Structured Interview
Structured interview is a technique of interview generally applied in quantitative research. It is most commonly seen in the form of questionnaires in survey research. In simple terms structured interview is a method of collecting data for a statistical survey. A set of questions both close-ended and open-ended are asked to the respondent and recorded accordingly. For this purpose the researcher prepares an interview schedule in which all respondents are asked the same questions with the same wording and in the same sequence. That is why it is also called formal interview or standardized interview. This kind of interview can be personal in nature, i.e. when the researcher conducts face to face communication with the respondents or impersonal, which may happen over telephone conversation or computer.
In a structured interview the interviewer must act in a neutral and objective manner so that he/she offers the same impression to all respondents and in returns get un-biased answers to his/her questions. The consent of the respondents is also very important in a structured interview.
Advantages of Structured Interview :
- The researcher asks every respondent the same set of questions. So these interviews can be conducted in a fairly quick time period.
- It is very easy to quantify the findings of a structured interview.
- Structured interview are most suitable when the number of respondents is huge because through such an interview the researcher can generalize about a large population.
- In a structured interview it is fairly easy to maintain the neutrality and objectivity of the researcher.
Disadvantages of Structured Interview :
- Structured interview are inflexible in nature, i.e. a new question cannot be added during the interview.
- Structured interview lacks detail.
- The interviewer has no means of knowing whether the respondents were honest or dishonest.
- Structured interviews can answer the “what”, “how” and “when” of questions but not the reason or “why” behind those. In a structured interview it is fairly easy to maintain the neutrality and objectivity of the researcher.
Unstructured Interview
Unstructured interview is an interview process generally used in qualitative research methods. In an unstructured interview, questions are not pre-arranged. Generally the interviewer engages the respondent with open-ended questions as and when required. It is completely opposite to structured interview and is a very flexible technique of Interaction. This kind of interview is also known as discovery interview or guided conversation.
Unstructured interview has some specific characteristics such as -
- The researcher does not have any fixed questions, he/she only has the general nature of questions in mind.
- There is no specific order in which the questions are asked.
- The researcher can ask any question based on the responses of the interviewees.
- Such an interview has no fixed time limit.
Unstructured interview are generally personal interviews where the researcher engages in vigorous conversation with the respondents to have a clear idea of the answer he/she seeks. Such an interview is most feasible for a lower number of respondents. Through an unstructured interview a researcher can find out the “why” of a research problem.
Advantages of Unstructured interview :
- It is flexible because questions can be adapted and changed based on the respondent’s answers.
- It is the most useful tool of generating qualitative data.
- Interviewer can have a deeper understanding of the problem at hand.
- There is spontaneity in unstructured interview that structured interview lacks.
Disadvantages of Unstructured interview :
- It is difficult to compare the answers of the respondents as the interviewer does not follow a fixed question pattern.
- The reliability of data accumulated through unstructured interview is doubtful
- It is an expensive and time consuming method of data collection
- It is very difficult to maintain neutrality and objectivity in an unstructured interview
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