structured interviews Flashcards
what are structered interviews?
pratical: advantages
- Training interviewers easy and cheap
- Suitable for gathering quantitative information
- Suitable for hypothesis testing
- Higher response rate than other methods like questionnaires
pratical: disadvantages
- More costly than posting or emailing a questionnaire
- Can’t match potentially huge numbers reached by post
- Have to train and pay an interviewer
ethical: advantages
- Informed Consent
- Right to Withdraw
- Anonymity guaranteed
- Privacy
reliabaility: advantages
- Easy for researcher to control
- Can ensure each interview is conducted in exactly the same way
- Easy to replicate
validity: disadvantages
- Pre-set answers may not reflect interviewee’s actual answer
- Little freedom to explain questions or clarify misunderstandings
- People may lie or exaggerate
- Characteristics of the researcher may influence results
examples
Young and Wilmott 1962
Research into the extended family in east London. Interviewed 933 people, asked about people’s age, job, religion, birth place etc. Interviews took anywhere between 10 mins and half an hour, depending on the amount of relatives the pps had
representativeness: advantages
- can generalise
- High response rate
theoretical: advantage
Positivists
- Data is reliable and quantitative; representative
- Can be generalised
theoretical: disadvantage
Feminist - Graham
- Questionnaires and structured interviews are patriarchal
- The researcher is in control, which mirrors women’s subordination in wider society
- Survey methods treat women as isolated individuals, making it difficult for them to express their experiences of oppression
Interpretivists
- Impose researcher’s framework of ideas
- Can’t follow new leads
