Evaluating Semi-Structured, Focus Groups, and Narrative Interviews

1. Objective 2.1 Evaluate semi-structured, focus groups and narrative interviews.

2. Evaluate: make an appraisal by weighing up the strengths and limitations.Any evaluation will require that you first define/explain the type of interview .It is also important to provide examples of why these are strengths and limitations to show the reader a high level of knowledge and understanding.

3. The types of interviews used in Qualitative research. • Semi-structured • Focus group • Narrative interview

4. The Semi-structured interview • This technique is used to collect qualitative data by setting up a situation (the interview) that allows a respondent the time and scope to talk about their opinions on a particularsubject. • The focus of the interview is decided by the researcheror research committee and there may be areas the researcher is interested in exploring.

5. The Semi-structured interview • The objective is to understand the respondent's point of view rather than make generalizations about behavior. • It uses open-ended questions, some suggested by the researcher (“Tell me about…”) and some arise naturally during the interview (“You said a moment ago…can you tell me more?”).

6. The Semi-structured interview • The researcher tries to build a rapport with the respondent and the interview is like a conversation. • Questions are asked when the interviewer feels it is appropriate to ask them. • They may be prepared questions or questions that occur to the researcher during the interview. The wording of questions will not necessarily be the same for all respondents. This adds to the subjectivity and uniqueness of the interview.

7. A brief comparison: Structured interviews • A structured interview (also known as a standardized interview or a researcher-administered survey) is a quantitative research method commonly employed in survey research. • The aim of this approach is to ensure that each interview is presented with exactly the same questions in the same order. • This ensures that answers can be reliably aggregated and that comparisons can be made with confidence between sample subgroups or between different survey periods.

8. A brief comparison: Structured interviews • Structured interviews are a means of collecting data for a statistical survey. • In this case, the data is collected by an interviewer rather than through a self-administered questionnaire. • Interviewers read the questions exactly as they appear on the survey questionnaire. The choice of answers to the questions is often fixed (close-ended) in advance, though open-ended questions can also be included within a structured interview.

9. The Semi-structured interview • An interview guide is also used, but additional questions can be asked. Corbetta (2003) explains semi-structured interviews as follows: • The order in which the various topics are dealt with and the wording of the questions are left to the interviewer’s discretion. • Within each topic, the interviewer is free to conduct the conversation as he thinks fit, to ask the questions he deems appropriate in the words he considers best, to give explanation and ask for clarification if the answer is not clear, to prompt the respondent to elucidate further if necessary, and to establish his own style of conversation.

10. Strengths of Semi-Structured interviews • Positive rapport between interviewer and interviewee. Very simple, efficient and practical way of getting data about things that can’t be easily observed (i.e. feelings and emotions). Why is it important to have a positive rapport with your interviewee? • High Validity. People are able to talk about something in detail and depth. The meanings behind an action may be revealed as the interviewee is able to speak for themselves with little direction from interviewer. What is an example of this?

11. Strengths of Semi-Structured interviews • Complex questions and issues can be discussed/clarified. The interviewer can probe areas suggested by the respondent's answers, picking-up information that had either not occurred to the interviewer or of which the interviewer had no prior knowledge. (i.e. “in your last response, you spoke about parental pressure that may cause high levels of stress in I.B. seniors, can you expound on that?”) • Hence, with this type of interview the interviewers are able to askmore detailed questions of respondents’ situations and not adhere only to the interview guide. In addition, the researcher can explain or rephrase the questions if respondents are unclear about the questions.

12. Limitations of Semi-structured interviews • Semi-structured interviews are very subjectively dependent on the interviewers personal skill and experience. (the ability to think of questions during the interview, for example). How is this a limitation?

13. Limitations of Semi-structured interviews • The inexperienced interviewer may not be able to ask prompt questions. • If this is the case, some relevant data may not be gathered. • In addition, inexperienced interviewers may not probe into a situation. For example, if the respondents offers an answer that may lead to new ideas about a phenomena , the interviewer needs to probe and find out the reasons and ask for explanations.

14. Limitations of Semi-structured interviews • Interviewer may give out subconscious signals / cuesthat guide respondent to give answers expected by interviewer. How is this a limitation?What are examples of this?

15. Limitations of Semi-structured interviews • Interviews are not very reliable - difficult to exactly repeat a semi-structured interview. Respondents may be asked different questions (non-standardized). Samples tend to be small. • Personal nature of interview may make findings difficult to generalize (respondents may effectively be answering different questions).

16. Limitations of Semi-structured interviews • The Hawthorne Effect: how can this effect interviews?

17. The Focus Group • Focus groups are a qualitative data collection method effective in helping researchers learn the social norms of a community or subgroup, as well as the range of perspectives that exist within that community or subgroup. • Focus groups are often used to determine what service or product a particular population wants or would like to have, such as in marketing studies. • They are also used to better understand the uniqueness of specific subgroups.

18. The Focus Group Because focus groups seek to illuminate group opinion, the method is especially well suited for socio-behavioral research that will be used to develop and measure services that meet the needs of a specific population.

19. The Focus Group • They are “focused” in two ways. • First, the persons being interviewed are similar in some way (e.g., limited resource family members as a group, family service providers as a group, local officials as a group). • Second, the purpose of the interview is to gather information about a particular topic guided by a set of focused questions. • Participants hear and interact with each other and the leader, which yields different information than if people were interviewed individually.How can this be beneficial?

20. The Focus Group • The purpose of focus groups is to develop a broad and deep understanding rather than a quantitative summary. • Focus groups are a highly effective method for “listening”to participants. This method truly adds the human aspect to research. • Focus groups might be used to develop ideas that can be tested through interviews, surveys, or other research techniques. Important note: Focus groups by themselves are usually never used as a stand alone research method. It is usually used in conjunction with other methods (triangulation).

21. Strengths of The Focus Group 1. The Ability Of Group Participants To Interact With Each Other • When participate are stimulated to discuss, the group dynamics can generate new thinking about a topic which will result in a much more in-depth discussion. When would this be beneficial?

22. Strengths of The Focus Group 2. Release of inhibition by participants. A well moderated group encourages full and open expression of perceptions, experiences, attitudes, etc. 3. Flexibility. A focus group is typically more flexible than an individual interview (Wells, 1974). The moderator "works from a list of topics—listening, thinking, probing, exploring, framing hunches and ideas" (p. 134).

23. Strengths of The Focus Group 4. Handling contingencies. A focus group is amenable to exploring linkages which go untouched in a statistical survey (Wells, 1974, p. 134). In other words, it is possible to explore avenues of importance which may arise other than those listed on a questionnaire.

24. Strengths of The Focus Group 4. Handling contingencies. A focus group is amenable to exploring linkages which go untouched in a statistical survey (Wells, 1974, p. 134). In other words, it is possible to explore avenues of importance which may arise other than those listed on a questionnaire.

25. Strengths of The Focus Group • 5. Time. Eliciting responses from eight to twelve respondents in a focus group lasting one to two hours is more "time effective" than interviewing the same number individually. • 6. Provision of basic exploratory information. When little is known in advance of investigation, the focus group may provide a basis for formulating research questions and hypothesis (Zeller, 1987). Focus groups are great ways to begin a between method triangularly study.

26. Limitations of The Focus Group The focus group method and data do, however, have some disadvantages: • 1. Cost. A series of four focus groups, for example, could easily cost more than $2,500, depending on moderator fee, facility rental, recording and transcribing, data analysis and interpretation, and participant incentives. • 2. Subjects' conformity. Social desirability, or respondents' motivation to provide socially acceptable responses to conform to group norms is somewhat greater in a group than in the anonymous process of survey questionnaire completion (Crowne & Marlow, 1964).

27. Limitations of The Focus Group The focus group method and data do, however, have some disadvantages: • 3. Biased results. An analyst should not generalize from focus group results to the larger population from which the respondents were a sample, and it is well to remember that the respondents are volunteers who may be more extroverted, outgoing, and sociable than the "average“ individual. • In other words, those who “agree” to be apart of the focus group may be a misrepresentation of the larger population. How so?

28. Limitations of The Focus Group The focus group method and data do, however, have some disadvantages: • 3. Biased results. An analyst should not generalize from focus group results to the larger population from which the respondents were a sample, and it is well to remember that the respondents are volunteers who may be more extroverted, outgoing, and sociable than the "average“ individual. • In other words, those who “agree” to be apart of the focus group may be a misrepresentation of the larger population. How so?

29. Limitations of The Focus Group The focus group method and data do, however, have some disadvantages: • 1. Cost. A series of four focus groups, for example, could easily cost more than $2,500, depending on moderator fee, facility rental, recording and transcribing, data analysis and interpretation, and participant incentives. • 2. Subjects' conformity. Social desirability, or respondents' motivation to provide socially acceptable responses to conform to group norms is somewhat greater in a group than in the anonymous process of survey questionnaire completion (Crowne & Marlow, 1964).

30. The Narrative Interview (NI) • The Narrative Interview envisions a setting which encourages and stimulates interviewees to tell a story about some significant event in the informants' life. • Its basic idea is to reconstruct social events from the perspective of informants as direct as possible. In the NI the interviewee is called the `informant'.

31. The Narrative Interview (NI) • Conceptually the idea of narrative interviewing is motivated by a critique of the question-response-schema of most interviews. • In the question-response mode the interviewer is imposing structures in a threefold sense: (a) by selecting the theme and the topics, (b) by ordering the questions and (c) by wording the questions in his or her language. • Such data is said to reveal more about the interviewer's own relevance structures than about the issues under investigating. One could say: who asks the questions controls the situation.

32. The Narrative Interview (NI) • Conceptually the idea of narrative interviewing is motivated by a critique of the question-response-schema of most interviews. • In the question-response mode the interviewer is imposing structures in a threefold sense: (a) by selecting the theme and the topics, (b) by ordering the questions and (c) by wording the questions in his or her language. • Such data is said to reveal more about the interviewer's own relevance structures than about the issues under investigating. One could say: who asks the questions controls the situation.

33. The Narrative Interview (NI) • To elicit a less imposed and therefore more credibleaccount of the informant's perspective the influence of the interviewer should be minimal, and the setting should be arranged to achieve this minimizing of interviewer influence. • The NI goes further than any other qualitative method in avoiding restructuring in the interview; it is the most consequent attempt to go beyond the questions-response-type interview.

34. The Narrative Interview (NI) • The NI uses a specific type of everyday communicative interaction, namely story telling and listening, to reach this objective. The rules of engagement restrict the interviewer to avoid restructuring of events/problems as far as possible. • To avoid restructuring, the question-response-schema is in favor of the narration schema. It is postulated that the perspective of the interviewee is best revealed in stories where the informant is using his or her own spontaneous language in the narration of events.

35. The Narrative Interview (NI) • However, it would be naive to claim, that the narration is without structure. A narrative is formally structured; narration follows a self-generating schema.

36. Strengths of Narrative Interview (NI) • The primary advantage of in-depth interviews is that they provide much more detailed informationthan what is available through other data collection methods, such as surveys. Sticking with the aim of qualitative research, this research methods gives the researcher an in-depth view of a personal account of a phenomenon.

37. Strengths of Narrative Interview (NI) • Perhaps for this reason, the narrative interview comes into its own when considering a quality improvement initiative from the perspective of subgroups (such as the socially excluded, the seriously ill, and cultural bound syndromes).

38. Strengths of Narrative Interview (NI) • Narrative interviews are great at explaining complexity of individual experience because it shows how humans construct meaning in their lives. This also helps the researcher to understand how humans interpret situations in their lives.

39. Limitations of Narrative Interview (NI) • The credibility of the interview is solely based on the narrative account of the informant. How can this be a limitation? • Biased results. An analyst should not generalize from the personal account of one informant to the larger population from which the respondents were a sample, and again, it is well to remember that the respondents are volunteers who may be more extroverted, outgoing, and sociable than the "average“ individual from your population.

40. Limitations of Narrative Interview (NI) • Can be time-intensive: Narrative Interviews can be a time-intensive evaluation activity because of the time it takes to conduct the interviews, transcribe them, and analyze the results. • Often time, 3-5 Narratives are used to develop a understanding of the specific phenomenon. This process, from start to finish, can be very time consuming.

41. Limitations of Narrative Interview (NI) • The way the interviewer initiates the interview codetermines the quality of the narration. • This puts too much focus on the beginning of the interview. The narration is likely to be an outcome of the way the interviewer comport him or herself. • The initiation phase is difficult to standardize and relies totally on the social skills of the interviewer. This sensitivity of the method to the beginning may be a cause of stress for the interviewer and might make it difficult to apply the NI in a research project with several interviewers (Hopf, 1978).

42. Questions/comments?

43. Objective 2.2 Discuss considerations involved before, during and after an interview

44. Interviews Kvale (1996) defines the research interview as “…an interview whose purpose is to obtain descriptions of the life world of the interviewee with respect to interpreting the meaning of the described phenomena.”

45. Things to consider…. The interview process, start to finish, is a very specific time consuming process. This must be discussed in detail for this objective.

46. Considerations Design and Development of Interview Studies for Evaluation • While much of the value of qualitative interviewing lies in its flexibility and openness, it remains extremely important for the evaluation planning team to think through the process and provide the basic structure and framework which will make the study useful and worthwhile. Kvale (1996) describes in detail seven stages in designing and implementing an interview study, which we will summarize.

47. Considerations Design and Development of Interview Studies for Evaluation (Tom Danced Inside The Audience Very Ridiculously ) 1. Thematizing 2. Designing 3. Interviewing 4. Transcribing 5. Analyzing 6. Verifying 7. Reporting

48. Thematizing • Before even thinking about particular methods or interview formats, the evaluation team needs to be clear on the purpose of the study and the topic to be investigated. • The questions of "why" and "what" need to be answered before the question of "how" can be answered. This is as important in a qualitative evaluation study as in a quantitative one. Why is this particularly important in qualitative research (this should be discussed in your response).

49. Designing • The overall design for the study, including the later stages of analyzing and reporting, should be planned before the interviewing begins. For example, if there are no funds for transcribing or analyzing interviews, it may be wise to use a more structured format that will be easier to code later.Why is this important to do this before you begin the interview? (Discuss this in your response)

50. Interviewing • With Interviewing, the interviewer is the instrument in this type of evaluation (Guba & Lincoln, 1981, as cited in Patton, 1987). • The "instrument" can be affected by factors like fatigue, personality, and knowledge, as well as levels of skill, training, and experience. What are examples of these factors effecting the interview? (Discuss this in your response)