How to Structure Interview Questions for Qualitative Research | Types & Examples

Structuring questions for qualitative research interviews involves different measures before you get into actual work. It includes writing interview questions and adjusting language according to the prospect while keeping up with the logical flow of the interview. You need to decide the type of qualitative research interview you want to carry out and its nature, whether it will be emic or etic. 

In this article, we will share the guidelines for structuring qualitative research interview questions and describe their types, nature, goals, and techniques, which will further enhance your understanding of them. So, without any further ado, let’s hop in. 

Major-Discussions:

• Use Patton’s six types of questions and open-ended questions and start the interview from an unstructured interview type. 

• Move to a structured interview type, ask the predetermined questions, and mix them with probing questions. 

• Ask a closing question and then invite the participant to ask you questions in their mind so you know the participant has expressed himself completely. 

• There are three main types of qualitative research interviews: structured, semi-structured, and unstructured. 

What Are Qualitative Research Interviews?

A scientific method to gather non-numerical data for a research paper is known as qualitative research. There are different methods to gather information for qualitative research including individual interviews, focus groups, observations, and action research. Qualitative research interviews are considered the most effective method of data collection. 

Individual interviews are mainly of three types: structured, semi-structured, and unstructured. But they have different limitations, as represented in the image below:

Before we move to the details of these interview questions, let’s first discuss the structuring phase of qualitative research interviews. 

How to Structure Qualitative Research Interviews?

Before structuring these interviews for your research paper, you need to know what information you require. Once you decide on the necessary information and choose the research type, you are good to go. But let us first tell you about:

Patton’s Six Types of Questions

1. Behaviour/Experience: Exploring the participant’s actions and personal experiences.
2. Personal beliefs/Opinions: Study their attitudes, opinions, and beliefs.  
3. Knowledge: Exploring the understanding of the participant about a certain topic.
4. Feelings: Understanding the associated feelings of the person to a topic or place. 
5. Demographic: Collect the information about the participant’s background and history.
6. Sensory: Investigate the participant’s senses or how he/she interacts with their environment. 

Once you have chosen the type of interview and information you require from the participant for your assessment, you can craft the perfect qualitative research interview questions according to the interview objectives. 

Now let’s read how to structure your research questions step-by-step;

1. Use Open-Ended Question

To get rich, detailed, and in-depth information, using open-ended questions is the right option in qualitative research interviews, especially for research papers. They are considered the backbone of qualitative research as they tend to gather a person’s thoughts and personal experiences. 

So, if you want to write in-depth research papers, instead of using polar questions, you should go for open-ended questions. These give you more personalised answers and allow the participants to express themselves freely, as compared to yes/no questions. 

Examples of Open-Ended Questions

How was your experience working at XYZ Corp during the initial years? 

• Tend to get the emotional side of the answer and understand their emotional attachments to their workspace. 

Can you tell us about the work environment and the approach to the work of other individuals working with you at the time? 

• Encourage participants to talk about the work environment they used to work in and their colleague’s behaviour towards work.

2. Start with Unstructured and Move to Structured Questions

The purpose of starting with unstructured qualitative research interview questions is to ease the participants with simple questions and connect with them. This will guide the conversation, and the participants will realise that what they think matters. This approach of starting with unstructured questions makes the interview lengthy, but it provides richer and more resounding insights. 

Examples of Unstructured Questions

Here are two examples of unstructured questions to start from.

• What stood out to you as the defining characteristic of XYZ Corp? 
• How did you feel like working with your peers? 

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Examples of Structured Questions 

After asking some unstructured and open-ended questions, you can move to structured questions.  Here are two examples:

• As an ex-employee of XYZ Corp, what suggestion would you give them to improve their work environment? 
• Did the employers take any action to tackle the concerns of the employees regarding that issue?

Using this strategy will enable you to take a more structured and logical interview approach. 

3. Use Probing Questions

These questions allow you to get more comprehensive and deeper responses from the participants. These qualitative research interview questions mostly ask the participant to elaborate on their certain answers. They compel the person to dig deeper into the topic and help to judge his understanding skills. 

Examples of Probing Questions 

Here are some examples of probing questions; you can also call them leading questions. 

• What did you mean by that when you said {xxx}? 
  • Ask the participant to clarify the complex statements.
• Can you tell us more about {XXX}?
  • Invite him/her to elaborate or explain the previous response
• What are your feelings about leaving ABC Corp? 
  • Encourage him/her to express their emotions about change in life.

4. Ask One Last Question

Well, you have structured a great interview so far, but it’s time to conclude the assessment process. To give your interview a better conclusion, it’s better to ask a general question at the end of the interview. 

For example: 

• Thanks for appearing for the interview and providing valuable information. Before we wrap it up, would you like to add anything else? 

Another best practice is to request the participant ask questions about your organisation. This will allow you to assess his/her preferences. This last open-ended question will ensure the person has expressed himself fully. 

Types of Qualitative Research Interviews

An interview provides a chance for a researcher to gather advanced information about a specific topic by interviewing a group of respondents. Based on the desired detail of the information, there are different types of qualitative research interviews. Some of them are explained below;

Structured Interview

The structured interview is etic (objective) in nature and is an essential research tool that provides scope for the researchers to obtain and analyse the results. By keeping in mind the required information for the research paper, qualitative research interview questions are pre-determined by following the quantitative approach. As per the target audience, questions in this interview can be both closed-ended and open-ended. 

The closed-ended questions aim to get the answers to the interview questions according to the preferences of the respondents. On the other hand, the open-ended questions aim to get detailed answers about a particular research topic.

Considering the complexities of structuring interview questions, some students buy research papers from different platforms. This remains an option; let’s dive deep into the proven techniques. 

Here are some best practices to follow for structured interviews:

1. Determine the Questions Prior: Interview questions have to be written before the interview starts.
2. Thorough Questions: Questions have to be detailed enough to repeat word by word. 
3. Ordering: The sequence of the question needs to be pre-decided. 

Examples of Structured Interview Questions for Research

Here is an example of a structured interview question in research:

Question: Thinking of your childhood days in Hoboken, can you remember what kind of local food was popular at the time? 

Probes:

1. Why do you think it was most liked?
2. Who made it the best? 
3. What were other famous foods? 

Remember, structured qualitative research interview questions are beneficial for collecting uniform data for all prospects. It is commonly used in large-scale studies. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Structured Interview

Here are some advantages and disadvantages of semi-structured interview:

Advantages:

1. Accurate responses 
2. Wide variety of audience 
3. Helps build formal relations 

Disadvantages:

1. Limited scope
2. Requires specific information
3. Time-consuming task

Semi-structured Interview

A semi-structured interview is a guided conversation between the respondents and the interviewer. These interviews can be emic or etic in nature, but they lean more towards the emic (subjective) nature. The researchers can get appropriate flexibility while conducting this kind of interview. Instead of the structure of the interview, the researchers can also take advantage of their own ideas and creativity while conducting the interview. 

The qualitative research interview questions are not pre-decided; only the topics are outlined for touch-up. When a researcher wants to get a lot of information about a particular topic in a limited amount of time, the semi-structured interviewing method can be the best approach.

Example of a Semi-structured Interview Questions

Question: What problems did a student face growing up in the community? 

Sub-topics:

1. Family-related 
2. Work-related 
3. Related to society 
4. Education related 
5. Personal 

Seeing the example, we can say that only the main topic is pre-decided, the interviewer needs to expand the topic and make questions on their own according to the interviewee’s response. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Semi-Structured Interview

Here are some advantages and disadvantages of semi-structured interview:

Advantages: 

1. Provides more time to analyse data
2. Easy to maintain the guidelines 
3. Flexible structure 
4. Allows open-ended answers 

Disadvantages:

1. Requires extensive resources
2. Need to interview more people 
3. Leading questions could bias the interview
4. Difficult to find an appropriate interviewer

Unstructured Interview

An unstructured interview is an in-depth interview which provides enough data to the researchers about the research study. These interviews provide a chance to build a bond between the interviewer and respondents. Due to this bond, there is a possibility that the respondents will provide 100% genuine information to the researchers.

Unstructured interviews are emic (subjective) by nature; however, there are no guidelines to conduct this kind of interview. The researchers use such an approach, which is necessary for them to maintain the main motive of the research.

Eventually, the qualitative research interview questions emerge from the conversation and observations of the interviewee. This makes every unstructured interview unique in the sense of questions asked and responses received according to the emotional and cognitive ability of the person. Remember, the unstructured interviews are exploratory and often lead to unexpected insights. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Unstructured Interviews

Here are some advantages and disadvantages of unstructured research interviews. 

Advantages:

1. Better understanding of the prospect
2. Less risk of bias
3. More flexible 
4. Reduces the communication gap
5. A valid and interactive way 

Disadvantages:

1. Difficult to analyse and compare data 
2. More time-consuming than other types 
3. Risk of low internal validity
4. It might create a negative opinion about the organisation
5. Tempt to ask leading questions

Conclusion

In conclusion, structuring qualitative research interview questions using different interview types is a crucial step to get the full potential of the participant. Plus, a structured approach towards the interview will enable you to judge the answers of each participant and compare them to make the best decision. Remember, you will only assess the answers better if the questions for each participant match. 

To fulfil this purpose for you, we have compiled this article which guides you throughout the process. The type of interviews out there, and how you can structure an interview step-by-step using Patton's six types of questions and open-ended questions. We have also talked about incorporating a structured approach with an unstructured one and using probing questions. We hope you find it helpful because The Academic Papers UK is Committed to Get You Top Grades!

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