InDepth Interviews

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In-Depth Interviews
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The Professional Conversation

• The basic type of research interview is one whose
  purpose is to obtain descriptions of the
  lifeworld of the interviewee with respect to
  interpreting the meaning of the described
  phenomena.
• The choice to do interviews is not simply a
  methodological choice, it also implies a number
  of theoretical assumptions that have been
  understudied. These involve an alternative
  approach to social knowledge, meaning, reality
  and truth.

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Interviewing and Our Presentation of Self

• Impression management is imperative
• What you can control and what you cant

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Things You Can Control

• A clean neat appearance
• A relaxed comfortable/approachable demeanor
• An organized professional presentation

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Things You Cant Control

• Race/Ethnicity (Perceived not actual)
• Sex
• Embodied Social Status
• Age

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Approaching Respondents

• By Letter
• Personal Contact/Approach
• Snowball
• Advertising
• World Wide Web

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No matter how you reach subjects, the initial
contact should include

• An introduction of who the interviewer is and who
  she/he represents. Show identification.
• A promise of confidentiality/anonymity
• An offer to allow subjects to review work
• A basic overview
• Positive approach- you catch more flies with
  honey than vinegar.

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Rules for Setting Up Your Interview

• Allow the subjects to choose the place to be
  interviewed.
• Be creative. Ie. Props may assist.
• Record interviews (with subjects permission)
• Dont Be Afraid to Set Up A Second Interview

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Obstacles and How to Overcome Them

• Refusals
• Language Barriers
• Financial Hardship
• Subjects are Distrustful of you
• Subjects Dont Talk
• Subject has problems

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Structured Versus Unstructured Interviews

• Structured Interviews- follow an exact and set
  interview guide.
• Unstructured Interviews- Interview still has a
  set of questions or issues that the interviewer
  wishes answered, but it is less rigorous. An
  unstructured interview is more like a
  conversation.

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Differences Between Structured Interviews and
Ordinary Conversation

• Ordinary Conversation
• 1. Questions and answers are relatively equally
  balanced.
• 2. There is an open exchange of feelings and
  opinions.
• 3. Judgments are stated and attempts made to
  persuade the other of a particular point of
  view.
• 4.A person can reveal deep inner feelings to gain
  sympathy or as a therapeutic release.
• 5. Ritual responses are common.
• 6. The participants exchange information and
  correct the factual errors that they are aware
  of.
• 7. Topics rise and fall and either person can
  introduce new topics.
• 8. The emotional tone can shift from humor, to
  joy, to affection, to sadness, to anger, and so
  on.
• 9. People can evade or ignore questions and give
  flippant or non-committal answers.

• The Survey Interview
• 1. Interviewer asks and respondent answers most
  of the time.
• 2. Only the respondent reveals feelings and
  opinions.
• 3. Interviewer is nonjudgmental and does not try
  to change respondents opinions or beliefs.
• 4. Interviewer tries to obtain direct answers to
  specific questions.
• 5. Interviewer avoids making ritual responses
  that influence a respondent and also seeks
  genuine answers, not ritual responses.
• 6. Respondent provides almost all information.
  Interviewer does not correct a respondents
  factual errors.
• 7. Interviewer controls the topic, direction,
  and pace. He or she keeps the respondent on the
  task, and irrelevant diversions are contained.
• 8. Interviewer attempts to maintain a
  consistently warm but serious and objective tone
  throughout.
• 9. Respondent should not evade questions and
  should give truthful, thoughtful answers.

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Survey Interviews versus Field Interviews

• Survey Interviews
• 1. It has a clear beginning and end.
• 2. The same standard questions are asked of
  all respondents in the same sequence.
• 3. The interviewer appears neutral at all
  times.
• 4. The interviewer asks questions, and the
  respondent answers.
• 5. It is almost always with one respondent
  alone.
• 6. It has a professional tone and business like
  focus diversions are ignored.
• 7. Closed ended questions are common, with rare
  probes.
• 8. The interviewer alone controls the pace and
  direction of the interview.
• 9. The social context in which the interview
  occurs ignored and assumed to make little
  difference.
• 10. The interviewer attempts to mold the
  communication pattern into a standard framework.

• Typical Field Interview
• 1. The beginning and end are not clear. The
  interview can be picked up later.
• 2. The questions and the order in which the are
  asked are tailored to specific people and
  situations.
• 3. The interviewer shows interest in responses,
  encourages elaboration.
• 4. It is like a friendly conversational
  exchange, but with more interviewer questions.
• 5. It can occur in group setting or with other
  sin area, but varies.
• 6. It is interspersed with jokes, asides,
  stories, diversions and anecdotes, which are
  recorded.
• 7. Open-ended questions are common and probes
  are frequent.
• 8. The interviewer and member jointly control
  the pace and direction of the interview.
• 9. The social context of the interview is noted
  and seen as important for interpreting the
  meaning of responses.
• 10. The interviewer adjusts to the members
  norms and language usage.

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Sources of Interviewer Bias

• Errors by the respondent- forgetting,
  embarrassment, misunderstanding, or lying because
  of the presence of others.
• Unintentional errors or interviewer sloppiness,
  contacting the wrong respondent, misreading a
  question, omitting questions, reading questions
  in the wrong order, recording the wrong answer to
  a question, or misunderstanding the respondent.
• Intentional subversion by the interviewer-purposef
  ul alteration of answers, omission or rewording
  of questions, or choice of an alternative
  respondent.
• Influence due to the interviewers expectations
  about a respondents appearance, living situation
  or other answers.
• Failure of an interviewer to probe or to probe
  properly.
• Influence on the answers due to the interviewers
  appearance, tone, attitude, reactions to answers,
  or comments made outside of the interview
  schedule.
• Technological Difficulties- the recorder
  malfunctions, tape breaks, batteries die.

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Doing In-Depth InterviewsEmotional Dynamics of
an Interview Study

• Antipositivist Enthusiasm Phase
• The Interview-Quoting Phase
• The Working Phase of Silence
• The Aggressive Phase of Silence
• The Final Phase of Exhaustion
• Withdrawal

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The Seven Stages of Interview Research

• Thematizing
• Designing
• Interviewing
• Transcribing
• Analyzing
• Verifying
• Reporting

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Thematizing

• Refers to a conceptual clarification and a
  theoretical analysis of the theme investigated,
  and the formulation of research questions. You
  may not even have decided to do interviews at
  this point in the process.

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Designing

• Consists of overall planning.
• The temporal dimension should be considered from
  the start. How long is this going to take you?
• Build methodological alternatives into the
  design.
• Who do you want to interview? How many interviews
  do you need? Always make sure you build in for
  failure.
• The first few interviews are preliminary. You
  should only keep them if you do follow-ups.

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Three Time Lines

• The Ideal- a lofty goal that if I meet it that is
  great!!!
• The Ought to Happen- a realistic approach that
  factors in plenty of extra time to redo, take
  breaks, and get feedback
• The Has to Happen By- this is the time line of
  last resort.

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The Interview

• There are a series of themes that emerge through
  discussion.
• It is important the the researcher is expecting
  to learn from the interviewee. The interview
  should become a dialogue about a theme of mutual
  interest.
• Rapport is crucial.
• An interview does not involve two equal partners,
  there is a definite asymmetry in power. The
  interviewer defines the situation, introduces the
  topics of conversation, and steers the course of
  the interview with probes.
• Advance preparation is crucial. The key issues
  of the interview concern what, why and who
  should be thought out before hand.

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Advance Preparation- What Should You Be Thinking
About

• What- acquiring a pre-knowledge of the subject
  matter to be investigated
• Why- formulating a clear purpose for the
  interview
• How- being familiar with different interview
  techniques and deciding which to apply to the
  investigation. Also the interviewer should have
  given some thought to how the interviews will be
  coded and analyzed.

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Framing the Interview

• Before the interview
• The first few minutes
• The body of the interview
• The End

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The Interview Guide

• The interview guide consists of topics in a
  logically anticipated sequence.
• If you have specific questions be sure to include
  these.
• Each question or topic should be evaluated with
  respect to both a thematic and a dynamic
  dimension.

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Types of Interview Questions

• 1. Introducing Questions
• 2. Follow-up Questions
• 3. Probing Questions
• 4. Specifying Questions
• 5. Direct Questions
• 6. Indirect Questions
• 7. Structuring Questions
• 8. Silence
• 9. Interpreting Questions

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Quality Criteria for an Interview

• 1. The extent of spontaneous, rich specific, and
  relevant answers from the interviewee.
• 2. The shorter the interviewers questions, and
  the longer the subjects answers, the better.
• 3. The degree to which the interviewer follows
  up and clarifies the meanings of the relevant
  aspects of the answers.
• 4. The ideal interview is to a large extent
  interpreted throughout the interview.
• 5. The interviewer attempts to verify his or her
  interpretations of the subjects answers in the
  course of the interview.
• 6. The interview is self-communicating- it is
  a story contained in itself and hardly requires
  much extra descriptions and explanations.

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Qualification Criteria for the Interviewer

• 1. Knowledgeable
• 2. Structuring
• 3. Clear
• 4. Gentle
• 5. Sensitive
• 6. Open
• 7. Steering
• 8. Critical
• 9. Remembering
• 10. Interpreting

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Leading Questions

• Avoid leading questions.
• How did that make you feel? Instead of did that
  make you angry?

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Recording

• Audio or video recording is imperative.
• If subjects refuse, written records are an
  alternative.
• Be sure all equipment is working properly prior
  to the interview.
• Bring extra power sources (batteries, cords etc).

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Transcribing

• Involves converting tape to written records.
• Regular
• Linguistic
• For every hour of tape, you can expect to
  transcribe for 3-7 hours to transcribe.
• Do not edit transcripts.

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Silvermans Six Rules of Qualitative Research

• 1) Dont Mistake a Critique for a Reasoned
  Alternative
• 2) Avoid Treating the Actors Point of View As An
  Explanation
• 3) Recognize that the Phenomenon Always Escapes
• 4) Avoid Choosing Between All Polar Opposites
• 5. Never appeal to a Single Element as an
  Explanation
• 6. Understand the Cultural Forms Through Which
  Truths are accomplished