Interviews

You need to know about a range of different interviews styles including

  • Unstructured
  • Semi-structured
  • Structured

And you also need to know about the use of open and closed questions (including ranked scale) questions.

how-science-works-interviews Handout on interviews

interview-process Notes on the HOW of the interview as opposed to the WHAT

interviews-model-answers Some model answers on exam style questions

interviews-notes Detailed handout on the interview as a research method

interviews-powerpoint Presentation on all the important information.

interview-lesson-cards Helpful to get them thinkin sabout the different types of questions that might be asked.

interview-schedule Design your own set of qierstins and ethical considerations

quotes-about-interviews Useful for a starter activity to get people talking

Practice Questions

Agnes is a post-graduate Psychology student. She is very interested by the range of comments on the “Donate not Hate” web page, an organisation which raises awareness of the plight of refugees and organises events where people can donate aid to be shipped oerseas. Agnes decided to attend one of donation events. She conducted semi-structured interviews with some of the people who had come to make donations to find out about their attitudes, not only to the refugees but also those people who opposed the campaign.

  1. Explain two things that Agnes might have done to prepare for her interviews (4)

Click for advice and model answer

2. Compare the use of structured and unstructured interviews (4)

3. Give one strength and one weakness of self-report data (4)

Links to the options Paper

We also study interviews as a research method in “Clinical Psychology”, you may be interested to take a sneaky peak at the resources and information for this topic now so you can see what lies ahead and how what you are learning about now can be used later in Clinical Psychology. Click here to find out more

All your methods knowledge is also required again in Paper 3 where you could be asked anything about any of the methods!