UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
ADVANTAGES
● the interviewer finds it easy to to build a rapport with the respondent
● Qualitative data: The interviewer can get detail and in-depth answers of the attitudes,
feelings and reasons of their answers or behaviours.
● Highly flexible = the researcher can change his or her mind about what the most
important questions are as the interview develops. Unstructured Interviews thus
avoid the imposition problem – respondents are less constrained than with structured
interviews or questionnaires in which the questions are written in advance by the
researcher. This is especially advantageous in group interviews, where interaction
between respondents can spark conversations that the interviewer hadn’t thought
would have happened in advance, which could then be probed further with an
unstructured methodology.
● high in validity,
● link with official statistics which cannot provide the reasons and details behind the
trends and patterns of the study.
● Preferred by internationalists and interpretivists.
● no or very predetermined questions which allows the interview to ask as many
questions as they find necessary.
● Interviewers can also find answers about certain aspects that they didn't anticipate.
● Unstructured interviews allows the interviewer to look into sensitive topics such as
sexual abuse, bully,domestic violence , because they are more likely to make
respondents feel at ease with the interviewer. They also allow the interviewer to
show more sympathy (if required) than with the colder more mechanical quantitative
methods.
● Practical advantages – there are few practical advantages with this method, but
compared to full-blown participant observation, they are a relatively quick method for
gaining in-depth data. They are also a good method to combine with overt participant
observation in order to get respondents to further explain the meanings behind their
actions. So in short, they are impractical, unless you’re in the middle of a year long
Participant Observation study (it’s all relative!).
● Talk about William Labov's study on Black American pupils where he found that
these pupils are more relaxed and comfortable with unstructured interviews rather
than formal structure predetermined interviews.
ADVANTAGES
● the interviewer finds it easy to to build a rapport with the respondent
● Qualitative data: The interviewer can get detail and in-depth answers of the attitudes,
feelings and reasons of their answers or behaviours.
● Highly flexible = the researcher can change his or her mind about what the most
important questions are as the interview develops. Unstructured Interviews thus
avoid the imposition problem – respondents are less constrained than with structured
interviews or questionnaires in which the questions are written in advance by the
researcher. This is especially advantageous in group interviews, where interaction
between respondents can spark conversations that the interviewer hadn’t thought
would have happened in advance, which could then be probed further with an
unstructured methodology.
● high in validity,
● link with official statistics which cannot provide the reasons and details behind the
trends and patterns of the study.
● Preferred by internationalists and interpretivists.
● no or very predetermined questions which allows the interview to ask as many
questions as they find necessary.
● Interviewers can also find answers about certain aspects that they didn't anticipate.
● Unstructured interviews allows the interviewer to look into sensitive topics such as
sexual abuse, bully,domestic violence , because they are more likely to make
respondents feel at ease with the interviewer. They also allow the interviewer to
show more sympathy (if required) than with the colder more mechanical quantitative
methods.
● Practical advantages – there are few practical advantages with this method, but
compared to full-blown participant observation, they are a relatively quick method for
gaining in-depth data. They are also a good method to combine with overt participant
observation in order to get respondents to further explain the meanings behind their
actions. So in short, they are impractical, unless you’re in the middle of a year long
Participant Observation study (it’s all relative!).
● Talk about William Labov's study on Black American pupils where he found that
these pupils are more relaxed and comfortable with unstructured interviews rather
than formal structure predetermined interviews.
