Limitations

• Practical - inflexibility

  • Structured interviews suffer from the inflexibility that comes from having to draw up the questions in advance. The researcher has already decided what is important - yet this may not coincide with what the respondent thinks is important. This can make it difficult to draw up and then carry them out. 
• Practical Inflexibilty (2)

  • As a result, the findings may lack validity because they do not reflect the respondent's concerns and priorities. In particular, establishing the questions beforehand and then sticking to them rigidly will make it impossible to pursue any interesting leads that emerge in the course of the interviews, thereby losing valuable insights.
• Practical - Respondents

  despire the fact structured interviews tend to have high response rates those with time or willingness to be interviewed may be atypical. For example they may be lonely or have time on there hands . If so this will make for unrepresentative data and undermine validity of generalisations made from the findings.
• Theoretical lack of validity

  argued that structured interviews produce a false lecture of the subject they are trying to study.

  Structured interviews usually use close ended questions that restrict responders to choosing from a limited number of pre set questions if none of these answers fruts what respondent really wishes to say the data obtained will be invalid .

  Give participants little freedom to explain questions or clarify misunderstandings as the researcher is most likely not present.
• Theoretical Lack of verstehen

  Interprevsist would argue interviews do nit allow for the researcher to gain empathy insight and therefore do not gain an understanding of social reality of those involved.

  Through the use of pre set close ended questions the researcher remains detached and objective they do nit get emotionally close to subjects if the study and share their meanings .
• Theoretical - lack of verstehen (2)

  This means they’re unable to gain true understanding of participants experience of social world . Howver Townsend used case studies as well as structured interviews that provided deeper insight in living in poverty