AS Sociology

 Structured  Unstructured  Semi structured  Focus groups WE

 These are preferred by Positivist  These are based on a structured, closed- ended/ pre-coded questionnaire. The questionnaire in an interview is referred to as an ‘interview schedule’.  The interviewer will not stray from the interview schedule

 Read the passage on page 196 and carry out the activity.  Can collect more complex and detailed data  Reach a wider range of respondents (overcome the literacy problem)  Have an improved response rate (70-80%)  Quick to do (as not dependent on postal return)

 Greater flexibility in asking (and answering of questions)  Individual attention can be given to help respondents (explain/repeat questions)  Can be used with all sections of the population (more representative)  Interviewer presence can make answering questions more interesting for respondent  Fewer ‘don’t knows’ when face to face

 Very costly  Time consuming  Need to train interviewees  Wages for interviewees  Interviewer can can sometimes forget/misinterpret a response  Face to face interaction may influence respondents

 The emotional state of the interviewee could affect their responses  Interview situation is always artificial  What people say and do are not always the same (validity issue).  Only gain a ‘snapshot’ of population at a certain time

 Preferred by interpretivists  More like a ‘guided or focused conversation’ than a strict structured interview  An interview schedule might not be used, and if one is used, it will contain open-ended questions that can be asked in any order  The data produced is qualitative, thus researcher usually record their data on a tape recorder, which they can listen and write up later.

 Reading page 197 ‘unstructured interviews’ answer the following questions:  Explain the advantages of allowing interviewees ‘the freedom to talk in their own terms’.  What do you see as the disadvantages of tape- recorded interviews

 Semi-Structured Interview  Uses a mix of closed-ended/pre-coded and open- ended questions  Focus group (group interviews)  Refers to interviews where a dozen or so respondents are interviewed together  Can be structured or un-structured but usually are semi-structured  Read page 195 and Box 26, and answer the following questions  Why might the data obtained from two semi- structured interviews on the same topic not be strictly comparable?  Suggest one advantage and one disadvantage of using group interviews rather than one-to-one interviews

 Whenever critiquing an interview method, regardless of the type of interview, Interviewer Bias can always be raised as an evaluative consideration  This refers to the way the behaviour (or simply the presence) of the interviewer may influence the responses that they receive from the respondent.  This could be affected by the following characteristics of the interviewer

 SOCIAL Characteristics  The Interviewer’s Age, Gender, Ethnicity, perceived Social Class, Accent  PERSONAL Characteristics  The Interviewer’s Body Language, Tone of Voice, Style of Dress, Appearance.  STATUS DIFFERENCES  Whether or not the interviewer shares status & power with the respondent or decides to keep a distance & clear power division.  LEADING QUESTIONS  Prompted the respondent to answer questions in a particular way and/or making assumptions about the respondent within the questions asked.

 TASK  Working in small groups design a short interview on STUDENTS AMBITIONS, consider the following within your interview schedule:  Expectations of education  What they want  How they get there  Importance of career/family  Conduct the interview  As a class we will compare how the findings differed between the ambitions of boys and girls

1. Explain what is meant by ‘RAPPORT’ 2. Suggest one advantage and one disadvantage of using structured interviews rather than un-structured interviews 3. What does ‘interviewer bias’ mean? 4. Suggest two strengths of using group interviews rather than one-to-one interviews

Interviews– Education Context 1. Practical Issues Structured interviews Language issues – young people are not as wordy/literate as adults Students reluctant to talk Not understand abstract concepts/terms Boredom – short attention span Interpret NVC/body language differently to adults Can effect results and interfere with validity of evidence..so unstructured interviews may be more useful. Waffling – children can drift off the point (Powney/Watts) - too literal. Training needs to be extensive to avoid this = increased costs Schools are riddled with gossip/rumour – when other children learn about interviews – will affect others! 2. Reliability Young people (in structured interviews) may not produce valid data in ‘formal context’. Di Bentley – used funny image at the start of each interview to relax the atmosphere.. Was very mindful of her body language/tone With unstructured interviews – not standardised – cant compare 5. Improving validity (strategies) Greene and Hogan used: open ended questions/not interrupt answers/tolerate long pauses/avoid leading questions/avoid repeating questions Unstructured interviews lessen barriers/gain rapport/open 3. Access & Response Rate Problems accessing teachers/pupils in school hierarchy Schools not permit interviews in lesson time as disrupt learning – students not want to give up own time also Parental permission needed and this varies by topic (Field had 29% refusal rate on sexual health research) 4. Power and Status In school – students have little power than teachers. If they see interviewer as ‘the man’ then they may lie/exaggerate etc – invalid Bell ‘teacher in disguise’ Students may want to appear more conformist to avoid trouble 6. Group interviews Pupils may be influenced by peers – less valid data Students can ‘egg each other on’ But these can reduce power imbalance They also reveal interactions (and give meaning) to group behaviour Paul Willis – Learning to Labour