Interview research method in qualitative research methods

Group Name: Brilliant Researchers
Mishal (651)
M.Mohsin Ghayyas(663)
Shagufta Parveen (668)
Abdul Basit (626)

Topic: Interview Research Method
• Definition of INTERVIEW
• Purposes of the interview
• Types of interview
• Planning interview-based research procedures
• Merits and Demerits of Interview Research
Method

Shagufta Parveen (668)
Topic:
Definition of INTERVIEW
Purposes of the interview
Types of interview

Definition by Cannell and Kahn
• The research interview has been defined as ‘a
two-person conversation initiated by the
interviewer for the specific purpose of obtaining
research-relevant information, and focused by
him on content specified by research objectives
of systematic description, prediction, or
explanation’ (Cannell and Kahn, 1968:527).

Purposes of the interview
i. To evaluate or assess a person in some respect
ii. To select or promote an employee
iii. To effect therapeutic change, as in the
psychiatric interview
iv. To test or develop hypotheses
v. To gather data, as in surveys or experimental
situations
vi. To sample respondents’ opinions, as in
doorstep interviews.

Types of interviews we want to
discuss here
• There are four main kinds of interview that
we discuss here that may be used specifically as
research tools:
• (a) The structured interview;
• (b) The unstructured interview;
• (c) The non-directive interview; and
• (d) The focused interview.

Structured interview
• content and procedures are organized in
advance
• sequence and wording of the questions are
determined by means of a schedule
• interviewer is left little freedom to make
modifications
• characterized by being a closed situation

Unstructured interview
• It is an open situation.
• greater flexibility and freedom.
• As Kerlinger (1970) notes
i. Although the research purposes govern the
questions asked, their content, sequence and
wording are entirely in the hands of the
interviewer.
ii. This does not mean, however, that the
unstructured interview is a more casual affair, for
in its own way it also has to be carefully planned.

Non-directive interview
• It derives from the therapeutic or psychiatric
interview.
• Principal features of non-directive
interviews
• minimal direction or control exhibited by the
interviewer.
• Freedom the respondent has to express her
subjective feelings as fully and as spontaneously
as she chooses or is able.

Moser and Kalton
• The informant is encouraged to talk about the
subject under investigation (usually himself) and
the course of the interview is mainly guided by
him.
• no set questions
• no predetermined framework for recorded
answers.
• interviewer confines himself to elucidating
doubtful points.

Cont…
• It is an approach especially to be recommended
when complex attitudes are involved and when
one’s knowledge of them is still in a vague and
unstructured form.
• The need to introduce rather more interviewer
control into the non-directive situation led to the
development of the focused interview.

Focused Interview
• It focuses on a respondent’s subjective responses
to a known situation in which he/she has been
involved
• Situation which has been analysed by the
interviewer prior to the interview.
• He/she is thereby able to use the data from the
interview to substantiate or reject previously
formulated hypotheses.

Merton and Kendall
• In the usual depth interview, one can urge
informants to reminisce on their experiences.
• In the focused interview, however, the
interviewer can, when expedient, play a more
active role:
• he can introduce more explicit verbal cues to the
stimulus pattern or even represent it. In either
case this usually activates a concrete report of
responses by informants.

i. Presenter: Mishal (651)
Topic: Planning interview
based research procedure
Thematizing
designing
interviewing

Planning interview-based research
procedures
• Kvale (1996: 88) sets out seven stages of an
interview investigation that can be used to plan
this type of research:
i. Thematizing
ii. designing
iii. interviewing
iv. transcribing
v. analysing
vi. verifying
vii. reporting

Thematizing
• preliminary stage
• point where the purpose of the research is
decided.
• follow the translation of the general goals of the
research into more detailed and specific
objectives

Cont…
• This is the most important step, for only careful
formulation of objectives
• at this point will eventually produce the right
kind of data necessary for satisfactory answers to
the research problem.

Designing
• This involves translating the research objectives
into the questions that will make up the main
body of the schedule.
• This needs to be done in such a way that the
questions adequately reflect what it is the
researcher is trying to find out.

Question format Factors
• The choice of question format, for instance,
depends on a consideration of one or more of the
following factors:
i. the objectives of the interview
ii. the nature of the subject matter
iii. whether the interviewer is dealing in facts,
opinions or attitudes
iv. the respondent’s level of education

Cont…
 the kind of information the respondent can be
expected to have
 Whether or not the respondent’s thought
needs to be structured; some assessment of his
or her motivational level
 The kind of relationship the interviewer can
expect to develop with the respondent.

Construction of schedules
• Three kinds of items are used in the
construction of schedules used in research
interviews:
• ﬁxed-alternative
• ‘open-ended items’
• ‘scale’

ﬁxed-alternative
• First, ‘ﬁxed-alternative’ items allow the
respondent to choose from two or more
alternatives. The most frequently used is the
dichotomous item which offers two alternatives
only: ‘yes-no’ or ‘agree-disagree’, for instance.
Sometimes a third alternative such as
‘undecided’ or ‘don’t know’ is also offered

‘open-ended items’
• ‘those that supply a frame of reference for
respondents’ answers, but put a minimum of
restraint on the answers and their expression’.
Other than the subject of the question, which is
determined by the nature of the problem under
investigation, there are no other restrictions on
either the content or the manner of the
interviewee’s reply.

‘scale’
• Third, the ‘scale’ is, as we have already seen, a
set of verbal items to each of which the
interviewee responds by indicating degrees of
agreement or disagreement.
• The individual’s response is thus located on a
scale of fixed alternatives.

pay attention when devise questions
• The vocabulary to be used (keeping it simple)
• The avoidance of prejudicial language
• The avoidance of ambiguity and imprecision
• Leading questions (a decision has to be taken
whether it is justified to use them)
• The avoidance of double-barrelled questions
(asking more than one point at a time)

Cont…
• Questions that make assumptions (e.g. Do you
go to work in your car?)
• Sensitive or personal questions(whether to ask
or avoid them)
• Assuming that the respondent has the required
knowledge/information
• Recall (how easy it will be for the respondent to
recall memories).

Question formats
• We now look at the kinds of questions and
modes of response associated with interviewing.
• First, the matter of question format: how is a
question to be phrased or organized

Question formats by Tuckman
• Direct or indirect
• general or specific
• fact and opinion questions

Direct or Indirect
• Thus an interviewer could ask a teacher whether
she likes teaching: this would be a direct
question.
• Or else an interviewer could adopt an indirect
approach by asking for the respondent’s views
on education in general and the ways schools
function.
• From the answers proffered, the interviewer
could make inferences about the teacher’s
opinions concerning her own job.

CONT…
• Tuckman (1972) suggests that by making the
purpose of questions less obvious, the indirect
approach is more likely to produce frank and
open responses.

General or Specific
• To ask children what they thought of the
teaching methods of the staff as a whole would
be a general or non-specific question.
• To ask children what they thought of their
teacher as a teacher would be a specific question.

CONT…
• Tuckman (1972) comments: ‘Specific questions,
like direct ones, may cause a respondent to
become cautious or guarded and give less-than-
honest answers.
• Nonspecific questions may lead circuitously to
the desired information but with less alarm by
the respondents.’

Fact and Opinion
• To ask people what political party they support
would be a factual question.
• To ask them what they think of the current
government’s foreign policy would be an opinion
question.

CONT…
• Both fact and opinion questions can yield less
than the truth, however: the former do not
always produce factual answers; nor do the latter
necessarily elicit honest opinions.
• In both, instances, inaccuracy and bias may be
minimized by careful structuring of the
questions.

Response modes
• Tuckman (1972) lists seven such modes
• unstructured response
• structured response
• tabular response
• scaled response
• ranking response
• checklist response

Interviewing
• Tuckman (1972) has succinctly reviewed the
procedures to adopt at the interview itself.
• He writes that the interviewer should inform the
participant of the nature or purpose of the
interview, being honest yet without risking
biasing responses, and should strive to put the
participant at ease.

Cont…
• The conduct of the interview should be
explained (what happens, and how, and the
structure and organization of the interview),
how responses may be recorded (and to seek
permission if this is to happen), and these
procedures should be observed throughout.

Cont…
• During the interview the biases and values of the
interviewer should not be revealed, and the
interviewer should avoid being judgemental.
• The interviewer may have to steer respondents if
they are rambling off the point, without being
impolite.

In Kvale point of view
• Indeed Kvale (1996: 125) suggests that an
interview follows an unwritten script for
interactions, the rules for which only surface
when they are transgressed.
• Hence the interviewer must be at pains to
conduct the interview carefully and sensitively.

Cont…
• as the researcher, it is the research instrument,
the effective interviewer is not only
knowledgeable about the subject matter but also
an expert in interaction and communication.
• The interviewer will need to establish an
appropriate atmosphere such that the
participant can feel secure to talk freely. This
operates at several levels.

Problems in conduction of interviews
• There are several problems in the actual conduct of
an interview that can be anticipated and, possibly,
prevented, ensuring that the interview proceeds
comfortably
avoiding interruptions from outside (e.g. telephone
calls, people knocking on the door)
 minimizing distractions
minimizing the risk of ‘stage fright’ in interviewees
and interviewers
avoiding asking embarrassing or awkward questions

Cont…
jumping from one topic to another
giving advice or opinions (rather than active
listening)
Summarizing too early or closing off an
interview too soon
Being too superficial
Handling sensitive matters (e.g. legal matters,
personal matters, emotional matters).

Criteria for ideal interviews
• The extent of spontaneous, rich, specific, and
relevant answers from the interviewee.
• The shorter the interviewer’s questions and the
longer the subject’s answers, the better.
• The degree to which the interviewer follows up
and clarifies the meanings of the relevant
aspects of the answers.

Cont…
• The ideal interview is to a large extent
interpreted throughout the interview.
• The interviewer attempts to verify his or her
interpretations of the subject’s answers in the
course of the interview.
• The interview is ‘self-communicating’ – it is a
story contained in itself that hardly requires
much extra description and explanation.

Abdul Basit (626)
Topic: Planning interview-
based research procedures
transcribing
analysing
verifying
reporting

Transcribing
• IT is the potential for massive data loss,
distortion and the reduction of complexity.
• Transcriptions inevitably lose data from the
original encounter.
• This problem is compounded, for a transcription
represents the translation from one set of rule
systems (oral and interpersonal) to another very
remote rule system (written language).

Cont…
• interview is a social encounter, not merely a data
collection exercise; the problem with much
transcription is that it becomes solely a record of
data rather than a record of a social encounter.

Example
• It might have begun at the data collection stage.
• For example, and audiotape is selective, it filters
out important contextual factors, neglecting the
visual and non-verbal aspects of the interview
(Mishler 1986).
• Indeed, it is frequently the non-verbal
communication that gives more information
than the verbal communication.

Cont…
• To replace audio recording with video-recording
might make for richer data and catch non-verbal
communication, but this then becomes very
time-consuming to analyse.

Correct transcription or not?
• there can be no single ‘correct’ transcription;
rather the issue becomes whether, to what
extent, and how a transcription is useful for the
research.
• Transcriptions are de-contextualized, abstracted
from time and space, from the dynamics of the
situation, from the live form, and from the
social, interactive, dynamic and fluid dimensions
of their source; they are frozen.

Requirements for making
transcription real
• For making transcription solid as the interview this might
require the researcher to ensure that different kinds of data
are recorded in the transcript of the audiotape, for example:
• what was being said
• The tone of voice of the speaker(s) (e.g. harsh, kindly,
encouraging)
• The inflection of the voice(e.g. rising or falling, a question or a
statement ,a cadence or a pause, a summarizing or
exploratory tone, opening or closing a line of enquiry)
• Emphases placed by the speaker
• Pauses (short to long) and silences (short to long)
• Interruptions

Cont…
• The mood of the speaker(s) (e.g. excited, angry,
resigned, bored, enthusiastic, committed, happy,
grudging)
• The speed of the talk (fast to slow, hurried or
unhurried, hesitant to confident)
• How many people were speaking simultaneously
• Whether a speaker was speaking continuously or in
short phrases
• Who is speaking to whom
• Indecipherable speech
• Any other events that were taking place at the same
time that the researcher can recall.

Analysing
• Once data from the interview have been
collected, the next stage involves analysing them,
often by some form of coding or scoring.
• There are several stages in analysis, for example:

Miles and Huberman’s 12 tactics
• Counting frequencies of occurrence (of ideas,
themes, pieces of data, words)
• Noting patterns and themes (Gestalts), which
may stem from repeated themes and causes or
explanations or constructs
• Seeing plausibility: trying to make good sense of
data, using informed intuition to reach a
conclusion

Cont…
• Clustering: setting items into categories, types,
behaviours and classifications
• making metaphors: using figurative and
connotative language rather than literal and
denotative language, bringing data to life, thereby
reducing data, making patterns, decentring the data,
and connecting data with theory
• Splitting variables to elaborate, differentiate and
‘unpack’ ideas, i.e. to move away from the drive
towards integration and the blurring of data

Cont…
• Subsuming particulars into the general, akin to
Glaser’s (1978) notion of ‘constant comparison’
(see Chapter 6 in this book) – a move towards
clarifying key concepts.
• factoring: bringing a large number of variables
under a smaller number of (frequently)
unobserved hypothetical variables
• Identifying and noting relations between
variables

Cont…
• Finding intervening variables: looking for
other variables that appear to be ‘getting in the
way’ of accounting for what one would expect to
be strong relationships between variables
• Building a logical chain of evidence: noting
causality and making inferences
• Making conceptual/theoretical
coherence: moving from metaphors to
constructs to theories to explain the phenomena.

Verifying
• Kvale (1996: 237) makes the point that
validation must take place at all seven stages of
the interview-based investigation. For example:
1) the theoretical foundation of the research must
be rigorous and there must be a logical link
between such theory and the research questions

Cont…
2) all aspects of the research design must be
sound and rigorous
3) the data must be accurate, reliable and valid
(with consistency and reliability checks
undertaken)
4) the translation of the data from an oral to a
written medium must demonstrate ﬁdelity to the
key features of the interview situation

Cont…
5) Data analysis must demonstrate ﬁdelity to the
data
6) Validation procedures should be in place and
used
7) The reporting should be fair and seen to be fair
by readers.

Reporting
• Kvale (1996: 263–6) suggests several elements
of a report:
i. An introduction that includes the main themes
and contents
ii. An outline of the methodology and methods
(from designing to interviewing, transcription
and analysis)
iii. The results (the data analysis, interpretation
and veriﬁcation)
iv. A discussion.

Cont…
• If the report is largely numerical then figures
and tables might be appropriate; if the interview
is more faithfully represented in words rather
than numbers then this presents the researcher
with the issue of how to present particular
quotations.

Cont…
• Here Kvale suggests that direct quotations
should illuminate and relate to the general text
while maintaining a balance with the main text,
be contextualized and be accompanied by a
commentary and interpretation, be particularly
clear, useful, and the ‘best’ of the data, should
include an indication of how they have been
edited and be incorporated into a natural written
style of the report.

M.Mohsin Ghayyas (663)
Topic: Merits and Demerits of
interview research method

Merits of interview research method
• The chief merits of the interview method are as
follows:
• More information and that too in greater depth
can be obtained.
• Interviewer by his own skill can overcome the
resistance, if any, of the respondents; the
interview method can be made to yield an almost
perfect sample of the general population.

Cont…
• There is greater flexibility under this method as
the opportunity to restructure questions is
always there, especially in case of unstructured
interviews.
• Observation method can as well be applied to
recording verbal answers to various questions.
• Personal information can as well be obtained
easily under this method.

Cont…
• Samples can be controlled more effectively as
there arises no difficulty of the missing returns;
non-response generally remains very low.
• The interviewer can usually control which
person(s) will answer the questions. This is not
possible in mailed questionnaire approach. If so
desired, group discussions may also be held.

Cont…
• The interviewer may catch the informant off-
guard and thus may secure the most
spontaneous reactions than would be the case if
mailed questionnaire is used.
• The language of the interview can be adopted to
the ability or educational level of the person
interviewed and as such misinterpretations
concerning questions can be avoided.

Cont…
• The interviewer can collect supplementary
information about the respondent’s personal
characteristics and environment which is often
of great value in interpreting results.

Weaknesses or demerits of interview
research methods
It is a very expensive method, specially when large
and widely spread geographical sample is taken.
There remains the possibility of the bias of
interviewer as well as that of the respondent; there
also remains the headache of supervision and
control of interviewers.

Cont…
Certain types of respondents such as important
officials or executives or people in high income
groups may not be easily approachable under this
method and to that extent the data may prove
inadequate.
This method is relatively more-time-consuming,
specially when the sample is large and recalls upon the
respondents are necessary.

Cont…
 The presence of the interviewer on the spot may over-
stimulate the respondent, sometimes even to the extent
that he may give imaginary information just to make the
interview interesting.
Under the interview method the organisation
required for selecting, training and supervising the
field-staff is more complex with formidable
problems.

Cont…
Interviewing at times may also
introduce systematic errors.
Effective interview presupposes proper rapport
with respondents that would facilitate free and
frank responses. This is often a very difficult
requirement.

Interview research method in qualitative research methods

Interview research method in qualitative research methods

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