Interviews are data collection instruments involving a face-to-face interaction in which oral questions are posed by an interviewer to draw out responses from the interviewee. An interview of whatever type involves direct personal contact with the participant who is asked to answer questions.
Interviews are basically in two types. These are the face-to-face interview and the telephone interview. You have to note that whether it is face-to-face of telephone interview you are using, they have the same characteristics. The only difference between face-to-face and telephone interview is that in telephone interview no one sees the other. The advantages of the telephone interview are that it is cheaper, especially if the respondents are very far away, and the interviewee is shielded from the influence of the interviewer. Interviews can also be classified in the following categories:
In this approach to interviewing, the researcher has some idea in mind of the topics to be covered and may use some sort of topic list as a reminder. There is minimal control over the order in which topics are covered and over respondents’ answers. In unstructured interviewing, neither the specific questions to be asked nor the range or type of possible answers are pre-defined. They are informal and conversational.
The aim is to get the informants to open up, and the researcher should stimulate an informant to produce more information. This approach allows the interviewer to be responsive to individual differences and situational characteristics. This approach builds on observation. It is useful in studying sensitive topics such as sexuality or political topics. To effectively achieve the aims of an open-ended interview, one must ask a whole series of secondary questions such as:
As much as possible, test your methods in advance. Because there is no set format for conducting these interviews, each interview is unique. This makes it difficult to systematise and analyse data.
Unstructured interviews have the following advantages:
Unstructured interviews have the following disadvantages:
These interviews are based on the use of an interview guide. This is a written list of questions or topics that need to be covered by the interview. There are several types of semi-structured interviews.
Semi-structured interviews have the following advantages:
Semi-structured interviews have the following disadvantages:
These involve subjecting every informant in a sample to the same stimuli, for instance, asking each informant similar questions, as in the case of a survey.
Structured interviews have the following advantages:
Structured interviews portray the following disadvantages:
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