Preparation of the Schedule: Researchers must carefully design questions that are clear, unambiguous, and cover all necessary variables before the interview begins.
Standardized Delivery: Interviewers are trained to read questions exactly as written, avoiding any emphasis or body language that might lead the participant toward a specific answer.
Closed-Ended Coding: Responses are often recorded using pre-coded categories (e.g., Likert scales or 'Yes/No' options), which allows for immediate statistical analysis.
Face-to-Face vs. Remote: While traditionally conducted in person to build rapport, formal interviews can also be administered via telephone or video conferencing to reach a broader geographic area.
| Feature | Formal (Structured) | Semi-Structured | Questionnaires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flexibility | None; fixed script | Moderate; allows probing | None; fixed form |
| Data Type | Quantitative | Mixed (Qual/Quant) | Quantitative |
| Validity | Lower (limited depth) | Higher (explores meaning) | Lower (no clarification) |
| Reliability | High (standardized) | Lower (unique paths) | High (standardized) |
| Interaction | High (interviewer present) | High (interviewer present) | Low (self-completion) |
Reliability vs. Validity: Always discuss the trade-off. Formal interviews gain reliability through standardization but often lose validity because they do not allow participants to explain their answers in depth.
The 'Interviewer Effect': Be prepared to analyze how the interviewer's social characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity) might influence the participant's responses, even with a fixed script.
Theoretical Alignment: Link formal interviews to Positivism and the desire for 'social facts,' while contrasting them with Interpretivism, which favors unstructured methods for deeper meaning.
The Imposition Problem: Critically evaluate whether the researcher is 'imposing' their own framework on the participant by limiting the available answer choices.
Social Desirability Bias: Students often forget that even in a formal setting, participants may give 'socially acceptable' answers rather than honest ones to impress the interviewer.
Confusing with Unstructured: A common mistake is assuming all interviews are qualitative. Formal interviews are specifically designed to produce quantitative data through closed questions.
Inflexibility as a Weakness: While seen as a limitation for depth, inflexibility is a methodological strength for positivists because it eliminates the 'human variable' of the researcher's spontaneous thoughts.
