Qualitative interviews Flashcards
What is the purpose of qualitative interviews?
- “insider accounts”
- Information about the topic
- Insight on lived experiences
Which type of qualitative interview corresponds to a positivist approach?
Structured interview
Which type of qualitative interview corresponds to an interpretivist approach?
Unstructured interview
What characterises structured interviews?
- Maximise comparability
- Clear structure
- Strict list of questions
- Little room to elaborate
- Reflects the researcher’s concerns
What characterises semi-structured interviews?
- Rich and detailed answers
- Flexible structure
- Topic list
- Some comparability
- Room for elaboration and new questions
- You adapt to how the conversation is flowing
- Bottom-up knowledge production
What characterises unstructured interviews?
- Open-ended
- Point of view of participants
- Interviewee gives direction, interviewer follows the flow, while keeping the topic in mind
- Informal conversation
Which type of interview may be best suited if subjects don’t have a lot of time?
Structured interview
- to get answers to your questions with the time you have
What are the alternatives to structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews?
- Mobile/walking interviews
- Life history interviews
- Focus groups
What characterises mobile/walking interviews?
- Environment as prompt
- Research about landscape
- How is the subject experiencing the environment?
What characterises life history interviews?
Insight into one’s life trajectory
- biographical
What characterises focus groups?
- Group dynamics
- Interactions
How do you prepare an interview?
- Do your work: know the social, economic, political context of the interview
- Manage expectations: time spent for interviewee, location
- Explain your research: be clear, don’t use scientific jargon, purpose of interview, data usage
- Think about the setting: where you and your informant are comfortable speaking
- Prepare topic list/questions
What characterises a topic list or questions for an interview?
It’s a dynamic document, where you add topics and questions
What is the correct attitude and behaviours to adopt during an interview?
- Active listening
- Mindful of non-verbal communication (body language of interviewer and yourself)
- Refrain from judgement
-> open attitude - Give recognition
- Be flexible
- Think about first question, how you engage the interview
- End on positive note
- Avoid finishing sentences
- Ask about actions and develop on their opinions
- Be attentive to what is not said, the elephant in the room
How can you engage the interview?
- Start with focused question on subject’s values in the context of the research
or
- Start with a broad question to start the discussion
Why is it important to avoid finishing the interviewee’s sentences?
You’re trying to have answers in their own words
Why is it important to ask the interviewee about their actions, and develop on their opinions?
You’re trying to leave with their perspectives, not generalised opinions
What are prompts in an interview?
- Elicitation: photographs, objects, environment
- Sensitive silence
- Repeating their last words
- Body language
What should you do after an interview?
- Go over the notes taken before and during the interview, and add some
-> reflective/theoretical ideas - Transcribe the recorded audio
What is a key concern for feminist researchers regarding qualitative interviews?
The interview method tends to reproduce the problematic discourses and power relationships of wider society
-> hinders the capacity of the interview to truly reveal others’ perspectives
What can you do to mitigate the risk of an interview to reproduce the problematic discourses and power relationships of wider society?
- Sustained immersion
- Active listening
What does sustained immersion in an interview refer to?
Attempt to review material produced during interviews collaboratively with research participants
-> reflexive interviewing
What do DeVault and Gross (2012) mean by ‘active listening’?
- Close attention to what is asked and said during the interview
- Detailed examination of interview text regarding the structure of exchanges and language used
