Interview guide

Definition

An interview guide is a structured framework used to facilitate the process of conducting interviews, providing a set of questions and topics to explore during the conversation. This tool helps ensure that the interviewer covers all relevant areas while allowing for flexibility in responses, promoting a more natural flow of dialogue and deeper insights from the interviewee.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

1. An interview guide should be tailored to the specific objectives of the research, ensuring that it aligns with the goals of the study.
2. Using an interview guide can help reduce interviewer bias by providing a consistent framework for all interviews.
3. The guide can include both main questions and potential follow-up questions to facilitate deeper exploration of topics.
4. Flexibility is key when using an interview guide; interviewers should feel comfortable deviating from the guide to pursue interesting or unexpected answers.
5. Creating an effective interview guide often involves pre-testing it with a small group to identify potential issues and improve question clarity.

Review Questions

• How does an interview guide contribute to the effectiveness of qualitative research interviews?
  • An interview guide enhances qualitative research interviews by providing a structured framework that ensures all relevant topics are covered. This structure helps maintain focus on research objectives while still allowing flexibility in how questions are asked and answered. By guiding the conversation, an interview guide also helps reduce variability in interviews, making it easier to compare responses across different participants.
• In what ways can the use of open-ended questions within an interview guide improve the quality of data collected during research interviews?
  • Incorporating open-ended questions into an interview guide allows interviewees to share their thoughts and experiences in detail, leading to richer data collection. These types of questions encourage respondents to elaborate on their answers, which can reveal insights that closed questions may miss. This qualitative depth is crucial for understanding complex issues and perspectives within the context of research objectives.
• Evaluate how pre-testing an interview guide might influence the overall success of a research project.
  • Pre-testing an interview guide can significantly influence a research project's success by identifying potential issues with question clarity, flow, and relevance. This process allows researchers to refine their questions based on feedback from trial interviews, ensuring that they effectively elicit the desired information. By addressing these concerns before conducting full interviews, researchers can enhance data quality and reliability, ultimately leading to more robust findings and conclusions.

Related terms

open-ended questions:

Questions that encourage detailed responses and require the interviewee to elaborate, allowing for richer data collection.

semi-structured interview:

A method of interviewing that combines a predetermined set of questions with the freedom to explore additional topics based on the interviewee's responses.

probes: Follow-up questions or prompts used during an interview to encourage interviewees to provide more in-depth information or clarify their responses.