In-Depth Interview

In-depth interviews are interviews in which participants are encouraged and prompted to talk in depth about the topic under investigation without the researcher's use of predetermined, focused, short-answer questions. The researcher is not required to prepare an extensive list of questions; rather, the researcher is required to be aware of the major domains of experience likely to be discussed by the participant and be able to probe how these relate to the topic under investigation. In-depth interviews are suitable for data collection in a variety of research methodologies, including grounded theory and ethnography, and are often used as a stand-alone method of data collection without reliance on an underlying philosophical approach.

In-depth interviews are often referred to as semi-structured interviews because the researcher retains some control over the direction and content to be discussed, yet participants are free to elaborate or take the interview in new but related directions. A distinction can be made between structured interviews where a list of preconceived topics are responded to by the participant, unstructured interviews where no preconceived topics or questions are devised, and semi-structured or in-depth interviews where the conversation oscillates among the researcher's introduction of the topic under investigation, the participant's account of his or her experiences, and the researcher's probing of these experiences for further information useful to the analysis. Careful interviewing within this middle ground between rigid structure and complete uncertainty provides the researcher [Page 423]with in-depth information on the topic of interest without predetermining the results.

Given the versatility of the in-depth interview, it is no wonder that it has rapidly become one of the most common methods of data collection in qualitative research. However, in-depth interviews are not without their criticisms. One criticism is that the in-depth interview provides limited opportunity for interpretation by the researcher because recalling an experience in an interview does not replicate actual observation of the experience or provide insight into the intentions or motivations of the various actors involved. Reliance on the in-depth interview as the sole method of data collection in realist research might not allow a full investigation of the topic because the participant and researcher are limited by the recall of the participant, the ability of the participant to articulate his or her experiences within the timeframe of the interview, and the ability of the researcher to ask the “right” questions to prompt more detailed discussion and aid the analysis. As such, in-depth interviews are often combined with other forms of data, such as observations, diaries, and documents, to produce a rich account of the research setting or phenomenon under investigation. Despite this criticism, in-depth interviews, due to the relative ease and cost-efficiency with which they can be conducted, will most likely remain one of the most popular and effective methods of data collection in qualitative research.