Interviews (OCR GCSE Psychology): Revision Note

What is an interview?

• An interview is a type of self-report method in which a participant answers questions asked directly by a researcher, either face-to-face, online, or over the phone

• Interviews are used to explore a participant’s thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and experiences in depth

• They can be used to:

  • understand people’s views on social issues (e.g. social media use, immigration, cost of living)

  • collect detailed information as part of a case study

• There are two main types of interviews in psychology:

  • Structured interview

  • Unstructured interview

Structured interviews

• The researcher uses a set of pre-prepared questions, which are asked in the same order and wording for every participant

• The questions can be closed (yes/no) or open, allowing for both quantitative and qualitative data, e.g.

  • “Do you agree that social media increases anxiety among teenagers?”

  • “Can you explain why you feel that way?”

• The interviewer does not deviate from the question list — this makes the procedure standardised and easy to replicate

• Responses are written down or recorded using audio or video equipment

Unstructured interviews

• The researcher does not use a fixed set of questions but instead allows the interview to develop naturally, similar to a conversation

• They might start with an open question and follow up based on the participant’s responses, e.g.,

  • “Tell me about a time when you felt anxious.”
    “Lots of people think there should be harsher punishments for criminals — what do you think?”

• This approach gives participants freedom to express their views in their own words and discuss topics they find important

• Unstructured interviews produce qualitative data only, offering rich insight but less standardisation

• They are also known as narrative interviews, as participants are often encouraged to “tell their story”

Evaluation of interviews

Strengths

• Interviews allow participants to express their thoughts and feelings freely, leading to high validity

• Interviewers can clarify or rephrase questions, reducing misunderstanding and improving the accuracy of responses

• They are more flexible than questionnaires, allowing questions to be adapted or expanded during the conversation

Weaknesses

• Participants may lie or exaggerate, giving socially desirable answers rather than truthful ones

• Some people may struggle to express themselves clearly, making their responses hard to interpret

• Interview data can be time-consuming to analyse and may be difficult to generalise beyond the individuals studied