Jennifer mason argues that, despite the large variations in style and tradition, all qualitative and semistructured interviewing has certain core features in common. In a semistructured interview, the interviewer also has the freedom to probe. Pdf the use of semistructured interviews in qualitative. Some interviews encourage lengthy and detailed replies while others are designed to elicit short and specific responses. The interviewer and respondents engage in a formal interview. A probe is a followup question that is used after the respondent has. Semistructured interviewing in primary care research. Were you quickly able to understand how to communicate with your partner. Before going into more detail about semistructured interviews, lets rst con. Structured interviews are typically used in surveys see our survey research methods tip sheet for more information.
One common type of interviewing technique is a semistructured interview. Interview methods structured, semistructured, unstructured. Interviewers can prepare questions beforehand to help guide the. A semistructured interview is a meeting in which the interviewer does not strictly follow a formalized list of questions. Pdf conducting semistructured interviews researchgate. Structured versus semistructured versus unstructured interviews. A semistructured interview has been referred to as a conversation with a purpose burgess, 1984.
A considerable range of qualitative approaches use semistructured and unstructured interviews, as suggested by the list above. We set up our youtube channel to share what we learn about the r. The interview design and question phrasing will influence the depth and freedom with which a subject can respond. Researchers may select variables to use in their analysis from one secondary data source or may combine data from across sources to create new datasets. Conducting semistructured interviews 493 the name that appears to be currently garnering a majority of usage is not crisp, clever, or inventive but it is simple and descriptive. The semistructured format was assessed to be more adapted than a fullystructured interview, enabling to set a framework to the topics discussed, but also letting enough liberty to the respondent. Interviews schedules have a standardised format which means the same questions are asked to each interviewee in the same order. Summarise the advantages and disadvantages of facetoface and telephone. Secondary data sources are datasets that are already in existence, such as census data. Pdf structured versus semistructured versus unstructured. Examples of research articles using semistructured interviews in primary care. The advantages of a semistructured interview include the following.
Semistructured interviews are balanced between standardized. Structured interviews use a questionnaire format with closed questions and can be beneficial, particularly when participants have either a speech or language impairment. However, they are frequently used to generate quantitative rather semistructured interviews. Using interviews in a research project simmons college. Generally, such interviews gather qualitative data, although this can be coded into categories to be made amenable to statistical analysis. Institute for development ifd is a qualitative research firm in sierra leone, west africa. The use of semistructured interviews for the characterisation of. They will ask more openended questions, allowing for a discussion with the interviewee rather than a straightforward question and answer format. Structured and unstructured interviews simply psychology. One of the most common problems with semistructured interviews done by program staff is that the interviewer mixes in their personal opinions when they are taking notes.