2.1 RM - Interviews

Question 1

What are structured interviews?

Answer 1

The researcher reads out a list of closed questions from an interview schedule and records the respondents answers to pre set categories

Question 2

What are practical strengths of structured interviews?

Answer 2

• Training interviewers is straightforward and inexpensive
• quick and cheap
• can cover a fairly large sample
• easy to quantify

Question 3

What are practical weaknesses of structured interviews?

Answer 3

• inflexible
• more expensive and time consuming than questionnaires
• limited superficial data
• hard to operationalise concepts

Question 4

What are ethical strengths of structured interviews?

Answer 4

• informed consent
• confidential
• right to withdraw

Question 5

What is an ethical weakness of structured interviews?

Answer 5

Can cause harm from asking sensitive or obtrusive questions

Question 6

What are reliability strengths of structured interviews?

Answer 6

• standardised and controlled
• repeatable
• comparable

Question 7

What are reliability weaknesses of structured interviews?

Answer 7

• interviewer bias

Question 8

What is interviewer bias?

Answer 8

Where the interviewers tone of voice or body language influences the answer respondents give

Question 9

What are representative strengths of structured interviews?

Answer 9

• large sample - likely to be representative
• improved response rate
• representative overview of a cross section of society

Question 10

What is a representative weakness of structured interviews?

Answer 10

Skewed sample

Question 11

What are validity strengths of interviews?

Answer 11

• good for simple factual data
• objective and detached - less researcher bias
• a little freedom to check understanding

Question 12

What are validity weaknesses of questionnaires?

Answer 12

• can’t develop verstehen
• social desirability
• interviewer effect
• people lie, forget
• little freedom to explain
• researcher imposing their view

Question 13

What do positivists think about structured interviews?

Answer 13

they like them because they produce quantitative data from which they can compare and see patterns

Question 14

What do interpretivists think about structured interviews?

Answer 14

Don’t like them. They can’t develop verstehen as the data is limited and superficial

Question 15

What are unstructured interviews?

Answer 15

Guided conversations, they are informal and the interviewer does not usually follow an interview schedule so the interviewer had the freedom to vary the interview

Question 16

What are practical strengths of unstructured interviews?

Answer 16

• flexible

* can explore unfamiliar topics and raise new issues

Question 17

What are the practical weaknesses of unstructured interviews?

Answer 17

• time consuming
• expensive - trained interviewers
• impossible to quantify data
• recording and analysing data is difficult

Question 18

What are ethical strengths of unstructured interviews?

Answer 18

• good for exploring sensitive topics - rapport makes it a safe situation
• informed consent
• right to withdraw
• confidential

Question 19

What are ethical weaknesses of unstructured interviews?

Answer 19

Harm from asking sensitive or obtrusive interviews

Question 20

What are reliability weaknesses of unstructured interviews?

Answer 20

Impossible the replicate ( not standardised )

Interviewer bias

Question 21

What are the representative weaknesses of unstructured interviews?

Answer 21

• time consuming

* skewed sample

Question 22

What are validity strengths of unstructured interviews?

Answer 22

• Can check understanding
• Explaining views in detail
• develop verstehen

Question 23

What are the validity weaknesses of unstructured interviews?

Answer 23

• interviewer bias
• interviewer effect
• people lie, exaggerate or forget
• social desirability

Question 24

What do positivists think about unstructured interviews?

Answer 24

They don’t like them as recording and analysing data is difficult, it is impossible to quantify and find patterns

Question 25

What do interpretivists think about unstructured interviews?

Answer 25

They like them as they are I depth and they can develop verstehen