Kevin Meethan, Alison Anderson Qualitative Research Methods Interviews

Along with questionnaires, interviews are the most common form of data collection Interviews are usually grouped on a continuum as follows:  Structured  Semi – Structured  Unstructured Interviews

Structured interviews are those where the questions tend to be closed questions requiring yes/no answers, use likert scales or other forms of ranking. When undertaking this sort of interview you closely follow the ‘script’ of the interview questions Structured interviews are more like questionnaires that are being filled out in face – to – face situations, there is not much concern with explanations of peoples responses Structured

Semi – structured interviews are those that incorporate both closed and open questions, and are more concerned with explanation of motives, actions and thoughts The interviewer may also look for further information, for example asking “Why do you think that?” or “what happened next” or “what exactly do you mean?” If something unanticipated comes up then that can also be asked about Semi-structured

An unstructured interview is one where the interviewer has a theme they wish to talk about, or a topic guide that lists a number of themes In both semi – structured and unstructured interviews the order in which you ask the questions is not so important Sometimes the interviewee may answer a question before it is asked Unstructured

Sometimes the interviewee may go off on a tangent, and reveal something new, but sometimes they may go off on a tangent and not reveal anything worth having. The less structured an interview is, the more like a conversation it becomes. However, it is not the same as a conversation as the interviewer needs to keep it focussed on the research questions. Interviewing

The interviewer also has to play the role of being a good listener. How you formulate and ask the questions is very important Avoid leading questions or ‘trick’ questions, such as these for example If the interviewer was to say “When did you stop taking drugs?” they are of course implying that interviewee once did. Interviewing

If the interviewer was to say “I don’t like the current policy on child care provision, what do you think?” they are revealing their own values and opinions on the subject. Research interviews are not the same as journalists interviews and must never be confrontational. Avoid normative questions, that is those which require the interviewee to give a socially acceptable answer Interviewing

Avoid over long or complicated questions, specialist language and jargon that the interviewee will not understand but bear in mind that in some instances you may have to learn specialist words and jargon from your interviewees Give your questions a ‘test run’, ask yourself ‘how would I feel if I was asked that question?’ It is important to establish and keep rapport during the interview Interviewing

It is best to record the interview with a digital voice recorder Taking verbatim notes is very difficult unless you can write in shorthand It takes a long time to transcribe interviews, the usual estimate is that it takes 3 hours to transcribe 1 hour of recording It can be a tiring process for both parties so you can only do a few a day Interviewing

Interviewing is a good way to explore people’s attitudes and values towards certain topics and situations and gain a fuller understanding of their motivations and actions However they are time consuming and labour intensive and for those reasons are only done with small samples. What you lose in breadth you make up for in depth Summary

Kiely, R, McCrone, D, Bechhofer, F and Stewart, R. (2000) 'Debatable Land: National and Local Identity in a Border Town' In Sociological Research Online, vol. 5, no. 2, Hockey, J, Robinson V. and Meah, A. (2002) ''For Better or Worse?': Heterosexuality Reinvented' In Sociological Research Online, vol. 7, no. 2, References

This resource was created by the University of Plymouth, Learning from WOeRk project. This project is funded by HEFCE as part of the HEA/JISC OER release programme.Learning from WOeRk This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales license ( The resource, where specified below, contains other 3 rd party materials under their own licenses. The licenses and attributions are outlined below: 1.The name of the University of Plymouth and its logos are unregistered trade marks of the University. The University reserves all rights to these items beyond their inclusion in these CC resources. 2.The JISC logo, the and the logo of the Higher Education Academy are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -non-commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK England & Wales license. All reproductions must comply with the terms of that license. Back page originally developed by the OER phase 1 C-Change project ©University of Plymouth, 2010, some rights reserved Author Kevin Meethan and Alison Anderson InstituteUniversity of Plymouth Title Interviews Date Created 23 February 2011 Educational Level Level 5 Keywords UKOER, LFWOER, UOPCPDRM, Learning from WOeRK, Kevin Meethan, WBL Work Base Learning, CPD, Continuous Professional Development, Qualitative Research, Interviews