Non-experimental Psychology Research: INTERVIEWS

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  • Interviews
    • Non-experimental method as no IV is directly manipulated
    • Gains self-reported information from PPs about their beliefs, opinions and attitudes by asking questions and analysing the answers
    • Can be done face-to-face, or over the phone, and can be more or less structured depending on the type and purpose of the information
      • A clinical interview is conducted by a clinician with patients, who have different issues so the clinician needs to be fairly flexible with questions asked so less structured interview is better
    • Structured Interviews
      • Standardised list of questions prepared beforehand
      • Strict interview schedule so respondents asked same questions in same order
      • Suitable for large-scale studies where a number of interviewers are required to get info from lots of different respondents
      • Strengths and Weaknesses
        • Lots of information gathered quickly from large number of people easily
        • Easy to replicate as every question same
        • Interviewer needs little training because of pre-set schedule
    • Semi-structured Interviews
      • Pre-set questions prepared before with a framework to follow
      • Inc. open-ended questions or points of discussion the researcher can follow up
        • Allows some free-flowing conversation for interviewer to explore respondents thoughts at different opportunities
      • Strengths and Weaknesses
        • Free to deviate from schedule for interesting conversations
        • Asks pre-set questions and gives freedom to respondents to answer freely
        • More time-consuming than structured
        • Interviewer needs more training
    • Unstructured Interviews
      • No prepared questions or schedule to follow but there is a broad aim/purpose
        • Interviewer directs questions based on respondents answers
          • Most suitable to gain in-depth info from a small group of respondents
      • Strengths and Weaknesses
        • Gathers most in-depth information and free to fully explore thoughts of respondents
        • Impossible to replicate
        • Time-consuming
        • Requires fully trained interviewer to build rapport relationship
    • Social desirability bias and interviewer effects

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