Unstructured interview

Unstructured Interviews

Unstructured Interviews are a method of interviews where questions can be changed or adapted to meet the respondent's intelligence, understanding or belief. Unlike a structured interview they do not offer a limited, pre-set range of answers for a respondent to choose, but instead advocate listening to how each individual person responds to the question.

The method to gather information using this technique is fairly limited, for example most surveys that are carried out via telephone or even in person tend to follow a structured method. Outside of sociology the use of such interviews is very limited.

Examples in Sociology

Aaron Cicourel and John Kitsuse used the method in 1963 for their interviews. It enabled them to ask further questions beyond what they already had planned, in adition, it enabled them to clarify meaning of the responses they received.