The Focused Interview

The focused interview is designed to determine the responses of persons exposed to a situation previously analyzed by the investigator. Its chief functions are to discover: (1) the significant aspects of the total situation to which response has occurred; (2) discrepancies between anticipated and actual effects; (3) responses of deviant subgroups in the population; and (4) the processes involved in experimentally induced effects. Procedures for satisfying the criteria of specificity, range, and depth in the interview are described.