Face-to-face interviewing
This is a quantitative research method used in the social sciences (psychology, sociology, demography) and in market research. The respondent answers questions that the interviewer reads out or shows them. The questionnaire may be on paper (the PAPI method), though a computer or tablet is more common today (the CAPI method). The method may also be followed by a written or online questionnaire that respondents complete themselves, where the methodology allows it.
How we carry out this method
Interviews are conducted by interviewers trained by the research agency’s expert team. On completing the training successfully, an interviewer receives an interviewer card. Interviewers select respondents according to a predetermined key and interview them according to the agency’s instructions. Answers are recorded in a prepared questionnaire on a tablet or computer, or on a paper form.
To check the interviewers’ work, contact details are obtained from respondents so that it can be confirmed afterwards that the interview took place. For the same reason the interview, or parts of it, is usually recorded. In some cases the place of interview is recorded as well. The team responsible for the quality of interviewer work and of fieldwork carries out a careful check and discards interviews that do not meet the instructions given for the fieldwork. A serious breach of the instructions or of the ethical rules may even end the agency’s co-operation with an interviewer. This combination of fieldwork checks is essential for the quality of data collection in research surveys and adds to the credibility of research in general.
Why we need personal data and how we handle it
Respondents’ personal data is used to verify the quality of data collection and is deleted afterwards. Clients receive only anonymised data containing no personal details, and the people at the agency always make sure that a respondent’s identity cannot be inferred from the data.
How respondents are selected
The interviewer is given an assignment that sets out which respondents to select. It is not permissible, for example, to interview family members and close acquaintances repeatedly; the interviewer has to work in the place and at the time specified. Interviews may therefore take place in a public place or in the home. The number of respondents per interviewer is usually limited.
