1. II. Qualitative Research Methods Week 12: Interviewing
Social Research Methods
Alice Mah

3. Lecture Outline Introduction Different forms and types of interview
What is an interview and why interview?
Ethics, power and knowledge
Limitations of interviewing
Different forms and types of interview
Interviewing practicalities
Selecting interview respondents
Constructing an interview guide
Interview planning and techniques
Transcription
Analysis of interview material
Conclusion

4. What is an interview? ‘A conversation with a purpose.’ (Burgess, 1988)
‘A verbal exchange of information between two or more people for the principal purpose of one gathering information from the other(s).’ (Pole and Lampard, 2002)
‘The process of interviewing is the production of meanings and it is also the interpretation of reality. A kind of knowledge which is neither predetermined nor absolutely unique is the effect of this interpretative practice.’ (Holstein and Gabrium 1997 )

5. Qualitative interview continuum
Collecting data Intimate encounter
Semi-structured Unstructured

6. Why interview?
To provide insights into how research participants view the world
Interview as flexible research instrument, widely employed in qualitative research
Control over the data collection/ production
Not self-completed by respondent
Follow up areas of interest: gain an understanding of the context of respondents’ answers
More complete/ ‘rich’ data
Clarify and help the respondent understand the meaning of questions
Probe for further information or clarification

7. Ethics, power and knowledge
Interview is a social interaction between researcher and researched
Qualitative researchers strive to 'give voice' to the researched. This raises issues of:
objectivity (taking sides)
epistemology (whose point of view?)
politics (how do you judge empowerment? )
power relations between researcher and researched
Issue of transcription (written language is not speech written down)

8. Limitations of interviewing
Less naturalistic and sensitive to context than participant observation– the interview as an ‘artificial’ setting.
Relies too much on the informant’s account of actions that occurred elsewhere in space and time:
Interviewer may not fully understand the ‘local language’
Omission of details
‘Distorted lenses’
But: the extent of these limitations depends on research aims/questions and specific forms/types of interviewing

9. Different forms of interview
Structure: Structured, semi-structured and unstructured (qualitative research interviews are either semi-structured or unstructured)
Medium: Face-to-face, telephone and online (face-to-face is the most commonly used in qualitative research; telephone and online are cheaper and easier but harder to obtain rapport and ‘rich’ detail)
Context: Individual and group

10. Individual interviews
Structured interviews: used in quantitative survey research with standardized questions; focused on maximizing the reliability and validity of measurement of key concepts; clearly specified set of research questions.
Semi-structured interviews: most common type of qualitative interviews, also known as qualitative ‘depth’ interviews; follow a topic guide but both the interviewer and the respondent have flexibility in shaping the interview and may depart from the topic guide (with additional questions and tangents often encouraged to gain deeper insights).

11. Life story or biographical interviews
Minimally structured, highly personal, may involve many meetings, often combined with personal documents (diaries, photographs, letters).
Covers the totality of a person’s life, often focused around significant turning points in individual’s life.
Oral history interviews: more specific life story interviews where the interviewee is asked to reflect upon specific events or periods in the past; gives voice to marginalized or ordinary lives in history; problems of memory lapses and distortions.

12. Narrative interviews (NI)
Unstructured, in-depth interviews, aim to stimulate informant’s spontaneous narrative of events
Critique of question-response schema of most interviews
1) activate the ‘story schema’ and elicit the narrative from the informant through ‘initiation’: introduction of the initial topic (broad, use of visual aids)
2) keep the narration going with non-verbal encouragement; no interruptions; active listening
3) questioning/probing only after the main narration is finished; no why questions, only clarification
Difficult to maintain the ‘rules’ of NI and to manage expectations of the interviewee (for guidance/knowledge)

13. Ethnographic interviews
Context-informed interviews as extension of participant observation (part of triangulation)
Often semi-structured but have a strong tendency to become unstructured (conversation-like)
Power-relationships: interviewing process as an exchange between a researcher and researched. But how much can an ethnographer reveal his or her personal opinions or circumstances?
Ethical dilemmas: confidentiality, privacy, need to renegotiate access.

14. Focus group interviews
Focus group interviews: group discussion is mediated by researcher
A synergy emerges out of the social interaction
Observation of group dynamics
Two meanings of ‘focus’:
a topic for discussion that all participants focus upon.
The group dynamic and social construction of meaning is the focus of the research.

15. Focus group advantages
Group members can challenge the researcher’s agenda
Generation of diverse views therefore particularly useful where the subject of the research is complex or contentious
Analysis of how meanings are made, negotiated and challenged
Safer experience for those who prefer to discuss issues within a group rather than individually
May lead to unanticipated findings
Allows a large number of interviewees to be accessed

16. Focus group problems
How to document data so that you are sure who has said what [video recording]
Group dynamics may silence or exaggerate particular views [importance of skilled moderator]
Economics of interviewing collectively vs. organizational effort required to ensure all can participate [venue, video recorder, moderator]
Issues of confidentiality
The extraordinary environment of the focus group makes difficult, if possible at all, to reconstruct the everyday social interactions
Difficult to analyse

17. Selecting interview respondents
How many interviews? -- It depends on the nature of the topic and the resources available.
Sampling: non-probability: aim to explore a range of views or positions of one or more social milieus
Techniques: gatekeepers, snowballing
Meaning saturation: limited number of views, interpretations or versions of reality
Upper limit: individual interviews and 6-8 focus group discussions (Gaskell); other scholars would suggest higher numbers (30-40 individual interviews is also commonly cited, depending on analytical approach)

18. Constructing an interview guide
Formulate research problem and research question(s)
Create a certain amount of order on the topic areas but be prepared to alter the order of questions during the actual interview
Formulate research questions or topics in a way that will help you to answer your research questions
Try to use a language that is comprehensible and relevant to the people you are interviewing (don’t use sociological jargon)
Do not ask leading questions
Remember to ensure that you ask ‘facesheet’ information (name, age, gender, occupation, etc.) to help in contextualising people’s responses
(Bryman, 2008, Social Research Methods, p. 442)

19. Interview planning
Where will the interview take place? Private space where someone won’t be overheard by others?
Importance of technology (recording equipment, sound interference, backup)
Remember to take notes (after the interview if it is a recorded interview) on how it went and initial impressions/themes

20. Criteria of a successful interviewer
Knowledgeable: familiar with the focus of the interview
Structuring: gives purpose for interview; rounds it off
Clear: simple, easy, short questions; no jargon
Gentle: lets people finish; gives people time to think
Sensitive: listens attentively; is empathetic
Open: responds to interviewee’s concerns; flexible
Steering: knows what she/he wants to find out
Critical: prepared to challenge what is said
Remembering: relates to what has previously been said
Interpreting: clarifies and extends meaning (not imposing)
Balanced: does not talk too much or too little
Ethically sensitive: sensitive to ethical dimensions
(Bryman, 2008 Social Research Methods, adapted from Kvale 1996, p. 445)

21. Transcription
Transcription helps to correct the natural limitations of our memories
It allows for more thorough examination of what people say
It opens up the data to public scrutiny by other researchers
It allows the data to be reused in other ways than intended by the researcher
However, it is time-consuming, requires good equipment and produces a lot of written material

22. Analysis of Interviews
Look for meaning and understanding, particularly through identifying themes, stories, arguments and concepts
Iterative (throughout the research process, go back and forth between theory, method and analysis)
Read and re-read the interview transcriptions and interview notes, mark key words, issues, stories, ideas and themes in the text (coding), relate to original research questions/aims
Various techniques for analysis: not mechanical but relies on creative insights and critical thinking.
Computer-assisted software may be useful to store, sort and code transcribed interviews (to be covered in week 19) but it also has many limitations.
*for further information about analysing interview material, see Rubin and Rubin, 1995, recommended reading list.

23. Conclusion
Interviews are opportunities for researchers to ‘collect data’ but at the same time they are social encounters.
Interviews give ‘rich’ data.
There are a number of different forms, types and approaches to qualitative interviewing.
Interviews require planning – particularly in terms of the topics/questions you wish to ask (and why)
Transcription and analysis are important parts of the interview process.