Ethical Issues In Interviews

Apart from the fact that interviews consume time and are demanding, there are many limitations to the use of interview as a method of data collection in qualitative research. According to Dyer (1995), one of the criticism of the interview method is whether the data collected is what the informant actually gave at the time of the interview or what the interviewee meant. Although the use of an audiotape recorder to record the interview can be used to ameliorate the situation, however it is not easily overcome thus becoming a legitimate disadvantage. According to Judd, Smith and Kidder (1991), “interviewer effects” constitutes one of the limitations of using interview as a tool for data collection. According to them, the interviewer’s expectation

Some ethical principles have to be adopted in any recruitment process because it is central to the conduct of the research. According to Burns (1997), the participants must understand the nature and purpose of the research and must consent to participate without coercion. This implies that participation must be voluntary without the participant harboring the fear of consequences that might arise from not agreeing to participate. This also implies that the researcher is tasked with the duty to explain to the nature of the research to participants most especially on the aspect of the purpose and procedures of the research and how it is going to be used (Carlo, 2012). One of the issues of ethical consideration is the confidentiality issue. The researcher should obtain signatures of the participants on consent forms in order to make the situation clear and provide a degree of proof that the participant was informed and consented to take part in the research (Burns, 1997). Also, the participants would be given the right to discontinue participation during the interview process, this helps to avoid the collection of unreliable data. In summary, the principle of informed consent and the right to anonymity would be given to the