Interviews Flashcards
What are the 3 types of interviews?
Structured, unstructured and semi-structured
What are structured interviews?
Pre-set questions asked in a fixed order
What are unstructured interviews?
Few or no pre-arranged questions
What are semi-structured interviews?
Some pre-set questions but follow ups are asked as interview develops
What is a strength of general structured interviews and questionnaires?
They are easily to replicate
What are strengths of unstructured interviews?
They produce rich and detailed data and allow much flexibility
What are limitations of unstructured interviews?
Researchers may be uncertain of how a researcher understood the questionnaire analysis of data is difficult and they can be costly
What are limitations of interviews?
They can be effected by social desirability bias, there is a danger of investigator effects and there can be bias in terms of who responds
What are strengths of questionnaires?
They are good for investigating sensitive or personal issues and is an economical way of gathering information from a large number of people
How does social desirability affect validity?
It decreases internal validity because the answer isn’t truthful.
What is the effect of response bias?
Decreased external validity because it will not have population validity so cant be generalised
How should interviews be designed?
They should include and interview schedule which is a standard set of questions to reduce interviewer bias
What are the ethics of interviews?
Confidentiality is important if the interview is dealing with personal or sensitive topics
What is an advantage of using a questionnaire over an interview?
You can get more sensitive and personal data because you don’t have to speak to an actual person so it’s anonymous and people will share.
What is a disadvantage of using a questionnaire over an interview?
Responses are less detailed because people have to write their answers so are less likely to write down more detail
