interviews

• structured interview - interviewer asks a list of pre-determined close ended questions about a specific topic. the questions are asked to all interviewees in the same order. This allows findings to be analysed statistically to show patterns and trends. this is a positivist approach
• An unstructured interview - the interviewer asks a few open ended questions on a selected broad topic. this form of interview is similar to a conversation and the interviewer may ask further questions to gather more information
• semi structured interviews - the interviewer asks the interviewee a range of closed and open ended questions on a selected topic. the interviewer may ask further unplanned questions to find out more information
• focus group interviews - the interviewer asks a range of open ended questions to a group of interviewees at the same time. this is used as a form of discussion between interviewees and the interviewer
• structured interviews

  strengths:

  • use of close ended questions produces quantitative data
  • time efficient

  weaknesses:

  • lacks depth
  • interviewers may lie
• unstructured interviews

  strengths:

  • allows interviewer to establish a qualitative interaction with the respondant
  • flexible

  weaknesses:

  • data is difficult to analyse
  • costly
• semi-structured interviews

  strengths:

  • ability to gain insight
  • flexibility

  weaknesses:

  • time consuming
  • lack of reliability
• focus group interviews

  strengths:

  • validity - participants are more likely to open up
  • useful way to generate initial ideas in a pilot study

  weaknesses:

  • one or two may dominate the discussion, stopping others from contributing
  • researchers are easy to get distracted