Interviews

Structured interviews

• Formal/spoken questionnaire, involved face-to-face or over-the-phone delivery of a questionnaire

• interview schedule, a pre-set list of questions

• Limited list of possible answers

• Positivists prefer as there is a measurable objective, takes a scientific approach, standardised methods, obtain quantitative data, identify patterns and produce generalisations and cause-and-effect statements, reliable, fairly large scale, representative - lack validity

Advantages

• Reliability

• Representativeness

• Cost

• Interviewer-interviewee

• Limited interviewer effect

Disadvanatages

• lack of validity

• Reliability

• Cost

• Sensitive issues

Unstructured interviews

• • Ask mainly open-ended questions, with no fixed set of questions to be asked of every respondent.

• • Produce qualitative data because the interviewee can respond in words that are meaningful to them.

• • Are guided as much by the interviewee as by the interviewer.

• • Are informal and free-flowing, and more normal than a structured interview - more like a guided conversation.

• • Build a stronger relationship between researcher and research subject.

Advantages

• Validity

Disadvantages

• Validity

• Lack of reliability

• Lack of representativeness

• Unsuitable for sensitive issues

• Cost

• Relevance

• Group interviews