Topic 7 - Unstructured Interviews

Question 1

Unstructured interviews

Answer 1

• Interviewer is free to vary questions, wording or order
• Can pursure whatever line of questioning they wish
• Can produce rich, detailed and qualitative data

Question 2

Practical Issues

Answer 2

• Interviewer can develop a rapport
• Interviewer can check meanings and explain questions
• Flexible - new hypothesis can be formed and tested
• Useful when little is known about the subject
• Time consuimg
• Costly
• Large amount of data can take time to transcribe

Question 3

Theoretical issues

Answer 3

• Can see the world through interviewee’s eyes and appreciate what is important to them
• Interaction between interviewer and interviewee undermines reliability
• Validity - can only be obtained by getting close to peoples experiences and meanings
• Reliability - positivists argue they are unreliable because they’re not standardised
• Answers can’t be easily quantified and categorised
• Less likely to produce representative data as sample sizes are smaller

Question 4

Grounded theory

Answer 4

• Interpretivists reject the idea that research begins with a fixed hypothesis
• Important to approach research with an open mind
• Grounded theory - build up and modify the hypothesis during the research, based on facts we discover
• Makes unstrcutured interviews an ideal research tool

Question 5

Interviewees view

Answer 5

• No preset questions: allows interviewee to raise issues and discuss what’s important to them
• Probing and encouragement can help to form ideas more clearly
• Open ended questions allow interviewees to express themselves in their own word

Question 6

Feminism

Oakley

Answer 6

• Oakley: argues unstrcutred interviews are:
  …value committed - take womens side and aims to give a voice to their experimnce and free them from patriarchal oppression
  …requires researchers involvement rather detatchment from the lives of the women she studied
  …aims for equality and collaboration
• In her study of women becoming mothers, she conducted 178 interviews and spent 9 hours with each women. Helped them with housework and she argued it developed a more intimate relationship thus improving the quality of her research

Question 7

Evaluation of Oakley

Answer 7

• Pawson - nothin feminist or original data about Oakley’s research approach; it’s an interpretivist one
• Feminists argue that because of her direct involvement it reflects the value committed nature of feminst research

Question 8

Group interviews

Answer 8

• Pupils and young people are often strongly influenced by peer pressure - may reduce validity
• Impossible to standardise questions - reduces reliability
• Greene and Hogan - argue they are suitable for use with pupils, creating a safe peer environment
• Peer support reduces the power imbalance
• Reveal interactions between pupils, however, peer pressure may influence individuals to give answers that conform to group values