Interview Skills

1. Interview Skills DanalynnRecer Gulf Region Advocacy Center

2. Seven assumptions about interviews • Every interview is strategic and contingent • Every interview is conducted in light of team strategies and goals • Interviewing is cyclical in nature and requires returning to the witness as new information is discovered • Cultural competency is essential • Interviewers know they must identify, understand, and overcome barriers to disclosure • Trust must be established • Background investigation is conducted prior to the interview

3. Investigation Protocols • Initial visits without an agenda • Do take notes to show respect • Don’t take notes if it has chilling effect • NO CHECK LISTS OR FORMS • ALWAYS GET RELEASES • ALWAYS GET ARTIFACTS

4. Protocols – Visits, cont’d • Teach witness confidentiality by object lesson • Don’t let witnesses do your job • Don’t make promises you can’t keep • Invoke the rule • Disclosures only for strategic reasons with team planning

5. Witness Relationships • Preparation • Visits • Client comes first • Promises, money, gifts, food, legal advice • Building a relationship with the witness is very important, even if they are a minor witness.

6. Conducting the interview: Basic techniques to keep in mind • Start off in a private setting • Ask open ended questions. • How did you feel about ________? • What did you think about _________? • Show empathy • Keep confidences • Mirror and loop language – active listening • Get anecdotes (tell me about a time when . . .) • Minimize intrusiveness of note-taking • Clear up any confusion, misunderstandings before the end of the interview. • Be comfortable with yourself, your surroundings, and the subject matter. • Always accept offers of something to drink or eat • Take note of any questions they have that you are unable to answer, so you can look into them and get back to them. • Leave your contact information

7. Conducting the interview: Techniques to avoid • Do not interview cold. This could be your only chance to speak with this witness so make it count and be prepared! • Don’t be rigid. You are prepared but flexible. • Do not jump around from subject to subject. Stay clear. You are a tour guide, and you will need to keep the flow simple and easy to follow. • Do not interrupt pregnant pauses. If you let an uncomfortable silence last, eventually the interviewee will fill the silence with exactly what is on their mind. • Do not adopt a particular perspective. Even if they ask you specifically what you think happened or whether a particular person is to blame about a situation, stay noncommittal.

8. Conducting the interview: Techniques to avoid continued • Do not interrupt. Do not be abrupt. Do not break the flow of what they are saying. Hold your questions until the person is finished talking. • Do not be alarmed / disgusted / surprised by the things they say. Pay close attention to your own reactions. • Do not reveal client confidences or sources of information • Do not ask closed questions • Do not pass information on to family or others • Do not use judgmental language like the word “abuse” • Do not settle for misperceptions (loner, spoiled, mean) • Do not link releases to etiology of social history • Do not use any recording devices

9. Obstacles to Development and Presentation of Trauma • Client/Family lack of disclosure • Time and Money to build relationships • Client’s self-hatred/self-destruction • Conditions of Confinement • Parameters of Investigation • Our own inflated sense of importance • The causality or “nexus” trap

10. Interviews about Abuse In order to conduct objective, reliable, and client-sensitive interviews, professionals need an awareness and understanding of child development, the history and dynamics of trauma, and a working knowledge of the continuing evolution of the evaluation process.

11. Strategies of Coercive Control • Corruption • Physical and social isolation • Forced false confession/interrogation • Forced acceptance of responsibility for violence • Sleep interruption/deprivation • Control over basic bodily processes

12. Strategies of Coercive Control • Denunciation of treasured ideal • Public humiliation and/or verbal degradation • Occasional indulgences • Physical and/or sexual abuse • Destruction of pets and/or property • Threats to kill or maim

13. Day in the Life Interviewing • Establish eras of witness’ life (combination of people and places) • For each era, go through one day • Collect details, minute-by-minute, event by event of witness’ day • Ask where other other household members were at each juncture • Allow tangents and feelings to unfold naturally

14. Culturally Competent Interviewing Lessons from Ethnographic Interviewing

15. Understanding a life in a context unfamiliar to us Active Listening is necessary to understand the narrative of a family’s life Respect for cultural knowledge of families requires us to learn from clients and their families Approach is respectful and collaborative

16. Goal of Interviews • Learn, understand, and appreciate experiences and worldviews of people who are different from us. • Create a space where voices of the witnesses can emerge

17. Roles Reversed • You are not the expert, but a learner • Assume a position of informed not-knowing • The witness becomes a cultural guide

18. Methodology • Build on witness’s strengths • Do not blame them or pathologize their experiences • Do not generalize • Be slow to access

19. Methodology (cont) • Set tone with friendly conversation • State the purpose and goal of the interview • Express your lack of knowledge about the culture

20. Questions • Prepare a few questions before interview • Ask questions about the witness’s perception of problems, group role norms, rituals, help seeking and problem resolution • Ask open ended questions

21. Open Ended Questions • Physical setting of the cultural scene (describe the farm to me) • Sequence of activities for social relationships • Who are people in relationship to each other • Ask for an example of single act or event • Ask about experiences in a specific setting

22. Language Questions • Hypothetical: Ask witness to speak as if talking to a member of the cultural group • Typical sentence: Ask witness to use a cover term in a typical way • Cover terms: words that identify an important aspect of life experience