Types of Interviews in Sociological Research

What is a key characteristic of structured interviews?

• They use a standardised set of questions.

• They are conducted like a guided conversation.

• They involve group discussions.

• They allow complete freedom to vary questions.

What is another name for unstructured interviews?

• Formal interviews

• Discovery interviews

• Focus group interviews

• Standardised interviews

What is a focus group?

• A one-to-one interview

• A type of structured interview

• A form of group interview discussing specific topics

• An interview with a single participant

What is a strength of group interviews?

• They are easy to quantify.

• They have a high response rate.

• They are inexpensive to conduct.

• They stimulate participants' thinking.

What is a limitation of group interviews?

• They are always structured.

• They are not suitable for hypothesis testing.

• They can be dominated by one or two individuals.

• They have a low response rate.

What is a practical issue with structured interviews?

• They are more costly than posting questionnaires.

• They require a lot of time to administer.

• Training interviewers is complex and costly.

• They are very expensive to conduct.

Why do structured interviews generally have a higher response rate than questionnaires?

• They are anonymous.

• They are conducted online.

• People find it harder to turn down a face-to-face request.

• They are shorter in length.

What is a reliability advantage of structured interviews?

• They allow for flexible questioning.

• They are conducted in groups.

• They can be easily repeated with the same results.

• They capture dynamic social interactions.

What is a limitation of structured interviews regarding flexibility?

• They do not allow pursuing interesting leads.

• They are too short to gather detailed information.

• They allow for too much flexibility.

• They are too expensive to conduct.

What method do some feminists prefer over structured interviews?

• Structured interviews

• Questionnaires

• Focus groups

• Direct observation