Interviews

Question 1

What is an interview?

Answer 1

A way to collect qualitative data.
Qualitative reasearch method, that asks participants questions and later analyze them

Question 2

Unstructured interview

Answer 2

small amount of questions that allow participants to dictate / lead the interview

Question 3

Semi-structured interview

Answer 3

Organized set of questions that were planned by researcher, and can be motified ( change in order, addition / subtraction of questions ) as researcher desires

Question 4

Structured interview

Answer 4

Interview were all of the questions were planned ahead of time

Question 5

Focus groups

Answer 5

A group interview that is used to study what a specific group of people think or feel about a topic

Question 6

Interview schedule

Answer 6

The plan for conducting the interview

Question 7

Conformity effects

Answer 7

People in the focus group agree with the ideas of a member of the group

Question 8

Unstructured interview strengths

Answer 8

• 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

Question 9

Unstructured interview limitation

Answer 9

• 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

Question 10

Focus groups strength

Answer 10

• 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

Question 11

Focus groups limitation

Answer 11

• 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

Question 12

Interviewer effect

Answer 12

Interviewer effects include both characteristics and behaviors of an interviewer that may affect the way that an interviewee responds.

Question 13

Interview guide

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

Descriptive questions

Answer 14

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? )

Question 15

Structural questions

Answer 15

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? )

Question 16

Contrast questions

Answer 16

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? )

Question 17

Evaluative questions

Answer 17

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? )

Question 18

Transcription of data

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

Verbatim

Answer 19

Word by word

Question 20

Postmodern transcripts

Answer 20

Transcriptions that include, features such as pauses, interruptions, intonation, the volume of speech, incomplete sentences, false starts, and laughter.

Question 21

Active listening technique

Answer 21

Researcher restates the participant’s comments and integrates them into later questions

Question 22

Thematic analysis

Answer 22

Researcher produces notes about initial thoughts and observations that could be useful for analysis

Question 23

Emergent themes

Answer 23

Themes spring out of the text and are assumed to capture something essential about it. Emergent themes characterize each section of the transcripts.

Question 24

High-order themes

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

Credibility

Answer 25

Interpretation of the data is written and given to the participant so that she can confirm that the interpretation reasonably reflects the original interview.