Unstructured Interviews

Question 1

What are some practical strengths of unstructured interviews?

Answer 1

• the researcher can build up a rapport (a unified understanding and friendliness between two people)

Question 2

What are some ethical strengths of unstructured interviews?

Answer 2

• good for studying sensitive topics

Question 3

What are some theoretical strengths to unstructured interviews?

Answer 3

• high in verstehen, comes from the participants view point
• can develop new ideas or hypotheses depending on the direction of the interview
• high in validity as the participant can speak from the heart
• can check participants understanding of the questions

Question 4

What are some practical limitations of unstructured interviews?

Answer 4

• very time consuming
• training is required which can be expensive
• data is difficult to analyse

Question 5

What are some theoretical limitations of unstructured interviews?

Answer 5

• not reliable
• data cannot be quantified so cannot identify trends
• lacks representativeness as small samples are used
• the researcher can get too involved and make value judgements about what participants meant
• interviewer bias may occur

Question 6

Open questions

Answer 6

Questions which provide an interpretive answer, the answer can be anything

Question 7

Closed questions

Answer 7

Short answer questions which are looking for a basic yes or no

Question 8

What are unstructured interviews?

Answer 8

• guided conversation
• questions and promote
• informal
• led by the participant