interviews

Cards (18)

  • 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 particilantros is in and the experiment information
  • what does a double blind procedure help to reduce?

    researcher effects