5 The purpose of the qualitative research interview is to contribute to a body of knowledge that is conceptual and theoretical and is based on the meanings that life experiences hold for the interviewees. This latter research generally requires some form of qualitative interviewing which encourages the interviewee to share rich descriptions of phenomena while leaving the interpretation or analysis to the investigators. Thus, some research is designed to test a priori hypotheses, often using a very structured interviewing format in which the stimulus (questions) and analyses are standardised, while other research seeks to explore meaning and perceptions to gain a better understanding and/or generate hypotheses.
While all interviews are used to get to know the interviewee better, the purpose of that knowing varies according to the research question and the disciplinary perspective of the researcher.
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Other manuscripts in this Medical Education series have highlighted other qualitative data collection techniques, including narratives 1, participant observation 2, 3 and focus groups. This article explores qualitative interviews and emphasises the individual in-depth interview. The integration of qualitative research into clinical research in the 1970s and 1980s introduced many distinct formats of qualitative interviews that greatly expanded the process of data collection and the depth of information being gathered.