Interviews

Structured (planned)

' fixed pre-determined questions and ways of replying. closed questions/ fixed responses.

+ easy to quantify and analyse

+ highly standardised

+ replicable

+ generalisable

- self-report bias

- cause and effect cannot be interred

semi- structured (semi-planned)

' contains guidelines for questions to be asked but phrasing and timings left up to the interviewer, answers may be open-ended

+ fairly flexible and sensitive

+ fairly easy to analyse

+ fairly replicable

- flexibility of phrasing and timing can lead to lower reliability

- open - ended answers more difficult to analyse

unstructured (not planned)

'may contain a topic area for discussion but no fixed questions or wayds of answering. interviewer helps and clarifies interview.

+ highly detailed and valid data

+ extremely flexible

+ natural and uncontrolled responses

- unstandardised so not well replicated

- lack reliability

- difficult to quantify and analyse