Qualitative methods Lecture 6

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Qualitative methodsLecture 6

• Interview analysis
• and interpretation

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Today

• Excercise analysis of Mrs. Rowe (relevant
  categories regarding convenience food and food
  culture, narratives, etc.)
• Kvales ideas about methods of analysis
  (repetition)
• Interpretation of data
• Excercise Danish mothers decison making process

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Kvales ideas of methods of analysis

• There is no magic tool
• Only techniques of analysis
• The central interview analysis is still the task
  of the researcher, just as the thematical
  questions he or she has asked right from the
  beginning of the survey and followed through
  research design, interview and transcription

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6 steps of analysis

• The interviewees describe their lifeworld in the
  interview
• The interviewees discover new relations
  themselves
• The interviewer condenses and interpretes the
  interview during the interview
• The transscribed interview is interpreted by the
  interviewer possibly with others
  ______________________________
• 5) Repeat interview (possibly)
• 6) Action (possibly)

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5 methods to interview analysis

• Meaning Condensation
• Meaning Categorisation
• Narrative structuring
• Meaning interpretation
• Ad hoc-methods

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Mrs. Rowe pp. 1-4

• Categories (e.g. Good food, bad food,
  Convenience food)
• Meaning condensation?
• Narratives? Good guys, bads guys?
• Of course, right?
• Consequences for Tulip regarding marketing on the
  British market?

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What is the purpose of the interpretation?

• Is the goal the interviewees own interpretation
  of the issue at stake, or is it a more general
  cultural perception of the topic, which is
  searched for?
• One correct interpretation or
• legitimate plurality of interpretations?
• Not strict demands of consensus between
  interpreters
• But make sure that the interpretation is tested
  by other readers

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Interpretation one or many?

• Different interpreters find different meanings
  in the same interview therefore the interview is
  not a scientific method
• Not as many different interpretations as often
  assumed
• Not one objective truth, meaning, interpretation
  (Kvale)

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Differences of interpretation

• One-sided and biased subjectivity versus
  perspectival subjectivity
• One-sided and biased subjectivity means sloppy
  and unreliable work, only look for evidence that
  supports own opinion, selective interpretation
  and only reproting statements that justify ones
  conclusion, overlook counterevidence
• Perspectival subjectivity means that the research
  adopt different perspectives and pose different
  questions to the same text and come up with
  different interpretations of the meaning
• several interpretations of the same text a
  richness and a strength of interview research

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Three contexts of interpretation

• Self-understanding (formulate interviewees
  statement in condensed form)
• Critical commonsense understanding (What does
  this say about the phenomenon studied? What does
  this statement say about the interviewee?)
• Theoretical understanding (connect with a
  theoretical frame)
• Interpretations follow as answers to different
  questions to the text

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Veridical or a symptomatical reading

• Triangulation the same phenomenon is
  investigated from different angles
• Informant triangulation
• Triangulation with other sources (e.g.
  statistics, other studies)

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Search after The Real meaning

• What is the real meaning?
• Miner/interviewer as a traveling reporterrejsende
  metafor
• A postmodern approach foregoes the search of
  true fixed meanings and emphasizes descriptive
  nuances, differences, and paradoxes Kvale, p.
  226
• Meanings are unfolded through the interview

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A mothers perception of holiday decision making

• Selfunderstanding
• Critical commonsense understanding
• Theoretical understanding

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Next time

• Documentation and verification
• Generalisability, validity, reliability
• Please read article of Silverman