Lecture 4:

Qualitative interviewing

Levels of structure in qualitative interviewing

Highly structured

Semi-structured
Unstructured

Highly structured interviews

Highly structured schedule of questions. Interviewer asks each respondent same questions in the same way. Closed questions, limited set of pre-coded responses.

Semi-structured interviews
Structure & Flexibility
Interview guide. List of open-ended questions, or topic areas. Example: the source of pain

Unstructured interviews
Aim to understand participants world-view. Interviewer introduces broad topic

Discussion is allowed to develop on its own. Please tell me about Id like to hear about
Example: the meaning of pain

Example
I:

C.M.:

I: C.M.:

Um so does it make a differencedoes it make a difference that she is there? Ja, it does, because it felt kind of um- She, they were away overseas for a week and I was- it was just me staying at home alone. So it, it felt a lot different just being me the only one person in the house the whole time, and the house felt really, really quietI dont know, its - the house felt really empty. Empty, really? Ja, because it is, it is a big house. And you can, you can always, theres no-, nobody moving around no, no noise, just, its just me that I know Im there, just, just the noise in the room where I was. Its the only noise with us in the house, so its almost like an eerie silence in the house.

Task
Broad research question: What are young peoples experiences of their most important love relationships, and what meaning do they attach to these? Bearing in mind the qualities of a good interview and the various levels of structure one might use in a qualitative interview, construct a number of interview questions for gaining insight into this phenomenon.

Explain why you chose the level of structure that you did and why you formulated your questions in the way that you did.