There are a number of reasons why
interviewing may not be for you:
Time: interviews take a great deal of
time to plan, interview, transcribe, and analyze the data. Doing a qualitative
study is not the "easy way" to do research. Transcription of
interviews takes hours and there really is not a fast and easy way to do it
(unless you can afford to have someone else do it).
Being
shy: doing
interviews requires you to recruit and contact people you do not know. If you
are very shy or afraid to contact strangers, the process can be insurmountable.
Not
understanding other methodologies:
often students decide on qualitative methods and fail to really understand
quantitative methods (or vice versa). This is very limiting in the end; it may
mean that you have limited future job opportunities. Make sure that you get as
much experience as you can in all methods, so your options remain open.
Ethical/moral
issues: there
may be ethical reasons for not interviewing certain people/ populations as it
may be exploitative and potentially damaging to them. An example would be
interviewing illegal immigrants or prisoners, who could potentially be hurt if
their comments were identified as coming from particular individuals.
Interviewing needs to be carefully considered as a research method and needs to
be a fit for your personality, time, and your population.
Next time we will consider the
philosophy of phenomenology. Do
you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future
post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas!
leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
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