Interviews

1
Interviews

• Dr Kathryn Dwan
• ANU Medical School

2
Topics

• An active interview
• Active listening
• Interview design
• Securing interviews
• Logistics of interviewing
• Types of questions
• Minimise threatening questions
• Alternatives to questions
• Ending the interview
• Things to avoid

3
An active interview

• Holstein, 1995

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An active interview

• A conversation, with a guiding purpose or plan
• Questions incite responses that address the
  researchers interests
• Biographical particulars of interview
  participant influence the outcome
• Provides an environment conducive to the
  production of the range and complexity of
  meanings that address relevant issues, and not
  confined by predetermined agendas

5
Active listening

• Wengraf, 2001

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Active listening

• Requires the researcher to look beyond the
  surface of the conversation
• Indicates that interviewer is
• Paying attention
• Valuing the information provided
• Comprises
• Reflecting
• Summarising

7
Active listening (cont)

• Follow-up strategies
• Questions
• Alternatives to questions
• Declarative statements
• Signals
• Silence
• Stimulus material

8
Interview design

• Wengraf, 2001

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Interview design
Research purpose
Theory Ques 2
Theory Ques 3
Theory Ques 1
10
Securing interviews

• Ostrander, 1995
• Holstein, 1995

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Securing interviews

• Do preparatory background work
• Background knowledge of circumstances relevant
  to
• the research topic and/or the respondents
  experience
• can be an invaluable resource of the
  interviewer.
• (Holstein 199577)
• Use your circles and activities to put you in
  touch with subjects
• Make the right contacts, in the right order
• You get in and get useful data from them if you
  know
• others that they know and respect.
• (Ostrander 1995137-138)

12
Securing interviews (cont)

• Be appreciative of subjects willingness to
  participate but not deferential and never
  obsequious
• attitude of mutual respect I have found
  essential
• in dealing with elites. (Ostrander 1995138)
• Take extra time to meet directly with people who
  have concerns and respond actively to those
  concerns
• Be aware that there will likely be an ongoing
  process of being checked out

13
Securing interviews (cont)

• Enclose succinct proposal that includes
  rationale, goals and objectives, methodology and
  your own credentials
• Include a favourable opening line
• Everyone I have talked with speaks of your
  facility/service/approach as a prime example of
  a successful facility/service/approach.
• Make follow-up phone call as promised in the
  letter

14
Logistics of interviewing
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Logistics of interviewing

• Setting and time
• Free from interruption
• Comfortable
• Non-distracting (eg interview room)
• Convenient and agreeable to your respondent
• Clear stretch of time (including after the
  interview to make your field notes, etc)
• Allow time for consent forms to be completed

16
Logistics of interviewing (cont)

• Interview materials
• Interview schedule
• Audio recorder, tapes, batteries, etc
• Paper and pen
• Water etc

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Types of research questions

• Kvale, 1996
• Wengraf, 2001

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Types of questions

• Introducing
• Follow-up
• Probing
• Specifying
• Direct
• Indirect
• Positioning
• Clarifying interpretations
• Structuring
• Reinforcement feedback

19
Types of questions (cont)

• Introduction
• Can you tell me about
• Do you remember an occasion when
• What happened in the episode you mentioned
• Could you describe in as much detail as possible
  

20
Types of questions (cont)

• Follow-up
• Chronology
• And then? When was that?
• Detail
• Tell me more about that, thats very
  interesting
• Clarification
• I dont quite understand but you said earlier
• Explanation
• Why? How come?
• (Schatzman Strauss 197374)

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Types of questions (cont)

• Probes
• Can you say something more about
• Can you give a more detailed description of what
  happened
• Do you have further examples of that
• Specify
• What did you think then
• What did you actually do when
• Have you also experience this yourself

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Types of questions (cont)

• Direct
• Have you ever received
• When you mentioned X, did you then think of ve
  or ve
• Indirect
• How do you believe others regard

23
Types of questions (cont)

• Positioning
• Specifically and strategically suggest
  standpoints
• As a newly registered GP what do you think about
  
• How do you, as a divisional member, negotiate
  situations where
• What do you as the mother of a young child
  appreciate most about
• (Holstein, 1995)

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Types of questions (cont)

• Clarifying interpretations
• You then mean that
• Is it correct that you feel
• Does the expression blah cover what you have
  just said
• Do you see any connections between the two
  situations

25
Types of questions (cont)

• Structuring
• Interviewer is responsible for course of
  interview and should indicate when the theme has
  been exhausted
• We might come back to this, but given the time,
  I would now like to introduce another topic.

26
Types of questions (cont)

• Reinforcement feedback
• I am about half way through the interview now,
  and I think a lot of really useful things are
  coming out of what youre saying
• I really appreciate your willingness to express
  your feelings about X. Youre helping me to
  understand
• I know that was a difficult question and I
  really appreciate your working through it because
  what you said was very meaningful to me
• (Patton, 1990330)

27
Minimise threatening questions

• Learn the respondents language so you can phrase
  the questions appropriately
• Define the interview situation as different from
  daily social intercourse
• Give respondent the opportunity to respond
  directly to criticisms
• Base difficult questions on particular situations
  and events known to the researcher
• Have an independent source of information
• (Ostrander 1995)

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Alternatives to questions

• Wengraf 2001

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Alternatives to questions

• Declarative statements
• Make a statement of thought in relation to what
  the speaker has just said
• Signals
• Give some signal of receiving what the speaker is
  saying, without taking and holding the floor

30
Alternatives to questions (cont)

• Silence
• Say nothing but maintain a deliberate,
  appreciative silence
• Allow pauses so subjects have ample time to
  associate and reflect and break the silence
  themselves
• Practise lengthening the milliseconds you leave
  before you break into a pause or silence
• Particularly good if you want to encourage your
  speaker to give you more information on a topic
  that you feel they have but are not providing
  (for whatever reason)

31
Alternatives to questions (cont)

• Stimulus material
• Bring photographs of places, music, films (eg to
  stimulate memory of old people)
• Interview people in the environment you wish them
  to describe (eg )
• Constructed vignettes, press cuttings,
  tape-recorded excerpts
• Material the interviewee has generated (eg
  documents)

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Ending the interview

• Always invite the respondent to say anything else
  that she things might be relevant to topic or
  interview process
• Confirm you can be contacted afterwards
• Ensure you respondent is aware that you
  appreciate the time and energy they committed
• (Wengraf 2001)
• Provide feedback opportunities for subjects to
  respond to and engage in dialogue with written
  proposals and reports
• (Ostrander 1995)

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Things to avoid

• Wengraf 2001

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Things to avoid

• Paper-focused on schedule watching and
  note-taking
• Comparing
• Mind reading
• Rehearsing
• Filtering
• Judging
• Dreaming
• Identifying
• Advising
• Sparring

35
Things to avoid (cont)

• Being right
• Derailing
• Placating

36
Topics

• An active interview
• Active listening
• Interview design
• Securing interviews
• Logistics of interviewing
• Types of questions
• Minimise threatening questions
• Alternatives to questions
• Ending the interview
• Things to avoid