Interviews and Focus Group Discussions Flashcards
What are unstructured interviews?
- Normally used to gather qualitative research data
- Interviewer has no planned sequence of questions, lets the respondents use their own words and develop their own thoughts about the topic
- By asking broad, open-ended questions and using follow-up/probe questions
- Used in exploratory studies where not much is known yet or hypothesised about the topic of interest
- To explore and probe aspects that might be central to the topic of interest
- Bring some preliminary issues to the surface so researcher can determine what variables need further investigation
What are structured interviews?
- Normally used to gather quantitative research data
- Generally uses closed question
- Interviewer has a list of predetermined questions to ask respondents - the Interview Schedule, like a questionnaire
- The same questions are asked of all respondents in the same manner
- Interviewer still has scope to probe using follow ups - standardised probes
- Can often follow unstructured interviews, based on issues uncovered during the UI
- Useful when time is limited
What types of interview are there?
- Face to face
- Telephone
- Online
- Group
- Photo-Elicitation
What is important about face to face interviews?
- Rapport
- Observe non verbal cues
- Probe responses
What is important about telephone interviews?
- Convenient for both parties
- Privacy
- Should be structured
- Interviewee cannot be observed
- Issues with recording
What is important about online interviews?
- Can involve one-on-one or group
- Can be synchronous or asynchronous
What is important about group interviews?
- Two or more participants who have shared experiences
- Can be structured or unstructured
- Safety in numbers vs conformity/withholding views
- No rapport
- Group dynamic may produce unique results
What are the main challenges of interviews?
- Respondent Bias
* Interviewer bias
What kinds of respondent bias are there in interviews?
- Respondents as source of unintentional bias
* Respondents as source of intentional bias
How can the respondent be a source of unintentional bias in interviews?
- Misinterpretation of questions
- Don’t know/can’t remember
How can the respondent be a source of intentional bias in interviews?
- Don’t want to take the effort to think about answers
- Don’t want interviewer to know their real thought/feelings because it makes them vulnerable or uncomfortable
- Give an answer that pleases the interviewer
- Response set
- Give the same answer to every question
- Acquiescence bias
- Repondent agrees with everything the interviewer says
- Social desirabilty bias
- Respondent gives the socially desirable or politically correct reponse
- Prestige bias
- Respondent is influenced by their perception of the prestige of a group or individual e.g “doctor” “excellent”
How can interviewer bias occur?
- Elicit distortion
- Personal identiy
- Self-presentation
- Personal involvement and interviewing techniques
- Misinterpret information from the respondent
How can validity be measured in interviews?
- Interviewer verification is a method used to help establish validity
- Interviewer gives each reponsdent a transcript of their interview so that the interviewee can verify that it is an accurate record of the interview
How can reliability be measured in interviews?
- Rather than ensuring consistency, the focus is on the dependability of qualitative research
- Researchers must develop interviewing skills to minimise distortion of responses
- A research diary should be kept to document the researchers experiences, insights, knowledge development and decision making through the project
What are the pros of interviews?
- Depth of information
- Insights of key informants
- Flexiblity
- Validity
- High response rate
- Therapeutic
