Interviews Flashcards
What is an interview?
A way to collect qualitative data.
Qualitative reasearch method, that asks participants questions and later analyze them
Unstructured interview
small amount of questions that allow participants to dictate / lead the interview
Semi-structured interview
Organized set of questions that were planned by researcher, and can be motified ( change in order, addition / subtraction of questions ) as researcher desires
Structured interview
Interview were all of the questions were planned ahead of time
Focus groups
A group interview that is used to study what a specific group of people think or feel about a topic
Interview schedule
The plan for conducting the interview
Conformity effects
People in the focus group agree with the ideas of a member of the group
Unstructured interview strengths
- Enables researcher to make interventions
- Reseachers are not restricted in the question that can be asked during the interview, and can ask to elaborate the answer.
- Inductive approach which believes that data may emerge from an interview and provire information that was not expected
Unstructured interview limitation
- One-to-one situation is somewhat artificial and this could bring issues sucj as ecological validaty into the question
- Data analysis is time-cosnuming as each participant that is interviwed has a different set of questions ( making comparison of data difficult)
- Themes are set, questions are not. The way questions are asked is subject to the skill and biases of the researcher
Focus groups strength
- Quick and convinient to collect data
- Provides a setting that is natural, so it can be argued to have high ecological validaty
- Members of the group may help to prompt relevant ideas and opinions of others that might not coem out a one -to-one interview
Focus groups limitation
- Presence of other participants may result in group dynamics such as conformity
- Can be difficult to facilitate and the data harder to analyze
- If the research deals with sensitive matters and the participants are supposed to talk about their personal experiences, it is not guaranteed that people will disclose information
Interviewer effect
Interviewer effects include both characteristics and behaviors of an interviewer that may affect the way that an interviewee responds.
Interview guide
The interview guide is a kind of script for how to conduct the interview. It is based on previous literature in the field and the aims of the actual research.
Descriptive questions
Descriptive questions invite the participant to give a general account of something. ( e.g what did it feel like when you first lost your job? )
Structural questions
Used to explore responses to descriptive questions. Better understand the meanings and understandings of the interviewee, often asking the participant to explain the meaning of a word that they used or making explicit links between their own life and their response to descriptive questions. ( e.g to what extent do you think that this has had an effect on who you are? )
Contrast questions
Allow the participant to compare events and experiences. ( e.g what is it about the party that resonates with your own beliefs, compared to the other party? )
Evaluative questions
Ask about the respondent’s feelings about someone or something ( e.g do you feel that you made the right choice in taking a gap year after university? )
Transcription of data
how to change the interview into a written text that can be used for analysis - should be decided in advance. Researchers often use professional transcribers because transcription is a time-consuming job, but they will have to decide which method of transcription to use.
Verbatim
Word by word
Postmodern transcripts
Transcriptions that include, features such as pauses, interruptions, intonation, the volume of speech, incomplete sentences, false starts, and laughter.
Active listening technique
Researcher restates the participant’s comments and integrates them into later questions
Thematic analysis
Researcher produces notes about initial thoughts and observations that could be useful for analysis
Emergent themes
Themes spring out of the text and are assumed to capture something essential about it. Emergent themes characterize each section of the transcripts.
High-order themes
List all the emergent themes and see if they relate to each other in clusters and hierarchies. Clusters are then given labels that capture the essence of the theme.
Credibility
Interpretation of the data is written and given to the participant so that she can confirm that the interpretation reasonably reflects the original interview.
