*The essay must be based only in the additional material. *Evaluate; whether research using interviews has contributed to our understanding of friendship. Describe and weigh up the arguments for and against the assertion that research using interviews has made a contribution. Relevan material: Section 3.1 in Chapter 6 of Investigating Psychology introduces the interview method through the work of William Damon. This section contrasts interviews with the method used by Bigelow and La Gaipa, and you may want to refer to some of these points in evaluating the contribution of interviews. Also relevant is Box 6.2 ‘Working with textual data’, which considers how interview data can be analysed qualitatively and what the potential benefits of such analysis might be. Section 4.1 of Chapter 6 of Investigating Psychology introduces another study that used interviews (this time by telephone) to collect data about friendships and social influence among friends. Section 3 of Chapter 6 in Investigating Methods introduces a study by Hamm and Faircloth (2005) on friendship in adolescence. There are lots of details in this section so you will need to be selective. Remember that the question is not about thematic analysis (which can be used to analyse interview material), but about interviews as data that is used to shed light on some aspect of human behaviour. In the context of evaluation, you will need to draw on other, alternative methods of studying friendship. You will find examples of these in Sections 2, 3.2, and 5 of Chapter 6 of Investigating Psychology, and Section 4 of Chapter 6 in Investigating Methods.
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