Unstructured Interviews - Advantages and disadvantages table in GCSE Sociology

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Created by: maddieecarr
Created on: 16-11-19 13:26

Unstructured Interviews

Advantages

'Probing', asking follow-up questions and exploration of complex issues possible.
Develop and explain answers
Can explain personal experiences
Obtain rich and detailed data
Build a strong rapport with the interviewee - access sensitive topics

Disadvantages

Time-consuming and expensive
Skilled interviewer needed to continue conversation and to allow participant to trust them and 'open up'
Interviewer/ee bias invalidates all results
Small and unrepresentative sample
Impossible to replicate
Difficult to make generalisations
May provide socially desirable answers instead of true ones
Requires good social skills

Evaluation

Unstructured interviews provide high levels of detailed qualitative data. However, there are a number of practical issues. The answers may not be valid and they are almost impossible to repeat so are unreliable.

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