SCWK 242 - Session 3 Slides - Interviews
SCWK 242 - Session 3 Slides - Interviews
SCWK 242 - Session 3 Slides - Interviews
Why Interview?
The most obvious way of finding the information is to ask someone who may be able to help. Interviews also have a large number of potential advantages for a qualitative researcher. Specifically, in an information setting some of the advantages are especially significant. There are many reasons to use interviews for collecting data and using it as a research instrument. Gray (2004) provided the following reasons There is a need to attain highly personalized data. There are opportunities required for probing. A good return rate is important (speed). When respondents are not fluent in the native language of the country, or where they have difficulties with written language. Immediacy
Interview Types
Fully structured interview: Has predetermined questions with fixed wording, usually in a pre-set order. The use of mainly open-response questions is the only essential difference from an interview-based survey questionnaire. Semi-structured interview: Has predetermined questions, but the order can be modified based upon the interviewer's perception of what seems most appropriate. Question wording can be changed and explanations given; particular questions which seem inappropriate with a particular interviewee can be omitted, or additional ones included. Unstructured interviews: The interviewer has a general area of interest and concern, but lets the conversation develop within this area. It can be completely informal.
Interviewing Tips
Your task as interviewer is to try to get interviewees to talk freely and openly. Your own behavior has a major influence on their willingness to do this. To this end you should:
Listen more than you speak Most interviewers talk too much. The interview is not a platform for the interviewer's personal experiences and opinions.
Put questions in a straightforward, clear and non-threatening way If people are confused or defensive, you will not get the information you seek.
Eliminate cues which lead interviewees to respond in a particular way Many interviewees will seek to please the interviewer by giving 'correct' responses ('Are you against sin?').
Enjoy it (or at least look as though you do) Don't give the message that you are bored or scared. Vary your voice and facial expression.
It is also essential that you take a full record of the interview. This can be from notes made at the time and/or from a recording of the interview.
Interview Guides
A guide is not a rigidly structured set of questions to be asked verbatim as written, accompanied by an associated range of preworded likely answers. Rather, it is a list of items to be sure to ask about when talking to the person being interviewed. You want interviewees to speak freely in their own terms about a set of concerns you bring to the interaction, plus whatever else they might introduce.
10
11
Double-barrelled (or multiple-barrelled) questions, e.g. 'What do you feel about current video game content compared with that of five years ago?' The solution is to break it down into simpler questions ('What do you feel about current video games?'; 'Can you recall any video games from five years ago?'; 'How do you feel they compare?').
Questions involving jargon Generally you should avoid questions containing words likely to be unfamiliar to the target audience. Keep things simple to avoid disturbing interviewees; it is in your own interest as well. Leading questions, e.g. 'Why do you like the concept of welfare reform?' It is usually better to modify such questions, to make them less leading and more objective.
Biased questions Provided you are alert to the possibility of bias, it is not difficult to write unbiased questions. What is more difficult, however, is not (perhaps unwittingly) to lead the interviewee by the manner in which the question is asked, or the way in which you receive the response. Neutrality is called for, and in seeking to be welcoming and reinforcing to the interviewee, you should try to avoid appearing to share or welcome their vIews. (Robson 2002, 275)
12
Introduction Strategies
Explain purpose and nature of the study to the respondent, telling how, or through, whom she or he came to be selected. Give assurance that the respondent will remain anonymous in any written reports growing out of the study, and that his or her responses will be treated in strictest confidence. Indicate that s/he may find some of the questions far-fetched, silly or difficult to answer, for the reason that questions that are appropriate for one person are not always appropriate for another. Since there are no right or wrong answers, s/he is not to worry about these but to do as best he can with them. We are only interested in his/her opinions and personal experiences. S/He is to feel perfectly free to interrupt, ask clarification of the interviewer, criticize a line of questioning, etc. Interviewer will tell respondent something about herself or himself his/her background, training, and interest in the area of enquiry. Interviewer is to ask permission to tape-record the interview, explaining why s/he wishes to do this.
(From Davis, 1960; see also Lofland and Lofland, 1995, pp. 84-5, cited in Robson 2002, 281).)
13
14
15
16