Structured interviews examples

Question 1

Ann Oakley

1982

Answer 1

Admitted that, as a mother herself, she found it difficult to remain detached and neutral when interviewing other women about maternity and childbirth.

Validity

Question 2

Josephine Rich

1968

Answer 2

Shows that when adults interview children, the child’s need to please the interviewer will affect their answers.

Validity

Question 3

Margaret Mead

1943

Answer 3

research on adolescents in Samoa has been criticised on the grounds that Mead, who couldn’t speak the language, was unable to spot that the girls she interviewed has deliberately mislead her.

Practical +Validity

Question 4

Young and Wilmott

1962

Answer 4

used structured interviews in their research into the extended family in east London and only 54 of the 987 people who were asked refused to be interviewed

Representative

Question 5

Hilary Graham

1983

Answer 5

Argues that survey methods, such as structured interviews, are patriarchal and give a distorted, invalid picture of women’s experience.

Representative

Question 6

Powney and Watts

1987

Answer 6

Note that young children tend to be more literal mined and often pay attention to unexpected details in questions and may use a different logic from adult interviewers.
Powney and Watts note that the lower down the hierarchy the interviewee is, the more approvals that have to be obtained.

Reliability practical Ethical (school)

Question 7

Feild

1987

Answer 7

study of pupils’ experience of sex and health education in schools had a relatively high refusal rate of 29%, mainly because of parents withholding consent.

Ethical Representative

Question 8

Bell

1981

Answer 8

notes that pupils may see the interviewer as a ‘teacher in disguise’.

Validity