When to Use Interviews in Research?
Interviews are primarily conducted in qualitative research and are used when one wants to pursue in-depth information around the topic. To determine if interviews are the best choice for the collection of data in your research, you can use the following checklist;
- What is your timeline?– Interviews are usually done when you want to gather opinions, views, feelings, attitudes, thoughts, and experiences of the participants. Also, you may choose interviews when you are researching a very sensitive subject and confidentiality is needed.
- What is your timeline?– Interviews require a lot of time to conduct, transcribe, organize, analyze, and report data. Also, they involve more individual appointments but are easier to schedule compared to focus groups. Individual interviews are also easy to conduct when they are done regularly. It may not be a good idea to use interviews if you have a limited timeline for your research.
- How large is your population?– Interviews are particularly not suitable when you want to represent a large population or reach a large number of participants.
- What is your budget?– Interviews can be relatively costly compared to other research methods. Also, participants typically expect incentives for participating in interviews. Consider other expenses such as will you provide travel allowance and food to participants?
- Who might be able to conduct the interviews?– If the interviewer is not skilled and experienced, the entire process of collecting data can be undermined. Training the interviewer on the interviewing procedure is thus essential since he/she can control the quality of the results. Also, the interviewer must be familiar with the topic and able to steer or control the course of the interviews to avoid digressions.
When you resolve to use interviews as your data collection method, you will still need to decide the type and method of interviews to employ in your research. The different types and methods of interviews in research are described below.
Types of Interviews
Structured Interview
In this type of interview, questions are predetermined and are asked in a specific order. Participants are required to select their responses from a list of options provided but may include open-ended questions. These interviews are easy to administer and replicate across multiple samples since their structure is standardized and fixed. However, structured interviews are very rigid and allow the researcher little or no opportunity to prompt the participants to obtain information in desired detail. Since respondents are required to select from the answer options provided, the scope of the assessment is also limited. Further, the researcher must adhere to the list of pre-decided questions regardless of how the conversation with the participants turns out. These interviews are only preferred when one wants to maintain uniformity throughout the interview sessions.
Semi-structured Interview
In semi-structured interviews, the researcher will develop an interview guide (also referred to as an interview protocol and interview script) or a checklist of the topics to cover in the conversation and the questions to ask. Nevertheless, the researcher can follow different paths of conversations that emerge during the interview or express the interview questions in a different format. Hence, these interviews are flexible and one can take creative advantage of the entire interview. Additionally, the researcher can ask follow-up questions or probe the respondents to expand or clarify the information provided. Semi-structured interviews are thus preferable when one wants to garner detailed information about the topic and the interview questions have a range of possible answers.
Unstructured Interview
Unstructured interviews take the form of an open, informal, and spontaneous conversation but with an underlying subject to gather data about the research study. There are no guidelines or predetermined interview questions to follow and the researcher can take any approach in any ethical manner to gain as much information as possible on the topic of interest. However, the researcher is expected to keep the interview in check to ensure the participants do not sway away from the research objective. This type of interview is preferred when one wants to develop a friendly rapport with the participants to increase the chances that they are 100% truthful with their answers and gain useful insights in extreme detail. They are particularly useful when there is little information about a topic or when the researcher wants to get the stories behind respondents’ experiences.
Methods of Research Interviews
There are mainly three methods that one can use to conduct interviews in research, namely; personal interviews, telephonic interviews, and email/web page interviews. The choice of research interview is determined by the requirements of a research study.
Personal Interview
It is the most used method of interview used in research whereby the researcher poses questions directly to a respondent in person or online via video conferencing technology such as Skype or Google Hangouts. The researcher takes notes of important points of view that stand out from the participant and also records the interview. The advantage of personal interviews is that it provides the researcher with an opportunity to detect, analyze, and take note of the respondent’s body language while asking the questions. Also, when interviews are done face-to-face, the researcher can reframe the questions if they are not understood by the participant. Additionally, more complete answers are obtained when further clarification is needed or a remarkable piece of information emerges. The disadvantages of personal interviews are that they are extremely expensive, time-consuming, and challenging to contact participants and schedule appointments.
Telephonic Interview
In this method of interview, the researcher interviews the participants over the phone. Telephonic interviews allow the researcher to collect the information needed quickly and can also clarify doubts or obtain more details on the responses given. Additionally, these interviews are cheaper to conduct compared to personal interviews and it is easy to find respondents since only telephone numbers are needed. However, it is usually difficult to build rapport with the respondents and get them to cooperate in the research process. Also, some participants may fail to answer phone calls or resort to pretexts such as they are busy, have no interest in answering, or lack the authority to answer the questions asked.
Email or Web Page Interview
Interviews via email or web pages have become popular for online research and have been made possible to carry out with the increase in people with Internet access. These interviews are advantageous in that the participants can respond at the time and place they want. Also, the data collection process is speedy and less expensive compared to other interview methods.