INTRODUCTION TO

STATISTICS
(2023W)

brigitte.krenn@ofai.at
Qualitative vs Quantitative
Methods
Qualitative Methods
• Unstructured Interview
• Semi-structured Interview
• Focused Interview
• Focus Group
• Group Interview
Quantitative Methods
• Structured Interview
• Self-completion questionnaire
• Content Analysis
• Structured Observation

• Oral History Interview

• Life History Interview

• Ethnography
Interview Context
„In an archetypal interview, an interviewer stands or sits in front of the
respondent asking the latter a series of questions and writing down the
answers.“ (Bryman 2004, Social Research Methods, p. 113)

However, there are various deviations possible

• More then one interviewer (quite unusual)
• More then one respondent (e.g. focus group, group interview)
• In person, via telefone or teleconference
• Computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI)
• Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI)
Qualitative or In-depth Interviews
Unstructured Interview (alternative terms:
Intensive or Ethnographic Interview) Semi-structured
• Interviewer has list of • Interviewer has series of
topics/issues questions
(interview guide, aide memoire) (interview schedule)
• Questioning is usually informal • Sequencing of questions may
• Phrasing and sequencing of vary
questions varies from interview • Interviewer may ask further
to interview questions
 Focus Group

©Poster from WS 2019 course‘s group

©Poster from WS 2019 course‘s group
Oral and Life History Interview
• Oral History Interview
• Unstructured or semi-structured interview
• Respondent is asked to recall events from her/his past and reflect on them
• Typically focuses on a certain epoch or event
• Life History Interview
• Unstructured interview
• Get information from entire biography of respondent
 Ethnography

©Poster from WS 2019 course‘s group

 Interview
• Unstructured
• Semi-structured
• Structured

©Poster from WS 2019 course‘s group

 Kvale: 10 Criteria of a successful interviewer
1. Knowledgeable: is thoroughly familiar with the focus of the interview; pilot interviews of the kind
used in survey interviewing can be useful here.
2. Structuring: gives purpose for interview; rounds it off; asks whether interviewee has questions.
3. Clear: asks simple, easy, short questions; no jargon.
4. Gentle: lets people finish; gives them time to think; tolerates pauses.
5. Sensitive: listens attentively to what is said and how it is said; is empathetic in dealing with the
interviewee.
6. Open: responds to what is important to interviewee and is flexible.
7. Steering: knows what he or she wants to find out.
8. Critical: is prepared to challenge what is said — for example, dealing with inconsistencies in
interviewees’ replies.
9. Remembering: relates what is said to what has previously been said.
10. Interpreting: clarifies and extends meanings of interviewees’ statements, but without imposing
meaning on them.
+ Balanced: not talk too much (may make the + Ethically sensitive: is sensitive to the ethical dimension
interviewee passive), not talk too little (may make of interviewing, ensuring the interviewee appreciates
interviewee feel not talking along the right lines). what the research is about, its purposes, and that his or
Kvale, S. (1996), InterViews: An Introduction to Qualitative her answers will be treated confidentially.
Research Interviewing, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. +…
 Question Typs in
Qualitative Interviews

Research Interviewing, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Kvale, S. (1996), InterViews: An Introduction to Qualitative

QU, Sandy Q.; DUMAY, John. The qualitative research interview.

Qualitative research in accounting & management, 2011.
Structured
Observation

©Poster from WS 2019 course‘s group

Content Analysis

©Poster from WS 2019 course‘s group

Self-completion
Questionnaire