A structured interview (also known as a standardised interview or a researcher-administered survey) is a quantitative research method commonly employed in survey research. The aim of this approach is to ensure that each interview is presented with exactly the same questions in the same order. This ensures that answers can be reliably aggregated and that comparisons can be made with confidence between sample subgroups or between different survey periods.
Structured interviews are a means of collecting data for a statistical survey. In this case, the data is collected by an interviewer rather than through a self-administered questionnaire. Interviewers read the questions exactly as they appear on the survey questionnaire. The choice of answers to the questions is often fixed (close-ended) in advance, though open-ended questions can also be included within a structured interview.
A structured interview also standardises the order in which questions are asked of survey respondents, so the questions are always answered within the same context. This is important for minimising the impact of context effects, where the answers given to a survey question can depend on the nature of preceding questions. Though context effects can never be avoided, it is often desirable to hold them constant across all respondents.
Structured interviews can also be used as a qualitative research methodology [1]. These types of interviews are best suited for engaging in respondent or focus group studies in which it would be beneficial to compare/contrast participant responses in order to answer a research question [2]. For structured qualitative interviews, it is usually necessary for researchers to develop an interview schedule which lists the wording and sequencing of questions [3]. Interview schedules are sometimes considered a means by which researchers can increase the reliability and credibility of research data [4].
References
- ^ Kvale & Brinkman. 2008. InterViews, 2nd Edition. Thousand Oaks: SAGE. ISBN: 9780761925422
- ^ Lindlof & Taylor. 2002. Qualitative Communication Research Methods, 2nd Edition. Thousand Oaks: SAGE. ISBN: 9780761924944
- ^ Patton. 1991. Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods, 3rd Edition. Thousand Oaks: SAGE. ISBN: 9780761919711
- ^ Lindlof & Taylor. 2002. Qualitative Communication Research Methods, 2nd Edition. Thousand Oaks: SAGE. ISBN: 9780761924944
i
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Categories: Research methods | Evaluation methods | Quantitative research
|
Farai
Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:28:09 GM
A . structured interview. is one in which each subject or respondent is asked a series of questions according to a prepared and fixed . interviewing. schedule the questionnaire. In all cases the role of the questionnaire is to provide a ...
