interviews

• what is an interview?

  data collection technique where a researcher engages in direct conversations with individuals to gather information about their thoughts, experiences and behaviours
• what are the 3 types of interviews?

  structured

  semi structured

  unstructured
• structured interviews

  highly standardized interview where all participants are asked the same pre-determined questions in the same order
• structured interview example

  a market researcher asking customers fixed questions about their satisfaction with a new product
• semi structured interviews

  combination of fixed pre-determined questions with the flexibility to explore topic in more depth based on the participants responses
• semi structured interview example

  a psychologist asking pre-planned questions about a patients symptoms allowing follow up questions for clarification
• unstructured interviews

  a conversational interview style where questions are not pre-planned allowing the interviewer to adapt to the participants responses
• unstructured interview example

  an ethnographer engaging in open dialogue with community members to learn about their cultural practices
• strengths of structured interviews 


  high reliability- questions are standardized so easy to replicate

  time efficient - typically quicker to conduct and analyse
• weaknesses of structured interviews

  limited flexibility - can’t explore unexpected themes or responses

  risk of social desirability bias in responses
• strengths of semi - structured interviews

  balanced flexibility - combines fixed questions with the freedom to probe for detailed responses

  richer data - allows for exploration of unexpected themes or clarifications
• weaknesses of semi - structured interviews

  time consuming - can take longer to conduct and analyse

  less comparability - variability in probing can make comparing responses harder
• strengths of unstructured interviews

  rich & in depth data - provides the opportunity to explore participants thoughts fully

  adaptive - flexible to follow interesting / unexpected responses
• weaknesses of unstructured interviews

  low reliability - lacks consistency and standardisation, making replication difficult

  time intensive - requires more time to conduct and analyse
• researcher effects

  the influence a researcher may unintentionally have on the participants/ results of a study which can compromise the validity of the findings
• what can researcher effects arise from?

  researcher‘s behaviour, tone or appearance
• double blind procedure

  when researcher and participant both don’t know what group the particioant is in and the experiment information
• what does a double blind procedure help to reduce?

  researcher effects