54 When Should It Be Used?

Interviews are an excellent way to gather detailed information. They also have an advantage over surveys. For example, with a survey, if a participant’s response sparks some follow-up question in your mind, you generally do not have an opportunity to ask for more information. What you get is what you get. In an interview, however, because you are talking with your study participants in real time, you can ask that follow-up question. As such, interviews are a useful method to use when you want to know the story behind responses you might receive in a written survey.

Interviews are also useful when the topic you are studying is rather complex, when whatever you plan to ask requires lengthy explanation, or when your topic or answers to your questions may not be immediately clear to participants who may need some time or dialogue with others in order to work through their responses to your questions. Also, if your research topic is one about which people will likely have a lot to say or will want to provide some explanation or describe some process, interviews may be the best method for you.

In sum, interview research is especially useful when the following are true:

1. You wish to gather very detailed information;
2. You anticipate wanting to ask respondents for more information about their responses;
3. You plan to ask questions that require lengthy explanation;
4. The topic you are studying is complex or may be confusing to respondents;
5. Your topic involves studying processes.

Text Attributions

• This chapter is an adaptation of Chapter 9.1 in Principles of Sociological Inquiry, which was adapted by the Saylor Academy without attribution to the original authors or publisher, as requested by the licensor. © Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.