interviews

• • A way of gathering information from people on a topic of interest to the researcher,
  • can be either qualitative or quantitative
  • Non-experimental, type of self-report method
• • structured = The questions are asked in a set / standardized order and the interviewer will not deviate from the interview schedule, uses closed questions
• unstructured = Questions can change depending on what is being discussed, open ended questions
• semi structured = A mix between both, some predetermined questions but also room for discussion
• weaknesses of structured interviews:

  • Reliability may be affected by the same interviewer behaving differently on different occasions
  • questions may be interpreted in different ways by the participants
  • Participants answers may be restricted by the questions asked
• strengths of semi structured interviews:

  • In depth qualitative data can be collected
  • Information can be accessed that might not be revealed by predetermined questions
• weaknesses of semi structure interviews

  • Interviewer bias may be an issue, may lead the participants to alter their responses when asked to elaborate
  • Reliability may be affected by different interviewers asking different questions/ same question in different way
  • analysing data is more time consuming and difficult