The definition and function of interview structure in psychiatric and psychotherapeutic interviews

The concept of interview structure has been discussed in the psychodynamic, psychiatric, and psychodiagnostic testing literature as a factor which affects the form and depth of an informant's responses. However, the specific characteristics and clinical implications of structure have not been studied nor measured systematically. We define interview structure as a function of the degree to which the interviewer controls, directs, and shapes the verbal interchange between the two protagonists. This involves regulating the length, focus, and depth of the interviewee's discourse as well as imposing limits and direction through the interviewer's questions and interventions. Based on a review of the literature on interviewing in psychiatric, psychological, and other social sciences, we propose seven quantitative measures that operationalize aspects of the concept of interview structure. Measures 1 through 5 relate to quantity of speech and yield percentages and averages allowing one to compare speech production between subject and interviewer. Measure 6 reflects the way the interviewer shapes his interventions that are formulated as declarative demands or questions, as open, semi-open, or closed-ended. Measure 7 is the percentage of non-lexical or brief utterances from the interviewer that serve as mild reinforcing acknowledgements, such as "mm-hmm" or "I see." In a companion article, we examine how these measures converge with another construct of structure and discriminate five different types of psychiatric and psychotherapeutic interviews in common use.