interviews Flashcards
What is an interview?
When you are asked questions by someone
When are interviews used?
Jobs, Police, School
What is interviewer bias?
When the answers given in an interview are influenced or distorted in some way by the presence or behaviour of the interviewer
How can interviewer bias be overcome?
Keeping neutral
Matching people up - gender, age, ethnicity
What are the 4 types of interviews?
Structured
Unstructured
Semi-structured
Group
Advantages of structured interviews
- Produces quantitative data which is easily comparable, and can be transferred to statistical data/numerical form
- Quick - ask more people - large sample
- Reliable (replicable)
- Less problem with interviewer bias (less involved)
- Easy to train interviewer
- Objective
Disadvantages of structured interviews
- Training may be costly
- Inflexible
- Lacks validity
- Lack of nuance, detail, meaning -limited depth of understanding
- Not suitable for sensitive topics
Advantages of unstructured interviews
- Greater flexibility
- Valid
- More opportunity to build rapport and trust
- More nuanced/detailed - gain greater insight
- Probe much deeper
- Ambiguities in questions can be clarified
Disadvantages of unstructured interviews
- Time consuming
- Costly
- Fewer interviews conducted - smaller sample - problems with representativeness
- Less reliable
- Difficult to replicate, compare and measure
- Subjective
- Interviewer bias/social desirability
Advantages of group interviews
- Bounce off of each other - feel more comfortable /engaged
- Less artificial
- More cost efficient
- Less time consuming
Disadvantages of group interviews
- May feel judged and pressurised by other participants
- Some may talk more than others - not get everyone’s experiences
- May move away from the topic
- Hard to keep up/record
what is a structured interview?
A structured interview is one where the interviewer sticks rigidly to a pre-written set of questions
