Weaknesses of the Interview Method
Patton (1980) also points to specific weaknesses, however, that affect the
informal conversation interview method. Data can sometimes be difficult to
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organize and analyze, given the fact that different questions are tailored to different
interviewees. This also runs the potential risk of making results less systematic and
comprehensive.
As for the weaknesses of the in-depth interview, some interviewers may have
limited control over number factors. According to Gubrium and Holstein (2002), the
most significant ethical imperative is to tell the truth. However, as Denzin and
Lincoln, as cited in Gubrium and Holstein (2002), have pointed out, during this
current era, research can be affected by what may be called “the postmodern
moment.” According to Denzin and Lincoln, this “postmodern” problem can be
divided into two crises: the crisis of representation, on the one hand, and the crisis of
legitimation (for qualitative research) on the other. These contemporary “crises” can
lead some to turn to advocacy of “standpoint epistemologies” (quoted in Gubrium
and Holstein, 2002), where the research interviewer not only self-consciously
empathizes with the informants as individuals, but self-consciously sympathizes with
the political or community goals of those informants as a category or collective
(Gubrium and Holstein, 2002).