Other half of the Disadvantages of the Interview

4. It is time consuming if only the researcher conducts the interviews.

5. It is inconvenient for both the interviewer and the interviewee in terms of time and
sometimes in terms of place. The interviewer has to travel distances.
6. There is no anonymity and so the interviewee may withhold some confidential but vital
information, especially if the information may possibly invite trouble. This is true if the
information is about the morality of an individual or the commission of graft and
corruption.
7. There is a tendency of interviewers to introduce bias because they may influence their
interviewees to give replies that would favor their researcher employers. This may
happen in political surveys where the candidacy of a certain person is involved.
8. If the interviewer modifies a question, the standardized construction of the questions is
lessened and, categorization and tabulation become a problem.

Types or Classes of Interviews

Treece and Treece Jr., classify interviews as follows: (Treece and Treece Jr., pp. 199-200)

1. Standardized Interview
 In this type of interview, the interviewer is not allowed to change the specific
wordings of the questions in the interview schedule. He must conduct all
interviews in precisely the same manner, and he cannot adapt questions for
specific situations or pursue statements in order to add something to the data.
This is the same as the so-called formal interview.
2. Non-standardized Interview
 In this type, the interviewer has complete freedom to develop each interview in
the most appropriate manner for each situation. He is not held to any specific
question. He may revise, add to, or subtract from, the interview schedule that
which he thinks is best for the situation. This is the same as the so-called
informal interview.
3. Semi-standardized Interview
 The interviewer is required to ask a number of specific major questions, and
beyond these, he is free to probe as he chooses. There are prepared principal
 questions to be asked and once these are asked and answered the interpreter is
free to ask any question as he sees fit for the situation.
4. Focused Interview
 This is also called depth interview. This is similar to the non-standardized
interview in which no required questions should be asked by the interviewer. The
researcher asks a series of questions based on his previous understanding and
insight of the situation. Specific attention is given to specific topics or ideas. The
interview is focused on specific topics that are to be investigated in depth. The
interviewer is thus able to direct his questioning to discover the kinds of
backgrounds and experiences that have influenced the subject.
(In counselling, this is called directive counselling or directive questioning-
to probe into the motives, experiences, and problems of the counselee.
5. Non-directive Interview
 In this type of interview, the interviewer or subject is allowed and even
encouraged to express his feelings without fear of disapproval. The subject can
express his feelings or views on certain topics even without waiting to be
questioned or even without pressure from the interviewer. The interviewee does
most of the talking.
i. The clinical interview used in psychotherapy is a non-directive interview.
The purpose of the non-directive interview is to get a comprehensive
picture of the motives, values, and thoughts of the subject or interviewee.
The problem here is how to make the interviewee talk. Another problem is
that the question asked may influence his point of view.

Manuel and Medel classify interview as structured, semi-structured, and unstructured. (Manuel
and Medel, p. 49) Structured interview is the same as standardized interview as explained
above, the semi-structured interview is almost the same as the semi-standardized interview,
and the unstructured interview is similar to the non-standardized or non-directive interview.