Assignment 3

Institution Affiliation:

Introduction

Unstructured interviews according to Doody & Noonan (2013), are a means to comprehend the difficult peoples’ behavior which at times limits inquiry. They are unprompted questions that occur in a natural course of an interaction. The interviewer follows the narrations of a respondent then develops questions from them, although the researcher may have a list of questions as a guideline. They are flexible as they can be modified to accommodate new issues and topics that may arise in the course of a conversation. Also, they are open-ended and are in-depth in most cases and are a source for data in many medical cases.

Unstructured interview questions intended to collect data on the respondent’s needs according to Jones (2010):

1. What level have reached in education? If it is in higher learning, which is your area of specialization? If not, state what skills you have gained from real life experiences.

2. Have you ever worked before? If yes, what position did you hold and for how long?

3. What is your general health status? Do you need any special care?

Challenges faced in conducting unstructured interviews:

At times recruited respondents may quit in the course of the interview as unstructured questions take long hours thus causing more problems of having to recruit others and also affecting the interpreted results of the study and twisting the data obtained (McClam & Woodside, 2011).

Financial constraints are also a challenge while conducting unstructured interviews. There are a lot of expenses incurred in recruitment, probing and data collection and also analysis.

Another challenge is on time constraints where a lot of time is required for data collection, more so when the researcher has little knowledge on the setting. Also, establishing a rapport with the interviewee takes time as they try to gain trust. Moreover, each unstructured question is lengthy and highly personalized thus it requires time to be answered.

Furthermore, applying the right control over the course of the interview is a challenge. This is concerned with controlling the direction of questions and statements anticipated for the interview. Additionally, new issues arise in the conversation, giving the researcher a challenge in deciding whether to follow them and risk mislaying continuity or keeping in track with the main topics at hand and risk losing extra important information.

Nevertheless, analyzing data collected is a challenge to the researcher since it is qualitative. Questions are usually open-ended thus responses are different which requires keen effort in analyzing them.

Advantages and disadvantages of unstructured interviews according to Rowley, J. (2012) are:

Advantages of unstructured interview questions:

· Allow respondents to give their own answers especially in this case of a clinical interview, as questions can be modified depending on answers given by respondents, and also questions can be added or eliminated in the course of interview.

· Since they contain open-ended questions, they allow respondents to respond in some profundity with their own choice of words which in turn aids the researcher in having an insight on how the respondents understand issues. Thus, unstructured interviews assist in creating qualitative data. Moreover, they have more validity as they offer a chance for the interviewer to inquire for in-depth understanding, clarification, and also give the interviewee an opportunity to see which direction the interview is going.

Disadvantages of unstructured interviews:

· The method is time consuming in the process of conducting and analyzing qualitative data obtained.

· Also, since there are some skills needed by the interviewer, thus the need for prior training which is expensive. Skills required include: establishing a rapport and investigating.

References

Doody, O., & Noonan, M. (2013). Preparing and conducting interviews to collect data.

Jones, K. D. (2010). The unstructured clinical interview. Journal of Counseling & Development, 88(2), 220–226.

McClam, T., & Woodside, M. (2011). Helping Process: Assessment to Termination. Nelson Education.

Rowley, J. (2012). Conducting research interviews. Management Research Review, 35(3/4), 260-271.