Interview

InterviewCOURSE 4

LECT.DR. ADRIANA ȘTEFĂ[email protected]

After this course students must be able to:

Describe and choose between structured, semi-structured, non-directive, focused and informal interviews on the basis of the objectives of the research

Select between using interviews and questionnaires

Produce valid and reliable interview schedules

Conduct and interview skilfully, tactfully, safely and ethically

What is an interview?

An interview is a conversation between people in which one person has the role of researcher (Gray, D., 2010, p. 369)

(field) interview is a joint production of a researcher and one or more informants (Newmann, W.L., 2011, p. 449)

In field interviews, informants express themselves in the forms in which they normally speak, think and organize reality. You want to retain informants’ jokes and narrative stories in their natural form and not repackage them into a standardized format

(Newmann, W.L., 2011, p.450)

Why use interviews?

Allows the researcher to probe for more detailed responses where the respondent is asked to clarify what they have said.

Interviews can provide expert opinion, eyewitness account or personal testimony

Interviewing is a powerful way of helping people to make explicit things that have hitherto been implicit- to articulate their tacit perceptions, feelings and understandings (Arksey&Knight, apud Gray, D.,,op.cit, p.370)

Strengths Weaknesses

High validity


High validity Not very reliable


High validity

Complex questions and issues can be

discussed

Not very reliable


Not very reliable

Time consuming

High validity


discussed



Not very reliable

Time consuming

Depends on the skill of the interviewer

High validity


discussed

Positive rapport

The person is totally familiar with the issue

The person is currently involved in the field

The person can spend time with the researcher

Nonanalytic individuals make better informants

The ideal informant





The ideal informant





The ideal informant





The ideal informant

Interview is the favoured approach where:There is a need to attain highly personalized dataOpportunity for probing are requiredA good return rate is important

Standardized questionnaires are more powerful where:Large numbers of respondents must be reachedBetter reliability of data is desired

Survey Interviews versus Field Research Interviews (Newmann, L.W. op.cit. p.451)

Typical survey interview Typical Field InterviewIt has a clear beginning and end The beginning and end are not clear. The interview can be picked up at a later

time

The same standard questions are asked of all respondents in the same sequence The questions and the order in which they are asked are tailored to specific people and situations

The interviewer askes questions and the respondent answers It is like a friendly conversational exchange but with more interviewer questions

The interviewer appears neutral al all times The interviewer shows interest in responses and encourages elaboration

It is almost always with one respondent alone It can occur in group setting or with others in area but varies

It has a professional tone and business-like focus; diversions are ignored It is impressed with jokes, asides, stories, diversions and anecdotes, which are recorded

Closer-ended questions are common Open-ended questions are common and probes are frequent

The interviewer alone controls the pace and the direction of the interview The interviewer and informat(s) jointly control the pace and direction of the interview

The social context in which the interview occurs is ignored and assumed to make little difference

The social context of the interview is noted and seen as important for interpreting the meaning of responses

The interviewer attempts to mold the communication pattern into a standard framework

The interviewer adjusts to the informat(s) norms and language usage

Selecting interview approaches

Used to collect data for quantitative analysis and use pre-prepared questionnaires and standardized questions.

Structured interviews

Semi-structured interviews

Non-directive interviews

Focused interviews

Informal conversational interviews

Selecting interview approaches The interviewer has a list of issues and questions to be

covered, but may not deal with al of them in each interview.

The order of questions may also change depending on what direction the interview takes

The semi-structured interview allows for probing of views and opinions where it is desirable for respondents to expand on their answers




Focused interviews



Are used to explore an issue or topic in depth

Questions are not, generally, pre-planned

Active listening techniques are used




Focused interviews


Forbidden reaction during active listening: To command To threaten, to warn To moralize, to give a lecture To give a good advice, to come forth with good solution To formulate logical arguments pretending to be knowledgeable To praise, to speak highly of To mock at people, to speak ironically To analyse and diagnose To console and to encourage To interrogate To be amusing or sarcastic


Is based upon the respondent’s subjective responses to a known situation in which they have been involved

The objective is to understand the respondent's point of view rather than make generalizations about behavior.

The researcher tries to build a rapport with the respondent and the interview is like a conversation.




Focused interviews



Relies on the spontaneous generation of questions as the interview progress

It is the most open-ended form of interview technique




Focused interviews


Structured interviews Semi-structured interviews Unstructured (non-directive, focused and informal)interviews

Quick to data capture Slow and time-consuming to data capture and analyse

Use the random sampling The longer the interview, the more advisable it is to use random sampling

Opportunity and snowball sampling often used. In organizations, targeting of key informants

Interview schedule followed exactly Interviewer refers to a guide containing mixture of open and closed questions.

Interviewer uses aide-memoire of topics for discussion and improvises

Interviewer-led Sometimes interviewer-led, sometimes informant-led

Non-directive interviewing

Tends to positivist view of knowledge Mixture of positivist and non-positivist Non-positivist view of knowledge

Respondents’ anonymity easily guaranteed

Harder to ensure anonymity Researcher tends to know the informant

Easy to analyse Quantitative parts easy to analyse Usually hard to analyse

Designing credible interviews: internal validity

Validity is strengthened by:

Using interview techniques that build rapport and trust, thus giving informants the scope to express themselves

Prompting informants to illustrate and expend on their initial responses

Constructing interviewing schedules that contain questions drawn from literature and from pilot work with the respondents

The researcher need to ensure that, if any research questions require addressing, this will be achieved by the end of the interview

Designing credible interviews: external validity

Try to select a sample that allows for a subject to be viewed from all relevant perspectives

Keep increasing the sample size until no new point of view are emerging from the data

The extend to which findings from a study can be generalized.

Conducting the interview

Open question words:

What? Where?

Who? When?

How? Why? *

* “Why?” Limit the use of “WHY” questions in this type of work because it implies that there is a right answer

Use open-ended questions

Avoid leading questions

Probing

Open Questions: Questions that allow the respondent to answer without presented or implied choices

Conducting the interview Allow people to answer in their own terms voicing their own

views, values and experiences.

Leading questions are phrased to suggest a particular answer or to imply that one answer is expected or more correct

What fears do you have when… versus how do you feel when…

How good was …versus how do you feel about……



Probing


The key to successful interviewing is learning how

to probe effectively

that is, to stimulate an informant to produce more

information

without injecting yourself so much into the interaction

that you only get a reflection of yourself in the data



Probing


The key to successful

interviewing is learning how to

probe effectively

that is, to stimulate an informant to produce more

information

without injecting yourself so much

into the interaction that you only get a

reflection of yourself in the data



Probing

Probing techniques explicationWhat questions a stimulus without putting yourself in it

silent probe just remain quiet and wait for informant to continue

Echo probe repeat the last thing an informant said and ask themto continue

The uh-huh probe encourage participant to continue with a narrative bymaking affirmative noises:“Uh-huh,” “yes, I see,” “right, uh-huh”


Do not begin interviewing right away

Listen and express interest in what the informant tells you

Try to encourage informant to expand on their answers and give as many details as possible

Let informant’s answers determine the direction the interview takes

Use informant’s own language to ask new questions

To do Not to do

Establish clearly what the interviewee thinks Do not give indication to the interviewee of your meanings and understandings of appear to judge their responses

Provide a balance between open and close questions Do not ask leading questions or questions to which it is easy for interviewee to simply agree with all you say

Listen carefully to all responses and follow up points that are not clear Do not rush on the next question before thinking about the last response

If necessary, either to gain interviewer thinking time or for the clarity of the audio recording, repeat the response

Do not respond with a modified version of the response, but repeat exactly what was said

Give the interviewee plenty of time to respond Do not rush, but do not allow embarrassing silences

Where interviewees express doubts or hesitate, probe them to share their thinking

Avoid creating the impression that you would prefer some kind of answers rather then others

Be sensitive to possible misunderstandings about questions and, is appropriate, repeat the question

Do not make any assumption about the ways In which the interviewee might be thinking

Be aware that the respondent may make self-contradictory statements Do not forget earlier responses in the interview

Try to establish an informal atmosphere Do not interrogate the interviewee

Be prepared to abandon the interview if it is not working Do not continue if the respondent appears agitated, angry or withdrawn

Interview

Documents

interviewthe interviewer

field interviews

interview interviewcourse

timesthe interviewer

frequentthe interviewer

informal interviews

use interviews

standard questions