Differences between structured and semi-structured interviews, advantages of semi-structured interviews, and thematic analysis of friendship themes in university

Section 1
a) Differences between a structured and semi-structured interview
A structured interview refers to a type of interview in which the interviewer asks a particular set
of questions that have already been set. All respondents in the interview will answer the same
questions, making it easy comparing responses from the interviewees.
A semi structured interview is a type of interview in which the interviewees are asked questions
of which some are predetermined while the rest are not set in advance. With this type of
interview, respondents can provide their views regarding to the pre-set questions and the ones
that are not predetermined.
b) Advantage of using a semi structured interview
They provide for objective comparisons of candidates and also allow individual respondents to
explore individual and specific responses from the interviewees.
c) Advantage of a structured interview.
It is easy to compare responses from interviewees as they are expected to respond to same set of
questions.
d) An example of a semi structured question
Do you think that the US is being led in the right path? If yes, what strategies have been put in
place?

Section 2: Thematic analysis
a) This research aimed to find out friendship themes in the university. Based on the
objective, the following research question guided the study;
What are some of the friendship themes in the university?
Data used to answer the research question were gathered by administering a semi structured
interview, and allowed the participant to respond to the questions at length. The interviewee is
referred to as Louise.
b) Two themes that can be identified from the transcript are support and commonalities.
i) Support
When asked what she needed friends for, Louise responds in line 177 that she needed friends for
support.
INT: What do you need friends for?
LOU: Like support, someone to rely on and trust and just someone to have a good time with
and spend your life with really isn’t it, like I’d rather spend my life with someone than on my
own, so it’s quite important to me.
She further goes on to state that she needed support from friends when she was coming to the
university. Louis stated that in their flat in the university, whenever one of them woke ahead of
the other friends, they would wake each other up for breakfast. This justifies that indeed support
is a great theme of friendship.