space.template.Unstructured+Interviews

= Unstructured Interviews = toc

**Definition**
Unstructured interviews are informal social interactions, with a story telling approach where theoretical and numerical data is collected. The interview feels like a natural free flowing conversation with room to probe beyond the responses. There is no right way of performing the interview. The respondent is free to answer questions at their own terms and the interviewer can cut short or interrupt the respondent. Questions are not in a defined format and their order varies between respondents, giving room to add or remove questions based on response.

**Relevant Characteristics**

 * Before the interview, the researcher does not have any preconceived theories, or hypothesis to disprove on the social topic been studied.
 * Lack of preconceived notions helps the researcher develop a better understanding, and a day to day perspective of the social norms the community they are studying face.
 * Although the questions are undefined, the researcher asks relevant questions based on the topic of interest to ensure the goals of the study are met.
 * To use this method, the objective of the study must be one that is based on a community’s perspective to have credible conclusion or design a solution.
 * This method uses open-ended questions and researcher is flexible with questions. However, researcher has to be careful not to ask leading questions. For example, asking “Do you think vomiting during diarrhea is serious?” Is leading as opposed to asking, “When your baby has diarrhea, what makes you think that it could be serious?”.
 * The social status, gender, age, race and ethnicity of the researcher may influence their role.
 * It is preferred if the researcher is a friend or part of the community under study. However most researchers are not friends or part of the community, therefore during the start of the research, responses may be superficial as the community gains familiarity with the researcher. With time, structured interviews gain depth and relevance.

**“Method Made Easy”**

 * 1) Assess the community environment especially if the researcher is not part of the community. It is important to understand gender roles, political, economic and social status of the community before applying the method.
 * 2) Ensure that the researcher understands the language of the community.
 * 3) Next the researcher has to determine how they want to present themselves in the conversation. For example, a researcher can present themselves as a learner of the culture.
 * 4) The researcher then needs to find someone who has the relevant knowledge and is willing to be interviewed.
 * 5) The researcher must build a trustworthy relationship with the interviewee so that they feel comfortable giving details of sensitive topics if it occurs.
 * 6) Next the researcher gathers the information. Since writing down data during the interview breaks the natural flow of the conversation, it is encouraged to record the conversation instead.

**Advantages**

 * Due to the personal rapport built between the researcher and the interviewee, it is easy to ask about complex issues in the community.
 * It is a useful method in understanding parts of a culture that are not yet well understood by listening to the community members perspective.
 * Issues that were previous unknown are brought up and can be used in structured interviews later.
 * Researchers develop new problem solving skills.
 * Provide preliminary information that can be used in a structured interview.

**Limitations**

 * It is time consuming due to the time spent building relationships with the interviewee.
 * Due to undefined questions, it is challenging for the researcher to control where the conversation will go and the topic of discussion during the interview may not be part of the study’s objective.
 * Analyzing the data is difficult because the questions depend on the scenario during the interview.

**Analysis**

 * Going through any written notes and listening to any recordings of the interview and making lists of any important issues that came up.
 * Next these issues can be sorted out in terms of themes that are based on the objective of the study
 * From these themes, the researcher can come up with variables that can be measured or explored in future interviews.
 * Next it is important to evaluate any new themes or variables that came up that were unexpected.
 * The researcher can then go through the meanings of the topic/themes/variables and come up with relationships.

**Method in Context**
A researcher was investigating the perceived beliefs of what was causing childhood diarrhea in a North Indian village. The unstructured interviews began with general conversations about what kinds of illnesses the children in the village were getting. A common response was that the children were mainly getting diarrhea as well as colds, measles, fever and typhoid. The interviewer then asked about the kinds of diarrhea the children were getting. A common response was that the children were getting bloody diarrhea. It was important at this point for the researcher to gather information about what the villagers believed in regards to diarrhea. This was done by probing the interviewees to explain different aspects of diarrhea. Some of the questions asked include;
 * "Is regular diarrhea more common during certain times of the year?"
 * "Why do you think 'regular diarrhea' is more common during the dry season?"
 * "Can you tell me more about how dirty water causes diarrhea?"
 * "I have been told that diarrhea can be caused by a child's eating too much food, by mixing sweet foods and sour foods, by excess heat in the body, by sitting in one place too long, and by worms. Do you agree that these are all causes of diarrhea? Are there other things that can cause diarrhea for some children?"

Once the interviews were completed, the interviewer created a chart to summarize the main belief system of the village as to what was causing childhood diarrhea. The following were the main features discovered;
 * Types of childhood illnesses in the community;
 * Word or words used to describe diarrhea;
 * Different types of diarrhea based on signs and symptoms;
 * Beliefs to what causes diarrhea;
 * What solution do the villagers have for diarrhea?

From this study the types of diarrhea included watery, bloody, green, yellow, mucous and, bits and pieces diarrhea. The perceived causes of diarrhea were hot objects, bad food, baby teething, the evil eye and infection. The solutions used to treat were herbal and food treatments, changing of diet, massage, exorcism and, use of allopathic drugs.

**Online Resources**
Unstructured interviews lecture: []

**Further Reading**
Burnard, P. (1991). A method of analyzing interview transcripts in qualitative research. //Nurse Education Today//. 11 (6), 461-466. Jones, K.D. (2010). The unstructured clinical interview. //Journal of Counseling and Development//. 88, 220-226.