A topic in research methodology
The term focused interview was used to describe a form of interview developed for use in areas suite as public opinion and market research. Although such interviewer were focused on a topic of interest to the researchers, they were not structured entirely by a prepared script but rather admitted some flexibility for the interviewer.
"In the focused interview, the interviewer can play a more active role; he can introduce more explicit verbal cues to the stimulus situation or even re-present [it] it…"
Merton et al., 1990
In a sense they are a from of 'semi-structured' interview.
Read about research interviews
Read about semi-structured interviews
The interviewer tries to help the participant to express and share their own views and ideas:
"A major objective of the focused interview is that of lessening and ideally of closing the gap between interviewees' perceptions of a situation and their reports of what they have perceived."
Merton et al., 1990
(Taber, 2013: 43)
Source cited:
- Merton, R. K., Fiske, M., & Kendall, P. L. (1990). The Focused Interview. A manual of problems and procedures (2nd ed.). New York: The Free Press.
My introduction to educational research:
Taber, K. S. (2013). Classroom-based Research and Evidence-based Practice: An introduction (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
