Bryman Chapter 9: Structured interviewing
o The structured interview is one of the two main ways of administering a survey research
instrument
o It promotes standardizaton of the asking of questons and the recording of answers;
eliminates interviewer efect
o Variaton in answers is made up of two components:
True variaton
Variaton due to error
o Intra-interviewer variability occurs when an interviewer is not consistent
o Inter-interviewer variability occurs when there is more than one interviewer and they are not
consistent in the way they ask questons
o Variability also depends on the type of queston; e.g. the answer to an open-ended queston
may not be fully recorded or misunderstood by the interviewer, the answer to a closed-
ended queston is usually easy to register
Coding as source of error
o Rules for assigning answers to categories (coding frame) may be inconsistent doesn’t
reflect the true variaton
o Variability in the ways the answers are categorized
Intra-rater variability: person conductng the coding is inconsistent in the way he/she
applies rules for assignment of answers to categories
Inter-rater variability: more than one person conducts the coding and difer in the
way they apply rules
Other types of interview
o Semi-structured interview: interviewer has a series of queston but can vary the sequence of
o those questons and ask further questons
o Unstructured interview: interviewer has a list of topics/ issues, informal
o Intensive interview: alternatve term for the unstructured interview
o Focused interview: interview using mostly open-ended questons to ask interviewees about a
specifc situaton, issue can also be discussed in focus groups
o Oral history interview: interviewee is asked to recall events from his/ her past and to reflect
on them
o Life history interview: interviewer wants to gain informaton about the entre biography of a
respondent
Interview contexts
o More than one interviewee
o More than one interviewer; unlikely to add any value to survey interviews
o Interviews by telephone
Advantages
Cheaper and quicker to administer
Easier to supervise (in case of several interviewers)
Eliminates any variaton in answers due to characteristc of interviewer (e.g. race,
class)
Disadvantages
Possibility of sample bias (some people may not have access to a phone)
Disadvantage for people with hearing disabilites
o The structured interview is one of the two main ways of administering a survey research
instrument
o It promotes standardizaton of the asking of questons and the recording of answers;
eliminates interviewer efect
o Variaton in answers is made up of two components:
True variaton
Variaton due to error
o Intra-interviewer variability occurs when an interviewer is not consistent
o Inter-interviewer variability occurs when there is more than one interviewer and they are not
consistent in the way they ask questons
o Variability also depends on the type of queston; e.g. the answer to an open-ended queston
may not be fully recorded or misunderstood by the interviewer, the answer to a closed-
ended queston is usually easy to register
Coding as source of error
o Rules for assigning answers to categories (coding frame) may be inconsistent doesn’t
reflect the true variaton
o Variability in the ways the answers are categorized
Intra-rater variability: person conductng the coding is inconsistent in the way he/she
applies rules for assignment of answers to categories
Inter-rater variability: more than one person conducts the coding and difer in the
way they apply rules
Other types of interview
o Semi-structured interview: interviewer has a series of queston but can vary the sequence of
o those questons and ask further questons
o Unstructured interview: interviewer has a list of topics/ issues, informal
o Intensive interview: alternatve term for the unstructured interview
o Focused interview: interview using mostly open-ended questons to ask interviewees about a
specifc situaton, issue can also be discussed in focus groups
o Oral history interview: interviewee is asked to recall events from his/ her past and to reflect
on them
o Life history interview: interviewer wants to gain informaton about the entre biography of a
respondent
Interview contexts
o More than one interviewee
o More than one interviewer; unlikely to add any value to survey interviews
o Interviews by telephone
Advantages
Cheaper and quicker to administer
Easier to supervise (in case of several interviewers)
Eliminates any variaton in answers due to characteristc of interviewer (e.g. race,
class)
Disadvantages
Possibility of sample bias (some people may not have access to a phone)
Disadvantage for people with hearing disabilites
