Structured interviews - strengths and weaknesses

3 practical positives

1. Training interviewers is cheap and quick

2. Large numbers of people can be covered

3. Easy to get simple facts like age/job

3 practical negatives

1. More expensive than distributing surveys

2. Will never reach the same number of people as w/a survey

3. Can be costly to ensure a high response rate (callbacks, incentives)

2 ethical positives

1. Can’t get off track so less likely to hit an unplanned sensitive bit

2. Can include lots of information in the ICF to make it very predictable

1 ethical negative

1. Cannot build a rapport due to lack of empathy

Reliability

• :)

  • Easy to control the interview - standardise questions

  • Can easily compare answers due asking identical questions

  • Lack of researcher bias 

• :(

  • Cannt control researcher tone of voice to the same extent

Validity

• :(

  • Close-ended questions with pre-coded answers may not be what the interviewee wants to say

    • Also cannot clarify misunderstandings or explain questions further than using alternative words

  • Interaction between the interviewer and interviewee may lead to the interviewee wanting to be seen favourably (HE) by lying or exaggerating

Representative

• High response rate = representative and therefore generalisable

Theoretical - positivist

• :)

  • Pre-coded qs provide quantitative data that can be used to contest a hypothesis

  • Reliable = repeatable

  • Generalisable if make an effort to get rep. sample

Theoretical - interpretivist

• :(

  • Invalid

Key study - Young and Wilmott (1962) - response rate and sample size

• High - only 54 of 987 participants refused

  • Probably because it’s harder to turn down face-to-face requests

• Large - 933

  • More representative

Key study - Young and Wilmott (1962) - logistics - length of interviews, interviewer

• Interviewer trained and dispatched

• Interviews short - 10-30 minutes

Key study - Young and Wilmott (1962) - problems

• Limited range of answers for birthdate/place