structured

• response rate

  • one advantage of structured interviews = higher response rate
  • eg of the 987 people Willmott and Young interviewed, only 54 refused
  • This higher response rate means that the interviewer has more data gathered, which gives them a larger sample size. This is good because it means the study of the target population can be more representative of the general population. This means that the study can be more valid because the researcher is measuring what they are intending to measure. As a result, this research method could be more preferred as opposed to other types of interviews.
  • however, those with the time or willingness to be interviewed may be untypical from the general target population, so the findings produced could = unrepresentative = generalizations are invalid
• theoretical

  • one theoretical disadvantage of structured interviews are that they can be lower in validity
  • they use closed-ended questions that are restrictive - the interviewee has less choice from the limited, pre-set answers
  • therefore if any answers don’t apply then they need to choose the closest one that matches, producing invalid data as a result because the researcher isn’t measuring what they intend to = less meaningful conclusion
  • however, alternative methods which don’t use closed-ended questions are not affected by this issue, eg unstructured interviews, making it more preferred by interpretivists as they can better look at the meanings
• feminist criticism

  • one disadvantage of structured interviews is outlined by feminist critics
  • Graham argues that survey methods are patriarchal
  • this gives a more distorted and invalid picture of women’s experiences
  • this is because women are aware of the stereotypes against them, eg being emotional, which causes them to act against them, which may provide false data = less valid because researcher can’t study what they intend to measure
  • in addition to this, one theoretical disadvantage of structured interviews is that they can be less preferred by interpretivists because they believe this method doesn’t correctly reveal how the interviewee views the subject due to the lack of in-depth data collected by the pre-set questions and answers
• ethical

  • one ethical disadvantage = participants may not feel they have a right to withdraw
  • could be due to power imbalances eg researching a school - students may feel threatened by researcher as they may be of a different age, class
  • this fear could cause interviewee to give an untruthful, socially desirable response instead of one that aligns with their true views as they’re afraid of being criticised - produces less valid data as a result because the researcher gathers false data, meaning less accurate conclusions can be drawn in comparison to unstructured due to their informality
  • in addition to this, structured = unable to construct a rapport which further discourages interviewees to give truthful answers, this is because structured doesn’t prioritise social connections