Structured Research Methods

Use of questionnaires and interviews in Research

A questionnaire is a way to bring forth the feelings, beliefs, experiences, perceptions, or attitudes of some sample of individuals. As a data collecting instrument, it could be structured or unstructured.

It is a concise, preplanned set of questions designed to yield specific information to meet a particular need for research information about a particular topic. In a written or printed form used for gathering information a list of questions to be submitted to one or more persons.

In order to accord with the features of qualitative research outlined above, one would need to take into account the questions of:-

• Access. Given what was said above about levels of reality, the researcher needs to know that all are interpreting questions and answers on the questionnaire in the same way and on the same 'level'; and that respondents are giving full and truthful responses.
• The nature of the data required. If the purpose of the questionnaire is to find out factual details or to seek responses to firm categories, the 'harder' the data requested the better. If the purpose is to help discover new qualitative material, then it is better to have more open, unobtrusive and unstructured questions. Questionnaires in qualitative research often contain a mixture of the two.
• The need to identify the context in which replies are being given.
• The need for checks, balances, extensions and modifications.

An interview is a direct face-to-face attempt to obtain reliable and valid measures in the form of verbal responses from one or more respondents. It is a conversation in which the roles of the interviewer and the respondent change continually. A great deal of qualitative material comes from talking with people whether it be through formal interviews or casual conversations.

If interviews are going to tap into the depths of reality of the situation and discover subjects' meanings and understandings, it is essential for the researcher:

• To develop empathy with interviewees and win their confidence;
• To be unobtrusive, in order not to impose one's own influence on the interviewee.
• The best technique for this is the unstructured interview. Here, the researcher has some general ideas about the topics of the interview, and may have an aide memoire of points that might arise in discussion for use as prompts, if necessary. But the hope is that those points will come up in the natural course of the discussion as the interviewee talks. Care is needed, therefore, to avoid leading questions or suggesting outcomes, and skill is called for in discovering what the interviewee really thinks.
• The researcher aims to appear natural, not someone with a special role, but one who engages with interviewees on a person-to-person basis. Attention will be paid to where the interview is held, arrangement of seating, how the researcher dresses, manner of approach, all in the interests of equality.

There are a number of techniques researchers use in the natural course of the conversation to aid clarity, depth and validity. Here are some:

• Check on apparent contradictions, imbalance, exaggerations, or inconsistencies ('Yes, but didn't you say a moment ago…?' 'How can that be so if…?' 'Is it really?' 'Does it necessarily follow that…?' 'Why?' 'Why not?' 'What was the point of that?');
• Search for opinions ('What do you think of that?' 'Do you believe that?');
• Ask for clarification ('What do you mean by…?' 'Can you say a little more about…?' 'In what way?' 'Can you give me some examples?');
• Ask for explanations, pose alternatives ('Couldn't one also say…?');
• Seek comparisons ('How does that relate to…?' 'Some others have said that…');
• Pursue the logic of an argument ('Does it follow, then, that…?' 'Presumably,…?');
• Ask for further information ('What about…?' 'Does that apply to…?);
• Aim for comprehensiveness ('Have you any other…?' 'Do you all feel like that?' 'Have you anything more to say on that?');
• Put things in a different way ('Would it be fair to say that…?' 'Do you mean…?' 'In other words…?');
• Express incredulity or astonishment ('In the fourth year?' 'I don't believe it!' 'Really??');
• Summarise occasionally and ask for corroboration ('So…?' 'What you're saying is…?' 'Would it be correct to say…?')

References:

http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk

https://www.sussex.ac.uk

http://www.okstate.edu