Which of the following is a disadvantage of qualitative interviewing relative to participant observation?

It has a more specific focus
It is more ethically dubious, in terms of obtaining informed consent
It may not provide access to deviant or hidden activities
It does not allow participants to reconstruct their life events
It may not provide access to deviant or hidden activities  In some cases, it may be preferable to use participant observation rather than qualitative interviewing. This is often because the researcher wants to find out about deviant or illegal activities that people might not wish to disclose in an interview; the latter tends to produce selective, partial and somewhat sanitized reconstructions of events. Sometimes it is not possible to use one method alone to research our chosen concepts.
Reference: Bryman: Social Research Methods: 5th Edition Page(s) 493

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What is a “probing question”?
A. One that inquires about a sensitive or deeply personal issue
B. One that encourages the interviewee to say more about a topic
C. One that asks indirectly about people’s opinions
D. One that moves the conversation on to another topic
What can you do to reduce the time consuming nature of transcribing interviews?
A. Use a transcribing machine
B. Employ someone to transcribe for you
C. Transcribe only selected parts of the interviews
D. All of the above
Which of the following is an advantage of qualitative interviewing relative to participant observation?
A. It allows you to find out about issues that are resistant to observation
B. It is more biased and value-laden
C. It is more likely to create reactive effects
D. None of the above
How does Oakley suggest that qualitative interviewing should be used as an explicitly feminist research method?
A. By creating a more equal relationship between interviewer and interviewee
B. By invading the privacy of women and treating them as objects
C. By imposing academic interpretations upon women’s accounts of the world
D. None of the above
Which of the following is not a type of qualitative interview?
A. Unstructured interview
B. Oral history interview
C. Structured interview
D. Focus group interview
Why is it helpful to prepare an interview guide before conducting semi-structured interviews?
A. So that the data from different interviewees will be comparable and relevant to your research questions
B. So that you can calculate the statistical significance of the results
C. In order to allow participants complete control over the topics they discuss
D. To make the sample more representative
Which of the following makes qualitative interviewing distinct from structured interviewing?
A. The procedure is less standardized
B. “Rambling” off the topic is not a problem
C. The researcher seeks rich, detailed answers
D. All of the above

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