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Number of interviews for masters thesis

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  • 27-05-2016 8:39pm
    #1
    Gael23
    Registered Users Posts: 12,094 ✭✭✭✭


    I know there isn't really a textbook answer for this but I'm wondering how many interviews would I need to conduct. Are we talking 3/10/20?


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    #2
    Roselm
    Registered Users Posts: 753 ✭✭✭Roselm


    Gael23 wrote: »
    I know there isn't really a textbook answer for this but I'm wondering how many interviews would I need to conduct. Are we talking 3/10/20?

    It depends on what you want to find out, who has the data you need and how much time you have. If one person had a particularly inspiring experience/viewpoint you could write a thesis around that one interview which then could be a long and very in depth interview. A ten minute interview will take an hour to transcribe so be careful!! 20 interviews is too many I would say as it will yield way too much data unless your interviews are very tight/constrained in which case you'd be using questionnaires instead I assume.


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    #3
    Tom Dunne
    Registered Users Posts: 23,212 ✭✭✭✭Tom Dunne


    Gael23 wrote: »
    I know there isn't really a textbook answer for this but I'm wondering how many interviews would I need to conduct. Are we talking 3/10/20?

    That's an extremely vague question.

    What methodology are you using?


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    #4
    Gael23
    Registered Users Posts: 12,094 ✭✭✭✭Gael23


    Tom Dunne wrote: »
    That's an extremely vague question.

    What methodology are you using?

    Most likely qualitative interviews.


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    #5
    Tom Dunne
    Registered Users Posts: 23,212 ✭✭✭✭Tom Dunne


    Gael23 wrote: »
    Most likely qualitative interviews.

    Interviews are an instrument for gathering data, not a methodology.

    Your methodology will give you an idea of how many interviews you should hold and what you will do with the data generated.


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