Topic 4 - Interviews Flashcards
Structured interviews
- Favoured by positivists
- Strict instructions with standardised questions
- Closed-ended questions are used
Practical strengths of structured interviews
- Fairly quick and cheap
- Straightforward
- Easily quantified results
Fairly quick and cheap (practical strength - structured interviews)
- Quick to do as there are no follow up questions so positively impacts the economy
- Can cover large numbers of people over a short period of time
Straightforward (practical strength - structured interview)
- Training interviewers is straightforward and inexpensive as they simply need to read a set of questions
Easily quantified results (practical strength - structured interviews)
- Results are early quantified because closed-ended questions are used with coded answers, meaning hypothesis can be tested
Ethical strengths of structured interviews
- Informed consent
- Detachment
Detachment (ethical strength - structured interviews)
- The structure of the interview allows for detachment from the interviewee which means they won’t be as impacted by ethical concerns such as becoming too close with the participant
Informed consent (ethical strength - structured interviews)
- All participants consent to being interviewed
Theoretical strengths of structured interviews
- Response rate
- Reliability
Response rate (theoretical strength - structured interviews)
- Can collect data from a large number of respondents and researchers can then generalise
- Higher response rates than questionnaires because people find it harder to turn down a face-to-face request
EVIDENCE - YOUNG and WILLMOTT approached 987 people in their study and only 54 refused to be interviewed
- Increases representativeness
Reliability (theoretical strength - structured interviews)
- Data collected is seen as reliable as all questions are asked in the same way so the answers can be compared and replicated if needed
Practical weaknesses of structured interviews
- Inflexible
- More costly then a questionnaire
Ethical weaknesses of structured interviews
- May feel they have to answer the question
- Unsuitable for discussing sensitive issues
Theoretical weaknesses of structured interviews
- Response rate
- Validity
Feminist criticisms of structured interviews
- GRAHAM aruges structured interviews are patriarchal and give a distorted view of womens expereinces
- Male is often in control of situation = ask questioins from his POV