Interview Method in Psychology: Structured vs Unstructured (2024)
Table of Contents
How do Interviews Work?
Researchers can ask different types of questions, generating different types of data. For example, closed questions provide people with a fixed set of responses, whereas open questions allow people to express what they think in their own words.
The researcher will often record interviews, and the data will be written up as a transcript (a written account of interview questions and answers) which can be analyzed later.
It should be noted that interviews may not be the best method for researching sensitive topics (e.g., truancy in schools, discrimination, etc.) as people may feel more comfortable completing a questionnaire in private.
Interviews take many forms, some very informal, others more structured.
Structured Interview
A structured interview is a quantitative research method where the interviewer a set of prepared closed-ended questions in the form of an interview schedule, which he/she reads out exactly as worded.
Interviews schedules have a standardized format, meaning the same questions are asked to each interviewee in the same order (see Fig. 1).
Figure 1. An example of an interview schedule
The interviewer will not deviate from the interview schedule (except to clarify the meaning of the question) or probe beyond the answers received. Replies are recorded on a questionnaire, and the order and wording of questions, and sometimes the range of alternative answers, is preset by the researcher.
A structured interview is also known as a formal interview (like a job interview).
Strengths
Structured interviews are easy to replicate as a fixed set of closed questions are used, which are easy to quantify – this means it is easy to test for reliability.
Structured interviews are fairly quick to conduct which means that many interviews can take place within a short amount of time. This means a large sample can be obtained, resulting in the findings being representative and having the ability to be generalized to a large population.
Limitations
Structured interviews are not flexible. This means new questions cannot be asked impromptu (i.e., during the interview), as an interview schedule must be followed.
The answers from structured interviews lack detail as only closed questions are asked, which generates quantitative data. This means a researcher won’t know why a person behaves a certain way.
Unstructured Interview
Unstructured interviews do not use any set questions, instead, the interviewer asks open-ended questions based on a specific research topic, and will try to let the interview flow like a natural conversation. The interviewer modifies his or her questions to suit the candidate’s specific experiences.
Unstructured interviews are sometimes referred to as ‘discovery interviews’ and are more like a ‘guided conservation’ than a strictly structured interview. They are sometimes called informal interviews.
Unstructured interviews are most useful in qualitative research to analyze attitudes and values. Though rarely provide a valid basis for generalization, their main advantage is that they enable the researcher to probe the subjective point of view of social actors.
Strengths
Unstructured interviews are more flexible as questions can be adapted and changed depending on the respondents’ answers. The interview can deviate from the interview schedule.
Unstructured interviews generate qualitative data through the use of open questions. This allows the respondent to talk in some depth, choosing their own words. This helps the researcher develop a real sense of a person’s understanding of a situation.
They also have increased validity because it gives the interviewer the opportunity to probe for a deeper understanding, ask for clarification & allow the interviewee to steer the direction of the interview, etc. Interviewers have the chance to clarify any questions of participants during the interview.
Limitations
It can be time-consuming to conduct an unstructured interview and analyze the qualitative data (using methods such as thematic analysis).
Employing and training interviewers is expensive and not as cheap as collecting data via questionnaires. For example, certain skills may be needed by the interviewer. These include the ability to establish rapport and knowing when to probe.
Biased questions so to elicit ‘fabricated’ answers. Interviewers may bias the respondents’ answers, but interviewees may develop demand characteristics and social desirability issues.
Focus Group Interview
Focus group interview is a qualitative approach where a group of respondents are interviewed together, used to gain an in‐depth understanding of social issues.
This type of interview is often referred to as a focus group because the job of the interviewer (or moderator) is to bring the group to focus on the issue at hand. Initially, the goal was to reach a consensus among the group, but with the development of techniques for analyzing group qualitative data, there is less emphasis on consensus building.
The method aims to obtain data from a purposely selected group of individuals rather than from a statistically representative sample of a broader population.
The role of the interview moderator is to make sure the group interacts with each other and do not drift off-topic. Ideally, the moderator will be similar to the participants in terms of appearance, have adequate knowledge of the topic being discussed, and exercise mild unobtrusive control over dominant talkers and shy participants.
A researcher must be highly skilled to conduct a focus group interview. For example, the moderator may need certain skills, including the ability to establish rapport and know when to probe.
Strengths
Group interviews generate qualitative narrative data through the use of open questions. This allows the respondents to talk in some depth, choosing their own words. This helps the researcher develop a real sense of a person’s understanding of a situation. Qualitative data also includes observational data, such as body language and facial expressions.
They also have increased validity because some participants may feel more comfortable being with others as they are used to talking in groups in real life (i.e., it’s more natural).
Focus groups are a type of group interview method used in market research and consumer psychology that are cost–effective for gathering the views of consumers.
Limitations
The researcher must ensure that they keep all the interviewees” details confidential and respect their privacy. This is difficult when using a group interview. For example, the researcher cannot guarantee that the other people in the group will keep information private.
Group interviews are less reliable as they use open questions and may deviate from the interview schedule, making them difficult to repeat.
It is important to note that there are some potential pitfalls of focus groups, such as conformity, social desirability, and oppositional behavior, that can reduce the usefulness of the data collected.
For example, group interviews may sometimes lack validity as participants may lie to impress the other group members. They may conform to peer pressure and give false answers.
To avoid these pitfalls, it is important for the interviewer to have a good understanding of how people function in groups as well as how to lead the group in a productive discussion.
The Interviewer Effect
Face-to-face interviews raise methodological problems. These stem from the fact that interviewers are themselves role players, and their perceived status may influence the replies of the respondent.
Because an interview is a social interaction, the interviewer’s appearance or behavior may influence the respondent’s answers. This is a problem as it can bias the results of the study and make them invalid.
For example, the gender, ethnicity, body language, age, and social status of the interview can all create an interviewer effect. If there is a perceived status disparity between the interviewer and the interviewee, the results of interviews have to be interpreted with care. This is pertinent for sensitive topics such as health.
For example, if a researcher was investigating sexism amongst males, would a female interview be preferable to a male? It is possible that if a female interviewer was used, male participants might lie (i.e., pretend they are not sexist) to impress the interviewer, thus creating an interviewer effect.
Interview Design
First, you must choose whether to use a structured or non-structured interview.
Next, you must consider who will be the interviewer, and this will depend on what type of person is being interviewed. There are several variables to consider:
Gender and age: This can greatly affect respondents’ answers, particularly on personal issues.
Personal characteristics: Some people are easier to get on with than others. Also, the accent and appearance (e.g., clothing) of the interviewer can have an effect on the rapport between the interviewer and interviewee.
Also, the language the interviewer uses should be appropriate to the vocabulary of the group of people being studied. For example, the researcher must change the language of questions to match the social background of respondents” age / educational level / social class/ethnicity, etc.
The interviewer must ensure that they take special care when interviewing vulnerable groups, such as children. For example, children have a limited attention span, so lengthy interviews should be avoided.
Ethnicity: People may have difficulty interviewing people from different ethnic groups.
Structured interviews offer the same questions and the same blueprint for responses for all interviewees.Unstructured interviews allow respondents to go into detail. It is easier to compare data collected during a structured interview because it uses standardized questions and responses.
Structured interviews: in this type of interview, the questions will be pre-determined and the interviewer should not waiver from them. This way, everyone who is interviewed will be asked exactly the same questions. Unstructured interviews: this type of interview does not have pre-determined questions.
Question types: Structured interviews use specific, predetermined questions with fixed response formats.Unstructured interviews are open-ended and allow for a more conversational approach.
Structured interviews are more formal, with little room to give creative answers.But unstructured interviews are flexible, more informal and free-flowing. Structured interviews are standardized while unstructured interviews are personalized.
Unstructured Interviews – An interview process in which questions asked are not systematized across candidates, and the interviewer focuses on open discussion to evaluate candidates. Common traits characterizing Unstructured Interviews are a lack of pre-determined questions, rating scales and/or topic guidelines.
Common examples of applications that rely on structured data include customer relationship management (CRM), invoicing systems, product databases, and contact lists. Unstructured data includes various content such as documents, videos, audio files, posts on social media, and emails.
Structured data is highly specific and is stored in a predefined format, where unstructured data is a compilation of many varied types of data that are stored in their native formats. This means that structured data takes advantage of schema-on-write and unstructured data employs schema-on-read.
What is an example of a structured interview? There are many ways in which you can conduct structured interviews. For example, you can conduct them over the phone, face-to-face, and on the Internet using computer programs, such as Skype or videophone. Structured interview questions can be open-ended or closed-ended.
The intention of an unstructured interview is to expose the researcher to unanticipated themes and to help him or her to develop a better understanding of the interviewees' social reality from the interviewees' perspectives.
Structured interviews: The questions are predetermined in both topic and order. Semi-structured interviews: A few questions are predetermined, but other questions aren't planned. Unstructured interviews: None of the questions are predetermined.
This also gives them much more flexibility than their structured counterparts, which allows for more detail and more room for nuance. Because interviewers can ask as many follow-up questions as they want, they are able to explore certain ideas and responses more fully.
Unstructured interviews also increase your chances of introducing more bias into the process. If your goal is to hire the candidates who are most likely to succeed on the job, then structured interviews are the way to go.
Strengths. Structured interviews are easy to replicate as a fixed set of closed questions are used, which are easy to quantify – this means it is easy to test for reliability. Structured interviews are fairly quick to conduct which means that many interviews can take place within a short amount of time.
Structured interviews: The questions are predetermined in both topic and order. Semi-structured interviews: A few questions are predetermined, but other questions aren't planned.
Structured data is standardized, clearly defined, and searchable data, while unstructured data is usually stored in its native format. Structured data is quantitative, while unstructured data is qualitative. Structured data is often stored in data warehouses, while unstructured data is stored in data lakes.
Examples of unstructured data are: Rich media. Media and entertainment data, surveillance data, geo-spatial data, audio, weather data. Document collections.
So, when you think of dates, names, product IDs, transaction information, and so forth, you know that you have structured data in mind. At the same time, unstructured data has many faces like text files, PDF documents, social media posts, comments, images, audio/video files, and emails, to name a few.
Structured problems are the straight forward problems which can be determined and solved by repeating examination and testing on the problems. Unstructured problems are the difficulties introduced to an organization when facing unusual situation and their solution are different and sometimes unique.
Structured data is information which can be ordered and processed by data analysis tools.Unstructured data is everything else of structured data. Tables stored within a database management system. Word processor, spreadsheet and PowerPoint files.
While structured interviews are often associated with job interviews, they are also common in marketing, social science, survey methodology, and other research fields.
Highly structured interviews seek to treat all interviewees the same. The same set of questions is asked to each person in the same order and manner, with limited to no flexibility regarding follow-up questions. The questions are carefully crafted in advance to elicit useful responses on pre-determined topics.
The flexibility of unstructured interviews can allow for the flow of new ideas, but also lessen their reliability and generalisability. It can be difficult to compare responses between participants if they do not all receive the same questions, making the analysis stage challenging.
An advantage of these interviews is that they produce qualitative data that is thought to offer verstehen and be high in validity. It is also felt that interviewers are able to offer their subjects support and exercise sensitivity in a way that isn't possible with a questionnaire.
Because of sensemaking, interviewers are likely to feel they are getting useful information from unstructured interviews, even when they are useless. Because of both of these powerful cognitive biases, interviewers probably over-value unstructured interviews.
A structured interview is a systematic approach to interviewing where you ask the same predetermined questions to all candidates in the same order and you rate them with a standardized scoring system. This method is almost twice as effective as the traditional interview, reducing the likelihood of a bad hire.
A structured interview is an assessment method designed to measure job-related competencies of candidates by systematically inquiring about their behavior in past experiences and/or their proposed behavior in hypothetical situations.
Structured interviews introduce more objectivity into your hiring process—even when there are multiple interviewers involved. By creating a standardized list of questions and assessment methods, you can make equitable comparisons between candidates because you've left less room for common interviewer biases.
An unstructured interview model allows you to go more in-depth on a particular topic or focus more time learning about a particular candidate's strengths or traits. Adapt to changing topics. Unstructured interviews are more flexible, allowing questions to be adapted and changed depending on the candidate's answers.
Due to their uniformity, standardized interviews have higher interrater reliability and are less prone to biased or illegal questions. Behavioral questions ask the candidate to discuss a specific response to a prior experience, which can provide insight into how an applicant may behave in the future [5].
The disadvantages of structured interviews include: The candidate is required to plan more in advance. The questions need development, review, and testing to approve and implement. The pre-planned set of questions is at risk of being revealed, which can help applicants game the system.
The Limitations of unstructured interviews. The main theoretical disadvantage is the lack of reliability – unstructured Interviews lack reliability because each interview is unique – a variety of different questions are asked and phrased in a variety of different ways to different respondents.
Although the tool itself might be too specific for use by other specialties, the study results are applicable to all programs, namely, (1) SIs are worth developing, (2) a well-structured interview yields a high interrater reliability, (3) SIs discriminate well between various dimensions, and (4) each domain should be ...
The gold standard for structured clinical interviews is the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5, also known as SCID. It is a semi-structured interview guide that is administered by a psychologist or other mental health professional who is familiar with the diagnostic criteria of mental health conditions.
Unstructured observation: This approach is best used to look at a single situation, for example, examining the experiences of elderly people admitted to care. In this situation the researcher will take numerous field notes, and may use tape or video recording. There is a predetermined schedule of events or activities.
Structured observations generally provide quantitative data as researchers count how many times a behaviour has occurred on the check Unstructured observation - Involves the researchers recording everything about the behaviour they can see and this is analysed later for patterns.
noun. psychology centering on the analysis of the structure or content of conscious mental states by introspective methods. Also called: structuralism.
Structured interviews offer the same questions and the same blueprint for responses for all interviewees.Unstructured interviews allow respondents to go into detail. It is easier to compare data collected during a structured interview because it uses standardized questions and responses.
At the middle level of management, structured problems are budget management and budgeting, semi-structured problems are sales forecasting and product pricing while unstructured problem is personnel management.
Some of the most common unstructured interview types include: Telephone interview. Use this method to eliminate candidates from the large pool of interested applicants by using a general conversational tone to ask more intuitive questions.
Jean Piaget defines structure as any of the items that combined create steady knowledge base for the children to elucidate the world around them. STRUCTURE: "Example: A beehive is well established structure."
Definition. The structural model is Freud's theory that the core functions of the mind are carried out by three closely related systems, the ego, id, and super-ego.
Wundt was greatly emphasized on the study of components of consciousness, which is the supposed structure of our mind so, his approach to psychology is called as structuralism. Example: An example of structuralism is describing an apple. An apple is crisp, sweet, juicy, round, and hard.
Structured interviews are more process-oriented, and so follow a standard set of rules such as time limit, scoring system, and order of questions. Unstructured interviews, on the other hand, do not follow rules that apply to all job applicants. It is up to the discretion of the interviewer.
Structured interviews: The questions are predetermined in both topic and order. Semi-structured interviews: A few questions are predetermined, but other questions aren't planned. Unstructured interviews: None of the questions are predetermined.
The three elements that distinguish structured and unstructured problems are data, procedures and objectives. When all three elements are known with certainty, the problem is structured. While problem is unstructured when any of the three characteristics identified previously are not known with certainty.
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