Interviews

• Interviews follow up questions

  Cicourel and Kituse

  always followed up their question with 'how do you mean' as a way of gaining extra information and can understand meaning better
• Interviews group interviews

  Paul Willis - learning to labour

  used group interviews as part of his research into wc lads
• Interviews high response rate

  Wilmott and Young - symmetrical family

  found only 54 refused to be interviewed out of 987 who were asked - this may be because people find it harder to turn down a face to face request
• Interviews patriarchy

  Hilary Graham

  argue survey methods such as questionnaires and structured interviews are patriarchal and give a distorted picture of women's experience

  argues that:

  • the researcher is in control of the interview and this mirrors women's subordinate position in society
  • survey methods treat women as isolated individuals rather than seeing them in context of the power relationships that oppress them
• Interviews informal style of USI

  Lambov

  when using formal interviews to study the language of black American children, they appear to be tongue tied

  however by adopting an informal style - the researcher on the floor, allowing a friend to be present for the child - brings a different response and the children opened up and spoke freely
• Interviews children want to please adults in USI

  Rich

  when adults interview children, the Childs need to please the interviewer will affect their results

  similarly gender and ethnic differences can hinder validity
• Interviews cultural differences may hinder validity

  cultural gap may mean the interviewer cannot tell when they are being lied to

  Margaret Mead research on adolescence in Samoa has been criticised due to Mead, who couldn't speak the language, was unable to spot the girls she interviewed deliberately misled her
• Interviews playing dumb

  Becker

  used aggression and 'playing dumb' as a way of extracting sensitive information from school teachers as they might not have otherwise revealed about how they classified pupils

  this tactic can be difficult to replicate
• Interviews children's understanding

  Powney and Watts

  note young children tend to be more literal minded and often pay attention to unexpected details in questions and may use different logic from adult interviewers
• Interviews hierarchy

  Powney and Watts

  note the lower down the hierarchy the interviewee, the more likely approval is to be difficult - thus if you want to interview a teacher you would need permission form the 'gatekeeper' and the local authority

  schools may be reluctant to allow sociologists conduct interviews during lesson time because of disruption

  parental permission may also be required
• Interviews 'teacher in disguise'

  Bell

  notes pupils may see the interviewer as a 'teacher in disguise' - pupils may seek approval of teacher by giving invalid information

  e.g questioning how much time is spent on homework - may gain a false response