ABSTRACT
What is approximated in this chapter are the qualitative, quantitative and mixed research approaches, which are reflected in three related forms of interview, i.e. qualitative, quantitative and quantitative-qualitative interview (in the latter case in a form proposed by the author of the chapter). The first part of the text presents issues explaining why a large proportion of Polish researchers, especially those less experienced, approach the qualitative methods almost uncritically, underestimating or sometimes even negating the value of research carried out using quantitative techniques. Therefore, the chapter illustrates both the advantages of qualitative (unstructured) interview, such as the possibility of profound insight into the phenomena, as well as its limitations (small number, high impact of the researcher on the achieved results), and an analogous approach was applied to quantitative (structured) interview, where the possibility of testing numerous communities was considered to be an advantage, whereas the effects of the so-called flat empiricism were considered to be a limitation. The conclusion resulting from all the considerations is as follows: it is possible and advisable to go beyond the traditional dichotomy and construct a quantitative-qualitative (mixed) oral interview useful not only in gerontological research, where it finds particularly good application. Such a research technique combines the advantages of qualitative and quantitative interviews, which are usually designed and developed separately, thus allowing minimization of the degree of restrictions relating to them.
