Interviews

• Unstructured interview- no set structure or questions, interviewer asks questions based on individual participants, gives qualitative data
• Structured interview- questions are asked in a specific, fixed order for each participant, answers are scored against a grading system, provides quantitative data
• Semi-structured interview- mix of both structured and unstructured interviews, the order and phrasing of the questions isn't set and the interviewer can follow the participants lead and re-direct
• Strengths of interviews:

  • Unstructured interviews allow detailed, qualitative data to be gathered, however, it can be less comparable between pps.
  • Pps likely to feel more comfortable with interviewer- conversational nature of interviews allows ease in discussing sensitive subjects.
  • Interviews are a easy way to gather information during a pilot study before conducting proper research.
• Limitations of interviews:

  • Interviewers must be trained, increasing cost and time spent.
  • Self-report techniques allow for social-desirability bias, which lowers internal validity.
  • Time-consuming to analyse data from interviews (detailed, written and qualitative).
  • Limited sample size of only those who have adequate communication skills, which could lower population validity.