Research Methods Interviews

Structured Interview Simple questionnaire administered by an interviewer who is not allowed to deviate in an way form the questions provided Interviewer can clarify answers Interviewer can prompt interviewee

Goldthorpe and Lockwood Used structured interviews in their research Team of researchers were able to prompt or give guidance to interviewee to help them answer the question The questions were about whether they had actively done anything about to find a new job Researchers were able to suggest answers that interviewees would not remember

Unstructured Interviews Takes the form of a conversation where the interviewer has no predetermined questions Conversation develops naturally Interviewers can direct the conversation Most interviews fall somewhere in between These are semi structured interviews

Hannah Gavron ‘The Captive Wife’ Interviewed 76 housewives about their lives She had a schedule of areas she wanted to cover in each interview She would only direct the wives to these areas when it was essential In this way she hoped to avoid influencing the response

Advantages Coding answers can lead to statistical data As you have some sort of structure you can compare answers Concepts and words can be clarified Issues can be explained in more depth Can be useful for creating new hypothesis and theories

Cont…. Flexibility, more than any other method Can ask about motives, feelings, things you cannot observe directly E.g. R. D. Lang used in depth interviews to study past behaviour and emotional state of people with schizophrenia and their families Laurie Taylor could only produce data about professional criminals in the U.K as he gained trust and interviewed them

Disadvantages Information may be neither valid or reliable Responses given may not be accurate and may not reflect real behaviour Respondents may Lie, forget information or lack the information E.g. some criminals interviewed by Taylor later claimed that they had made up stories about their escapades in order to see how gullible Taylor was

Cont….. When reflecting, may alter events Interviewees may be influenced by presence of interviewer Influenced by the way interviewees define the situation E.g The race or gender of the interviewer can influence the responses of the interviewee