As stated by Runeson & Höst (2009) and confirmed by Oates (2012), successful interviews needs planning and skills. One of these skills is the ability to listen and to hear, where your role as interviewer is active (Ritchie & Lewis 2003). Runeson & Höst (2009) discusses groundwork for conducting an interview. The first step is the formulation of research questions about the area of interest. A set of interview questions solving the research questions will be structured. The dialogue between the researcher and participant is guided by the set of questions. Questions can be open, i.e. permitting and encouraging answers and interaction, or closed with a controlled series of answers.
The literature revealed three types of interviews namely structured, semi-structured and unstructured (Blandford 2013; Oates 2012). Semi-structured interviews fall between structured and unstructured as questions will be planned ahead of time, but the discussion will follow up on interesting and unexpected topics (Blandford 2013). Due to the purpose
…show more content…
The first is whether the tools used to measure are accurate and secondly whether these tools are measuring what they are intended to measure (Golafshani 2003). These questions are also referred to as internal (are you investigating what you are claiming to investigate) and external validity (whether the results can be applied in other populations) (Ritchie & Lewis 2003). Answering these question will indicate the truthfulness in which the research results generate accurate and valid findings (Harry 2015). Whilst Ritchie & Lewis (2003) defines validity as the correctness and precision of research, they also mention that validity can be heightened by ensuring that the research goals and objectives are clearly defined. Adebesin (2011) cautions that although validity of a questionnaire is the most vital aspect of a questionnaire, it is the most difficult to