ABSTRACT
Interviews are carried out in many different guises. Thus face-to-face interviews can range from the completely unstructured to the highly structured. The entirely unstructured and non-directive interview implies that the interviewer does not shape the direction of the discussion in any way, although she may exert a facilitating influence on the discussion, for example by asking the respondent to amplify and exemplify points that are raised. This type of interaction is frequently conducted by therapists and may also be employed in research as part of the case study approach. In this approach, interviewees do not have to answer pre-set questions which may be constraining, and the data generated is thus said to be ‘rich’ in ethnographic terms.
