Interviewing in Qualitative Research

Information taken from http://www.jhsph.edu/

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

And from http://ro.uwe.ac.uk

Research Observatory from University of the West of England

structured interview An interview with a rigid, pre-prepared list of

questions that tend to focus upon closed questions.

semi-structured interview An interview that contains some pre-prepared

questions but that also allows the interviewer to ask

spontaneous questions to expand on the

respondent answers. Mixtures of open and closed

questions tend to be used.

unstructured interview Also known as in-depth or non-directed interviews.

The interview has a theme or topic but no pre-set

questions, apart from the opening ones.