Structured interviews use questionnaire based on a predetermined and ‘standardized’ or identical set of questions and we refer to them as interviewer administered questionnaires.

Each distinctive format may be used to gain insights through a chronological reflection on their life experiences as in a biographical interview.

In the interview if you adopt a critical realist position, you will not believe that there is a truth waiting to be discovered that is external to the interpretations of your participants.

With a phenomenological interview, you give the participants the overall topic and ask them to tell you about it.

A disadvantage of face-to-face interviews, is that you are more aware of verbal and paralinguistic (voice tone and non-verbal sounds) signals.

Each distinctive format may not be used to focus on critical incidents as in a critical incident interview.

Each distinctive format in the interview cannot be used for both exploratory and explanatory purposes.

In-depth interviews are informal and used to explore in depth a general area in which you are not interested and are not also referred to as unstructured interviews.

Online interviews are associated with both semi-structured and unstructured interviews.

Structured interviews are not conducted using researcher-completed questionnaires.