A critical investigation of the merits and drawbacks of in-depth interviews

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,2, University of applied sciences, course: Tourism and Leisure Studies, language: English, abstract: When commencing to plan a study, researchers face the oftentimes challenging

task to decide on the adequate research method for their investigation problem

at hand. Since the appropriateness of a study, as well as its ability to be

accepted as scientific research, depend very much on the correct choice of the

applied research method(s), the decision process for the latter constitutes a

crucial phase of the overall research operation.

As many researchers encounter ambiguities when it comes to selecting the

suitable research technique, this paper provides a critical reflection on several

arguments for and against the employment of in-depth interviews, one of the

most common tools used in qualitative research.

The aim of this paper is, therefore, to consider the strengths and weaknesses of

in-depth interviews from various angles, in order to advance the perspicuity of

the question in which situations it is apt to use interviews as a research tool and

when to better search for alternative methods.

To arrive at this objective, four main issues have been explored through a

review of already existing literature. First, the merits of individual in-depth

interviews are examined. Then the paper addresses the question of what

possible drawbacks one may come across when selecting in-depth interviewing

as a research method. Furthermore, a short comment on the application of indepth

interviews in qualitative tourism research is given. Finally, in the

conclusions/recommendations section it is explained for which types of

investigations the in-depth interview is the appropriate research technique.

As indicated above, the main focus of this paper is not on providing a guide for

the general set-up and implication process of an in-depth interview. The main

spotlight is rather on the enhancement of the detailed knowledge of researchers

on in-depth interviews, with the ultimate goal to make a contribution to increase

the number of cases where research methods have been appropriately chosen.

Hence, a certain level of previous knowledge about in-depth interviewing is

expected from the reader in order to be able to follow the content of this paper.