Interviews

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  • Interviews
    • favoured by positivists
      • say they reveal the attitudes and behaviours of people in everyday life
      • interpretivists say they are artificial situations and only reveal what the interviewee wants them to know
      • interviewer bias
    • structured interviews
      • precoded qs - positivists
      • good response rate, overcome issues of literacy
      • reliable - same question answered and can be compared and replicated with other groups
      • good for getting facts e.g age, sex and jobs - quantitative data
      • reduced interviewer bias, few ethical issues
      • time consuming and costly e.g vs questionnaires - interview schedule cause imposition problems
    • unstructured interviews
      • guided conversation, open ended questions
      • interpretivists say they offer more flexibility - can be more open increasing validity
      • ambiguities cleared, interviewer can assess honesty and validity of replies during the interview
      • avoids ethical issues
      • time consuming and costly - less interviews conducted
        • less reliable as less repeatable
      • group interviews may lead to peer pressure and conformity

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