Chapter 10: The Interview

Interviewing

• is an essential part of many types of social research.

• can be used at any stage in the research process. They can be used in the initial phases to identify areas or issues for more detailed exploration.

• is a research tool in that it is not tied to any one theory, epistemological orientation (whether constructivist or positivist) or philosophical tradition.

Introduction

Interviewees will require an ____ to the interview. The participants should be given information appropriate for them to be able to give their informed consent to their participation.

However, the researcher must ensure that the context of this ____ does not compromise the validity of the participants’ subsequent answers to questions.

Interview schedule

In its entirety, the series of questions asked in an interview is usually called the

Fully structured interviews

involve a fixed set of questions which the researcher asks in a fixed order.

Partially structured interviews

the researcher has a number of topics to cover but the precise questions and their order is not fixed; they are allowed to develop as a result of the exchange with the respondent.

The sequence of questions

There is a further set of problems that also need to be tackled. An interview schedule needs to be looked at in its entirety. Getting the individual questions right is vital but they also have to be ordered appropriately.

Concluding the Interview

When designing the interview, you should also include clear guidelines on how to conclude the interview.

Some debriefing, which involves a more comprehensive explanation for the questions asked or the way the research will be used, may be needed.

Piloting the Interview

Since there are so many problems in getting the individual questions, the order in which they are asked and the links between them absolutely right, interview schedules need to be piloted.

Stage 1

Test whether your explanation for the interview is understood by a small sample drawn from the same population as people you intend to interview.

Stage 2

Use the same pilot sample to test comprehension of particular questions which you know have not been used with this population before or which you feel are difficult (e.g. possibly ambiguous, lacking relevance, involving too advanced vocabulary, etc.)

Stage 3

Amend introduction and questions in the light of stages 1 and 2. (Researchers often go through the motions of piloting and then ignore what they find. This is a form of intellectual arrogance and research hypocrisy).

Stage 4

With a new subsample, test the revised explanation and all questions for comprehension. This should be a complete run through of the entire interview schedule. It is still possible to make changes at this point.

Stage 5

With a new subsample, use the interview schedule to establish whether the answers you are getting are the ones which interest you. This stage moves away from testing comprehension to being genuine data collection.

Conducting the Interview

• First, be thoroughly familiar with the interview schedule before you start.

• Second, ask all questions of all respondents, even if you think you know what some of them will say. Give all respondents an equal hearing.

• Third, know what each question is meant to tap, and if you are failing to get relevant material, probe further.

• Fourth, whatever technique for recording that you use, be consistent in recording answers.

• Fifth, an answer in a face-to-face interview has both verbal and non-verbal components. It is sometimes useful to encode non-verbal aspects of the answers even when visual recording is not used. They can change the underlying message substantially.

Face-to-Face Interviews

• More costly

• Response rate is quicker

• Probing is more applicable

Phone Interviews

• Response rate is not ideal

• Sampling frame is not followed

• More convenient

Web or email interviewing

With the increasing availability of online electronic access through the Internet, researchers have sought to move beyond telephone interviewing to ___ or ___.

Validity & Reliability of Interview Data

There is no evidence to suggest that in any generic manner interviewing as a data elicitation technique yields data which are less valid or reliable than other methods.

There are artefacts intrinsic to the interview method which affect the_______ it produces but these tend to be common to many methods.

Differential drop-out

a threat to the validity of a study produced by the loss of participants from one or more groups during the course of the research. The participants who remain may differ in important ways from those who leave (e.g. in motivation, enthusiasm, etc.) and these factors may contribute in unknown ways to any perceived differences between the groups in the study).

Researcher effects

the impact of the researcher, often unintentional upon the data gathered.

Interviewer effects

the characteristics of the interviewer and the subject matter influence the responses.

Analyzing Interview Data

The problem is obviously less acute if you use fully structured interview schedules since then the response variety is constrained. In a structured interview the data are usually already framed ready for analysis.

Content analysis

can be used to reduce the data to a manageable scale and it can be supplemented with systematic quotations from the interviews to illustrate conclusions.

The analysis should be open to verification as far as possible. You should describe the data on which you base your conclusions which is good enough for someone else to repeat what you have done and check your conclusions.

Inter-rater reliability

It is advisable to include estimates of ____ (a method of reliability testing requires that two or more independent observers agree with their assessments of certain behaviors) to establish that your interpretations of the data are not idiosyncratic.

'Authenticate interpretations'

is a dictum that has helped many researchers. Taking the conclusions back to the interviewees (or some subset of them) to check whether they make sense has become frequent.

There are, of course, difficulties in knowing what to do when the interviewees do not agree with your conclusions.

Research question and objectives

Key elements in a report of research using interviewing:

A clear statement of the ____/reason for the study and its _____

Characteristics of the sample

• _____: number, relevant socio- demographic background (e.g. age, gender, educational status), etc.

• Details of how the sample was located and invited to participate.

Level of refusal

_____ to participate (with reasons if available).

Description of the context

______ in which interviews took place (e.g. location, date, time of day, etc.) with details of variation across interviews which might be pertinent to analyses.

Interviewers, protocol, recording, data analysis

Details of the _____ involved (if more than one including how they were trained to achieve a common approach to the interview).

Details of the interview ____ and schedule

Details of the response ____ methods.

Details of the ____ techniques used.

Specification of any ____ verification ((e.g. inter-rater reliabilities, independent audit).

Summary of the main findings 

_____ (the style will depend on the approach to data analysis but will often be enhanced by illustrative verbatim quotations from the interviewees).

Raw data

Description of how the ____ is being stored and accessibility for other analysts.

Implications

Discussion of the ______ of the findings for the research question originally posed.

Methodological weaknesses and strengths

Consideration of the _____ (including any researcher effects identified) and the ______ of the study design and analysis.

Future research

Conclusions for _____ in the area.