Interviews

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  • Created by: edolling
  • Created on: 17-04-19 21:18
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  • Interviews
    • Types of interviews - an interview is a meeting or discussion where one person ask the questions and another answers the, in order to gain information or perspectives
      • There are three main types:
        • Semi-Structured Interviews - There is a list of questions, but the interviewer is free to add questions or levels them out or even follow interesting lines of enquiry
        • Structured Interviews- there is a set list of questions that is not deviated from. Effectively a face - to - face questionnaire
        • Unstrutured Interviews-  no pre set questions, its just a free conversation.The researcher would have themes or heading with his work.
    • But UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS are highly valid, gives interviewee freedom to respond in their own way and talk about what they want and so deep insight can be gained. VERSTEHEN can be gained
      • The least valid form is STRUCTURED INTERVIEWSas data is limited at the design stage as strict set of questions are used.
        • Both  structured and semi structured could as a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data and so they can produce somewhat reliable and valid data.
        • An issue may be interviewer effect. to produce valid data, they want the interviewee to give honest answers but its likely that they will be influenced by the interviewer and os this may alter responses to give what they think are desired answers. One solution is to give a good rapport with the interviewee to avoid interviewer effect.
    • Whether they are reliable or not depends on what type of interview is used. The most reliable is STRUCTURED INVTERVERVIES, because  the research can be replicated as the same set of questions can be used each time. And the way the data is compared will be the same.
      • But with STRUCTURED INTERVIEWSthe reliability is limited by the nature of expected responses. interviews produce qualitative data, and is often low reliability as there is an invite number of responses even with the same questions, most reliable are closed questions.
      • Least reliable are UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS - as everyone is unique and it would be impossible to compare data between interviews where there's  no uniformity.
    • Interviews are conducted with a small sample for practical reasons.But because of this it makes id difficult to generalise the findings to the whole population as responses are from a limited number of people
      • The lack of reliabilitythe data from semi and unstructured also makes it pointlesstless to try and produce a representative data set even if it was practically possible. Each interview is unique and cannot be compared.
      • Structured are most easily used to produce represenativedata, if used with a good sampling method. But if a large, representative sample was a priority then you will opportunity for a different way to give out the questionnaire. Using structured than postal questionnaires then this deals with low response rate issues and impacts the representativeness
      • Aim is bringing together a focus group or group interview is for the group to be representative of the larger population so there will be diversity. the researcher can facilitate the group focus on a particular issue. While an attempt is made to make the group representative to improve data, the sample size is not big enough to be generalised.
    • There is a way in which interviews r emember ethical alternative to things like postal questionnaires. The interviewer is available and on hand to offer support to the interviewee and to ensure that they are not stressed to at emotional harm. They can if its not structured, leave questions is it may be distressing
      • But there are ethical issues, firstly while any published findings will be anomysied the research process itself  cannot be: the interviewer sees who the interviewee is and hears replied first hand. So if a recording is made it should either be destroyed  or stored according to data protection.
      • While a skilled interviewer  might be able to give support an interview is still a stressful environment than filling a questionnaire, and its harder to withdraw from the research process when the researcher is present
    • Favoured by Interpretivists  because of their potential to provide rich, valid, qualitative data that can offer VERSTEHEN.
      • Positivists tend to reject it as being unreliable and unrepresentative and unscientific. May make an exception for structured, but would perfer the larger samples.
      • Preferred by Feminists, its not the supposed validity of the data that attracts them but the nature of the method itself . As participants are generally women there a tendency to include and empower participants and unstructured interviews empower. Feminists concerned about the power relationships in research, the last thing they want is too oppress.
        • They argue that women are the subject of research which is done. Secondary data is impersonal and unemotional.
    • Practical issues are raised - one is they are time consuming, as interviews are face-to-face, they use a lot of time. semi-structured and unstructured could last along time
      • Effective interviewing requires a deal of skill. sometimes need professional interviewer to conduct the interviews. it requires rapport and sensitivity. rapport is the ease of a relationship between a researcher and subject. It can be important when it come to getting people to open up and have confidence to say what they want. sociologists with the skills  to build a good rapport with interviewees likely to get richer more detailed data.
      • Even  if the researcher has the confidence to carry the interview out themselves they need to find a way to record the data. the easiest way to record the data is to make a sound or video recording. But there is a time consuming process of ,making a transcript to be able to analyse the data.

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