INTERVIEWS
© LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE
MANION & KEITH MORRISON
STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER
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Conceptions of the interview
Purposes of the interview
Types of interview
Planning interview-based research procedures
Group interviewing
Interviewing children
Interviewing minority and marginalized people
Focus groups
Non-directive, focused, problem-centred and indepth interviews
• Telephone interviewing
• Ethical issues in interviewing
CONCEPTIONS OF THE INTERVIEW
• For information transfer
• A biased transaction
• An encounter like any other aspect of
everyday life
PURPOSES OF THE INTERVIEW
• To evaluate or assess a person in some
respect
• To select or promote an employee
• To effect therapeutic change, e.g. the
psychiatric interview
• To test or develop hypotheses
• To gather data
• To sample respondents’ opinions, as in doorstep interviews
TYPES OF INTERVIEW
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Standardized
In-depth
Ethnographic
Elite
Life history
Focus groups
Semi-structured
Group
Structured
Unstructured
• Exploratory
• Informal
conversational
• Interview guide
approaches;
• Standardized openended
• Closed quantitative
• Non-directive
• Focused
INTERVIEWS
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Vary by degree of structure
Quantitative to qualitative
Closed to open
Nomothetic to idiographic
Formal to informal
Generalizations to uniqueness
PLANNING INTERVIEW-BASED
RESEARCH PROCEDURES
(Kvale, 1996)
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Thematizing
Designing
Interviewing
Transcribing
Analyzing
Verifying
Reporting
TYPES OF INTERVIEW QUESTION
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Dichotomous
Multiple choice
Rating scales
Open-ended
Ranking
Ratio data
TYPES OF INTERVIEW QUESTION
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Factual
Values/opinions
General
Specific
Descriptive
Experience
Behaviour
Knowledge
Construct-forming
Contrast
Feeling
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Sensory
Background
Demographic
Introductory
Follow-up
Probe
To give examples;
Ask for information;
Interpretive
Interview control
questions
RESPONSE MODES
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Unstructured
‘Fill-in’ (answer a direct question)
Tabular response (completing a table)
Scale (e.g. rating scale)
Ranking
Multiple choice
Dichotomous
PROMPTS AND PROBES
• Prompts: to clarify or explain to a respondent
• Probes: to investigate further (‘why’, ‘when’,
‘how’, ‘give an example’, ‘how did you feel’, ‘what’
KEY FEATURES OF INTERVIEWING
• An interview is a social and an emotional
encounter, not just a data collection exercise.
• Data are given – gifts – not the right of
researcher to have.
• Verbal and non-verbal behaviours are
significant.
• Context and dynamics exert an influence on
the interview.
• Age, gender, colour, class, dress, language,
appearance of the interviewers and
interviewees influence the interview.
KEY FEATURES OF INTERVIEWING
• Interviews must be conducted sensitively
• Some people (e.g. children) will say anything
rather than nothing
• Respondents may not be telling the truth
• It is the task of the interviewer to maintain
rapport
• It is the task of the interviewer to maintain
interviewee motivation and interest
RESPONDING TO THE INTERVIEWEE
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Make encouraging noises.
Reflect on remarks made by the informant.
Probe the last remark made by the informant.
Probe an idea preceding the last remark by
the informant.
• Probe an idea expressed earlier in the
interview.
• Introduce a new topic.
ANTICIPATING PROBLEMS IN
INTERVIEWS
• Avoid interruptions and distractions;
• Minimize ‘stage fright’ in participants;
• Avoid asking embarrassing or awkward questions
unless they are important for the research;
• Avoid jumping from one topic to another;
• Avoid giving advice or opinions;
• Avoid summarizing too early or closing off an
interview too soon;
• Avoid being too superficial;
• Handle sensitive matters sensitively;
ANTICIPATING PROBLEMS IN
INTERVIEWS
• Keep being interested;
• Keep to the interview schedule in a structured
interview;
• Avoid giving signs of approval or disapproval of
responses received;
• Be prepared to repeat questions at the
respondent’s request;
• Be prepared to move on to another question if the
respondent indicates unwillingness or inability to
answer the question;
ANTICIPATING PROBLEMS IN
INTERVIEWS
• Ensure that the interviewer and interviewee
understand responses, checking if necessary;
• If the interviewer feels that the respondent may
have more to say, add ‘and could you please tell
me . . . .’;
• Give the respondent time to answer;
• Consider having a scribe to enable the interviewer
to keep eye contact and momentum;
• Respondents may become tired, embarrassed or
uninterested.
TRANSCRIBING AND NOTING
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What was said
The tone of voice of the speaker(s)
The inflection of the voice
Emphases placed by the speaker
Pauses (short to long), hesitancies and silences
Interruptions
The mood of the speaker(s)
The speed of the talk
How many people were speaking simultaneously
ANALYZING INTERVIEW DATA
• Generate natural units of meaning.
• Classify, categorize, code and order these units of
meaning.
• Structure narratives to describe the interview
contents.
• Interpret the interview data.
GROUP INTERVIEWING
• How to divide your attention and give everyone a
chance to speak ?
• Do you ask everyone in a group interview to give a
response to a question?
• How to handle people who are too quiet, too noisy, who
monopolize the conversation, who argue and disagree
with each other.
• What happens if people become angry with you or with
each other?
• How to make people be quiet/stop talking whilst being
polite?
• How to handle differences in how talkative people are?
GROUP INTERVIEWING
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How to arrange turn-taking (if appropriate)?
Do you ask named individuals questions?
How can you gain answers without forcing?
How to handle a range of very different responses to the
same question?
Why have you brought together the particular people in
the group?
Do you want people to answer in a particular order?
What to do if the more experienced people always
answer first in a group interview?
Be vigilant to pick up on people who are trying to speak.
INTERVIEWING CHILDREN
• The importance of trust and a feeling of security
and being comfortable
• Group interviewing may help to ease the situation
• Use natural/familiar surroundings
• Use open-ended questions
• Use projection techniques
DIFFICULTIES IN INTERVIEWING
CHILDREN
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Easily distracted.
Researcher seen as an authority figure.
Children are not always clear in their responses
Limited attention span.
Children may say what they think the researcher
wants to hear rather than what they really think/feel.
• Interview seen as a test.
• Children may be unwilling to contradict an adult or
assert themselves.
• Children may be inarticulate, hesitant and nervous.
DIFFICULTIES IN INTERVIEWING
CHILDREN
• Keep the children’s teacher away from the
children.
• How to respond to the child who says something
then immediately wishes she hadn’t said it.
• Eliciting genuine responses.
• Getting beyond the institutional, headteacher’s, or
‘expected’ response.
• Avoiding receiving a socially desirable response.
• Ensure that the child is giving a true opinion.
• Keep children to the point.
DIFFICULTIES IN INTERVIEWING
CHILDREN
• Avoid children being too extreme or destructive of each
other’s views.
• Appropriate language level.
• Children may take a question too literally.
• Enable the children to see a situation through other
people’s eyes.
• Avoid the interview being boring.
• Children may not remember/recall information.
• Children may be too focused on a particular situation.
• Children may say ‘yes’ to anything.
DIFFICULTIES IN INTERVIEWING
CHILDREN
• Children may say anything in order to please.
• Children may say that they ‘don’t know’ when they
actually do know.
• Children may say anything rather than feel they
do not have ‘the answer’.
• Some children may dominate the conversation.
• Children may feel very exposed in front of their
peers.
• Children may feeling uncomfortable or threatened.
• Children may tell lies.
INTERVIEWING MINORITY AND
MARGINALIZED PEOPLE
• Use informal, open-ended interviews.
• Follow the train of thought and response of the
respondent.
• Use age-appropriate and context-appropriate language.
• Use qualitative and in-depth interviewing.
• Give participants a ‘voice’.
• Be non-judgemental.
• Enable the participant to feel safe, secure and supported.
• Be aware of asymmetries of power.
• Use non-language based techniques.
• Secure informed consent (e.g. from responsible adults).
FOCUS GROUPS
• Focus groups are contrived settings, bringing
together a specifically chosen sector of the
population, previously unknown to each other to
discuss a particular given theme or topic.
• The interaction with the group leads to data and
outcomes.
• They are unnatural settings focused on a
particular issue.
FOCUS GROUPS ARE USEFUL
FOR . . .
• Orientation to a particular field of focus.
• Developing themes, topics, and schedules for
subsequent research.
• Generating hypotheses.
• Generating and evaluating data from subgroups of a population.
• Gathering qualitative data.
• Generating data quickly and cheaply.
• Gathering data on attitudes, values and
opinions.
FOCUS GROUPS ARE USEFUL
FOR . . .
• Empowering participants to speak out.
• Encouraging groups, rather than individuals, to
voice opinions.
• Encouraging non-literate participants.
• Providing greater coverage of issues than would
be possible in a survey.
• Gathering feedback from previous studies.
RUNNING A FOCUS GROUP
• Decide the number of focus groups for a single
topic.
• Decide the size of the group.
• How to allow for people not ‘turning up’ on the
day.
• Sampling.
• Ensuring that participants have something to say
and feel comfortable enough to say it.
• Keeping the meeting open-ended but to the point.
NON-DIRECTIVE INTERVIEWS
• The respondent is responsible for initiating
and directing the course of the encounter.
• Useful for probing deeper attitudes and
perceptions of the person being interviewed.
• Reduces interviewer bias.
• Can lead to changes in respondent’s
behaviour.
THE FOCUSED INTERVIEW
• The persons interviewed are known to have been
involved in a particular situation.
• Content analysis of prior data sets agenda for
interview.
• The investigator constructs the interview guide.
• The actual interview is focused on the subjective
experiences of the people who have been exposed
to the situation.
• Responses enable the researcher to test the validity
of hypotheses, and to ascertain unanticipated
responses to the situation.
THE PROBLEM-CENTRED INTERVIEW
• A ‘problem-centred orientation’ toward socially
relevant problems.
• Methodological flexibility.
• A ‘process orientation’ to reconstruct the actions
and orientations of the participant.
TELEPHONE INTERVIEWING
• Cheaper and quicker than face-to-face interviewing.
• Enables researchers to reach a widely dispersed
population.
• Travel costs are omitted.
• Useful for brief surveys.
• Protects the anonymity of respondents.
• Can gather rapid responses to a structured questionnaire.
• Monitoring and quality control are undertaken more easily
since interviews are undertaken and administered
centrally.
• Interviewer effects are reduced.
• Greater interviewer control of the interview.
TELEPHONE INTERVIEWING
• Greater uniformity in the conduct of the interview and
the standardization of questions.
• Results tend to be quantitative.
• Quicker to administer than face-to-face interviews.
• Call-back costs are so slight.
• People can be reached at times more convenient to
them than if a visit were to be made.
• Safer to undertake than visiting dangerous places.
• Can collect sensitive data.
• Does not rely on the literacy of the respondent.
• May put pressure on the respondent to respond.
• Response rate is higher than, e.g. questionnaires.
TELEPHONE INTERVIEWING
• Will the people have the information that you require?
Who will you need to speak to on the telephone?
• There is a need to pilot the interview schedule and to
prepare and train the telephonists.
• Keep to the same, simple response categories for
several questions.
• Keep personal details until the end of the interview.
• Keep to no more than, at the most, 35 questions, and to
no more than, at the most fifteen minutes.
TELEPHONE INTERVIEWING
• Clear with the respondents at the start of the interview
that they have the time to answer and that they are
suitable respondents.
• Ask to speak to the most suitable person.
• Keep the terminology simple and to the point.
• Keep the response categories very simple and use
them consistently.
• Rather than asking direct personal questions, ask about
groups (e.g. which age group do they fall into (and give
the age groups) or income brackets (and give them)).
ADMINISTERING INTERVIEWS
Face-to face
Remotely
Individual
Group
Alone or in the
presence of
others
Telephone
Administering
interviews
E-mail
Online
Smartphone
ETHICAL ISSUES IN INTERVIEWING
• Informed consent
• Confidentiality, anonymity, non-identifiability
and non-traceability
• Consequences of the interviews
• Benefits from the interview (and for whom)
• Prevention of harm
• Access to data
• Respondent validation
• Respectful conduct of the interview