Semi-structured interviews allow for personalized and comprehensive responses, but require extensive training and preparation. They are used in research and business, allowing for insight into the subject’s personality and experience. However, they require improvisation skills and careful preparation to remain objective and comparable.
A semi-structured interview is a technique used in both research and business practice. While the interviewer conducting the interview may have a specific set of questions and topics to cover, a semi-structured interview also allows for the introduction of relevant tangential information, in order to get a better idea of the interviewer’s point of view. ‘interviewed. There are advantages and disadvantages to using a semi-structured interview form: while the method may allow for more personalized and comprehensive responses, it requires extensive training and preparation on the part of the interviewer.
Both research studies and business operations can use a semi-structured interview for a variety of purposes. Researchers may use the technique when the focus of their research is the subject’s subjective experience. For example, in a study of human sexual behavior, a semi-structured interview might be used to understand the personal experience of a subject’s first sexual encounter, rather than simply factual data such as date of encounter and age. of the subject at the moment. In business, a semi-structured interviewer may be used for hiring, as a means of getting to know the interview subject better in order to determine if they have a personality that would complement the company.
For a semi-structured interview to be successful, the conversation cannot be allowed to go completely off the rails. Interviewers typically prepare a list of topics and questions that require answers, and may ask each subject the same list of questions in the same order. Unlike a formally structured interview, however, a semi-structured conversation allows the interviewer to ask follow-up questions on the fly, if a subject offers examples or seems interested in a particular area of discussion. Follow-up or detail questions can be different for each topic, depending on your answers and willingness to discuss the topic.
One of the biggest benefits of a semi-structured interview is that it can allow the interviewer to get a clear and complete picture of the topic. By allowing the subject’s interests and examples to guide the conversation, the interviewer can gain insight into the personality and unique experience of each individual interviewed. For this reason, semi-structured interviews are often used for human behavior studies and research, as the subjective point of view of the individual is a critical component in this field.
The disadvantage of this interview technique is that it requires skill and improvisation skills on the part of the interviewer. The interviewer must be able to pick up verbal and even body language cues from the subject to know which areas to pursue further. At the same time, the interviewer must remain objective and detached to ensure that they are not guiding or influencing the subject’s responses. Furthermore, the topics covered must be carefully prepared in advance, so that the results of different interviews generally remain comparable to each other.
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