Research Methods: Interviews

Interviews

Interviews are an alternative method for asking questions. They differ from questionnaires in their face-to-face nature. They are particularly useful for gathering more detailed information and enabling a more natural and flexible approach to questioning. An interview generally involves a conversational exchange between the interviewer and one or more other individuals. The interviewer usually has certain topics that they want to explore. The possible structures for interviews can be viewed along a scale from those which are highly structured to those which are very open in nature. Generally, the more the researcher already knows about the topic and the range of possible answers, the more structured the interview becomes. Also, if the researcher knows they need to report the results of…