Interviews

• Why are interviews better


  + the P can ask to clarify a question so more valid = high IV

  + more insight can be gained = high IV

  + other interesting lines of inquiry can be explored
• What's the difference between an interview and questionnaire


  an interview is face-to-face whereas a questionnaire isn't face-to-face
• What is a structured interview


  -all Qs are pre-planned before the interview takes place

  -the researcher doesn't deviate from the set questions
• Strength and weakness of structured interviews


  +as all the questions are pre-planned the procedure is highly standardised so it's easy to replicate the interview/procedure = high internal reliability, gain more insight

  -as all the questions are pre-planned the researcher has to ignore any interesting lines of enquiry even if the respondent gives an interesting answer they must deviate from their questions = low IV (less insight)
• What are unstructured interviews


  -interview runs very much as a 'free flowing' conversation

  -interviewer may have a couple of set questions to start it off but the rest of the questions are spontaneous, usually based on the Ps previous answer
• What are semi structured interviews 


  -there are some set (pre-planned) questions to keep the focus on the specific aim of the study

  -but researcher will spontaneously veer off down any interesting lines of enquiry, but then bring it back to the original topic
• Strength and weakness of un/semi structured interviews


  +as the researcher can ask spontaneous Qs to delve deeper into interesting lines of enquiry, there is more insight into the thoughts + feelings of Ps = high IV

  -because the researcher asks spontaneous Qs the procedure lacks standardisation as Qs won't be the same for all = lowers internal reliability