structured interviews

Question 1

intro

Answer 1

• face to face
• basically a questionnaire read out to the respondent
• often in street using quota sampling

Question 2

who favours interviews

Answer 2

interpretivists: produce qualitative data, allows for understanding/verstehen of individuals/groups way of life

Question 3

practical advantages (4)

Answer 3

1. higher response rate: young and willmott approached 987 people, only 54 refused - harder to turn down face to face requests
2. training researchers: often cheap and straight forward
3. easy to quantify results: due to close ended nature of them
4. suitable to gather straight forward factual info

Question 4

practical disadvantages (3)

Answer 4

1. inflexible: no opportunity to change questions once begun, researcher already decided what they deem important - may differ from respondents view of the topic
2. consent: some groups may not eg vulnerable people and criminals
3. personal characteristics of researchers may affect respondents answers: male researcher - female may lie about certain issues

Question 5

ethical advantage (3)

Answer 5

1. researcher is present to comfort respondent: if emotionally or psychologically affected, advantage over questionnaires
2. can refuse to answer
3. no deception: informed consent is given when agree to take park

Question 6

ethical disadvantage (1)

Answer 6

sensitive issues and vulnerable groups: researcher cannot develop a rapport as the situation is too formal, not suitable, for topics such as DA or bullying. feminists and interpretivists favour them to be unstructured in these scenarios

Question 7

theoretical advantage (2)

Answer 7

1. representative: young and wilmott reached 987 people, can make generalisations
2. reliable: can be replicated as all questions are asked in a standardised and systematic fashion

Question 8

theoretical disadvantages (2)

Answer 8

1. low in validity: only limited responses - close ended questions, respondents cant explain thoughts and feelings, if the answer they want to give isn’t an option their response will be invalid, may also give socially desirable answers
2. feminists: reject them, hilary graham: they are patriarchal as it gives a distorted invalid picture of women’s experience. researcher is in control mirroring women’s subordination in society