INTERVIEWS

1. INTERVIEWS © LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE MANION & KEITH MORRISON

2. STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTER • 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 in-depth interviews • Telephone interviewing • Ethical issues in interviewing

3. CONCEPTIONS OF THE INTERVIEW • For information transfer • A biased transaction • An encounter like any other aspect of everyday life

4. 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 door-step interviews

5. TYPES OF INTERVIEW Exploratory Informal conversational Interview guide approaches; Standardized open-ended Closed quantitative Non-directive Focused • Standardized • In-depth • Ethnographic • Elite • Life history • Focus groups • Semi-structured • Group • Structured • Unstructured

6. INTERVIEWS • Vary by degree of structure • Quantitative to qualitative • Closed to open • Nomothetic to idiographic • Formal to informal • Generalizations to uniqueness

7. PLANNING INTERVIEW-BASED RESEARCH PROCEDURES(Kvale, 1996) • Thematizing • Designing • Interviewing • Transcribing • Analyzing • Verifying • Reporting

8. TYPES OF INTERVIEW QUESTION • Dichotomous • Multiple choice • Rating scales • Open-ended • Ranking • Ratio data

9. TYPES OF INTERVIEW QUESTION Sensory Background Demographic Introductory Follow-up Probe To give examples; Ask for information; Interpretive Interview control questions • Factual • Values/opinions • General • Specific • Descriptive • Experience • Behaviour • Knowledge • Construct-forming • Contrast • Feeling

10. RESPONSE MODES • Unstructured • ‘Fill-in’ (answer a direct question) • Tabular response (completing a table) • Scale (e.g. rating scale) • Ranking • Multiple choice • Dichotomous

11. 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’

12. 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.

13. 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

14. RESPONDING TO THE INTERVIEWEE • 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.

15. 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;

16. 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;

17. 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.

18. TRANSCRIBING AND NOTING • 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

19. 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.

20. 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?

21. GROUP INTERVIEWING • 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.

22. 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

23. DIFFICULTIES IN INTERVIEWING CHILDREN • 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.

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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).

28. 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.

29. 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 sub-groups of a population. • Gathering qualitative data. • Generating data quickly and cheaply. • Gathering data on attitudes, values and opinions.

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. 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.

37. 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.

38. 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)).

39. Face-to face Remotely Individual Telephone Administering interviews Group E-mail Alone or in the presence of others Online Smartphone ADMINISTERING INTERVIEWS

40. 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