Quantitative interviews offer several benefits. The strengths and weakness of quantitative interviews tend to be couched in comparison to those of administering hard copy questionnaires. For example, response rates tend to be higher with interviews than with mailed questionnaires (Babbie, 2010). 1 That makes sense—don’t you find it easier to say no to a piece of paper than to a person? Quantitative interviews can also help reduce respondent confusion. If a respondent is unsure about the meaning of a question or answer option on a questionnaire, he or she probably won’t have the opportunity to get clarification from the researcher. An interview, on the other hand, gives the researcher an opportunity to clarify or explain any items that may be confusing.
As with every method of data collection we’ve discussed, there are also drawbacks to conducting quantitative interviews. Perhaps the largest, and of most concern to quantitative researchers, is interviewer effect. While questions on hard copy questionnaires may create an impression based on the way they are presented, having a person administer questions introduces a slew of additional variables that might influence a respondent. As I’ve said, consistency is key with quantitative data collection—and human beings are not necessarily known for their consistency. Interviewing respondents is also much more time consuming and expensive than mailing questionnaires. Thus quantitative researchers may opt for written questionnaires over interviews on the grounds that they will be able to reach a large sample at a much lower cost than were they to interact personally with each and every respondent.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Unlike qualitative interviews, quantitative interviews usually contain closed-ended questions that are delivered in the same format and same order to every respondent.
- Quantitative interview data are analyzed by assigning a numerical value to participants’ responses.
- While quantitative interviews offer several advantages over self-administered questionnaires such as higher response rates and lower respondent confusion, they have the drawbacks of possible interviewer effect and greater time and expense.
EXERCISES
- The General Social Survey (GSS), which we’ve mentioned in previous chapters, is administered via in-person interview, just like quantitative interviewing procedures described here. Read more about the GSS at http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/GSS+Website.
- Take a few of the open-ended questions you created after reading "Qualitative Interview Techniques and Considerations" on qualitative interviewing techniques. See if you can turn them into closed-ended questions.
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