Scribd
Upload
71 views

Interviews

helpful material

Uploaded by

Umair Uddin
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
71 views

Interviews

helpful material

Uploaded by

Umair Uddin
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 13

Qualitative Research Methods

Kevin Meethan, Alison Anderson

Interviews
Along with questionnaires, interviews are the most common form of data collection

Interviews are usually grouped on a continuum as follows: Structured Semi Structured Unstructured

Structured
Structured interviews are those where the questions tend to be closed questions requiring yes/no answers, use likert scales or other forms of ranking. When undertaking this sort of interview you closely follow the script of the interview questions Structured interviews are more like questionnaires that are being filled out in face to face situations, there is not much concern with explanations of peoples responses

Semi-structured
Semi structured interviews are those that incorporate both closed and open questions, and are more concerned with explanation of motives, actions and thoughts The interviewer may also look for further information, for example asking Why do you think that? or what happened next or what exactly do you mean? If something unanticipated comes up then that can also be asked about

Unstructured
An unstructured interview is one where the interviewer has a theme they wish to talk about, or a topic guide that lists a number of themes In both semi structured and unstructured interviews the order in which you ask the questions is not so important

Sometimes the interviewee may answer a question before it is asked

Interviewing
Sometimes the interviewee may go off on a tangent, and reveal something new, but sometimes they may go off on a tangent and not reveal anything worth having. The less structured an interview is, the more like a conversation it becomes. However, it is not the same as a conversation as the interviewer needs to keep it focussed on the research questions.

Interviewing
The interviewer also has to play the role of being a good listener. How you formulate and ask the questions is very important
Avoid leading questions or trick questions, such as these for example If the interviewer was to say When did you stop taking drugs? they are of course implying that interviewee once did.

Interviewing
If the interviewer was to say I dont like the current policy on child care provision, what do you think? they are revealing their own values and opinions on the subject.

Research interviews are not the same as journalists interviews and must never be confrontational.
Avoid normative questions, that is those which require the interviewee to give a socially acceptable answer

Interviewing
Avoid over long or complicated questions, specialist language and jargon that the interviewee will not understand but bear in mind that in some instances you may have to learn specialist words and jargon from your interviewees
Give your questions a test run, ask yourself how would I feel if I was asked that question? It is important to establish and keep rapport during the interview

Interviewing
It is best to record the interview with a digital voice recorder
Taking verbatim notes is very difficult unless you can write in shorthand It takes a long time to transcribe interviews, the usual estimate is that it takes 3 hours to transcribe 1 hour of recording It can be a tiring process for both parties so you can only do a few a day

Summary
Interviewing is a good way to explore peoples attitudes and values towards certain topics and situations and gain a fuller understanding of their motivations and actions
However they are time consuming and labour intensive and for those reasons are only done with small samples. What you lose in breadth you make up for in depth

References
Kiely, R, McCrone, D, Bechhofer, F and Stewart, R. (2000) 'Debatable Land: National and Local Identity in a Border Town' In Sociological Research Online, vol. 5, no. 2, http://www.socresonline.org.uk/5/2/kiely.html

Hockey, J, Robinson V. and Meah, A. (2002) ''For Better or Worse?': Heterosexuality Reinvented' In Sociological Research Online, vol. 7, no. 2, http://www.socresonline.org.uk/7/2/hockey.html

This resource was created by the University of Plymouth, Learning from WOeRk project. This project is funded by HEFCE as part of the HEA/JISC OER release programme. This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/). The resource, where specified below, contains other 3rd party materials under their own licenses. The licenses and attributions are outlined below:
1. 2. The name of the University of Plymouth and its logos are unregistered trade marks of the University. The University reserves all rights to these items beyond their inclusion in these CC resources. The JISC logo, the and the logo of the Higher Education Academy are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -non-commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK England & Wales license. All reproductions must comply with the terms of that license.
Author Institute Title Date Created Educational Level Keywords
Kevin Meethan and Alison Anderson

University of Plymouth
Interviews 23 February 2011 Level 5 UKOER, LFWOER, UOPCPDRM, Learning from WOeRK, Kevin Meethan, WBL Work Base Learning, CPD, Continuous Professional Development, Qualitative Research, Interviews

University of Plymouth, 2010, some rights reserved

Back page originally developed by the OER phase 1 C-Change project

You might also like