The Interview Research Method

Table of Contents The Interview Interviews are different from questionnaires as they involve social interaction. Unlike questionnaires methods, researchers need training in how to interview (which costs money). Researchers can ask different types of questions which in turn generate different types of data. For example, closed questions provide people with a fixed set of responses, whereas open questions allow people to express what they think in their own words. Quite often interviews will be recorded by the researcher and the data written up as a transcript (a written account of interview questions and answers) which can be analyzed at a later date. It should be noted that interviews may not be the best method to use for researching sensitive topics (e.g. truancy in schools, discrimination etc.) as people may feel more comfortable completing a questionnaire in private. Interviews take many forms, some very informal, others more structured. Structured Interview A structured interview is a qua…