantify? (Practical advantage)

Answer 4

Because they use closed ended questions with pre coded answers

Question 5

Why do structured interviews generally have higher response rates than for questionnaires? (Practical advantage)

Answer 5

Because people find it harder to turn down a face to face request

Question 6

Why are structured interviews inflexible? (Practical disadvantage)

Answer 6

Because the questions are drawn up in advance and the researcher must stick to them

Question 7

Why are structured interviews unsuitable for unfamiliar testing? (Practical disadvantage)

Answer 7

Because the questions are drawn up in advance using the researcher’s knowledge of the subject

Question 8

Why do structured interviews fail to capture the dynamic of social life? (Practical disadvantage)

Answer 8

Because they are only snapshots in time

Question 9

Which sociologists both agree with the ethical considerations regarding structured interviews?

Answer 9

Interpretivists and positivists

Question 10

Ethical considerations regarding structured interviews (4)

Answer 10

Informed consent
Privacy and confidentiality
Right to withdraw
Avoids deception

Question 11

Which sociologists favour structured interviews for the theoretical advantages?

Answer 11

Positivists

Question 12

What do positivists look for when choosing a research method?

Answer 12

A reliable method that helps them achieve goal of being scientific and objective and gives them opportunity to produce quantitative data

Question 13

What do structured interviews allow sociologists to establish? What does this allow to be made? (Theoretical advantage)

Answer 13

Correlations between variables which allows generalisations to be made

Question 14

Why are structured interviews seen as reliable? (Theoretical advantage)

Answer 14

Because other sociologists can use the same method and get the same results as they are easy to standardise and control

Question 15

Why are structured interviews likely to give sociologists representative data? (Theoretical advantage)

Answer 15

Because they are relatively cheap, quick and easy to be administered so large numbers of people can be surveyed

Question 16

Benefit of representative data (Theoretical advantage)

Answer 16

Allows generalisations to be made and cause-and-effect relationships to be found about the wider population

Question 17

What do Interpretivists look for when choosing a research method?

Answer 17

A method which will provide them with expiations for social factors and give them a true picture of what society is like

Question 18

What do Interpretivists see structured interviews and restrictive? (Theoretical disadvantage)

Answer 18

Because they force people to answer closed questions which limits the choice to answer questions as they wish to

Question 19

Why are structured interviews negative for people who don’t understand the questions for reasons such as not being able to speak English very well, or having learning difficulties? (Theoretical disadvantage)

Answer 19

Because the interviewer cannot explain or clarify questions as they must stick to their script

Question 20

What can people do when answering questions in a structured interview? (Theoretical disadvantage)

Answer 20

They can lie or exaggerate

Question 21

Disadvantage of questions of structured interviews being drawn up in advance (Theoretical disadvantage)

Answer 21

Researcher has already decided what is important which may not relate to what the respondents see as important

Question 22

Why do many feminists reject survey methods such as structured interviews? (Theoretical disadvantage)

Answer 22

Because they believe the relationship between the researcher and the researched reflects the exploitative nature of gender relationships in patriarchal society

Question 23

What does Anne Oakley (feminist) argue about structured interviews? (Theoretical disadvantage)

Answer 23

Argues they are a masculine method which places high value on objectivity, detachment and hierarchy and regards science as more important than the people it researches