ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a number of potential interview tactics that illustrated the structured-unstructured dimension. It emphasizes that decisions relating to the degree of structure or scheduling can only be made with reference to the purpose for which the interview is to be employed. The directive-nondirective continuum has been proposed as a major style dimension particularly with respect to interviews in the guidance and counselling field. Once both a social and cognitive set induction have been achieved the interviewer is ready to move into the 'body' of the interview. The idea of approaching an interview without any preconceived notions about what topics might be significant enough to include or by merely encouraging the client to talk about whatever springs to mind at the time seems today to be unacceptable. Within the field of interviewing there are three major dimensions along which interviews may be ordered with respect to their structure. These are structured-unstructured; standardised-nonstandardised; and scheduled- nonscheduled.
