Qualitative Research in Action - A Canadian Primer
Standardized interviews - used to collect "standardized information about a large number of respondents relatively cheaply"
Standardized interview questions - worded to collect structured data - close-ended or forced-choice questions - respondent must choose from a list of answers
Limitations of Standard Interviews
Assumes validity across various social contexts
No two interviews can remain exactly the same - tone and body language can impact interview
In-depth interviews - allow people to explain their experiences, attitudes, feelings - free to talk about situation in their own terms and in a way that’s meaningful to them
Qualitative interviews - include "a series of pre- determined but open-ended questions" and "use a variety of probes that elicit further information"
Can be formal and informal but the interviewer should focus on the topic at hand
Interviews diverge from conversations in three important ways:
Bring the discussion back to the topic
Make sure the interview isn’t overtaken by one voice
Investigator must focus on the conversation
Active interview - focus on what the participant is saying and how they behave in relation to the interviewer - can learn a lot from behaviour
Designing an interview guide - list broad categories in relation to study, develop open ended questions about study, compose draft guide
Avoid - asking questions with “why”, double-barrelled questions (questions that ask more than one thing at a time)
Be prepared for the interview and be as confident and calm as possible - after interview, thank participant
Transcribing Interviews - Some believe in transcribing the whole interview, word for word, while others transcribe only what seems applicable to their own study
Email interview - many factors, tone may not be noted, might take more time etc
Data Analysis - transcribing interviews, correcting transcripts, reading and rereading transcripts and notes, and coding data
Many researchers engage in reflexivity as they interpret their data - recognize that their own experiences and status affect the way that participants interact with them
Coding - means finding terms or phrases to categorize chunks of the data so that we can work with them
The first step in coding - called open coding - a process closely associated with grounded theory
After sorting data into open codes - step-focused coding - go through the material that relates to each broad, open code and recode for specific aspects of the theme
Two approaches to understanding participants' situations in depth - analyzing stories and developing sensitizing concepts
Stories - we can analyze stories to understand how our participants understand their place in the world and how they interpret their own status in relation to others
Researchers develop sensitizing concepts - to help them understand their participants' world view
Erving Goffman - generalizable sensitizing concept - civil inattention - explain individuals' habit of subtly acknowledging the presence of others but not focusing on them too intently, thus avoiding any feelings of threat or confrontation
Arlie R. Hochschild - emotion work and feeling rules - attendants work to make themselves feel a certain way (they engage in emotion work) so that they can display the feelings they are required to have while they are working (feeling rules)