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Disadvantages Of A Semi-Structured Interview

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1. Definitions
“A semi-structured interview is a verbal interchange where one person, the interviewer, attempts to elicit information from another person by asking questions” (Longhurst, 2012, p. 103).
A semi-structured interview is a qualitative research method that involves oral communication with individuals in a way that is self-conscious and based on a partially structured methodological course (Longhurst, 2012,pagina?).
“The semi-structured interview is a qualitative data collection strategy in which the researcher asks informants a series of predetermined but open-ended questions”(Ayres, 2008, p. 810).

2. Theoretical background
During the last decades, geographers have shown an increased scientific interest for qualitative research …show more content…

213). Semi-structured interviews make the transition from unstructured interviews (mainly oral communication) to structured interviews (template questions, asked in a specified order).The semi-structured interview is also a collaboration between the investigator and the informant (Ayres, 2008, p. 811).
One of the main advantages of the semi-structured interview is that it allows the subjects’ open responses, instead of affirmative or negative brief answers.
About the questions a semi-structured interview should contain, these must cover the entire topic of interest. One of the key factors is to start the interview with “warm-up questions”, which the subjects feel comfortable to answer to. As soon as they have become at their ease, the researcher can ask the more difficult ones. Basically, at the beginning, researchers have to get the respondents in the right mood, make a little comfortable conversation with them and make the transition from simple initial respondents to familiar conversation partners. To do that, the researcher can use some warm-up tricks, such as offering a snack, or begin the conversation with a little game on the topic of interest (Longhurst, 2012, p. …show more content…

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