Chapter 20
Interviewing in Qualitative research
Introduction
Two main types of interviews in qualitative research:
Unstructured interview
Semi-structured interview
Differences between the structured interview & the qualitative interview
How qualitative interviewing is different from quantitative (structured) interviews:
Approach tends to be much less structured in qualitative research, in quantitative
approach is much more structured to maximise reliability & validity
In qualitative interviewing there is greater interest in the interviewee’s point of view,
in quantitative research the interview reflects the researcher’s concerns
In qualitative interviewing “rambling” or going off at tangents is encouraged, in
quantitative research it is discouraged
In qualitative research, interviewers can depart from any schedule/guide & can ask
new questions, in quantitative interviewing these should not be done
Qualitative interviewing tends to be more flexible, quantitative is inflexible
In qualitative interviewing the researcher wants rich, detailed answers, in structured
(quantitative) interviews are supposed to generate answers that can be coded &
processed
In qualitative interviewing, the interviewee may be interviewed on more than one &
sometimes even several occasions, quantitative interviewing will only be interviewed
on one occasions
Asking questions in the qualitative interview
Two major types of interviews:
1. Unstructured
Researcher uses at most an aide-memoire as a brief set of prompts to deal
with a certain set if problems
May be a single question & interviewee responds freely
1
Interviewing in Qualitative research
Introduction
Two main types of interviews in qualitative research:
Unstructured interview
Semi-structured interview
Differences between the structured interview & the qualitative interview
How qualitative interviewing is different from quantitative (structured) interviews:
Approach tends to be much less structured in qualitative research, in quantitative
approach is much more structured to maximise reliability & validity
In qualitative interviewing there is greater interest in the interviewee’s point of view,
in quantitative research the interview reflects the researcher’s concerns
In qualitative interviewing “rambling” or going off at tangents is encouraged, in
quantitative research it is discouraged
In qualitative research, interviewers can depart from any schedule/guide & can ask
new questions, in quantitative interviewing these should not be done
Qualitative interviewing tends to be more flexible, quantitative is inflexible
In qualitative interviewing the researcher wants rich, detailed answers, in structured
(quantitative) interviews are supposed to generate answers that can be coded &
processed
In qualitative interviewing, the interviewee may be interviewed on more than one &
sometimes even several occasions, quantitative interviewing will only be interviewed
on one occasions
Asking questions in the qualitative interview
Two major types of interviews:
1. Unstructured
Researcher uses at most an aide-memoire as a brief set of prompts to deal
with a certain set if problems
May be a single question & interviewee responds freely
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