Asking Questions

1
Asking Questions

• Surveys
• Questionnaires
• Interviews

2
Surveys

• Large samples
• Large amounts of data
• Get numerical data, so quantitative analysis is
  possible
• Can be descriptive or analytical
• Can use interviews or questionnaires

3
Types of Sampling

• Random
• Stratified
• Snowball
• Self-selecting
• Opportunity

4
Questionnaires

• Questionnaires can be used to obtain structured
  information
• They can be factual, attitude or reflect a
  persons opinion
• They can be carried out singly, in a group, by
  mail, or over the internet

5

• Advantages
• Cheap
• Can get a wide and representative sample
• Little researcher bias
• Can be anonymous
• Often produces quantitative data, so can be
  analysed

• Disadvantages
• Low response rate
• Less depth and meaning
• Shades of meaning cannot be recorded, often only
  a narrow range of responses possible e.g. Likert
  scales
• Problems with questions
• Social desirability
• Response bias

6
Interviews

• A research method that allows the respondent to
  give a verbal account of beliefs, experiences and
  behaviour
• It can be thought of as a conversation with a
  purpose (Bingham and Moore, 1959)
• It seeks to describe and understand the meanings
  of central themes in the life world of the
  participant

7
Interviewer attributes

• Good listening skills
• Showing interest
• Good non-verbal communication, and noticing
  participant non-verbal behaviours
• Ability to use prompts and probes to keep the
  interview moving appropriately
• An awareness of ethical concerns
• An awareness of unequal power relationships
  inherent in this type of research

8
Types of interview

• Groups e.g. Focus groups
• Structured
• Semi-structured
• Unstructured

9
Structured interviews

• Advantages
• High level of control
• Reliable
• Replicable
• Reduced interpersonal variables
• Can use quantitative analysis

• Disadvantages
• Inflexible
• May be power inequalities
• Difficult to tackle sensitive issues
• Reduced ecological validity
• Reduced richness of meaning

10
Semi-structured interviews

• Advantages
• Richer, more detailed data
• More flexible
• High ecological validity

• Disadvantages
• More interpersonal bias
• Analysis is more time consuming
• Difficult to replicate
• More subjective

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General problems

• The researcher is part of the research, and
  brings all their biases and direction to the
  interviews e.g. through leading questions, facial
  expressions etc.
• There may be personality clashes between
  interviewer and interviewee
• Dialect and accent problems
• Distress caused to participants, and how this is
  handled
• Choice of analysis thematic, discourse etc.

12
Doing interviews

• How many participants?
• Ethical issues
• What type of questions or statements?
• Tape or video??
• Level of transcription
• Analysis of data
• Reflexivity
• Practical considerations e.g. rooms,
  refreshments, toilets etc.