unstructured interviews Flashcards
what is a practical advantage
rapport and sensitivity: due to informal nature - puts them at ease. William labrov: studied language of black American children:
formal: ‘ tongue tied and linguistically deprived’
informal: children opened up and spoke freely
what is an ethical advantage
studying sensitive topics: dobash and dobash used UI to study DV, empathy and encouragement from interviewer put interviewee at ease and made them feel more comfortable talking about difficult/personal subjects
what is a practical disadvantage
training: interviewee must have training in sociology, if a sociologically important point has been made, interviewee will need to probe further - training adds cost
what is an ethical disadvantage
disclosure of sensitive information: may admit to being criminals/victims of crime - has duty to keep interviewees anonymous, may have moral decision to make regarding disclosure of criminal acts
what is a theoretical advantage
ability to overcome social desirability: howard becker used aggressive interviewing style: researched chicago school teachers in order to extract sensitive info - may not have revealed otherwise
what is a theoretical disadvantage
lacks respresentitivness: can only carry out a few number of interviews, small sample which will never be representative. Willis - sample of 12 ‘lads’ - unrepresentative, too small to make assumtions about all WC boys
who favours them and why
interpretivists: produce qualitative data, allows for verstehen of an individuals or groups way of life
who rejects the use of them and why
positivists: fail to achieve reliability or representativness - no 2 interviews will every be the same
what is a unstructured interview
basically a free flowing conversation, may/may not include interview schedulew
