WK 3- Qualitative research methods: Interviewing

Interviews- types of interviews (3 and their features)

•Most common qualitative method for generating data

•Interviews can be:

Structured = set questions, standardised, probing ect, following a script

Semi-structured = use of a topic guide, can probe and follow up

Unstructured = unstructured conversation

•Conversational – two people discussing a topic

Researcher asks questions and follows up responses

•Length: ranges depending on topic and interviewer skill

•Mode: face-to-face, online, phone 

strengths of interviews

•Access rich personal data

•Understand individual context and motivations

•Follow up and probing of responses

•Interviewee guides the interview – talk about what they think is important 

•Capture non-verbal information

limitations of interviews

•Inaccurate information presented?

•Not generalisable

•Time and effort

•Expensive

When to use interviews? (suitable and not suitable)

Suitable	Unsuitable
•Suitable research question •Interested in lived experience •Interested in nuance and subtlety •Sensitive topics	•Research question better suited to other methods •Aim to generalise findings

what does ethical interviews look like

•Participants must be fully informed about the research to provide informed consent

•Confidentiality must be maintained and anonymity protected

•Harm to participants and researchers must be avoided

Developing an interview protocol (6)

1. Decide on your general research area

2. Generate specific research question/s

3. Decide on key interview topics

4. Formulate primary interview questions

 

5. Pilot interview protocol

6. Review and finalise interview protocol

Example in photo

types of interview questions (3)

Primary Interview questions- types of questions (4)

•Types of questions

Experience/ behaviour – what a person does or has done

“How do you typically spend your day?”

Opinions/ values – asking opinion on a topic

“What role do you think employers play in the health of their staff?”

Feelings – aim to understand emotional responses

“How did you feel when …”

Sensory experience – focus on what interview has seen, heard, touched, tasted, smelled

“What do you see when you walk into the office?”

Example Follow-up interview questions

Interviewee:   I haven’t had an easy life with friends, I’ve always   been sort of erm bullied. Some of my friends you   know took- I got taken advantage of. I’m a nice guy,   you know does everything for everyone, doesn’t say   no, and people took advantage of me so, I sort of   learnt the hard way …

Interviewer:   What sort of things do you mean by you were taken   advantage of?

Probes (3)

•Continuation probes – encourage continued talking

Paraphrasing

Minimal encouragers e.g., mmm hmm

“then what?”

“what happened next?”

•Elaboration probes – asking for more detail

“such as …”

“what else?”

“Can you tell me more about that?”

“Can you give me an example?”

•Clarification probes – asking for more explanation

 “Can you run that by me again – I’m afraid I didn’t follow it”

example of the positive mental health research area

Interview protocol sequence (phase 5) start (2) middle and ending

•Processual sequence: introductions, purpose of the interviews, ethics

•Opening sequence: develop rapport

Basic demographic questions

Open-ended, easy-to-answer questions

•Content sequence: Primary interview questions

Logically sequenced – questions should build on each other

Ask challenging questions in the middle

•Concluding sequence: debriefing, summarizing, final thoughts

key things to remember in interview

•Trust is incredibly important – take the time to build rapport

•Do not interrupt before necessary

•Listen more than you talk

•Don’t be afraid of silence

•Follow the interview protocol but be flexible

Attentive (re)listening to interviews features

•Warm-up listening – recall the interview

•Follow-up listening – understand the main points

•Close listening – listen for detailed information to find connections between the research question and emerging findings

•Repeated and selective listening – listening while transcribing interviews line by line

Transcription- 3 principles

•An important precursor to analysis – familiarity

•Time consuming 

Principles of transcription:

1.Preserve the morphologic naturalness of transcription – keep words and punctuation as close as possible to original

2.Preserve the naturalness of the transcript structure

3.Exact reproduction – verbatim

1)An interview protocol should be guided by:

a)Key topics

b)The research question

c)Previous research

d)All of the above 

d)All of the above 

Which of the following is a strength of qualitative interviews?

a)They are a cost- and time-effective way of generating data

b)They provide access to rich and nuanced data

c)Their findings are generalisable

None of the above

b)They provide access to rich and nuanced data