Introduction to Interviewing INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods 3 March 2008 Introduction to Interviewing

Outline What is Qualitative Interviewing? Underlying theory Interview techniques

Suchman and Jordan’s Critique Aspects of ordinary conversation: Local control Question redesign Answer elaboration Detection and repair of misunderstandings

Qualitative Interviewing “[to gain] a fine-textured understanding of beliefs, attitudes, values and motivations in relation to the behaviours of people in particular social contexts.” [pg. 39 Bauer and Gaskell] “to obtain descriptions of the life world of the interviewee with respect to interpreting the meaning of the described phenomena.” [pg. 5-6 Kvale]

Reasons to Conduct Qualitative Interviews Developing detailed description Integrating multiple perspectives Describing process Learning how events are interpreted Bridging inter-subjectivities Identifying variables and framing hypotheses for quantitative research [Learning from Strangers. Pg. 9-11]

Keeping in Mind... an interview is a negotiation between interviewer and interviewee (who exert reciprocal influence) an Inter-View [Kvale] What is the underlying theory of social reality?

Keeping in Mind... “when we understand knowledge as the social justification of belief rather than as accuracy of representation, conversation replaces confrontation with nature.” “the certainty of our knowledge is a matter of conversation between persons, rather than a matter of interaction with a nonhuman reality.”

Mediation through memory through interviewees self-perception through interviewers perceptions the presence of the interviewers and others “what is said turns out to change according to who is speaking and who is listening” [Alcoff, ‘the problem of speaking for others’] extreme cases: teenagers/pre-teens, politicians

1 Advantage & 1 Disadvantage efficiency: generate a large amount of material on a specific topic in a short amount of time artificiality: distance from event/experience (remember Becker on the accuracy gained from close observation)

Types individual depth interviews narrative interviews: focusing on a specific experience ethnographic interviews: usually situated in interviewees cultural milieu, often spontaneous and informal joint interviews and focus groups: i.e. husband and wife, family, household, co-workers, etc.

Interview Techniques Main goal: get your interviewees to talk openly and at length about a topic you have selected, but in their own words and to relate it to their own experiences. This involves developing and extending your skills of conversation in a particular way

Interview Techniques what can go wrong? suspicion, evasion, stonewalling closed-mouth or extremely talkative or off-topic interviewees speaking in generalities only, attempting to do the analysis for you (‘let me tell you how people use the Internet here’)

Interview Techniques first things first: explain yourself and your expectations establishing rapport topics the interviewee enjoys talking about commiserate, empathize, be human

Interview Techniques avoiding generalities quality concerns ask for concrete examples, personal stories accessible questions with appropriate vocabulary (i.e. don’t use terms like discourse or globalization) quality concerns avoid leading questions: “don’t you think...” “isn’t it true...” clarify and confirm

Interview Techniques encouraging verbosity avoid yes/no questions, ask questions that require descriptive or narrative answers. “tell me about a time when you ...” “can you give me an example of...” “how would you describe...” be quiet and wait ask follow up questions, allow interesting tangents to develop

Interview Techniques discouraging verbosity politely interrupt throw them off guard with abrupt topic changes

Interview Techniques ‘Probes’ – your secret weapon! D: “...it got to a time where we had to come to work on Sundays and I was going bad, this is Internet, I’ve got to be careful of myself. So, and the Lord spoke to me in several ways.” J: “you said that you had to be careful with the Internet, how so, what do you mean by that?”

Interviewing in Other Cultures issues with language attitudes in that particular society/subculture towards authority and the right to speak ideas about and experience with research practices private information (age, weight, income) rapport and suspicion (of identity, of methodology) time and scheduling

Key Ideas to Remember use probes explain yourself and gain permission ask open-ended questions in accessible language follow the interviewees lead, clarify and confirm use probes

Thursday Writing an interview guide Guidelines for interview quality Examples of good and bad interviews