ABSTRACT
Surveys are a familiar way to obtain data in everyday life, and they are used extensively in social and behavioral science research. As part of navigating in college, students sometimes “interview” the professor who is teaching a course before enrolling in it. Surveys are often conducted using personal interviews. Data are obtained from respondents in face-to-face communication with the researcher. In unstructured interviewing, general topics are identified prior to the interview. There are several advantages to personal interviews. First, being face-to-face with an interviewer encourages respondents to complete the interview. For a given number of respondents, conducting personal interviews is usually the most expensive method of collecting data; hiring and training appropriate people to conduct the interviews carries with it considerable personnel costs. The format for the interview was to begin with a general issue, followed by a set of more specific questions, both closed and open-ended, on that issue.
