As we have seen in the previous chapter, research methods are the tools you use to collect your data. Before you decide which would be the most appropriate methods for your research, you need to find out a little more about these tools. This chapter gives a description of the methods of interviewing, focus groups, questionnaires and participant observation. Chapters 7–10 will go on to describe in detail how to use each of these methods.

USING INTERVIEWS

In social research there are many types of interview. The most common of these are unstructured, semi-structured and structured interviews. If you want to find out about other types of interview, relevant references are given at the end of this chapter.

Unstructured interviews

Unstructured or in-depth interviews are sometimes called life history interviews. This is because they are the favoured approach for life history researchers. In this type of interview, the researcher attempts to achieve a holistic understanding of the interviewees’ point of view or situation. For example, if you want to find out about a Polish man’s experiences of a concentration camp during the war, you’re delving into his life history. Because you are unsure of what has happened in his life, you want to enable him to talk freely and ask as few questions as possible. It is for this reason that this type of interview is called unstructured – the participant is free to talk about what he or she deems important, with little directional influence from the researcher. This type of interview can only be used for qualitative research.

As the researcher tries to ask as few questions as possible, people often assume that this type of interviewing is the easiest. However, this is not necessarily the case. Researchers have to be able to establish rapport with the participant – they have to be trusted if someone is to reveal intimate life information. This can be difficult and takes tact, diplomacy and perseverance. Also, some people find it very difficult to remain quiet while another person talks, sometimes for hours on end.

In unstructured interviews researchers need to remain alert, recognising important information and probing for more detail. They need to know how to tactfully steer someone back from totally irrelevant digressions. Also, it is important to realise that unstructured interviewing can produce a great deal of data which can be difficult to analyse.

Semi-structured interviews

Semi-structured interviewing is perhaps the most common type of interview used in qualitative social research. In this type of interview, the researcher wants to know specific information which can be compared and contrasted with information gained in other interviews. To do this, the same questions need to be asked in each interview. However, the researcher also wants the interview to remain flexible so that other important information can still arise.

For this type of interview, the researcher produces an interview schedule (see Chapter 7). This may be a list of specific questions or a list of topics to be discussed. This is taken to each interview to ensure continuity. In some research, such as a grounded theory study, the schedule is updated and revised after each interview to include more topics which have arisen as a result of the previous interview. (See Chapter 2.)

Structured interviews

Structured interviews are used frequently in market research. Have you ever been stopped in the street and asked about washing powder or which magazines you read? Or have you been invited into a hall to taste cider or smell washing-up liquid? The interviewer asks you a series of questions and ticks boxes with your response. This research method is highly structured – hence the name. Structured interviews are used in quantitative research and can be conducted face-to-face or over the telephone, sometimes with the aid of lap-top computers.

CONDUCTING FOCUS GROUPS

Focus groups may be called discussion groups or group interviews. A number of people are asked to come together in a group to discuss a certain issue. For example, in market research this could be a discussion centred on new packaging for a breakfast cereal, or in social research this could be to discuss adults’ experiences of school.

The discussion is led by a moderator or facilitator who introduces the topic, asks specific questions, controls digressions and stops break-away conversations. She makes sure that no one person dominates the discussion whilst trying to ensure that each of the participants makes a contribution. Focus groups may be recorded using visual or audio recording equipment.

TABLE 1: THE FOCUS GROUP METHOD:
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

USING QUESTIONNAIRES

There are three basic types of questionnaire – closedended, openended or a combination of both.

1. Closed-ended questionnaires

Closed-ended questionnaires are probably the type with which you are most familiar. Most people have experience of lengthy consumer surveys which ask about your shopping habits and promise entry into a prize draw. This type of questionnaire is used to generate statistics in quantitative research. As these questionnaires follow a set format, and as most can be scanned straight into a computer for ease of analysis, greater numbers can be produced.

2. Open-ended questionnaires

Open-ended questionnaires are used in qualitative research, although some researchers will quantify the answers during the analysis stage. The questionnaire does not contain boxes to tick, but instead leaves a blank section for the respondent to write in an answer.

Whereas closed-ended questionnaires might be used to find out how many people use a service, open-ended questionnaires might be used to find out what people think about a service. As there are no standard answers to these questions, data analysis is more complex. Also, as it is opinions which are sought rather than numbers, fewer questionnaires need to be distributed.

3. Combination of both

Many researchers tend to use a combination of both open and closed questions. That way, it is possible to find out how many people use a service and what they think about that service on the same form. Many questionnaires begin with a series of closed questions, with boxes to tick or scales to rank, and then finish with a section of open-questions for more detailed response.

Increasingly, market research and opinion poll companies distribute their questionnaires via the internet and pay respondents for their answers. This enables them to build up a following of loyal respondents to whom they can send questionnaires quickly and simply, and receive responses back within shorter deadlines and without the need to pay for postage or send reminder letters.

UNDERTAKING PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

There are two main ways in which researchers observe – direct observation and participant observation. Direct observation tends to be used in areas such as health and psychology. It involves the observation of a ‘subject’ in a certain situation and often uses technology such as visual recording equipment or one-way mirrors. For example, the interaction of mother, father and child in a specially prepared play room may be watched by psychologists through a one-way mirror in an attempt to understand more about family relationships. In participant observation, however, the researcher becomes much more involved in the lives of the people being observed.

Participant observation can be viewed as both a method and a methodology (see Chapter 10). It is popular amongst anthropologists and sociologists who wish to study and understand another community, culture or context. They do this by immersing themselves within that culture. This may take months or years, as they need to build up a lasting and trusting relationship with those people being studied. Through participation within their chosen culture and through careful observation, they hope to gain a deeper understanding into the behaviour, motivation and attitudes of the people under study.

Participant observation, as a research method, received bad press when a number of researchers became covert participant observers; entering organisations and participating in their activities without anyone knowing that they were conducting research (see Chapter 13). Overt participant observation, where everyone knows who the researcher is and what she is doing, however, can be a valuable and rewarding method for qualitative inquiry.

CHOOSING YOUR METHODS

By now you should have thought quite seriously about your research methodology. This will help you to decide upon the most appropriate methods for your research. For example, if you’re leaning towards quantitative research, survey work in the form of a questionnaire or structured interviews may be appropriate. If you’re interested in action research, it might be useful to find out more about semi-structured interviewing or focus groups.

In quantitative research you can define your research methods early in the planning stage. You know what you want to find out and you can decide upon the best way to obtain the information. Also, you will be able to decide early on how many people you need to contact (see Chapter 5).

However, in some types of qualitative research it may be difficult to define your methods specifically. You may decide that semi-structured interviews would be useful, although you’re not sure, in the planning stages, how many you will need to conduct. You may find also that you need to use other methods as the research progresses. Maybe you want to run a focus group to see what people think about the hypotheses you have generated from the interviews. Or perhaps you need to spend some time in the field observing something which has arisen during the interview stage.

Defining needs and means

It is not necessary to use only one research method, although many projects do this. A combination of methods can be desirable as it enables you to overcome the different weaknesses inherent in all methods. What you must be aware of, however, when deciding upon your methods, are the constraints under which you will have to work. What is your time scale? What is your budget? Are you the only researcher, or will you have others to help you? There’s no point deciding that a large scale, national postal survey is the best way to do your research if you only have a budget of £50 and two months in which to complete your work.

Also, you need to think about the purpose of your research as this will help point to the most appropriate methods to use. For example, if you want to describe in detail the experiences of a group of women trying to set up and run a charity, you wouldn’t send them a closed-ended questionnaire. Instead, you might ask to become involved and set up a piece of action research in which you can decide to use interviews and focus groups. Or you might decide to hold two semi-structured interviews with each of the women involved, one at the beginning of their project and one at the end. If your goal is detailed description, you do not need to try to contact as many people as possible.

Let us return to the three examples in the exercises given in the previous two chapters to find out which would be the most appropriate methods for the research.

If, at this stage, you are still unsure of the most appropriate methods for your research, read the following chapters as these explain in more detail how to go about using each method. This will give you more of an insight into what would be required of you if you were to choose that method.

As I stressed earlier, you need to think about your own personality, your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes. If you’re a nervous person who finds it difficult to talk to strangers, face-to-face interviewing might not be the best method for you. If you love working with groups, you might like to find out more about focus group research. If a particular culture has fascinated you for years and you know you could immerse yourself within that culture, perhaps participant observation would interest you. If you love number crunching or using statistical software, a closed-ended questionnaire may be the best method for you.

Remember to think about choosing a method or method(s) with which you are happy as this is important to keep your motivation levels high.

SUMMARY

• Research methods are the tools that are used to gather data.
• Three types of interview are used in social research:
  • Unstructured or life history interviews.
  • Semi-structured interviews.
  • Structured interviews.

• Interviews can be conducted face-to-face or over the telephone.
• Focus groups are held with a number of people to obtain a group opinion.
• Focus groups are run by a moderator who asks questions and makes sure the discussion does not digress.
• Questionnaires can be closed-ended, open-ended or a combination of both.
• Participant observation is used when a researcher wants to immerse herself in a specific culture to gain a deeper understanding.
• The chosen research methodology should help to indicate the most appropriate research tools.
• Research methods must be chosen within budget and time constraints.
• The purpose of the research will provide an indicator to the most appropriate methods.
• You should think about your personality, strengths and weakness, likes and dislikes when choosing research methods.

FURTHER READING