using interviews in a research project

Chapter 11. Interviewing

Introduction.

Interviewing people is at the heart of qualitative research. It is not merely a way to collect data but an intrinsically rewarding activity—an interaction between two people that holds the potential for greater understanding and interpersonal development. Unlike many of our daily interactions with others that are fairly shallow and mundane, sitting down with a person for an hour or two and really listening to what they have to say is a profound and deep enterprise, one that can provide not only “data” for you, the interviewer, but also self-understanding and a feeling of being heard for the interviewee. I always approach interviewing with a deep appreciation for the opportunity it gives me to understand how other people experience the world. That said, there is not one kind of interview but many, and some of these are shallower than others. This chapter will provide you with an overview of interview techniques but with a special focus on the in-depth semistructured interview guide approach, which is the approach most widely used in social science research.

An interview can be variously defined as “a conversation with a purpose” ( Lune and Berg 2018 ) and an attempt to understand the world from the point of view of the person being interviewed: “to unfold the meaning of peoples’ experiences, to uncover their lived world prior to scientific explanations” ( Kvale 2007 ). It is a form of active listening in which the interviewer steers the conversation to subjects and topics of interest to their research but also manages to leave enough space for those interviewed to say surprising things. Achieving that balance is a tricky thing, which is why most practitioners believe interviewing is both an art and a science. In my experience as a teacher, there are some students who are “natural” interviewers (often they are introverts), but anyone can learn to conduct interviews, and everyone, even those of us who have been doing this for years, can improve their interviewing skills. This might be a good time to highlight the fact that the interview is a product between interviewer and interviewee and that this product is only as good as the rapport established between the two participants. Active listening is the key to establishing this necessary rapport.

Patton ( 2002 ) makes the argument that we use interviews because there are certain things that are not observable. In particular, “we cannot observe feelings, thoughts, and intentions. We cannot observe behaviors that took place at some previous point in time. We cannot observe situations that preclude the presence of an observer. We cannot observe how people have organized the world and the meanings they attach to what goes on in the world. We have to ask people questions about those things” ( 341 ).

Types of Interviews

There are several distinct types of interviews. Imagine a continuum (figure 11.1). On one side are unstructured conversations—the kind you have with your friends. No one is in control of those conversations, and what you talk about is often random—whatever pops into your head. There is no secret, underlying purpose to your talking—if anything, the purpose is to talk to and engage with each other, and the words you use and the things you talk about are a little beside the point. An unstructured interview is a little like this informal conversation, except that one of the parties to the conversation (you, the researcher) does have an underlying purpose, and that is to understand the other person. You are not friends speaking for no purpose, but it might feel just as unstructured to the “interviewee” in this scenario. That is one side of the continuum. On the other side are fully structured and standardized survey-type questions asked face-to-face. Here it is very clear who is asking the questions and who is answering them. This doesn’t feel like a conversation at all! A lot of people new to interviewing have this ( erroneously !) in mind when they think about interviews as data collection. Somewhere in the middle of these two extreme cases is the “ semistructured” interview , in which the researcher uses an “interview guide” to gently move the conversation to certain topics and issues. This is the primary form of interviewing for qualitative social scientists and will be what I refer to as interviewing for the rest of this chapter, unless otherwise specified.

Types of Interviewing Questions: Unstructured conversations, Semi-structured interview, Structured interview, Survey questions

Informal (unstructured conversations). This is the most “open-ended” approach to interviewing. It is particularly useful in conjunction with observational methods (see chapters 13 and 14). There are no predetermined questions. Each interview will be different. Imagine you are researching the Oregon Country Fair, an annual event in Veneta, Oregon, that includes live music, artisan craft booths, face painting, and a lot of people walking through forest paths. It’s unlikely that you will be able to get a person to sit down with you and talk intensely about a set of questions for an hour and a half. But you might be able to sidle up to several people and engage with them about their experiences at the fair. You might have a general interest in what attracts people to these events, so you could start a conversation by asking strangers why they are here or why they come back every year. That’s it. Then you have a conversation that may lead you anywhere. Maybe one person tells a long story about how their parents brought them here when they were a kid. A second person talks about how this is better than Burning Man. A third person shares their favorite traveling band. And yet another enthuses about the public library in the woods. During your conversations, you also talk about a lot of other things—the weather, the utilikilts for sale, the fact that a favorite food booth has disappeared. It’s all good. You may not be able to record these conversations. Instead, you might jot down notes on the spot and then, when you have the time, write down as much as you can remember about the conversations in long fieldnotes. Later, you will have to sit down with these fieldnotes and try to make sense of all the information (see chapters 18 and 19).

Interview guide ( semistructured interview ). This is the primary type employed by social science qualitative researchers. The researcher creates an “interview guide” in advance, which she uses in every interview. In theory, every person interviewed is asked the same questions. In practice, every person interviewed is asked mostly the same topics but not always the same questions, as the whole point of a “guide” is that it guides the direction of the conversation but does not command it. The guide is typically between five and ten questions or question areas, sometimes with suggested follow-ups or prompts . For example, one question might be “What was it like growing up in Eastern Oregon?” with prompts such as “Did you live in a rural area? What kind of high school did you attend?” to help the conversation develop. These interviews generally take place in a quiet place (not a busy walkway during a festival) and are recorded. The recordings are transcribed, and those transcriptions then become the “data” that is analyzed (see chapters 18 and 19). The conventional length of one of these types of interviews is between one hour and two hours, optimally ninety minutes. Less than one hour doesn’t allow for much development of questions and thoughts, and two hours (or more) is a lot of time to ask someone to sit still and answer questions. If you have a lot of ground to cover, and the person is willing, I highly recommend two separate interview sessions, with the second session being slightly shorter than the first (e.g., ninety minutes the first day, sixty minutes the second). There are lots of good reasons for this, but the most compelling one is that this allows you to listen to the first day’s recording and catch anything interesting you might have missed in the moment and so develop follow-up questions that can probe further. This also allows the person being interviewed to have some time to think about the issues raised in the interview and go a little deeper with their answers.

Standardized questionnaire with open responses ( structured interview ). This is the type of interview a lot of people have in mind when they hear “interview”: a researcher comes to your door with a clipboard and proceeds to ask you a series of questions. These questions are all the same whoever answers the door; they are “standardized.” Both the wording and the exact order are important, as people’s responses may vary depending on how and when a question is asked. These are qualitative only in that the questions allow for “open-ended responses”: people can say whatever they want rather than select from a predetermined menu of responses. For example, a survey I collaborated on included this open-ended response question: “How does class affect one’s career success in sociology?” Some of the answers were simply one word long (e.g., “debt”), and others were long statements with stories and personal anecdotes. It is possible to be surprised by the responses. Although it’s a stretch to call this kind of questioning a conversation, it does allow the person answering the question some degree of freedom in how they answer.

Survey questionnaire with closed responses (not an interview!). Standardized survey questions with specific answer options (e.g., closed responses) are not really interviews at all, and they do not generate qualitative data. For example, if we included five options for the question “How does class affect one’s career success in sociology?”—(1) debt, (2) social networks, (3) alienation, (4) family doesn’t understand, (5) type of grad program—we leave no room for surprises at all. Instead, we would most likely look at patterns around these responses, thinking quantitatively rather than qualitatively (e.g., using regression analysis techniques, we might find that working-class sociologists were twice as likely to bring up alienation). It can sometimes be confusing for new students because the very same survey can include both closed-ended and open-ended questions. The key is to think about how these will be analyzed and to what level surprises are possible. If your plan is to turn all responses into a number and make predictions about correlations and relationships, you are no longer conducting qualitative research. This is true even if you are conducting this survey face-to-face with a real live human. Closed-response questions are not conversations of any kind, purposeful or not.

In summary, the semistructured interview guide approach is the predominant form of interviewing for social science qualitative researchers because it allows a high degree of freedom of responses from those interviewed (thus allowing for novel discoveries) while still maintaining some connection to a research question area or topic of interest. The rest of the chapter assumes the employment of this form.

Creating an Interview Guide

Your interview guide is the instrument used to bridge your research question(s) and what the people you are interviewing want to tell you. Unlike a standardized questionnaire, the questions actually asked do not need to be exactly what you have written down in your guide. The guide is meant to create space for those you are interviewing to talk about the phenomenon of interest, but sometimes you are not even sure what that phenomenon is until you start asking questions. A priority in creating an interview guide is to ensure it offers space. One of the worst mistakes is to create questions that are so specific that the person answering them will not stray. Relatedly, questions that sound “academic” will shut down a lot of respondents. A good interview guide invites respondents to talk about what is important to them, not feel like they are performing or being evaluated by you.

Good interview questions should not sound like your “research question” at all. For example, let’s say your research question is “How do patriarchal assumptions influence men’s understanding of climate change and responses to climate change?” It would be worse than unhelpful to ask a respondent, “How do your assumptions about the role of men affect your understanding of climate change?” You need to unpack this into manageable nuggets that pull your respondent into the area of interest without leading him anywhere. You could start by asking him what he thinks about climate change in general. Or, even better, whether he has any concerns about heatwaves or increased tornadoes or polar icecaps melting. Once he starts talking about that, you can ask follow-up questions that bring in issues around gendered roles, perhaps asking if he is married (to a woman) and whether his wife shares his thoughts and, if not, how they negotiate that difference. The fact is, you won’t really know the right questions to ask until he starts talking.

There are several distinct types of questions that can be used in your interview guide, either as main questions or as follow-up probes. If you remember that the point is to leave space for the respondent, you will craft a much more effective interview guide! You will also want to think about the place of time in both the questions themselves (past, present, future orientations) and the sequencing of the questions.

Researcher Note

Suggestion : As you read the next three sections (types of questions, temporality, question sequence), have in mind a particular research question, and try to draft questions and sequence them in a way that opens space for a discussion that helps you answer your research question.

Type of Questions

Experience and behavior questions ask about what a respondent does regularly (their behavior) or has done (their experience). These are relatively easy questions for people to answer because they appear more “factual” and less subjective. This makes them good opening questions. For the study on climate change above, you might ask, “Have you ever experienced an unusual weather event? What happened?” Or “You said you work outside? What is a typical summer workday like for you? How do you protect yourself from the heat?”

Opinion and values questions , in contrast, ask questions that get inside the minds of those you are interviewing. “Do you think climate change is real? Who or what is responsible for it?” are two such questions. Note that you don’t have to literally ask, “What is your opinion of X?” but you can find a way to ask the specific question relevant to the conversation you are having. These questions are a bit trickier to ask because the answers you get may depend in part on how your respondent perceives you and whether they want to please you or not. We’ve talked a fair amount about being reflective. Here is another place where this comes into play. You need to be aware of the effect your presence might have on the answers you are receiving and adjust accordingly. If you are a woman who is perceived as liberal asking a man who identifies as conservative about climate change, there is a lot of subtext that can be going on in the interview. There is no one right way to resolve this, but you must at least be aware of it.

Feeling questions are questions that ask respondents to draw on their emotional responses. It’s pretty common for academic researchers to forget that we have bodies and emotions, but people’s understandings of the world often operate at this affective level, sometimes unconsciously or barely consciously. It is a good idea to include questions that leave space for respondents to remember, imagine, or relive emotional responses to particular phenomena. “What was it like when you heard your cousin’s house burned down in that wildfire?” doesn’t explicitly use any emotion words, but it allows your respondent to remember what was probably a pretty emotional day. And if they respond emotionally neutral, that is pretty interesting data too. Note that asking someone “How do you feel about X” is not always going to evoke an emotional response, as they might simply turn around and respond with “I think that…” It is better to craft a question that actually pushes the respondent into the affective category. This might be a specific follow-up to an experience and behavior question —for example, “You just told me about your daily routine during the summer heat. Do you worry it is going to get worse?” or “Have you ever been afraid it will be too hot to get your work accomplished?”

Knowledge questions ask respondents what they actually know about something factual. We have to be careful when we ask these types of questions so that respondents do not feel like we are evaluating them (which would shut them down), but, for example, it is helpful to know when you are having a conversation about climate change that your respondent does in fact know that unusual weather events have increased and that these have been attributed to climate change! Asking these questions can set the stage for deeper questions and can ensure that the conversation makes the same kind of sense to both participants. For example, a conversation about political polarization can be put back on track once you realize that the respondent doesn’t really have a clear understanding that there are two parties in the US. Instead of asking a series of questions about Republicans and Democrats, you might shift your questions to talk more generally about political disagreements (e.g., “people against abortion”). And sometimes what you do want to know is the level of knowledge about a particular program or event (e.g., “Are you aware you can discharge your student loans through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program?”).

Sensory questions call on all senses of the respondent to capture deeper responses. These are particularly helpful in sparking memory. “Think back to your childhood in Eastern Oregon. Describe the smells, the sounds…” Or you could use these questions to help a person access the full experience of a setting they customarily inhabit: “When you walk through the doors to your office building, what do you see? Hear? Smell?” As with feeling questions , these questions often supplement experience and behavior questions . They are another way of allowing your respondent to report fully and deeply rather than remain on the surface.

Creative questions employ illustrative examples, suggested scenarios, or simulations to get respondents to think more deeply about an issue, topic, or experience. There are many options here. In The Trouble with Passion , Erin Cech ( 2021 ) provides a scenario in which “Joe” is trying to decide whether to stay at his decent but boring computer job or follow his passion by opening a restaurant. She asks respondents, “What should Joe do?” Their answers illuminate the attraction of “passion” in job selection. In my own work, I have used a news story about an upwardly mobile young man who no longer has time to see his mother and sisters to probe respondents’ feelings about the costs of social mobility. Jessi Streib and Betsy Leondar-Wright have used single-page cartoon “scenes” to elicit evaluations of potential racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and classism. Barbara Sutton ( 2010 ) has employed lists of words (“strong,” “mother,” “victim”) on notecards she fans out and asks her female respondents to select and discuss.

Background/Demographic Questions

You most definitely will want to know more about the person you are interviewing in terms of conventional demographic information, such as age, race, gender identity, occupation, and educational attainment. These are not questions that normally open up inquiry. [1] For this reason, my practice has been to include a separate “demographic questionnaire” sheet that I ask each respondent to fill out at the conclusion of the interview. Only include those aspects that are relevant to your study. For example, if you are not exploring religion or religious affiliation, do not include questions about a person’s religion on the demographic sheet. See the example provided at the end of this chapter.

Temporality

Any type of question can have a past, present, or future orientation. For example, if you are asking a behavior question about workplace routine, you might ask the respondent to talk about past work, present work, and ideal (future) work. Similarly, if you want to understand how people cope with natural disasters, you might ask your respondent how they felt then during the wildfire and now in retrospect and whether and to what extent they have concerns for future wildfire disasters. It’s a relatively simple suggestion—don’t forget to ask about past, present, and future—but it can have a big impact on the quality of the responses you receive.

Question Sequence

Having a list of good questions or good question areas is not enough to make a good interview guide. You will want to pay attention to the order in which you ask your questions. Even though any one respondent can derail this order (perhaps by jumping to answer a question you haven’t yet asked), a good advance plan is always helpful. When thinking about sequence, remember that your goal is to get your respondent to open up to you and to say things that might surprise you. To establish rapport, it is best to start with nonthreatening questions. Asking about the present is often the safest place to begin, followed by the past (they have to know you a little bit to get there), and lastly, the future (talking about hopes and fears requires the most rapport). To allow for surprises, it is best to move from very general questions to more particular questions only later in the interview. This ensures that respondents have the freedom to bring up the topics that are relevant to them rather than feel like they are constrained to answer you narrowly. For example, refrain from asking about particular emotions until these have come up previously—don’t lead with them. Often, your more particular questions will emerge only during the course of the interview, tailored to what is emerging in conversation.

Once you have a set of questions, read through them aloud and imagine you are being asked the same questions. Does the set of questions have a natural flow? Would you be willing to answer the very first question to a total stranger? Does your sequence establish facts and experiences before moving on to opinions and values? Did you include prefatory statements, where necessary; transitions; and other announcements? These can be as simple as “Hey, we talked a lot about your experiences as a barista while in college.… Now I am turning to something completely different: how you managed friendships in college.” That is an abrupt transition, but it has been softened by your acknowledgment of that.

Probes and Flexibility

Once you have the interview guide, you will also want to leave room for probes and follow-up questions. As in the sample probe included here, you can write out the obvious probes and follow-up questions in advance. You might not need them, as your respondent might anticipate them and include full responses to the original question. Or you might need to tailor them to how your respondent answered the question. Some common probes and follow-up questions include asking for more details (When did that happen? Who else was there?), asking for elaboration (Could you say more about that?), asking for clarification (Does that mean what I think it means or something else? I understand what you mean, but someone else reading the transcript might not), and asking for contrast or comparison (How did this experience compare with last year’s event?). “Probing is a skill that comes from knowing what to look for in the interview, listening carefully to what is being said and what is not said, and being sensitive to the feedback needs of the person being interviewed” ( Patton 2002:374 ). It takes work! And energy. I and many other interviewers I know report feeling emotionally and even physically drained after conducting an interview. You are tasked with active listening and rearranging your interview guide as needed on the fly. If you only ask the questions written down in your interview guide with no deviations, you are doing it wrong. [2]

The Final Question

Every interview guide should include a very open-ended final question that allows for the respondent to say whatever it is they have been dying to tell you but you’ve forgotten to ask. About half the time they are tired too and will tell you they have nothing else to say. But incredibly, some of the most honest and complete responses take place here, at the end of a long interview. You have to realize that the person being interviewed is often discovering things about themselves as they talk to you and that this process of discovery can lead to new insights for them. Making space at the end is therefore crucial. Be sure you convey that you actually do want them to tell you more, that the offer of “anything else?” is not read as an empty convention where the polite response is no. Here is where you can pull from that active listening and tailor the final question to the particular person. For example, “I’ve asked you a lot of questions about what it was like to live through that wildfire. I’m wondering if there is anything I’ve forgotten to ask, especially because I haven’t had that experience myself” is a much more inviting final question than “Great. Anything you want to add?” It’s also helpful to convey to the person that you have the time to listen to their full answer, even if the allotted time is at the end. After all, there are no more questions to ask, so the respondent knows exactly how much time is left. Do them the courtesy of listening to them!

Conducting the Interview

Once you have your interview guide, you are on your way to conducting your first interview. I always practice my interview guide with a friend or family member. I do this even when the questions don’t make perfect sense for them, as it still helps me realize which questions make no sense, are poorly worded (too academic), or don’t follow sequentially. I also practice the routine I will use for interviewing, which goes something like this:

Introduce myself and reintroduce the study
Provide consent form and ask them to sign and retain/return copy
Ask if they have any questions about the study before we begin
Ask if I can begin recording
Ask questions (from interview guide)
Turn off the recording device
Ask if they are willing to fill out my demographic questionnaire
Collect questionnaire and, without looking at the answers, place in same folder as signed consent form
Thank them and depart

A note on remote interviewing: Interviews have traditionally been conducted face-to-face in a private or quiet public setting. You don’t want a lot of background noise, as this will make transcriptions difficult. During the recent global pandemic, many interviewers, myself included, learned the benefits of interviewing remotely. Although face-to-face is still preferable for many reasons, Zoom interviewing is not a bad alternative, and it does allow more interviews across great distances. Zoom also includes automatic transcription, which significantly cuts down on the time it normally takes to convert our conversations into “data” to be analyzed. These automatic transcriptions are not perfect, however, and you will still need to listen to the recording and clarify and clean up the transcription. Nor do automatic transcriptions include notations of body language or change of tone, which you may want to include. When interviewing remotely, you will want to collect the consent form before you meet: ask them to read, sign, and return it as an email attachment. I think it is better to ask for the demographic questionnaire after the interview, but because some respondents may never return it then, it is probably best to ask for this at the same time as the consent form, in advance of the interview.

What should you bring to the interview? I would recommend bringing two copies of the consent form (one for you and one for the respondent), a demographic questionnaire, a manila folder in which to place the signed consent form and filled-out demographic questionnaire, a printed copy of your interview guide (I print with three-inch right margins so I can jot down notes on the page next to relevant questions), a pen, a recording device, and water.

After the interview, you will want to secure the signed consent form in a locked filing cabinet (if in print) or a password-protected folder on your computer. Using Excel or a similar program that allows tables/spreadsheets, create an identifying number for your interview that links to the consent form without using the name of your respondent. For example, let’s say that I conduct interviews with US politicians, and the first person I meet with is George W. Bush. I will assign the transcription the number “INT#001” and add it to the signed consent form. [3] The signed consent form goes into a locked filing cabinet, and I never use the name “George W. Bush” again. I take the information from the demographic sheet, open my Excel spreadsheet, and add the relevant information in separate columns for the row INT#001: White, male, Republican. When I interview Bill Clinton as my second interview, I include a second row: INT#002: White, male, Democrat. And so on. The only link to the actual name of the respondent and this information is the fact that the consent form (unavailable to anyone but me) has stamped on it the interview number.

Many students get very nervous before their first interview. Actually, many of us are always nervous before the interview! But do not worry—this is normal, and it does pass. Chances are, you will be pleasantly surprised at how comfortable it begins to feel. These “purposeful conversations” are often a delight for both participants. This is not to say that sometimes things go wrong. I often have my students practice several “bad scenarios” (e.g., a respondent that you cannot get to open up; a respondent who is too talkative and dominates the conversation, steering it away from the topics you are interested in; emotions that completely take over; or shocking disclosures you are ill-prepared to handle), but most of the time, things go quite well. Be prepared for the unexpected, but know that the reason interviews are so popular as a technique of data collection is that they are usually richly rewarding for both participants.

One thing that I stress to my methods students and remind myself about is that interviews are still conversations between people. If there’s something you might feel uncomfortable asking someone about in a “normal” conversation, you will likely also feel a bit of discomfort asking it in an interview. Maybe more importantly, your respondent may feel uncomfortable. Social research—especially about inequality—can be uncomfortable. And it’s easy to slip into an abstract, intellectualized, or removed perspective as an interviewer. This is one reason trying out interview questions is important. Another is that sometimes the question sounds good in your head but doesn’t work as well out loud in practice. I learned this the hard way when a respondent asked me how I would answer the question I had just posed, and I realized that not only did I not really know how I would answer it, but I also wasn’t quite as sure I knew what I was asking as I had thought.

—Elizabeth M. Lee, Associate Professor of Sociology at Saint Joseph’s University, author of Class and Campus Life , and co-author of Geographies of Campus Inequality

How Many Interviews?

Your research design has included a targeted number of interviews and a recruitment plan (see chapter 5). Follow your plan, but remember that “ saturation ” is your goal. You interview as many people as you can until you reach a point at which you are no longer surprised by what they tell you. This means not that no one after your first twenty interviews will have surprising, interesting stories to tell you but rather that the picture you are forming about the phenomenon of interest to you from a research perspective has come into focus, and none of the interviews are substantially refocusing that picture. That is when you should stop collecting interviews. Note that to know when you have reached this, you will need to read your transcripts as you go. More about this in chapters 18 and 19.

Your Final Product: The Ideal Interview Transcript

A good interview transcript will demonstrate a subtly controlled conversation by the skillful interviewer. In general, you want to see replies that are about one paragraph long, not short sentences and not running on for several pages. Although it is sometimes necessary to follow respondents down tangents, it is also often necessary to pull them back to the questions that form the basis of your research study. This is not really a free conversation, although it may feel like that to the person you are interviewing.

Final Tips from an Interview Master

Annette Lareau is arguably one of the masters of the trade. In Listening to People , she provides several guidelines for good interviews and then offers a detailed example of an interview gone wrong and how it could be addressed (please see the “Further Readings” at the end of this chapter). Here is an abbreviated version of her set of guidelines: (1) interview respondents who are experts on the subjects of most interest to you (as a corollary, don’t ask people about things they don’t know); (2) listen carefully and talk as little as possible; (3) keep in mind what you want to know and why you want to know it; (4) be a proactive interviewer (subtly guide the conversation); (5) assure respondents that there aren’t any right or wrong answers; (6) use the respondent’s own words to probe further (this both allows you to accurately identify what you heard and pushes the respondent to explain further); (7) reuse effective probes (don’t reinvent the wheel as you go—if repeating the words back works, do it again and again); (8) focus on learning the subjective meanings that events or experiences have for a respondent; (9) don’t be afraid to ask a question that draws on your own knowledge (unlike trial lawyers who are trained never to ask a question for which they don’t already know the answer, sometimes it’s worth it to ask risky questions based on your hypotheses or just plain hunches); (10) keep thinking while you are listening (so difficult…and important); (11) return to a theme raised by a respondent if you want further information; (12) be mindful of power inequalities (and never ever coerce a respondent to continue the interview if they want out); (13) take control with overly talkative respondents; (14) expect overly succinct responses, and develop strategies for probing further; (15) balance digging deep and moving on; (16) develop a plan to deflect questions (e.g., let them know you are happy to answer any questions at the end of the interview, but you don’t want to take time away from them now); and at the end, (17) check to see whether you have asked all your questions. You don’t always have to ask everyone the same set of questions, but if there is a big area you have forgotten to cover, now is the time to recover ( Lareau 2021:93–103 ).

Sample: Demographic Questionnaire

ASA Taskforce on First-Generation and Working-Class Persons in Sociology – Class Effects on Career Success

Supplementary Demographic Questionnaire

Thank you for your participation in this interview project. We would like to collect a few pieces of key demographic information from you to supplement our analyses. Your answers to these questions will be kept confidential and stored by ID number. All of your responses here are entirely voluntary!

What best captures your race/ethnicity? (please check any/all that apply)

White (Non Hispanic/Latina/o/x)
Black or African American
Hispanic, Latino/a/x of Spanish
Asian or Asian American
American Indian or Alaska Native
Middle Eastern or North African
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
Other : (Please write in: ________________)

What is your current position?

Grad Student
Full Professor

Please check any and all of the following that apply to you:

I identify as a working-class academic
I was the first in my family to graduate from college
I grew up poor

What best reflects your gender?

Transgender female/Transgender woman
Transgender male/Transgender man
Gender queer/ Gender nonconforming

Anything else you would like us to know about you?

Example: Interview Guide

In this example, follow-up prompts are italicized. Note the sequence of questions. That second question often elicits an entire life history , answering several later questions in advance.

Introduction Script/Question

Thank you for participating in our survey of ASA members who identify as first-generation or working-class. As you may have heard, ASA has sponsored a taskforce on first-generation and working-class persons in sociology and we are interested in hearing from those who so identify. Your participation in this interview will help advance our knowledge in this area.

The first thing we would like to as you is why you have volunteered to be part of this study? What does it mean to you be first-gen or working class? Why were you willing to be interviewed?
How did you decide to become a sociologist?
Can you tell me a little bit about where you grew up? ( prompts: what did your parent(s) do for a living? What kind of high school did you attend?)
Has this identity been salient to your experience? (how? How much?)
How welcoming was your grad program? Your first academic employer?
Why did you decide to pursue sociology at the graduate level?
Did you experience culture shock in college? In graduate school?
Has your FGWC status shaped how you’ve thought about where you went to school? debt? etc?
Were you mentored? How did this work (not work)? How might it?
What did you consider when deciding where to go to grad school? Where to apply for your first position?
What, to you, is a mark of career success? Have you achieved that success? What has helped or hindered your pursuit of success?
Do you think sociology, as a field, cares about prestige?
Let’s talk a little bit about intersectionality. How does being first-gen/working class work alongside other identities that are important to you?
What do your friends and family think about your career? Have you had any difficulty relating to family members or past friends since becoming highly educated?
Do you have any debt from college/grad school? Are you concerned about this? Could you explain more about how you paid for college/grad school? (here, include assistance from family, fellowships, scholarships, etc.)
(You’ve mentioned issues or obstacles you had because of your background.) What could have helped? Or, who or what did? Can you think of fortuitous moments in your career?
Do you have any regrets about the path you took?
Is there anything else you would like to add? Anything that the Taskforce should take note of, that we did not ask you about here?

Qualitative Interviewing

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First Online: 13 January 2019
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Sally Nathan 2 ,
Christy Newman 3 &
Kari Lancaster 3

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Qualitative interviewing is a foundational method in qualitative research and is widely used in health research and the social sciences. Both qualitative semi-structured and in-depth unstructured interviews use verbal communication, mostly in face-to-face interactions, to collect data about the attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of participants. Interviews are an accessible, often affordable, and effective method to understand the socially situated world of research participants. The approach is typically informed by an interpretive framework where the data collected is not viewed as evidence of the truth or reality of a situation or experience but rather a context-bound subjective insight from the participants. The researcher needs to be open to new insights and to privilege the participant’s experience in data collection. The data from qualitative interviews is not generalizable, but its exploratory nature permits the collection of rich data which can answer questions about which little is already known. This chapter introduces the reader to qualitative interviewing, the range of traditions within which interviewing is utilized as a method, and highlights the advantages and some of the challenges and misconceptions in its application. The chapter also provides practical guidance on planning and conducting interview studies. Three case examples are presented to highlight the benefits and risks in the use of interviewing with different participants, providing situated insights as well as advice about how to go about learning to interview if you are a novice.

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Nathan, S., Newman, C., Lancaster, K. (2019). Qualitative Interviewing. In: Liamputtong, P. (eds) Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5251-4_77

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Textbooks, Guidebooks, and Handbooks

The Ethnographic Interview by James P. Spradley “Spradley wrote this book for the professional and student who have never done ethnographic fieldwork (p. 231) and for the professional ethnographer who is interested in adapting the author’s procedures (p. iv). Part 1 outlines in 3 chapters Spradley’s version of ethnographic research, and it provides the background for Part 2 which consists of 12 guided steps (chapters) ranging from locating and interviewing an informant to writing an ethnography. Most of the examples come from the author’s own fieldwork among U.S. subcultures . . . Steps 6 and 8 explain lucidly how to construct a domain and a taxonomic analysis” (excerpted from book review by James D. Sexton, 1980).
Fundamentals of Qualitative Research by Johnny Saldana (Series edited by Patricia Leavy) Provides a soup-to-nuts overview of the qualitative data collection process, including interviewing, participant observation, and other methods.
InterViews by Steinar Kvale Interviewing is an essential tool in qualitative research and this introduction to interviewing outlines both the theoretical underpinnings and the practical aspects of the process. After examining the role of the interview in the research process, Steinar Kvale considers some of the key philosophical issues relating to interviewing: the interview as conversation, hermeneutics, phenomenology, concerns about ethics as well as validity, and postmodernism. Having established this framework, the author then analyzes the seven stages of the interview process - from designing a study to writing it up.
Practical Evaluation by Michael Quinn Patton Surveys different interviewing strategies, from, a) informal/conversational, to b) interview guide approach, to c) standardized and open-ended, to d) closed/quantitative. Also discusses strategies for wording questions that are open-ended, clear, sensitive, and neutral, while supporting the speaker. Provides suggestions for probing and maintaining control of the interview process, as well as suggestions for recording and transcription.
The SAGE Handbook of Interview Research by Amir B. Marvasti (Editor); James A. Holstein (Editor); Jaber F. Gubrium (Editor); Karyn D. McKinney (Editor) The new edition of this landmark volume emphasizes the dynamic, interactional, and reflexive dimensions of the research interview. Contributors highlight the myriad dimensions of complexity that are emerging as researchers increasingly frame the interview as a communicative opportunity as much as a data-gathering format. The book begins with the history and conceptual transformations of the interview, which is followed by chapters that discuss the main components of interview practice. Taken together, the contributions to The SAGE Handbook of Interview Research: The Complexity of the Craft encourage readers simultaneously to learn the frameworks and technologies of interviewing and to reflect on the epistemological foundations of the interview craft.
The SAGE Handbook of Online Research Methods by Nigel G. Fielding, Raymond M. Lee and Grant Blank (Editors) Bringing together the leading names in both qualitative and quantitative online research, this new edition is organised into nine sections: 1. Online Research Methods 2. Designing Online Research 3. Online Data Capture and Data Collection 4. The Online Survey 5. Digital Quantitative Analysis 6. Digital Text Analysis 7. Virtual Ethnography 8. Online Secondary Analysis: Resources and Methods 9. The Future of Online Social Research

ONLINE RESOURCES, COMMUNITIES, AND DATABASES

Interviews as a Method for Qualitative Research (video) This short video summarizes why interviews can serve as useful data in qualitative research.
Companion website to Bloomberg and Volpe's Completing Your Qualitative Dissertation: A Road Map from Beginning to End, 4th ed Provides helpful templates and appendices featured in the book, as well as links to other useful dissertation resources.
International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry Annual conference hosted by the International Center for Qualitative Inquiry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which aims to facilitate the development of qualitative research methods across a wide variety of academic disciplines, among other initiatives.
METHODSPACE An online home of the research methods community, where practicing researchers share how to make research easier.
SAGE researchmethods Researchers can explore methods concepts to help them design research projects, understand particular methods or identify a new method, conduct their research, and write up their findings. A "methods map" facilitates finding content on methods.

The decision to conduct interviews, and the type of interviewing to use, should flow from, or align with, the methodological paradigm chosen for your study, whether that paradigm is interpretivist, critical, positivist, or participative in nature (or a combination of these).

Structured:

Structured Interview. Entry in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methodsby Floyd J. Fowler Jr., Editors: Michael S. Lewis-Beck; Alan E. Bryman; Tim Futing Liao (Editor) A concise article noting standards, procedures, and recommendations for developing and testing structured interviews. For an example of structured interview questions, you may view the Current Population Survey, May 2008: Public Participation in the Arts Supplement (ICPSR 29641), Apr 15, 2011 at https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR29641.v1 (To see the survey questions, preview the user guide, which can be found under the "Data and Documentation" tab. Then, look for page 177 (attachment 8).

Semi-Structured:

Semi-Structured Interview. Entry in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methodsby Lioness Ayres; Editor: Lisa M. Given The semi-structured interview is a qualitative data collection strategy in which the researcher asks informants a series of predetermined but open-ended questions. The researcher has more control over the topics of the interview than in unstructured interviews, but in contrast to structured interviews or questionnaires that use closed questions, there is no fixed range of responses to each question.

Unstructured:

Unstructured Interview. Entry in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methodsby Michael W. Firmin; Editor: Lisa M. Given Unstructured interviews in qualitative research involve asking relatively open-ended questions of research participants in order to discover their percepts on the topic of interest. Interviews, in general, are a foundational means of collecting data when using qualitative research methods. They are designed to draw from the interviewee constructs embedded in his or her thinking and rationale for decision making. The researcher uses an inductive method in data gathering, regardless of whether the interview method is open, structured, or semi-structured. That is, the researcher does not wish to superimpose his or her own viewpoints onto the person being interviewed. Rather, inductively, the researcher wishes to understand the participant's perceptions, helping him or her to articulate percepts such that they will be understood clearly by the journal reader.

Genres and Uses

Focus groups:.

"Focus Groups." Annual Review of Sociology 22 (1996): 129-1524.by David L. Morgan Discusses the use of focus groups and group interviews as methods for gathering qualitative data used by sociologists and other academic and applied researchers. Focus groups are recommended for giving voice to marginalized groups and revealing the group effect on opinion formation.
Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector's Field Guide (See Module 4: "Focus Groups")by Mack, N., et al. This field guide is based on an approach to doing team-based, collaborative qualitative research that has repeatedly proven successful in research projects sponsored by Family Health International (FHI) throughout the developing world. With its straightforward delivery of information on the main qualitative methods being used in public health research today, the guide speaks to the need for simple yet effective instruction on how to do systematic and ethically sound qualitative research. The aim of the guide is thus practical. In bypassing extensive discussion on the theoretical underpinnings of qualitative research, it distinguishes itself as a how-to guide to be used in the field.

In-Depth (typically One-on-One):

A Practical Introduction to in-Depth Interviewingby Alan Morris Are you new to qualitative research or a bit rusty and in need of some inspiration? Are you doing a research project involving in-depth interviews? Are you nervous about carrying out your interviews? This book will help you complete your qualitative research project by providing a nuts and bolts introduction to interviewing. With coverage of ethics, preparation strategies and advice for handling the unexpected in the field, this handy guide will help you get to grips with the basics of interviewing before embarking on your research. While recognising that your research question and the context of your research will drive your approach to interviewing, this book provides practical advice often skipped in traditional methods textbooks.
Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector's Field Guide (See Module 3: "In-Depth Interviews")by Mack, N., et al. This field guide is based on an approach to doing team-based, collaborative qualitative research that has repeatedly proven successful in research projects sponsored by Family Health International (FHI) throughout the developing world. With its straightforward delivery of information on the main qualitative methods being used in public health research today, the guide speaks to the need for simple yet effective instruction on how to do systematic and ethically sound qualitative research. The aim of the guide is thus practical. In bypassing extensive discussion on the theoretical underpinnings of qualitative research, it distinguishes itself as a how-to guide to be used in the field.

Folklore Research and Oral Histories:

In addition to the following resource, see the Oral History page of this guide for helpful resources on Oral History interviewing.

American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Folklife and Fieldwork: A Layman’s Introduction to Field Techniques Interviews gathered for purposes of folklore research are similar to standard social science interviews in some ways, but also have a good deal in common with oral history approaches to interviewing. The focus in a folklore research interview is on documenting and trying to understand the interviewee's way of life relative to a culture or subculture you are studying. This guide includes helpful advice and tips for conducting fieldwork in folklore, such as tips for planning, conducting, recording, and archiving interviews.

An interdisciplinary scientific program within the Institute for Quantitative Social Science which encourages and facilitates research and instruction in the theory and practice of survey research. The primary mission of PSR is to provide survey research resources to enhance the quality of teaching and research at Harvard.

Internet, Phone, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveysby Don A. Dillman; Jolene D. Smyth; Leah Melani Christian The classic survey design reference, updated for the digital age. The new edition is thoroughly updated and revised, and covers all aspects of survey research. It features expanded coverage of mobile phones, tablets, and the use of do-it-yourself surveys, and Dillman's unique Tailored Design Method is also thoroughly explained. This new edition is complemented by copious examples within the text and accompanying website. It includes: Strategies and tactics for determining the needs of a given survey, how to design it, and how to effectively administer it. How and when to use mail, telephone, and Internet surveys to maximum advantage. Proven techniques to increase response rates. Guidance on how to obtain high-quality feedback from mail, electronic, and other self-administered surveys. Direction on how to construct effective questionnaires, including considerations of layout. The effects of sponsorship on the response rates of surveys. Use of capabilities provided by newly mass-used media: interactivity, presentation of aural and visual stimuli. The Fourth Edition reintroduces the telephone--including coordinating land and mobile.

User Experience (UX) and Marketing:

See the "UX & Market Research Interviews" tab on this guide, above. May include Focus Groups, above.

Screening for Research Site Selection:

Research interviews are used not only to furnish research data for theoretical analysis in the social sciences, but also to plan other kinds of studies. For example, interviews may allow researchers to screen appropriate research sites to conduct empirical studies (such as randomized controlled trials) in a variety of fields, from medicine to law. In contrast to interviews conducted in the course of social research, such interviews do not typically serve as the data for final analysis and publication.

ENGAGING PARTICIPANTS

Research ethics .

Human Subjects (IRB) The Committee on the Use of Human Subjects (CUHS) serves as the Institutional Review Board for the University area which includes the Cambridge and Allston campuses at Harvard. Find your IRB contact person , or learn about required ethics training. You may also find the IRB Lifecycle Guide helpful. This is the preferred IRB portal for Harvard graduate students and other researchers. IRB forms can be downloaded via the ESTR Library (click on the "Templates and Forms" tab, then navigate to pages 2 and 3 to find the documents labelled with “HUA” for the Harvard University Area IRB. Nota bene: You may use these forms only if you submit your study to the Harvard University IRB). The IRB office can be reached through email at [email protected] or by telephone at (617) 496-2847.
Undergraduate Research Training Program (URTP) Portal The URTP at Harvard University is a comprehensive platform to create better prepared undergraduate researchers. The URTP is comprised of research ethics training sessions, a student-focused curriculum, and an online decision form that will assist students in determining whether their project requires IRB review. Students should examine the URTP's guide for student researchers: Introduction to Human Subjects Research Protection.
Ethics reports From the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)
Respect, Beneficence, and Justice: QDR General Guidance for Human Participants If you are hoping to share your qualitative interview data in a repository after it has been collected, you will need to plan accordingly via informed consent, careful de-identification procedures, and data access controls. Consider consulting with the Qualitative Research Support Group at Harvard Library and consulting with Harvard's Dataverse contacts to help you think through all of the contingencies and processes.
"Conducting a Qualitative Child Interview: Methodological Considerations." Journal of Advanced Nursing 42/5 (2003): 434-441 by Kortesluoma, R., et al. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the theoretical premises of child interviewing, as well as to describe some practical methodological solutions used during interviews. Factors that influence data gathered from children and strategies for taking these factors into consideration during the interview are also described.
"Crossing Cultural Barriers in Research Interviewing." Qualitative Social Work 63/3 (2007): 353-372 by Sands, R., et al. This article critically examines a qualitative research interview in which cultural barriers between a white non-Muslim female interviewer and an African American Muslim interviewee, both from the USA, became evident and were overcome within the same interview.
Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Linda Tuhiwai Smith This essential volume explores intersections of imperialism and research - specifically, the ways in which imperialism is embedded in disciplines of knowledge and tradition as 'regimes of truth.' Concepts such as 'discovery' and 'claiming' are discussed and an argument presented that the decolonization of research methods will help to reclaim control over indigenous ways of knowing and being. The text includes case-studies and examples, and sections on new indigenous literature and the role of research in indigenous struggles for social justice.

This resource, sponsored by University of Oregon Libraries, exemplifies the use of interviewing methodologies in research that foregrounds traditional knowledge. The methodology page summarizes the approach.

Ethics: The Need to Tread Carefully. Chapter in A Practical Introduction to in-Depth Interviewing by Alan Morris Pay special attention to the sections in chapter 2 on "How to prevent and respond to ethical issues arising in the course of the interview," "Ethics in the writing up of your interviews," and "The Ethics of Care."
Handbook on Ethical Issues in Anthropology by Joan Cassell (Editor); Sue-Ellen Jacobs (Editor) This publication of the American Anthropological Association presents and discusses issues and sources on ethics in anthropology, as well as realistic case studies of ethical dilemmas. It is meant to help social science faculty introduce discussions of ethics in their courses. Some of the topics are relevant to interviews, or at least to studies of which interviews are a part. See chapters 3 and 4 for cases, with solutions and commentary, respectively.
Research Ethics from the Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies, Trent University (Open Access) An overview of Indigenous research ethics and protocols from the across the globe.
Resources for Equity in Research Consult these resources for guidance on creating and incorporating equitable materials into public health research studies that entail community engagement.

The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research Ethics by Ron Iphofen (Editor); Martin Tolich (Editor) This handbook is a much-needed and in-depth review of the distinctive set of ethical considerations which accompanies qualitative research. This is particularly crucial given the emergent, dynamic and interactional nature of most qualitative research, which too often allows little time for reflection on the important ethical responsibilities and obligations. Contributions from leading international researchers have been carefully organized into six key thematic sections: Part One: Thick Descriptions Of Qualitative Research Ethics; Part Two: Qualitative Research Ethics By Technique; Part Three: Ethics As Politics; Part Four: Qualitative Research Ethics With Vulnerable Groups; Part Five: Relational Research Ethics; Part Six: Researching Digitally. This Handbook is a one-stop resource on qualitative research ethics across the social sciences that draws on the lessons learned and the successful methods for surmounting problems - the tried and true, and the new.

RESEARCH COMPLIANCE AND PRIVACY LAWS

Research Compliance Program for FAS/SEAS at Harvard : The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), including the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) have established a shared Research Compliance Program (RCP). An area of common concern for interview studies is international projects and collaboration . RCP is a resource to provide guidance on which international activities may be impacted by US sanctions on countries, individuals, or entities and whether licenses or other disclosure are required to ship or otherwise share items, technology, or data with foreign collaborators.

Harvard Global Support Services (GSS) is for students, faculty, staff, and researchers who are studying, researching, or working abroad. Their services span safety and security, health, culture, outbound immigration, employment, financial and legal matters, and research center operations. These include travel briefings and registration, emergency response, guidance on international projects, and managing in-country operations.

Generative AI: Harvard-affiliated researchers should not enter data classified as confidential ( Level 2 and above ), including non-public research data, into publicly-available generative AI tools, in accordance with the University’s Information Security Policy. Information shared with generative AI tools using default settings is not private and could expose proprietary or sensitive information to unauthorized parties.

Privacy Laws: Be mindful of any potential privacy laws that may apply wherever you conduct your interviews. The General Data Protection Regulation is a high-profile example (see below):

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) This Regulation lays down rules relating to the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and rules relating to the free movement of personal data. It protects fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons and in particular their right to the protection of personal data. The free movement of personal data within the Union shall be neither restricted nor prohibited for reasons connected with the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data. For a nice summary of what the GDPR requires, check out the GDPR "crash course" here .

SEEKING CONSENT

If you would like to see examples of consent forms, ask your local IRB, or take a look at these resources:

Model consent forms for oral history, suggested by the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University
For NIH-funded research, see this resource for developing informed consent language in research studies where data and/or biospecimens will be stored and shared for future use.

POPULATION SAMPLING

If you wish to assemble resources to aid in sampling, such as the USPS Delivery Sequence File, telephone books, or directories of organizations and listservs, please contact our data librarian or write to [email protected] .

Research Randomizer A free web-based service that permits instant random sampling and random assignment. It also contains an interactive tutorial perfect for students taking courses in research methods.
Practical Tools for Designing and Weighting Survey Samples by Richard Valliant; Jill A. Dever; Frauke Kreuter Survey sampling is fundamentally an applied field. The goal in this book is to put an array of tools at the fingertips of practitioners by explaining approaches long used by survey statisticians, illustrating how existing software can be used to solve survey problems, and developing some specialized software where needed. This book serves at least three audiences: (1) Students seeking a more in-depth understanding of applied sampling either through a second semester-long course or by way of a supplementary reference; (2) Survey statisticians searching for practical guidance on how to apply concepts learned in theoretical or applied sampling courses; and (3) Social scientists and other survey practitioners who desire insight into the statistical thinking and steps taken to design, select, and weight random survey samples. Several survey data sets are used to illustrate how to design samples, to make estimates from complex surveys for use in optimizing the sample allocation, and to calculate weights. Realistic survey projects are used to demonstrate the challenges and provide a context for the solutions. The book covers several topics that either are not included or are dealt with in a limited way in other texts. These areas include: sample size computations for multistage designs; power calculations related to surveys; mathematical programming for sample allocation in a multi-criteria optimization setting; nuts and bolts of area probability sampling; multiphase designs; quality control of survey operations; and statistical software for survey sampling and estimation. An associated R package, PracTools, contains a number of specialized functions for sample size and other calculations. The data sets used in the book are also available in PracTools, so that the reader may replicate the examples or perform further analyses.
Sampling: Design and Analysis by Sharon L. Lohr Provides a modern introduction to the field of sampling. With a multitude of applications from a variety of disciplines, the book concentrates on the statistical aspects of taking and analyzing a sample. Overall, the book gives guidance on how to tell when a sample is valid or not, and how to design and analyze many different forms of sample surveys.
Sampling Techniques by William G. Cochran Clearly demonstrates a wide range of sampling methods now in use by governments, in business, market and operations research, social science, medicine, public health, agriculture, and accounting. Gives proofs of all the theoretical results used in modern sampling practice. New topics in this edition include the approximate methods developed for the problem of attaching standard errors or confidence limits to nonlinear estimates made from the results of surveys with complex plans.
"Understanding the Process of Qualitative Data Collection" in Chapter 13 (pp. 103–1162) of 30 Essential Skills for the Qualitative Researcher by John W. Creswell Provides practical "how-to" information for beginning researchers in the social, behavioral, and health sciences with many applied examples from research design, qualitative inquiry, and mixed methods.The skills presented in this book are crucial for a new qualitative researcher starting a qualitative project.
Survey Methodology by Robert M. Groves; Floyd J. Fowler; Mick P. Couper; James M. Lepkowski; Eleanor Singer; Roger Tourangeau; Floyd J. Fowler coverage includes sampling frame evaluation, sample design, development of questionnaires, evaluation of questions, alternative modes of data collection, interviewing, nonresponse, post-collection processing of survey data, and practices for maintaining scientific integrity.

The way a qualitative researcher constructs and approaches interview questions should flow from, or align with, the methodological paradigm chosen for the study, whether that paradigm is interpretivist, critical, positivist, or participative in nature (or a combination of these).

Constructing Your Questions

Helpful texts:.

"Developing Questions" in Chapter 4 (pp. 98–108) of Becoming Qualitative Researchers by Corrine Glesne Ideal for introducing the novice researcher to the theory and practice of qualitative research, this text opens students to the diverse possibilities within this inquiry approach, while helping them understand how to design and implement specific research methods.
"Learning to Interview in the Social Sciences" Qualitative Inquiry, 9(4) 2003, 643–668 by Roulston, K., deMarrais, K., & Lewis, J. B. See especially the section on "Phrasing and Negotiating Questions" on pages 653-655 and common problems with framing questions noted on pages 659 - 660.
Qualitative Research Interviewing: Biographic Narrative and Semi-Structured Methods (See sections on “Lightly and Heavily Structured Depth Interviewing: Theory-Questions and Interviewer-Questions” and “Preparing for any Interviewing Sequence") by Tom Wengraf Unique in its conceptual coherence and the level of practical detail, this book provides a comprehensive resource for those concerned with the practice of semi-structured interviewing, the most commonly used interview approach in social research, and in particular for in-depth, biographic narrative interviewing. It covers the full range of practices from the identification of topics through to strategies for writing up research findings in diverse ways.
"Scripting a Qualitative Purpose Statement and Research Questions" in Chapter 12 (pp. 93–102) of 30 Essential Skills for the Qualitative Researcher by John W. Creswell Provides practical "how-to" information for beginning researchers in the social, behavioral, and health sciences with many applied examples from research design, qualitative inquiry, and mixed methods.The skills presented in this book are crucial for a new qualitative researcher starting a qualitative project.
Some Strategies for Developing Interview Guides for Qualitative Interviews by Sociology Department, Harvard University Includes general advice for conducting qualitative interviews, pros and cons of recording and transcription, guidelines for success, and tips for developing and phrasing effective interview questions.
Tip Sheet on Question Wording by Harvard University Program on Survey Research

Let Theory Guide You:

The quality of your questions depends on how you situate them within a wider body of knowledge. Consider the following advice:

A good literature review has many obvious virtues. It enables the investigator to define problems and assess data. It provides the concepts on which percepts depend. But the literature review has a special importance for the qualitative researcher. This consists of its ability to sharpen his or her capacity for surprise (Lazarsfeld, 1972b). The investigator who is well versed in the literature now has a set of expectations the data can defy. Counterexpectational data are conspicuous, readable, and highly provocative data. They signal the existence of unfulfilled theoretical assumptions, and these are, as Kuhn (1962) has noted, the very origins of intellectual innovation. A thorough review of the literature is, to this extent, a way to manufacture distance. It is a way to let the data of one's research project take issue with the theory of one's field.

McCracken, G. (1988), The Long Interview, Sage: Newbury Park, CA, p. 31

When drafting your interview questions, remember that everything follows from your central research question. Also, on the way to writing your "operationalized" interview questions, it's helpful to draft broader, intermediate questions, couched in theory. Nota bene: While it is important to know the literature well before conducting your interview(s), be careful not to present yourself to your research participant(s) as "the expert," which would be presumptuous and could be intimidating. Rather, the purpose of your knowledge is to make you a better, keener listener.

If you'd like to supplement what you learned about relevant theories through your coursework and literature review, try these sources:

Annual Reviews Review articles sum up the latest research in many fields, including social sciences, biomedicine, life sciences, and physical sciences. These are timely collections of critical reviews written by leading scientists.
HOLLIS - search for resources on theories in your field Modify this example search by entering the name of your field in place of "your discipline," then hit search.
Oxford Bibliographies Written and reviewed by academic experts, every article in this database is an authoritative guide to the current scholarship in a variety of fields, containing original commentary and annotations.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Indexes dissertations and masters' theses from most North American graduate schools as well as some European universities. Provides full text for most indexed dissertations from 1990-present.
Very Short Introductions Launched by Oxford University Press in 1995, Very Short Introductions offer concise introductions to a diverse range of subjects from Climate to Consciousness, Game Theory to Ancient Warfare, Privacy to Islamic History, Economics to Literary Theory.

CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS

Equipment and software: .

Lamont Library loans microphones and podcast starter kits, which will allow you to capture audio (and you may record with software, such as Garage Band).
Cabot Library loans digital recording devices, as well as USB microphones.

If you prefer to use your own device, you may purchase a small handheld audio recorder, or use your cell phone.

Audio Capture Basics (PDF) - Helpful instructions, courtesy of the Lamont Library Multimedia Lab.
Getting Started with Podcasting/Audio: Guidelines from Harvard Library's Virtual Media Lab for preparing your interviewee for a web-based recording (e.g., podcast, interview)
Camtasia Screen Recorder and Video Editor
Zoom: Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing
Visit the Multimedia Production Resources guide! Consult it to find and learn how to use audiovisual production tools, including: cameras, microphones, studio spaces, and other equipment at Cabot Science Library and Lamont Library.
Try the virtual office hours offered by the Lamont Multimedia Lab!

TIPS FOR CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS

Quick handout: .

Research Interviewing Tips (Courtesy of Dr. Suzanne Spreadbury)

Remote Interviews:

For Online or Distant Interviews, See "Remote Research & Virtual Fieldwork" on this guide .
Deborah Lupton's Bibliography: Doing Fieldwork in a Pandemic

Seeking Consent:

Books and articles: .

"App-Based Textual Interviews: Interacting With Younger Generations in a Digitalized Social Reallity."International Journal of Social Research Methodology (12 June 2022). Discusses the use of texting platforms as a means to reach young people. Recommends useful question formulations for this medium.
"Learning to Interview in the Social Sciences." Qualitative Inquiry, 9(4) 2003, 643–668 by Roulston, K., deMarrais, K., & Lewis, J. B. See especially the section on "Phrasing and Negotiating Questions" on pages 653-655 and common problems with framing questions noted on pages 659-660.
"Slowing Down and Digging Deep: Teaching Students to Examine Interview Interaction in Depth." LEARNing Landscapes, Spring 2021 14(1) 153-169 by Herron, Brigette A. and Kathryn Roulston. Suggests analysis of videorecorded interviews as a precursor to formulating one's own questions. Includes helpful types of probes.
Using Interviews in a Research Project by Nigel Joseph Mathers; Nicholas J Fox; Amanda Hunn; Trent Focus Group. A work pack to guide researchers in developing interviews in the healthcare field. Describes interview structures, compares face-to-face and telephone interviews. Outlines the ways in which different types of interview data can be analysed.
“Working through Challenges in Doing Interview Research.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods, (December 2011), 348–66 by Roulston, Kathryn. The article explores (1) how problematic interactions identified in the analysis of focus group data can lead to modifications in research design, (2) an approach to dealing with reported data in representations of findings, and (3) how data analysis can inform question formulation in successive rounds of data generation. Findings from these types of examinations of interview data generation and analysis are valuable for informing both interview practice as well as research design.

Videos:

The way a qualitative researcher transcribes interviews should flow from, or align with, the methodological paradigm chosen for the study, whether that paradigm is interpretivist, critical, positivist, or participative in nature (or a combination of these).

TRANSCRIPTION

Before embarking on a transcription project, it's worthwhile to invest in the time and effort necessary to capture good audio, which will make the transcription process much easier. If you haven't already done so, check out the audio capture guidelines from Harvard Library's Virtual Media Lab , or contact a media staff member for customized recommendations. First and foremost, be mindful of common pitfalls by watching this short video that identifies the most common errors to avoid!

SOFTWARE:

Adobe Premiere Pro Speech-To-Text automatically generates transcripts and adds captions to your videos. Harvard affiliates can download Adobe Premiere in the Creative Cloud Suite.
GoTranscript provides cost-effective human-generated transcriptions.
pyTranscriber is an app for generating automatic transcription and/or subtitles for audio and video files. It uses the Google Cloud Speech-to-Text service, has a friendly graphical user interface, and is purported to work nicely with Chinese.
Otter provides a new way to capture, store, search and share voice conversations, lectures, presentations, meetings, and interviews. The startup is based in Silicon Valley with a team of experienced Ph.Ds and engineers from Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Nuance (à la Dragon). Free accounts available. This is the software that Zoom uses to generate automated transcripts, so if you have access to a Zoom subscription, you have access to Otter transcriptions with it (applicable in several languages ). As with any automated approach, be prepared to correct any errors after the fact, by hand.
Panopto is available to Harvard affiliates and generates ASR (automated speech recognition) captions . You may upload compatible audio files into it. As with any automatically generated transcription, you will need to make manual revisions. ASR captioning is available in several languages . Panopto maintains robust security practices, including strong authentication measures and end-to-end encryption, ensuring your content remains private and protected.
REV.Com allows you to record and transcribe any calls on the iPhone, both outgoing and incoming. It may be useful for recording phone interviews. Rev lets you choose whether you want an AI- or human-generated transcription, with a fast turnaround. Rev has Service Organization Controls Type II (SOC2) certification (a SOC2 cert looks at and verifies an organization’s processing integrity, privacy practices, and security safeguards).
Scribie Audio/Video Transcription provides automated or manual transcriptions for a small fee. As with any transcription service, some revisions will be necessary after the fact, particularly for its automated transcripts.
Sonix automatically transcribes, translates, and helps to organize audio and video files in over 40 languages. It's fast and affordable, with good accuracy. The free trial includes 30 minutes of free transcription.
TranscriptionWing uses a human touch process to clean up machine-generated transcripts so that the content will far more accurately reflect your audio recording.
Whisper is a tool from OpenAI that facilitates transcription of sensitive audiovisual recordings (e.g., of research interviews) on your own device. Installation and use depends on your operating system and which version you install. Important Note: The Whisper API, where audio is sent to OpenAI to be processed by them and then sent back (usually through a programming language like Python) is NOT appropriate for sensitive data. The model should be downloaded with tools such as those described in this FAQ , so that audio is kept to your local machine. For assistance, contact James Capobianco .

EQUIPMENT:

Transcription pedals are in circulation and available to borrow from the Circulation desk at Lamont, or use at Lamont Library's Media Lab on level B. For hand-transcribing your interviews, they work in conjunction with software such as Express Scribe , which is loaded on Media Lab computers, or you may download for free on your own machine (Mac or PC versions; scroll down the downloads page for the latter). The pedals are plug-and-play USB, allow a wide range of playback speeds, and have 3 programmable buttons, which are typically set to rewind/play/fast-forward. Instructions are included in the bag that covers installation and set-up of the software, and basic use of the pedals.

NEED HELP?

Try the virtual office hours offered by the Lamont Multimedia Lab!
If you're creating podcasts, login to Canvas and check out the Podcasting/Audio guide .

Helpful Texts:

"Transcription as a Crucial Step of Data Analysis" in Chapter 5 of The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysisby Uwe Flick (Editor) Covers basic terminology for transcription, shares caveats for transcribers, and identifies components of vocal behavior. Provides notation systems for transcription, suggestions for transcribing turn-taking, and discusses new technologies and perspectives. Includes a bibliography for further reading.
"Transcribing the Oral Interview: Part Art, Part Science " on p. 10 of the Centre for Community Knowledge (CCK) newsletter: TIMESTAMPby Mishika Chauhan and Saransh Srivastav

QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

Software .

Free download available for Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) affiliates
Desktop access at Lamont Library Media Lab, 3rd floor
Desktop access at Harvard Kennedy School Library (with HKS ID)
Remote desktop access for Harvard affiliates from IQSS Computer Labs . Email them at [email protected] and ask for a new lab account and remote desktop access to NVivo.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) access available to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health affiliates

CODING AND THEMEING YOUR DATA

Data analysis methods should flow from, or align with, the methodological paradigm chosen for your study, whether that paradigm is interpretivist, critical, positivist, or participative in nature (or a combination of these). Some established methods include Content Analysis, Critical Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Gestalt Analysis, Grounded Theory Analysis, Interpretive Analysis, Narrative Analysis, Normative Analysis, Phenomenological Analysis, Rhetorical Analysis, and Semiotic Analysis, among others. The following resources should help you navigate your methodological options and put into practice methods for coding, themeing, interpreting, and presenting your data.

Users can browse content by topic, discipline, or format type (reference works, book chapters, definitions, etc.). SRM offers several research tools as well: a methods map, user-created reading lists, a project planner, and advice on choosing statistical tests.
Abductive Coding: Theory Building and Qualitative (Re)Analysis by Vila-Henninger, et al. The authors recommend an abductive approach to guide qualitative researchers who are oriented towards theory-building. They outline a set of tactics for abductive analysis, including the generation of an abductive codebook, abductive data reduction through code equations, and in-depth abductive qualitative analysis.
Analyzing and Interpreting Qualitative Research: After the Interview by Charles F. Vanover, Paul A. Mihas, and Johnny Saldana (Editors) Providing insight into the wide range of approaches available to the qualitative researcher and covering all steps in the research process, the authors utilize a consistent chapter structure that provides novice and seasoned researchers with pragmatic, "how-to" strategies. Each chapter author introduces the method, uses one of their own research projects as a case study of the method described, shows how the specific analytic method can be used in other types of studies, and concludes with three questions/activities to prompt class discussion or personal study.
"Analyzing Qualitative Data." Theory Into Practice 39, no. 3 (2000): 146-54 by Margaret D. LeCompte This article walks readers though rules for unbiased data analysis and provides guidance for getting organized, finding items, creating stable sets of items, creating patterns, assembling structures, and conducting data validity checks.
"Coding is Not a Dirty Word" in Chapter 1 (pp. 1–30) of Enhancing Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research with Technology by Shalin Hai-Jew (Editor) Current discourses in qualitative research, especially those situated in postmodernism, represent coding and the technology that assists with coding as reductive, lacking complexity, and detached from theory. In this chapter, the author presents a counter-narrative to this dominant discourse in qualitative research. The author argues that coding is not necessarily devoid of theory, nor does the use of software for data management and analysis automatically render scholarship theoretically lightweight or barren. A lack of deep analytical insight is a consequence not of software but of epistemology. Using examples informed by interpretive and critical approaches, the author demonstrates how NVivo can provide an effective tool for data management and analysis. The author also highlights ideas for critical and deconstructive approaches in qualitative inquiry while using NVivo. By troubling the positivist discourse of coding, the author seeks to create dialogic spaces that integrate theory with technology-driven data management and analysis, while maintaining the depth and rigor of qualitative research.
The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers by Johnny Saldana An in-depth guide to the multiple approaches available for coding qualitative data. Clear, practical and authoritative, the book profiles 32 coding methods that can be applied to a range of research genres from grounded theory to phenomenology to narrative inquiry. For each approach, Saldaña discusses the methods, origins, a description of the method, practical applications, and a clearly illustrated example with analytic follow-up. Essential reading across the social sciences.
Flexible Coding of In-depth Interviews: A Twenty-first-century Approach by Nicole M. Deterding and Mary C. Waters The authors suggest steps in data organization and analysis to better utilize qualitative data analysis technologies and support rigorous, transparent, and flexible analysis of in-depth interview data.
From the Editors: What Grounded Theory is Not by Roy Suddaby Walks readers through common misconceptions that hinder grounded theory studies, reinforcing the two key concepts of the grounded theory approach: (1) constant comparison of data gathered throughout the data collection process and (2) the determination of which kinds of data to sample in succession based on emergent themes (i.e., "theoretical sampling").
“Good enough” methods for life-story analysis, by Wendy Luttrell. In Quinn N. (Ed.), Finding culture in talk (pp. 243–268). Demonstrates for researchers of culture and consciousness who use narrative how to concretely document reflexive processes in terms of where, how and why particular decisions are made at particular stages of the research process.
The Ethnographic Interview by James P. Spradley “Spradley wrote this book for the professional and student who have never done ethnographic fieldwork (p. 231) and for the professional ethnographer who is interested in adapting the author’s procedures (p. iv) ... Steps 6 and 8 explain lucidly how to construct a domain and a taxonomic analysis” (excerpted from book review by James D. Sexton, 1980). See also: Presentation slides on coding and themeing your data, derived from Saldana, Spradley, and LeCompte Click to request access.
Qualitative Data Analysis by Matthew B. Miles; A. Michael Huberman A practical sourcebook for researchers who make use of qualitative data, presenting the current state of the craft in the design, testing, and use of qualitative analysis methods. Strong emphasis is placed on data displays matrices and networks that go beyond ordinary narrative text. Each method of data display and analysis is described and illustrated.
"A Survey of Qualitative Data Analytic Methods" in Chapter 4 (pp. 89–138) of Fundamentals of Qualitative Research by Johnny Saldana Provides an in-depth introduction to coding as a heuristic, particularly focusing on process coding, in vivo coding, descriptive coding, values coding, dramaturgical coding, and versus coding. Includes advice on writing analytic memos, developing categories, and themeing data.
"Thematic Networks: An Analytic Tool for Qualitative Research." Qualitative Research : QR, 1(3), 385–405 by Jennifer Attride-Stirling Details a technique for conducting thematic analysis of qualitative material, presenting a step-by-step guide of the analytic process, with the aid of an empirical example. The analytic method presented employs established, well-known techniques; the article proposes that thematic analyses can be usefully aided by and presented as thematic networks.
Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clark Walks readers through the process of reflexive thematic analysis, step by step. The method may be adapted in fields outside of psychology as relevant. Pair this with One Size Fits All? What Counts as Quality Practice in Reflexive Thematic Analysis? by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clark

TESTING OR GENERATING THEORIES

The quality of your data analysis depends on how you situate what you learn within a wider body of knowledge. Consider the following advice:

Once you have coalesced around a theory, realize that a theory should reveal rather than color your discoveries. Allow your data to guide you to what's most suitable. Grounded theory researchers may develop their own theory where current theories fail to provide insight. This guide on Theoretical Models from Alfaisal University Library provides a helpful overview on using theory.

MANAGING & FINDING INTERVIEW DATA

Managing your elicited interview data, general guidance: .

Research Data Management @ Harvard A reference guide with information and resources to help you manage your research data. See also: Harvard Research Data Security Policy , on the Harvard University Research Data Management website.
Data Management For Researchers: Organize, Maintain and Share Your Data for Research Success by Kristin Briney. A comprehensive guide for scientific researchers providing everything they need to know about data management and how to organize, document, use and reuse their data.
Open Science Framework (OSF) An open-source project management tool that makes it easy to collaborate within and beyond Harvard throughout a project's lifecycle. With OSF you can manage, store, and share documents, datasets, and other information with your research team. You can also publish your work to share it with a wider audience. Although data can be stored privately, because this platform is hosted on the Internet and designed with open access in mind, it is not a good choice for highly sensitive data.
Free cloud storage solutions for Harvard affiliates to consider include: Google Drive , DropBox , or OneDrive ( up to DSL3 )

Data Confidentiality and Secure Handling:

Data Security Levels at Harvard - Research Data Examples This resource provided by Harvard Data Security helps you determine what level of access is appropriate for your data. Determine whether it should be made available for public use, limited to the Harvard community, or be protected as either "confidential and sensitive," "high risk," or "extremely sensitive." See also: Harvard Data Classification Table
Harvard's Best Practices for Protecting Privacy and Harvard Information Security Collaboration Tools Matrix Follow the nuts-and-bolts advice for privacy best practices at Harvard. The latter resource reveals the level of security that can be relied upon for a large number of technological tools and platforms used at Harvard to conduct business, such as email, Slack, Accellion Kiteworks, OneDrive/SharePoint, etc.
“Protecting Participant Privacy While Maintaining Content and Context: Challenges in Qualitative Data De‐identification and Sharing.” Proceedings of the ASIST Annual Meeting 57 (1) (2020): e415-420 by Myers, Long, and Polasek Presents an informed and tested protocol, based on the De-Identification guidelines published by the Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) at Syracuse University. Qualitative researchers may consult it to guide their data de-identification efforts.
QDS Qualitative Data Sharing Toolkit The Qualitative Data Sharing (QDS) project and its toolkit was funded by the NIH National Human Genome Research Institute (R01HG009351). It provides tools and resources to help researchers, especially those in the health sciences, share qualitative research data while protecting privacy and confidentiality. It offers guidance on preparing data for sharing through de-identification and access control. These health sciences research datasets in ICPSR's Qualitative Data Sharing (QDS) Project Series were de-identified using the QuaDS Software and the project’s QDS guidelines.
Table of De-Identification Techniques
Generative AI Harvard-affiliated researchers should not enter data classified as confidential ( Level 2 and above ), including non-public research data, into publicly-available generative AI tools, in accordance with the University’s Information Security Policy. Information shared with generative AI tools using default settings is not private and could expose proprietary or sensitive information to unauthorized parties.
Harvard Information Security Quick Reference Guide Storage guidelines, based on the data's security classification level (according to its IRB classification) is displayed on page 2, under "handling."
Email Encryption Harvard Microsoft 365 users can now send encrypted messages and files directly from the Outlook web or desktop apps. Encrypting an email adds an extra layer of security to the message and its attachments (up to 150MB), and means only the intended recipient (and their inbox delegates with full access) can view it. Message encryption in Outlook is approved for sending high risk ( level 4 ) data and below.

Sharing Qualitative Data:

Repositories for Qualitative Data If you have cleared this intention with your IRB, secured consent from participants, and properly de-identified your data, consider sharing your interviews in one of the data repositories included in the link above. Depending on the nature of your research and the level of risk it may present to participants, sharing your interview data may not be appropriate. If there is any chance that sharing such data will be desirable, you will be much better off if you build this expectation into your plans from the beginning.
Guide for Sharing Qualitative Data at ICPSR The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) has created this resource for investigators planning to share qualitative data at ICPSR. This guide provides an overview of elements and considerations for archiving qualitative data, identifies steps for investigators to follow during the research life cycle to ensure that others can share and reuse qualitative data, and provides information about exemplars of qualitative data

International Projects:

Research Compliance Program for FAS/SEAS at Harvard The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), including the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR) have established a shared Research Compliance Program (RCP). An area of common concern for interview studies is international projects and collaboration . RCP is a resource to provide guidance on which international activities may be impacted by US sanctions on countries, individuals, or entities and whether licenses or other disclosure are required to ship or otherwise share items, technology, or data with foreign collaborators.

Finding Extant Interview Data

Finding journalistic interviews: .

Academic Search Premier This all-purpose database is great for finding articles from magazines and newspapers. In the Advanced Search, it allows you to specify "Document Type": Interview.
Guide to Newspapers and Newspaper Indexes Use this guide created to Harvard Librarians to identify newspapers collections you'd like to search. To locate interviews, try adding the term "interview" to your search, or explore a database's search interface for options to limit your search to interviews. Nexis Uni and Factiva are the two main databases for current news.
Listen Notes Search for podcast episodes at this podcast aggregator, and look for podcasts that include interviews. Make sure to vet the podcaster for accuracy and quality! (Listen Notes does not do much vetting.)
NPR and ProPublica are two sites that offer high-quality long-form reporting, including journalistic interviews, for free.

Finding Oral History and Social Research Interviews:

To find oral histories, see the Oral History page of this guide for helpful resources on Oral History interviewing.
Repositories for Qualitative Data It has not been a customary practice among qualitative researchers in the social sciences to share raw interview data, but some have made this data available in repositories, such as the ones listed on the page linked above. You may find published data from structured interview surveys (e.g., questionnaire-based computer-assisted telephone interview data), as well as some semi-structured and unstructured interviews.
If you are merely interested in studies interpreting data collected using interviews, rather than finding raw interview data, try databases like PsycInfo , Sociological Abstracts , or Anthropology Plus , among others.

Finding Interviews in Archival Collections at Harvard Library:

In addition to the databases and search strategies mentioned under the "Finding Oral History and Social Research Interviews" category above, you may search for interviews and oral histories (whether in textual or audiovisual formats) held in archival collections at Harvard Library.

HOLLIS searches all documented collections at Harvard, whereas HOLLIS for Archival Discovery searches only those with finding aids. Although HOLLIS for Archival Discovery covers less material, you may find it easier to parse your search results, especially when you wish to view results at the item level (within collections). Try these approaches:

Search in HOLLIS :

To retrieve items available online, do an Advanced Search for interview* OR "oral histor*" (in Subject), with Resource Type "Archives/Manuscripts," then refine your search by selecting "Online" under "Show Only" on the right of your initial result list. Revise the search above by adding your topic in the Keywords or Subject field (for example: African Americans ) and resubmitting the search.
To enlarge your results set, you may also leave out the "Online" refinement; if you'd like to limit your search to a specific repository, try the technique of searching for Code: Library + Collection on the "Advanced Search" page .

Search in HOLLIS for Archival Discovery :

To retrieve items available online, search for interview* OR "oral histor*" limited to digital materials . Revise the search above by adding your topic (for example: artist* ) in the second search box (if you don't see the box, click +).
To preview results by collection, search for interview* OR "oral histor*" limited to collections . Revise the search above by adding your topic (for example: artist* ) in the second search box (if you don't see the box, click +). Although this method does not allow you to isolate digitized content, you may find the refinement options on the right side of the screen (refine by repository, subject or names) helpful. Once your select a given collection, you may search within it (e.g., for your topic or the term interview).

UX & MARKET RESEARCH INTERVIEWS

Ux at harvard library .

User Experience and Market Research interviews can inform the design of tangible products and services through responsive, outcome-driven insights. The User Research Center at Harvard Library specializes in this kind of user-centered design, digital accessibility, and testing. They also offer guidance and resources to members of the Harvard Community who are interested in learning more about UX methods. Contact [email protected] or consult the URC website for more information.

Websites

User Interviews: The Beginner’s Guide (Chris Mears)
Interviewing Users (Jakob Nielsen)

Books

Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights by Steve Portigal; Grant McCracken (Foreword by) Interviewing is a foundational user research tool that people assume they already possess. Everyone can ask questions, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case. Interviewing Users provides invaluable interviewing techniques and tools that enable you to conduct informative interviews with anyone. You'll move from simply gathering data to uncovering powerful insights about people.
Rapid Contextual Design by Jessamyn Wendell; Karen Holtzblatt; Shelley Wood This handbook introduces Rapid CD, a fast-paced, adaptive form of Contextual Design. Rapid CD is a hands-on guide for anyone who needs practical guidance on how to use the Contextual Design process and adapt it to tactical projects with tight timelines and resources. Rapid Contextual Design provides detailed suggestions on structuring the project and customer interviews, conducting interviews, and running interpretation sessions. The handbook walks you step-by-step through organizing the data so you can see your key issues, along with visioning new solutions, storyboarding to work out the details, and paper prototype interviewing to iterate the design all with as little as a two-person team with only a few weeks to spare *Includes real project examples with actual customer data that illustrate how a CD project actually works.

Videos

Instructional Presentations on Interview Skills

Interview/Oral History Research for RSRA 298B: Master's Thesis Reading and Research (Spring 2023) Slideshow covers: Why Interviews?, Getting Context, Engaging Participants, Conducting the Interview, The Interview Guide, Note Taking, Transcription, File management, and Data Analysis.
Interview Skills From an online class on February 13, 2023: Get set up for interview research. You will leave prepared to choose among the three types of interviewing methods, equipped to develop an interview schedule, aware of data management options and their ethical implications, and knowledgeable of technologies you can use to record and transcribe your interviews. This workshop complements Intro to NVivo, a qualitative data analysis tool useful for coding interview data.

NIH Data Management & Sharing Policy (DMSP) This policy, effective January 25, 2023, applies to all research, funded or conducted in whole or in part by NIH, that results in the generation of scientific data , including NIH-funded qualitative research. Click here to see some examples of how the DMSP policy has been applied in qualitative research studies featured in the 2021 Qualitative Data Management Plan (DMP) Competition . As a resource for the community, NIH has developed a resource for developing informed consent language in research studies where data and/or biospecimens will be stored and shared for future use. It is important to note that the DMS Policy does NOT require that informed consent obtained from research participants must allow for broad sharing and the future use of data (either with or without identifiable private information). See the FAQ for more information.

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Using an interview in a research paper

Consultant contributor: Viviane Ugalde

Using an interview can be an effective primary source for some papers and research projects. Finding an expert in the field or some other person who has knowledge of your topic can allow for you to gather unique information not available elsewhere.

There are four steps to using an interview as a source for your research.

Know where and how to start.
Know how to write a good question.
Know how to conduct an interview.
Know how to incorporate the interview into your document or project.

Step one: Where to start

First, you should determine your goals and ask yourself these questions:

Who are the local experts on topic?
How can I contact these people?
Does anyone know them to help me setup the interviews?
Are their phone numbers in the phone book or can I find them on the Internet?

Once you answer these questions and pick your interviewee, get their basic information such as their name, title, and other general details. If you reach out and your interview does not participate, don’t be discouraged. Keep looking for other interview contacts.

Step two: How to write a good question

When you have confirmed an interview, it is not time to come up with questions.

Learning as much as you can about the person before the interview can help you create questions specific to your interview subject.
Doing research about your interviewee’s past experience in your topic, or any texts that they have written would be great background research.

When you start to think of questions, write down more questions than you think you’ll need, and prioritize them as you go. Any good questions will answer the 5W and H questions. Asking Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How questions that you need answered for your paper, will help you form a question to ask your interviewee.

When writing a good question, try thinking of something that will help your argument.

Is your interviewee an advocate for you position?
Are they in any programs that are related to your research?
How much experience do they have?

From broad questions like these, you can begin to narrow down to more specific and open-ended questions.

Step three: The interview

If at all possible, arrange to conduct the interview at the subject’s workplace. It will make them more comfortable, and you can write about their surroundings.

Begin the interview with some small talk in order to give both of you the chance to get comfortable with one another
Develop rapport that will make the interview easier for both of you.
Ask open-ended questions
Keep the conversation moving
Stay on topic
The more silence in the room, the more honest the answer.
If an interesting subject comes up that is related to your research, ask a follow-up or an additional question about it.
Ask if you can stay in contact with your interview subject in case there are any additional questions you have.

Step four: Incorporating the interview

When picking the material out of your interview, remember that people rarely speak perfectly. There will be many slang words and pauses that you can take out, as long as it does not change the meaning of the material you are using.

As you introduce your interview in the paper, start with a transition such as “according to” or other attributions. You should also be specific to the type of interview you are working with. This way, you will build a stronger ethos in your paper .

The body of your essay should clearly set up the quote or paraphrase you use from the interview responses,. Be careful not to stick a quote from the interview into the body of your essay because it sounds good. When deciding what to quote in your paper, think about what dialogue from the interview would add the most color to your interview. Quotes that illustrate what your interviewer sounded like, or what their personality is are always the best quotes to choose from.

Once you have done that, proofread your essay. Make sure the quotes you used don’t make up the majority of your paper. The interview quotes are supposed to support your argument; you are not supposed to support the interview.

For example, let’s say that you are arguing that free education is better than not. For your argument, you interview a local politician who is on your side of the argument. Rather than using a large quote that explains the stance of both sides, and why the politician chose this side, your quote is there to support the information you’ve already given. Whatever the politician says should prove what you argue, and not give new information.

Step five: Examples of citing your interviews

Smith, Jane. Personal interview. 19 May 2018.

(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2018).

Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal communication, November 3, 2018).

Reference list

Daly, C. & Leighton W. (2017). Interviewing a Source: Tips. Journalists Resource.

Driscoll, D. (2018 ). Interviewing. Purdue University

Hayden, K. (2012). How to Conduct an Interview to Write a Paper . Bright Hub Education, Bright Hub Inc.

Hose, C. (2017). How to Incorporate Interviews into Essays. Leaf Group Education.

Magnesi, J. (2017). How to Interview Someone for an Article or Research Paper. Career Trend, Leaf group Media.

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Qualitative Research Interviews

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How to carry out great interviews in qualitative research.

11 min read An interview is one of the most versatile methods used in qualitative research. Here’s what you need to know about conducting great qualitative interviews.

What is a qualitative research interview?

Qualitative research interviews are a mainstay among q ualitative research techniques, and have been in use for decades either as a primary data collection method or as an adjunct to a wider research process. A qualitative research interview is a one-to-one data collection session between a researcher and a participant. Interviews may be carried out face-to-face, over the phone or via video call using a service like Skype or Zoom.

There are three main types of qualitative research interview – structured, unstructured or semi-structured.

Structured interviews Structured interviews are based around a schedule of predetermined questions and talking points that the researcher has developed. At their most rigid, structured interviews may have a precise wording and question order, meaning that they can be replicated across many different interviewers and participants with relatively consistent results.
Unstructured interviews Unstructured interviews have no predetermined format, although that doesn’t mean they’re ad hoc or unplanned. An unstructured interview may outwardly resemble a normal conversation, but the interviewer will in fact be working carefully to make sure the right topics are addressed during the interaction while putting the participant at ease with a natural manner.
Semi-structured interviews Semi-structured interviews are the most common type of qualitative research interview, combining the informality and rapport of an unstructured interview with the consistency and replicability of a structured interview. The researcher will come prepared with questions and topics, but will not need to stick to precise wording. This blended approach can work well for in-depth interviews.

Free eBook: The qualitative research design handbook

What are the pros and cons of interviews in qualitative research?

As a qualitative research method interviewing is hard to beat, with applications in social research, market research, and even basic and clinical pharmacy. But like any aspect of the research process, it’s not without its limitations. Before choosing qualitative interviewing as your research method, it’s worth weighing up the pros and cons.

Pros of qualitative interviews:

provide in-depth information and context
can be used effectively when their are low numbers of participants
provide an opportunity to discuss and explain questions
useful for complex topics
rich in data – in the case of in-person or video interviews , the researcher can observe body language and facial expression as well as the answers to questions

Cons of qualitative interviews:

can be time-consuming to carry out
costly when compared to some other research methods
because of time and cost constraints, they often limit you to a small number of participants
difficult to standardize your data across different researchers and participants unless the interviews are very tightly structured
As the Open University of Hong Kong notes, qualitative interviews may take an emotional toll on interviewers

Qualitative interview guides

Semi-structured interviews are based on a qualitative interview guide, which acts as a road map for the researcher. While conducting interviews, the researcher can use the interview guide to help them stay focused on their research questions and make sure they cover all the topics they intend to.

An interview guide may include a list of questions written out in full, or it may be a set of bullet points grouped around particular topics. It can prompt the interviewer to dig deeper and ask probing questions during the interview if appropriate.

Consider writing out the project’s research question at the top of your interview guide, ahead of the interview questions. This may help you steer the interview in the right direction if it threatens to head off on a tangent.

Avoid bias in qualitative research interviews

According to Duke University , bias can create significant problems in your qualitative interview.

Acquiescence bias is common to many qualitative methods, including focus groups. It occurs when the participant feels obliged to say what they think the researcher wants to hear. This can be especially problematic when there is a perceived power imbalance between participant and interviewer. To counteract this, Duke University’s experts recommend emphasizing the participant’s expertise in the subject being discussed, and the value of their contributions.
Interviewer bias is when the interviewer’s own feelings about the topic come to light through hand gestures, facial expressions or turns of phrase. Duke’s recommendation is to stick to scripted phrases where this is an issue, and to make sure researchers become very familiar with the interview guide or script before conducting interviews, so that they can hone their delivery.

What kinds of questions should you ask in a qualitative interview?

The interview questions you ask need to be carefully considered both before and during the data collection process. As well as considering the topics you’ll cover, you will need to think carefully about the way you ask questions.

Open-ended interview questions – which cannot be answered with a ‘yes’ ‘no’ or ‘maybe’ – are recommended by many researchers as a way to pursue in depth information.

An example of an open-ended question is “What made you want to move to the East Coast?” This will prompt the participant to consider different factors and select at least one. Having thought about it carefully, they may give you more detailed information about their reasoning.

A closed-ended question , such as “Would you recommend your neighborhood to a friend?” can be answered without too much deliberation, and without giving much information about personal thoughts, opinions and feelings.

Follow-up questions can be used to delve deeper into the research topic and to get more detail from open-ended questions. Examples of follow-up questions include:

What makes you say that?
What do you mean by that?
Can you tell me more about X?
What did/does that mean to you?

As well as avoiding closed-ended questions, be wary of leading questions. As with other qualitative research techniques such as surveys or focus groups, these can introduce bias in your data. Leading questions presume a certain point of view shared by the interviewer and participant, and may even suggest a foregone conclusion.

An example of a leading question might be: “You moved to New York in 1990, didn’t you?” In answering the question, the participant is much more likely to agree than disagree. This may be down to acquiescence bias or a belief that the interviewer has checked the information and already knows the correct answer.

Other leading questions involve adjectival phrases or other wording that introduces negative or positive connotations about a particular topic. An example of this kind of leading question is: “Many employees dislike wearing masks to work. How do you feel about this?” It presumes a positive opinion and the participant may be swayed by it, or not want to contradict the interviewer.

Harvard University’s guidelines for qualitative interview research add that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask embarrassing questions – “if you don’t ask, they won’t tell.” Bear in mind though that too much probing around sensitive topics may cause the interview participant to withdraw. The Harvard guidelines recommend leaving sensitive questions til the later stages of the interview when a rapport has been established.

More tips for conducting qualitative interviews

Observing a participant’s body language can give you important data about their thoughts and feelings. It can also help you decide when to broach a topic, and whether to use a follow-up question or return to the subject later in the interview.

Be conscious that the participant may regard you as the expert, not themselves. In order to make sure they express their opinions openly, use active listening skills like verbal encouragement and paraphrasing and clarifying their meaning to show how much you value what they are saying.

Remember that part of the goal is to leave the interview participant feeling good about volunteering their time and their thought process to your research. Aim to make them feel empowered , respected and heard.

Unstructured interviews can demand a lot of a researcher, both cognitively and emotionally. Be sure to leave time in between in-depth interviews when scheduling your data collection to make sure you maintain the quality of your data, as well as your own well-being .

Recording and transcribing interviews

Historically, recording qualitative research interviews and then transcribing the conversation manually would have represented a significant part of the cost and time involved in research projects that collect qualitative data.

Fortunately, researchers now have access to digital recording tools, and even speech-to-text technology that can automatically transcribe interview data using AI and machine learning. This type of tool can also be used to capture qualitative data from qualitative research (focus groups,ect.) making this kind of social research or market research much less time consuming.

Data analysis

Qualitative interview data is unstructured, rich in content and difficult to analyze without the appropriate tools. Fortunately, machine learning and AI can once again make things faster and easier when you use qualitative methods like the research interview.

Text analysis tools and natural language processing software can ‘read’ your transcripts and voice data and identify patterns and trends across large volumes of text or speech. They can also perform khttps://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/research/sentiment-analysis/

which assesses overall trends in opinion and provides an unbiased overall summary of how participants are feeling.

Another feature of text analysis tools is their ability to categorize information by topic, sorting it into groupings that help you organize your data according to the topic discussed.

All in all, interviews are a valuable technique for qualitative research in business, yielding rich and detailed unstructured data. Historically, they have only been limited by the human capacity to interpret and communicate results and conclusions, which demands considerable time and skill.

When you combine this data with AI tools that can interpret it quickly and automatically, it becomes easy to analyze and structure, dovetailing perfectly with your other business data. An additional benefit of natural language analysis tools is that they are free of subjective biases, and can replicate the same approach across as much data as you choose. By combining human research skills with machine analysis, qualitative research methods such as interviews are more valuable than ever to your business.

Related resources

Market intelligence 10 min read, marketing insights 11 min read, ethnographic research 11 min read, qualitative vs quantitative research 13 min read, qualitative research questions 11 min read, qualitative research design 12 min read, primary vs secondary research 14 min read, request demo.

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Published: 05 October 2018

Interviews and focus groups in qualitative research: an update for the digital age

P. Gill 1 &
J. Baillie 2

British Dental Journal volume 225 , pages 668–672 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

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Highlights that qualitative research is used increasingly in dentistry. Interviews and focus groups remain the most common qualitative methods of data collection.

Suggests the advent of digital technologies has transformed how qualitative research can now be undertaken.

Suggests interviews and focus groups can offer significant, meaningful insight into participants' experiences, beliefs and perspectives, which can help to inform developments in dental practice.

Qualitative research is used increasingly in dentistry, due to its potential to provide meaningful, in-depth insights into participants' experiences, perspectives, beliefs and behaviours. These insights can subsequently help to inform developments in dental practice and further related research. The most common methods of data collection used in qualitative research are interviews and focus groups. While these are primarily conducted face-to-face, the ongoing evolution of digital technologies, such as video chat and online forums, has further transformed these methods of data collection. This paper therefore discusses interviews and focus groups in detail, outlines how they can be used in practice, how digital technologies can further inform the data collection process, and what these methods can offer dentistry.

You have full access to this article via your institution.

Interviews in the social sciences

Professionalism in dentistry: deconstructing common terminology

A review of technical and quality assessment considerations of audio-visual and web-conferencing focus groups in qualitative health research, introduction.

Traditionally, research in dentistry has primarily been quantitative in nature. 1 However, in recent years, there has been a growing interest in qualitative research within the profession, due to its potential to further inform developments in practice, policy, education and training. Consequently, in 2008, the British Dental Journal (BDJ) published a four paper qualitative research series, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 to help increase awareness and understanding of this particular methodological approach.

Since the papers were originally published, two scoping reviews have demonstrated the ongoing proliferation in the use of qualitative research within the field of oral healthcare. 1 , 6 To date, the original four paper series continue to be well cited and two of the main papers remain widely accessed among the BDJ readership. 2 , 3 The potential value of well-conducted qualitative research to evidence-based practice is now also widely recognised by service providers, policy makers, funding bodies and those who commission, support and use healthcare research.

Besides increasing standalone use, qualitative methods are now also routinely incorporated into larger mixed method study designs, such as clinical trials, as they can offer additional, meaningful insights into complex problems that simply could not be provided by quantitative methods alone. Qualitative methods can also be used to further facilitate in-depth understanding of important aspects of clinical trial processes, such as recruitment. For example, Ellis et al . investigated why edentulous older patients, dissatisfied with conventional dentures, decline implant treatment, despite its established efficacy, and frequently refuse to participate in related randomised clinical trials, even when financial constraints are removed. 7 Through the use of focus groups in Canada and the UK, the authors found that fears of pain and potential complications, along with perceived embarrassment, exacerbated by age, are common reasons why older patients typically refuse dental implants. 7

The last decade has also seen further developments in qualitative research, due to the ongoing evolution of digital technologies. These developments have transformed how researchers can access and share information, communicate and collaborate, recruit and engage participants, collect and analyse data and disseminate and translate research findings. 8 Where appropriate, such technologies are therefore capable of extending and enhancing how qualitative research is undertaken. 9 For example, it is now possible to collect qualitative data via instant messaging, email or online/video chat, using appropriate online platforms.

These innovative approaches to research are therefore cost-effective, convenient, reduce geographical constraints and are often useful for accessing 'hard to reach' participants (for example, those who are immobile or socially isolated). 8 , 9 However, digital technologies are still relatively new and constantly evolving and therefore present a variety of pragmatic and methodological challenges. Furthermore, given their very nature, their use in many qualitative studies and/or with certain participant groups may be inappropriate and should therefore always be carefully considered. While it is beyond the scope of this paper to provide a detailed explication regarding the use of digital technologies in qualitative research, insight is provided into how such technologies can be used to facilitate the data collection process in interviews and focus groups.

In light of such developments, it is perhaps therefore timely to update the main paper 3 of the original BDJ series. As with the previous publications, this paper has been purposely written in an accessible style, to enhance readability, particularly for those who are new to qualitative research. While the focus remains on the most common qualitative methods of data collection – interviews and focus groups – appropriate revisions have been made to provide a novel perspective, and should therefore be helpful to those who would like to know more about qualitative research. This paper specifically focuses on undertaking qualitative research with adult participants only.

Overview of qualitative research

Qualitative research is an approach that focuses on people and their experiences, behaviours and opinions. 10 , 11 The qualitative researcher seeks to answer questions of 'how' and 'why', providing detailed insight and understanding, 11 which quantitative methods cannot reach. 12 Within qualitative research, there are distinct methodologies influencing how the researcher approaches the research question, data collection and data analysis. 13 For example, phenomenological studies focus on the lived experience of individuals, explored through their description of the phenomenon. Ethnographic studies explore the culture of a group and typically involve the use of multiple methods to uncover the issues. 14

While methodology is the 'thinking tool', the methods are the 'doing tools'; 13 the ways in which data are collected and analysed. There are multiple qualitative data collection methods, including interviews, focus groups, observations, documentary analysis, participant diaries, photography and videography. Two of the most commonly used qualitative methods are interviews and focus groups, which are explored in this article. The data generated through these methods can be analysed in one of many ways, according to the methodological approach chosen. A common approach is thematic data analysis, involving the identification of themes and subthemes across the data set. Further information on approaches to qualitative data analysis has been discussed elsewhere. 1

Qualitative research is an evolving and adaptable approach, used by different disciplines for different purposes. Traditionally, qualitative data, specifically interviews, focus groups and observations, have been collected face-to-face with participants. In more recent years, digital technologies have contributed to the ongoing evolution of qualitative research. Digital technologies offer researchers different ways of recruiting participants and collecting data, and offer participants opportunities to be involved in research that is not necessarily face-to-face.

Research interviews are a fundamental qualitative research method 15 and are utilised across methodological approaches. Interviews enable the researcher to learn in depth about the perspectives, experiences, beliefs and motivations of the participant. 3 , 16 Examples include, exploring patients' perspectives of fear/anxiety triggers in dental treatment, 17 patients' experiences of oral health and diabetes, 18 and dental students' motivations for their choice of career. 19

Interviews may be structured, semi-structured or unstructured, 3 according to the purpose of the study, with less structured interviews facilitating a more in depth and flexible interviewing approach. 20 Structured interviews are similar to verbal questionnaires and are used if the researcher requires clarification on a topic; however they produce less in-depth data about a participant's experience. 3 Unstructured interviews may be used when little is known about a topic and involves the researcher asking an opening question; 3 the participant then leads the discussion. 20 Semi-structured interviews are commonly used in healthcare research, enabling the researcher to ask predetermined questions, 20 while ensuring the participant discusses issues they feel are important.

Interviews can be undertaken face-to-face or using digital methods when the researcher and participant are in different locations. Audio-recording the interview, with the consent of the participant, is essential for all interviews regardless of the medium as it enables accurate transcription; the process of turning the audio file into a word-for-word transcript. This transcript is the data, which the researcher then analyses according to the chosen approach.

Types of interview

Qualitative studies often utilise one-to-one, face-to-face interviews with research participants. This involves arranging a mutually convenient time and place to meet the participant, signing a consent form and audio-recording the interview. However, digital technologies have expanded the potential for interviews in research, enabling individuals to participate in qualitative research regardless of location.

Telephone interviews can be a useful alternative to face-to-face interviews and are commonly used in qualitative research. They enable participants from different geographical areas to participate and may be less onerous for participants than meeting a researcher in person. 15 A qualitative study explored patients' perspectives of dental implants and utilised telephone interviews due to the quality of the data that could be yielded. 21 The researcher needs to consider how they will audio record the interview, which can be facilitated by purchasing a recorder that connects directly to the telephone. One potential disadvantage of telephone interviews is the inability of the interviewer and researcher to see each other. This is resolved using software for audio and video calls online – such as Skype – to conduct interviews with participants in qualitative studies. Advantages of this approach include being able to see the participant if video calls are used, enabling observation of non-verbal communication, and the software can be free to use. However, participants are required to have a device and internet connection, as well as being computer literate, potentially limiting who can participate in the study. One qualitative study explored the role of dental hygienists in reducing oral health disparities in Canada. 22 The researcher conducted interviews using Skype, which enabled dental hygienists from across Canada to be interviewed within the research budget, accommodating the participants' schedules. 22

A less commonly used approach to qualitative interviews is the use of social virtual worlds. A qualitative study accessed a social virtual world – Second Life – to explore the health literacy skills of individuals who use social virtual worlds to access health information. 23 The researcher created an avatar and interview room, and undertook interviews with participants using voice and text methods. 23 This approach to recruitment and data collection enables individuals from diverse geographical locations to participate, while remaining anonymous if they wish. Furthermore, for interviews conducted using text methods, transcription of the interview is not required as the researcher can save the written conversation with the participant, with the participant's consent. However, the researcher and participant need to be familiar with how the social virtual world works to engage in an interview this way.

Conducting an interview

Ensuring informed consent before any interview is a fundamental aspect of the research process. Participants in research must be afforded autonomy and respect; consent should be informed and voluntary. 24 Individuals should have the opportunity to read an information sheet about the study, ask questions, understand how their data will be stored and used, and know that they are free to withdraw at any point without reprisal. The qualitative researcher should take written consent before undertaking the interview. In a face-to-face interview, this is straightforward: the researcher and participant both sign copies of the consent form, keeping one each. However, this approach is less straightforward when the researcher and participant do not meet in person. A recent protocol paper outlined an approach for taking consent for telephone interviews, which involved: audio recording the participant agreeing to each point on the consent form; the researcher signing the consent form and keeping a copy; and posting a copy to the participant. 25 This process could be replicated in other interview studies using digital methods.

There are advantages and disadvantages of using face-to-face and digital methods for research interviews. Ultimately, for both approaches, the quality of the interview is determined by the researcher. 16 Appropriate training and preparation are thus required. Healthcare professionals can use their interpersonal communication skills when undertaking a research interview, particularly questioning, listening and conversing. 3 However, the purpose of an interview is to gain information about the study topic, 26 rather than offering help and advice. 3 The researcher therefore needs to listen attentively to participants, enabling them to describe their experience without interruption. 3 The use of active listening skills also help to facilitate the interview. 14 Spradley outlined elements and strategies for research interviews, 27 which are a useful guide for qualitative researchers:

Greeting and explaining the project/interview

Asking descriptive (broad), structural (explore response to descriptive) and contrast (difference between) questions

Asymmetry between the researcher and participant talking

Expressing interest and cultural ignorance

Repeating, restating and incorporating the participant's words when asking questions

Creating hypothetical situations

Asking friendly questions

Knowing when to leave.

For semi-structured interviews, a topic guide (also called an interview schedule) is used to guide the content of the interview – an example of a topic guide is outlined in Box 1 . The topic guide, usually based on the research questions, existing literature and, for healthcare professionals, their clinical experience, is developed by the research team. The topic guide should include open ended questions that elicit in-depth information, and offer participants the opportunity to talk about issues important to them. This is vital in qualitative research where the researcher is interested in exploring the experiences and perspectives of participants. It can be useful for qualitative researchers to pilot the topic guide with the first participants, 10 to ensure the questions are relevant and understandable, and amending the questions if required.

Regardless of the medium of interview, the researcher must consider the setting of the interview. For face-to-face interviews, this could be in the participant's home, in an office or another mutually convenient location. A quiet location is preferable to promote confidentiality, enable the researcher and participant to concentrate on the conversation, and to facilitate accurate audio-recording of the interview. For interviews using digital methods the same principles apply: a quiet, private space where the researcher and participant feel comfortable and confident to participate in an interview.

Box 1: Example of a topic guide

Study focus: Parents' experiences of brushing their child's (aged 0–5) teeth

1. Can you tell me about your experience of cleaning your child's teeth?

How old was your child when you started cleaning their teeth?

Why did you start cleaning their teeth at that point?

How often do you brush their teeth?

What do you use to brush their teeth and why?

2. Could you explain how you find cleaning your child's teeth?

Do you find anything difficult?

What makes cleaning their teeth easier for you?

3. How has your experience of cleaning your child's teeth changed over time?

Has it become easier or harder?

Have you changed how often and how you clean their teeth? If so, why?

4. Could you describe how your child finds having their teeth cleaned?

What do they enjoy about having their teeth cleaned?

Is there anything they find upsetting about having their teeth cleaned?

5. Where do you look for information/advice about cleaning your child's teeth?

What did your health visitor tell you about cleaning your child's teeth? (If anything)

What has the dentist told you about caring for your child's teeth? (If visited)

Have any family members given you advice about how to clean your child's teeth? If so, what did they tell you? Did you follow their advice?

6. Is there anything else you would like to discuss about this?

Focus groups

A focus group is a moderated group discussion on a pre-defined topic, for research purposes. 28 , 29 While not aligned to a particular qualitative methodology (for example, grounded theory or phenomenology) as such, focus groups are used increasingly in healthcare research, as they are useful for exploring collective perspectives, attitudes, behaviours and experiences. Consequently, they can yield rich, in-depth data and illuminate agreement and inconsistencies 28 within and, where appropriate, between groups. Examples include public perceptions of dental implants and subsequent impact on help-seeking and decision making, 30 and general dental practitioners' views on patient safety in dentistry. 31

Focus groups can be used alone or in conjunction with other methods, such as interviews or observations, and can therefore help to confirm, extend or enrich understanding and provide alternative insights. 28 The social interaction between participants often results in lively discussion and can therefore facilitate the collection of rich, meaningful data. However, they are complex to organise and manage, due to the number of participants, and may also be inappropriate for exploring particularly sensitive issues that many participants may feel uncomfortable about discussing in a group environment.

Focus groups are primarily undertaken face-to-face but can now also be undertaken online, using appropriate technologies such as email, bulletin boards, online research communities, chat rooms, discussion forums, social media and video conferencing. 32 Using such technologies, data collection can also be synchronous (for example, online discussions in 'real time') or, unlike traditional face-to-face focus groups, asynchronous (for example, online/email discussions in 'non-real time'). While many of the fundamental principles of focus group research are the same, regardless of how they are conducted, a number of subtle nuances are associated with the online medium. 32 Some of which are discussed further in the following sections.

Focus group considerations

Some key considerations associated with face-to-face focus groups are: how many participants are required; should participants within each group know each other (or not) and how many focus groups are needed within a single study? These issues are much debated and there is no definitive answer. However, the number of focus groups required will largely depend on the topic area, the depth and breadth of data needed, the desired level of participation required 29 and the necessity (or not) for data saturation.

The optimum group size is around six to eight participants (excluding researchers) but can work effectively with between three and 14 participants. 3 If the group is too small, it may limit discussion, but if it is too large, it may become disorganised and difficult to manage. It is, however, prudent to over-recruit for a focus group by approximately two to three participants, to allow for potential non-attenders. For many researchers, particularly novice researchers, group size may also be informed by pragmatic considerations, such as the type of study, resources available and moderator experience. 28 Similar size and mix considerations exist for online focus groups. Typically, synchronous online focus groups will have around three to eight participants but, as the discussion does not happen simultaneously, asynchronous groups may have as many as 10–30 participants. 33

The topic area and potential group interaction should guide group composition considerations. Pre-existing groups, where participants know each other (for example, work colleagues) may be easier to recruit, have shared experiences and may enjoy a familiarity, which facilitates discussion and/or the ability to challenge each other courteously. 3 However, if there is a potential power imbalance within the group or if existing group norms and hierarchies may adversely affect the ability of participants to speak freely, then 'stranger groups' (that is, where participants do not already know each other) may be more appropriate. 34 , 35

Focus group management

Face-to-face focus groups should normally be conducted by two researchers; a moderator and an observer. 28 The moderator facilitates group discussion, while the observer typically monitors group dynamics, behaviours, non-verbal cues, seating arrangements and speaking order, which is essential for transcription and analysis. The same principles of informed consent, as discussed in the interview section, also apply to focus groups, regardless of medium. However, the consent process for online discussions will probably be managed somewhat differently. For example, while an appropriate participant information leaflet (and consent form) would still be required, the process is likely to be managed electronically (for example, via email) and would need to specifically address issues relating to technology (for example, anonymity and use, storage and access to online data). 32

The venue in which a face to face focus group is conducted should be of a suitable size, private, quiet, free from distractions and in a collectively convenient location. It should also be conducted at a time appropriate for participants, 28 as this is likely to promote attendance. As with interviews, the same ethical considerations apply (as discussed earlier). However, online focus groups may present additional ethical challenges associated with issues such as informed consent, appropriate access and secure data storage. Further guidance can be found elsewhere. 8 , 32

Before the focus group commences, the researchers should establish rapport with participants, as this will help to put them at ease and result in a more meaningful discussion. Consequently, researchers should introduce themselves, provide further clarity about the study and how the process will work in practice and outline the 'ground rules'. Ground rules are designed to assist, not hinder, group discussion and typically include: 3 , 28 , 29

Discussions within the group are confidential to the group

Only one person can speak at a time

All participants should have sufficient opportunity to contribute

There should be no unnecessary interruptions while someone is speaking

Everyone can be expected to be listened to and their views respected

Challenging contrary opinions is appropriate, but ridiculing is not.

Moderating a focus group requires considered management and good interpersonal skills to help guide the discussion and, where appropriate, keep it sufficiently focused. Avoid, therefore, participating, leading, expressing personal opinions or correcting participants' knowledge 3 , 28 as this may bias the process. A relaxed, interested demeanour will also help participants to feel comfortable and promote candid discourse. Moderators should also prevent the discussion being dominated by any one person, ensure differences of opinions are discussed fairly and, if required, encourage reticent participants to contribute. 3 Asking open questions, reflecting on significant issues, inviting further debate, probing responses accordingly, and seeking further clarification, as and where appropriate, will help to obtain sufficient depth and insight into the topic area.

Moderating online focus groups requires comparable skills, particularly if the discussion is synchronous, as the discussion may be dominated by those who can type proficiently. 36 It is therefore important that sufficient time and respect is accorded to those who may not be able to type as quickly. Asynchronous discussions are usually less problematic in this respect, as interactions are less instant. However, moderating an asynchronous discussion presents additional challenges, particularly if participants are geographically dispersed, as they may be online at different times. Consequently, the moderator will not always be present and the discussion may therefore need to occur over several days, which can be difficult to manage and facilitate and invariably requires considerable flexibility. 32 It is also worth recognising that establishing rapport with participants via online medium is often more challenging than via face-to-face and may therefore require additional time, skills, effort and consideration.

As with research interviews, focus groups should be guided by an appropriate interview schedule, as discussed earlier in the paper. For example, the schedule will usually be informed by the review of the literature and study aims, and will merely provide a topic guide to help inform subsequent discussions. To provide a verbatim account of the discussion, focus groups must be recorded, using an audio-recorder with a good quality multi-directional microphone. While videotaping is possible, some participants may find it obtrusive, 3 which may adversely affect group dynamics. The use (or not) of a video recorder, should therefore be carefully considered.

At the end of the focus group, a few minutes should be spent rounding up and reflecting on the discussion. 28 Depending on the topic area, it is possible that some participants may have revealed deeply personal issues and may therefore require further help and support, such as a constructive debrief or possibly even referral on to a relevant third party. It is also possible that some participants may feel that the discussion did not adequately reflect their views and, consequently, may no longer wish to be associated with the study. 28 Such occurrences are likely to be uncommon, but should they arise, it is important to further discuss any concerns and, if appropriate, offer them the opportunity to withdraw (including any data relating to them) from the study. Immediately after the discussion, researchers should compile notes regarding thoughts and ideas about the focus group, which can assist with data analysis and, if appropriate, any further data collection.

Qualitative research is increasingly being utilised within dental research to explore the experiences, perspectives, motivations and beliefs of participants. The contributions of qualitative research to evidence-based practice are increasingly being recognised, both as standalone research and as part of larger mixed-method studies, including clinical trials. Interviews and focus groups remain commonly used data collection methods in qualitative research, and with the advent of digital technologies, their utilisation continues to evolve. However, digital methods of qualitative data collection present additional methodological, ethical and practical considerations, but also potentially offer considerable flexibility to participants and researchers. Consequently, regardless of format, qualitative methods have significant potential to inform important areas of dental practice, policy and further related research.

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Gill, P., Baillie, J. Interviews and focus groups in qualitative research: an update for the digital age. Br Dent J 225 , 668–672 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2018.815

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Using interviews in a research project

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Data Privacy Handbook

Interview research.

On this page: interview study, oral archive, qualitative data, audio recording, video recording, interview transcript Date of last review: 2024-05-02

Interviews in scientific research are a common qualitative research method that allow researchers to gather rich and detailed information directly from participants. Interviews provide an opportunity to explore participants’ perspectives, experiences and attitudes on a particular topic of interest. Interviews involve face-to-face, telephone, or online conversations between researchers and participants. Researchers typically use interview guides or semi-structured interview protocols to ensure consistency while allowing flexibility for follow-up questions and probing.

Below, we go into the following typical privacy-related issues for interview research:

Issues when recording the interview
How to inform participants

Legal basis: consent or public interest

How to deal with collecting unasked for personal data
Transcribing interview data
Anonymising interview data
Sharing interview data for reuse

Recording the interview

If you don’t need to record audio or video, don’t (data minimisation). Textual data is a lot easier to de-identify than audio or video data. If you do record the interviews, take note of the following:

Recordings may come with automatically generated metadata, such as location and time of recording. This type of metadata could be identifiable in some cases.
Audio or video data can become very large. It may not be possible to store or process this data on your own computer. In that case, find out which secure remote solutions are offered by your institute.

Recording devices

When you record your interviews, it is necessary to do so via a secure recording device. There are different options that you can choose:

Make sure to turn off the video during the recording if you don’t need it.
Make sure Teams uses the correct language for the transcription.
Move the recording and transcript to the correct storage. If you don’t, they will remain in your personal account.
Test the laptop’s audio quality beforehand, and if needed, use an external microphone.
The recordings should not be backed up to a personal cloud environment (e.g., iCloud).
The phone should be secured with a PIN or biometric authentication. A PIN should consist of at least 5 numbers and should be specific to the device and possibly the user. Biometric authentication should be processed on the device itself (no central processing of biometric information).
Check that the phone is encrypted. IOS devices usually are already encrypted by default, and some Android devices as well.
Transfer (encrypted) recordings as soon as possible to UU storage (e.g., using the SURFdrive app, a Yoda integration, or just via cable) and delete them from the phone.
Check that your recording app does not transfer recordings to the app’s provider.

Dictaphones are specifically meant for audio recording. Take note that most dictaphones are not encrypted by default. Although encrypted dictaphones may cost as much as a simple phone, they may have better audio quality and reduced chance of data breaches via the internet.

If you are uncertain about the security of your device, please contact Information Security .

Oral or written information for participants

Before you start your interview, it is important to inform participants about the interview, which information you will collect, if you will record the interview, and what you will do with the interview data. You can do so orally or in writing, depending on what suits your project best. For example, for a short interview on-location, where you only take anonymous notes, oral information provision may be sufficient. In contrast, for a longer, recorded interview, you may want to provide information in writing which participants can read in advance at their own pace.

You can read more about how to inform participants on this page .

Many interview studies use consent as the legal basis to collect personal data in the interview. However, consent may not always be the most suitable legal basis to use (see below). In any case, the legal basis you use should be included in any information given to participants beforehand. You can use the legal basis flowchart to determine which legal basis may be suitable for your interview project.

In deciding whether to choose consent as your legal basis, take into account the following:

A power imbalance between you and the interviewee may render consent unlawful (see also this chapter about interview issues ). Some may argue that relationships between interviewees and researchers are, in general, imbalanced in nature - which raises the question of whether consent can be lawful at all in an interview setting.
If you plan to publish audio or video recordings (in contrast to solely transcripts for example), you have to take into account portrait rights (part of the Copyright act) and thus need permission for that publication. In that case, it may make the most sense if you also use consent as your legal basis for processing personal data.
Remember that you need to ask for explicit consent for collecting special categories of personal data .

If you use consent as legal basis, the next question is: how to obtain consent? For some settings or audiences, it may not make sense to obtain consent on paper. For example, written consent might not be suitable in research where the risk of consent forms being leaked could have severe repercussions on a participants’ personal life, or where asking for written consent could raise distrust and suspicion towards the researcher. In those cases, you could obtain consent orally. The easiest way to demonstrate oral consent is to record it. In that case, it is recommended to use an oral consent script, and to record consent on a separate audio track as the interview, so that the consent can be stored separately from the data. If you accidentally record consent on the same track as the interview, you can split the track manually (e.g., with tools such as Audacity ).

Collecting unnecessary personal data

It sometimes happens that data subjects disclose more information, or more sensitive information, than you need. This can for example happen in interviews about personal experiences, more unstructured interviews, for participants who are not used to being listened to, in studies in which participants are interviewed multiple times, exploratory studies (where it is difficult to determine what is necessary and what isn’t) and studies with small and heterogeneous samples.

Possible approaches to deal with this:

Critically look at the interview questions and structure: are you asking about unnecessary data? Can the interview be more structured to prevent participants from accidentally sharing too much?
Ask participants not to disclose more information than what you asked for.
Go through the interview (recording or transcript) and highlight what is not necessary for the research question. Delete that from the transcript or don’t transcribe that information at all.
Ask participants to check the interview transcript for information that should not be used in the study.

It is possible that participants disclose special category personal data unasked or accidentally. Normally, it is necessary to obtain explicit consent for collecting those types of personal data. However, if the accidentally disclosed special category personal data concerns that participant themselves, it is not necessary to do that.

If the information concerns special category personal data about someone else , you should either:

delete/anonymise that information immediately, or
inform that other person that you are using their special category personal data, if reasonably possible. You may then also want to ask that person what they think about the participant’s words about them.
If you cannot delete/anonymise the information, but it is also unreasonably difficult to inform that person (or it threatens your research project), you are allowed to move forward without informing that person, provided that you take appropriate measures to protect that person’s rights, freedoms and interests. For example through publication of a privacy statement.

Transcription

If you are mainly interested in the content from the interview, it is best to transcribe the recordings, i.e. converting them into text. In most cases, you can consider the transcriptions as your raw data and remove the original recordings. You can transcribe manually, but there are also many audio transcription tools or services available. If you use such an external tool or service, make sure there is a processing agreement in place between the provider and your institute (for Utrecht University, check the tooladvisor ).

Anonymisation

If you are interested in the image or sound of the recordings, e.g. for emotion or voice analysis, you will have to retain the recordings as your raw data, which can practically not be anonymised. But even if you have transcribed the recordings or have just taken notes, those can still be difficult to anonymise. For example because you are performing research with elites, public figures, participants who are known from the media or from the criminal justice system, or simply because participants can be recognised from their way of talking.

Potential strategies to deal with this:

Remove unnecessary information from your transcript or video/audio data (if possible), for example by trimming the audio or video, adding noise to the audio, modifying the pitch, or blurring video.
Ask participants to review their transcript and highlight publicly known information. Replace that information in a way that does not result in misinterpretation or changes in interpretation when (a) confidentiality is jeopardised and (b) the data are necessary to the study (alteration, sort of like creating synthetic data). For example, replace “Den Haag” with “Randstad”, or “47 years old” with “in their 40s”. See further the de-identification chapter and this article for more information.
Be careful when sharing literal quotes, as participants can sometimes be identified from their manner of speech, or from the experiences they describe.

Tools and packages for de-identifying transcripts or audio/video material can be found in this overview .

Sharing interview data for publication and reuse

Due to difficulties anonymising interview data, it may not be straightforward to share the interview data with other researchers for reuse purposes (e.g., for reproduction, follow-up, or for answering a new research question).

Make arrangements with participants about the way in which they want to be cited in your publication: full name, only function/position, etc. Record the arrangements or write them down.
Discuss with participants the possibility of sharing data. If necessary, obtain their explicit consent. We recommend sharing data in restricted access, except if you are building an oral history archive, in which case you should obtain consent for sharing the data publicly and think about the potential risks for the data subjects.
The reuser will reuse the recordings for scientific research purposes only.
The reuser has a well thought-out research plan with a similar goal as the original research project.
The reuser only gets access via a restricted environment, either a secure analysis environment (e.g., SANE ) or on a physical location without internet access.
The reuser signs a confidentiality agreement or data sharing agreement.

You can read more about this topic in the guidebook “ Making Qualitative Data Reusable ”.

The NIHR Research Design Service for Yorkshir e & the Humber

Using Interviews in a Research Project

This Resource Pack is one of a series produced by The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / The NIHR RDS for Yorkshire and the Humber. This series has been funded by The NIHR RDS EM / YH.

This Resource Pack may be freely photocopied and distributed for the benefit of researchers. However it is the copyright of The NIHR RDS EM / YH and the authors and as such, no part of the content may be altered without the prior permission in writing, of the Copyright owner.

Reference as: Fox, N: Using Interviews in a Research Project The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / Yorkshire & the Humber 2006

Dr Nick Fox School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield

Last updated: 2009

The NIHR RDS for the www.rds-eastmidlands.nihr.ac.uk East Midlands Division of Primary Care, Leicester: [email protected] 14th Floor, Tower building University of Nottingham Nottingham: [email protected] University Park Nottingham NG7 2RD Tel: 0115 823 0500

The NIHR RDS for www.rds-yh.nihr.ac.uk Yorkshire & the Humber ScHARR Sheffield: [email protected] The University of Sheffield Leeds: [email protected] Regent Court York: [email protected] 30 Regent Street Sheffield S1 4DA Tel: 0114 222 0828

The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / Yorkshire & the Humber 2009 2 Using Interviews

Table of Contents Page

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………. 4

2. Types of Interview ...... 5

3. Interview Methods…...... 7

4. Locating and Selecting Respondents – Who and How 11 Many?……………………………………………………………………

5. Getting Agreement to Undertake Interviews…………………….. 14

6. Structuring the Interview……………………………………………. 15

7. Preparing for the Interview…………………………………………. 20

8. Methods of Recording Interviews…………………………………. 22

9. Conducting an Individual Interview……………………………….. 24

10. Conducting a Focus Group Interview…………………………….. 27

11. Sources of Error and Bias in Interviewing………………………. 29

12. Handling and Analysing Interview Data………………………….. 32

13. Summary……………………………………………………………….. 34

14. Answers to Exercises….…………………………………………….. 35

15. References………………………………………………………..…… 37

16. Further Reading………………………………………………………. 37

The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / Yorkshire & the Humber 2009 3 Using Interviews

1. Introduction The interview is an important data gathering technique involving verbal communication between the researcher and the participant. Interviews are commonly used in survey designs and in exploratory and descriptive studies. There is a range of approaches to interviewing, from completely unstructured in which the participant is allowed to talk freely about whatever they wish, to highly structured in which the participant responses are limited to answering direct questions. The quality of the data collected in an interview will depend on both the interview design and on the skill of the interviewer. For example, a poorly designed interview may include leading questions or questions that are not understood by the participant. A poor interviewer may consciously or unconsciously influence the responses that the participant makes. In either circumstance, the research findings will be influenced detrimentally. It is often assumed that if one is clinically trained and used to dealing with patients, that this is sufficient training to carry out interviews with patients and others for research purposes. Although there are some areas of overlap in terms of the basic communication skills required, it should be acknowledged that for research some different skills are required. The context is also important, since in a clinical setting, there is a particular relationship between a patient and a clinician. It is possible that in this routine setting the patient would not be prepared to answer all the questions in a completely honest manner. So it may well be worthwhile thinking about the interview from the respondent’s point of view and considering carefully who would be the most appropriate person to conduct the interview and in what setting. There may be a conflict of roles, for example, therapeutic versus research; or even an unconscious adoption of roles that could affect the quality of the data collected.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES Having successfully completed the work in this pack, you will be able to: · Describe the features of, and differences between structured, semi-structured or unstructured interview. · Summarise the advantages and disadvantages of face-to-face and telephone interviews, and of individual and group interviews. · Prepare for, and conduct an interview 1.1 Working Through this Pack The study time involved in this pack is approximately 10 hours. In addition to the written text, the pack includes exercises for completion. I suggest that as you work through the pack, you establish for yourself a ‘reflective log’, linking the work in the pack to your own research interests and needs, and documenting your reflections on the ethnographic method. Include your responses to the exercises plus your own thoughts as you read and consider the material. You will find answers to the exercises at the end of the pack.

The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / Yorkshire & the Humber 2009 4 Using Interviews

2. Types of Interview The interview design and question phrasing will influence the depth and freedom with which a participant can respond. Some interviews encourage lengthy and detailed replies while others are designed to elicit short and specific responses. The degree of structure imposed on an interview will actually vary along a continuum but it is useful to think of three main types: structured, semi-structured and unstructured.

2.1 Structured or Standardised Interviews Structured interviews enable the interviewer to ask each respondent the same questions in the same way. A tightly structured schedule of questions is used and often the intention is to use a quantitative method of data analysis . In many structured interviews, not only will the questions be set in advance, but the possible choice of answers also. Pre-coded responses are important to allow for comparison across all respondents. It is usual for all responses to be noted or written down on the questionnaire . By minimising the number of open-ended responses, the amount of time required for coding and content analysis is greatly reduced and often the data can be directly entered onto a computer for analysis. In carrying out a structured interview , it is important that the interviewer adheres closely to the interview instructions, namely: · only interview those participants who fit the sampling criteria · follow the correct order and filtering throughout the questionnaire · keep personal opinions to oneself · read out pre-codes and prompts where instructed · do not read out pre-codes for questions requiring spontaneous answers · write down open-ended responses in full. Using a structured interview is a way of trying to ensure comparability across the sample . However it is important that respondents are trained to administer questionnaires and that they are well-briefed on the interview topic. The questions in a structured interview may be phrased in such a way that a limited range of responses is elicited. For example: "Do you think that health services in this area are excellent, good, average or poor? This is an example of a closed question where the possible answers are defined in advance so that the respondent is limited to one of the pre-coded responses. It is not unusual for otherwise structured interviews to contain a few open-ended questions. ‘Catch-all’ final questions are common, for example, ‘Do you have anything more to add?’ These questions are useful in helping capture as much

The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / Yorkshire & the Humber 2009 5 Using Interviews

information as possible but they increase the amount of time required for analysing the interview findings.

2.2 Semi-structured Interviews Semi-structured interviews are similar to structured interviews in that the topics or questions to be asked are planned in advance, but instead of using closed questions, semi-structured interviews are based on open-ended questions. Semi-structured interviews are useful when collecting attitudinal information on a large scale, or when it is not possible to draw up a list of possible pre-codes because little is known about the subject area. However semi-structured interviews are much more time-consuming than structured interviews, because of the requirement to draw up coding frames and carry out content analysis on a large number of interviews. Responses can either be tape-recorded or written down by the interviewer. Obviously because of the use of open-ended questions it is difficult to establish uniformity across respondents. It is therefore all the more important then, that the interviewer refrains from influencing the respondent in any way and maintains a neutral manner. With semi-structured interviewing, the open-ended nature of the question defines the topic under investigation, but also provides opportunities for the interviewer and interviewee to discuss some topics in more detail. If the interviewee has difficulty answering a question or provides only a brief response, the interviewer can use cues or prompts to encourage the interviewee to consider the question further. In a semi-structured interview, the interviewer also has the freedom to probe the interviewee to elaborate on the original response or to follow a line of inquiry introduced by the interviewee. An example would be: Interviewer: I'd like to hear your thoughts on whether changes in government policy have changed the work of the doctor in general practice. Has your work changed at all? Interviewee: Absolutely! The workload has increased for a start. Interviewer: In what way has it increased?

However, analysing the interview data from open questions is more problematic than when closed questions are used as work must be done before often diverse responses from participants can be compared. Well planned and conducted semi-structured interviews are the result of rigorous preparation. The development of the interview schedule, conducting the interview and analysing the interview data all require careful consideration and preparation.

The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / Yorkshire & the Humber 2009 6 Using Interviews

2.3 Unstructured or In-depth Interviews Unstructured or in-depth interviews (also sometimes referred to as qualitative interviews) are so called because they have very little structure at all. The interviewer approaches the interview with the aim of discussing a limited number of topics, sometimes as few as one or two, and frames successive questions according to the interviewee's previous response. Although only one or two topics are discussed, they are covered in great detail. The method of analysis also differs with in-depth interviewing, because no effort is made to collate and quantify participants’ responses. Rather, the intention is to gain a ‘rich picture’ of what is happening in a setting by talking at length and in detail to participants involved. When we talk about the application of in-depth interviews, we might be exploring how patients in a hospital out-patient clinic experienced the consultations that they had with a doctor. The objective of the researcher would be to glean as much information as possible from the patients who are interviewed, in order to gain the fullest understanding possible of what it was actually like for the patients to be in that situation. Generally, a researcher will try to understand the informants’ worldview in an unstructured interview. The relationship between the interviewer and the informant is important. Some characteristics of depth interviewing are that the researcher has a general objective and may use an interview guide, but the respondent provides most of the structure of the interview. The researcher uses this guide, but follows up on ‘cues’ or leads provided by the informant. Typically an interview of this kind will last from 30 to 60 minutes in length, and there may be a series of interviews with a single participant, so you can see that it is an intensive approach to gathering data. In depth interviews: · enable extended data collection from participants; · enable researchers to probe aspects of what a participant says, in ways that a more structured approach such as an interview may not, in order to get a fuller picture of an experience; · can explore the experiences of different participants, who may be selected to reflect a range of experiences. For example, young and old, educated and less educated people may have different expectations of treatment in a hospital; · allow people to ‘speak for themselves’ and thus increase the validity of the data. The disadvantages of in depth interviews are that they: · are costly in time, both for participants and researcher, and therefore may have to be limited in number undertaken during a study; · may be inefficient, as participants may not restrict themselves to the area in which the researcher is interested;

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· may not be generalisable, and are not amenable to statistical analysis to test hypotheses; · may be subject to biases (invalidity and unreliability), both because participants may not tell the truth or may hide aspects of their experiences, and because the interviewer may have an unintended influence on what participants say. Taylor and Bogdan (1984) summarise the circumstances under which in-depth interviews are appropriate as follows: · When there is a clear and well-defined research interest · Participant observation in a setting is not possible · There are constraints on time for the research · The research depends on data from a wide range of people or settings · The focus is on subjective human experience

3. Interview Methods The first thing that you will need to consider is whether you wish to conduct individual or group interviews (also known as focus groups).

3.1 Individual Interviews Individual interviews are valuable to provide detailed information about the meaning of an event, situation or social context to each participant in a setting. They will be appropriate where we may expect a variety of different stories to be told concerning a setting or context, and where we are interested to learn about this variety. They are also appropriate where the topic to be discussed is sensitive, where a respondent may be unwilling to speak about some aspect of their experience in front of others, or where there is a possibility that the story told could contaminate other participants’ stories, and so you need to ensure interviews are conducted in private. If interview data is to be subjected to statistical analysis, it is necessary to conduct individual interviews, to ensure independence of respondents.

3.2 Group Interviews Group interviews (sometimes known as ‘focus groups’) are only really appropriate for qualitative approaches, and can be used where there is some benefit in getting a ‘group story’ about a setting or incident (Morgan 1998). The kinds of circumstances where this may be of value include: · To generate a research question by tapping into the shared wisdom of participants

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· Where the researcher does not have sufficient knowledge to conduct appropriately detailed individual interviews, and wishes to encourage conversation between participants to provide relevant information about the setting. · Where there may be a range of views, and the extent to which participants agree or disagree about something is of interest to the researcher. · To assess the theoretical proposition of the researcher, based on previous data collection and analysis · To come to a consensus between participants about the ‘best way’ to do something (the ‘Delphi’ technique). Individual and group interviews may be used in conjunction. Sometimes individual interviews may inform a subsequent focus group, or vice versa. Having decided on individual or group approaches, you now need to decide which method of interviewing you wish to use. The three ways to conduct interviews are:

3.3 Face-to-face Here the researcher and respondent meet together. This is the most frequently used technique, and enables attention to be paid to non-verbal behaviour and establish a rapport over an extended period of time. Face-to-face or personal interviews are very labour intensive, but can be the best way of collecting high quality data. Face-to-face interviews are preferable when the subject matter is very sensitive, if the questions are very complex or if the interview is likely to be lengthy. Interviewing skills are dealt with in more detail later in this pack. Compared to other methods of data collection, face-to-face interviewing offers a greater degree of flexibility. A skilled interviewer can explain the purpose of the interview and encourage potential respondents to co-operate; they can also clarify questions, correct misunderstandings, offer prompts, probe responses and follow up on new ideas in a way that is just not possible with other methods.

3.4 Telephone and Video Links This can be used where a face-to-face interview is not possible, and may be appropriate where the topic is not sensitive and non-verbal behaviour is less important. Telephone conferencing may enable focus groups, but there are major problems in ‘turn taking’ and ensuring all are able to participate. Video conferencing adds a further dimension to this kind of distance interviewing. Telephone interviews can be a very effective and economical way of collecting data where the sample to be contacted are all accessible via the telephone. They are not an appropriate method of data collection for a very deprived population where

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telephone ownership is likely to be low or where respondents may be ex-directory. However telephone interviewing can be ideally suited to busy professional respondents, such as general practitioners, when the telephone numbers can be easily identified and timed appointments set up. Telephone interviews are also particularly useful when the respondents to be interviewed are widely geographically distributed. One of the main disadvantages of a telephone interview is that it is difficult to incorporate visual aids and prompts and the respondents cannot read cards or scales. The length of a telephone interview is also limited, although this will vary with participant area and motivation. Nevertheless it is possible to make prior appointments for a telephone interview and send stimulus material for the respondent to look at in advance of the interview. A prior appointment and covering letter may enhance the response rate and length of interview.

3.5 Web Interviews The Internet provides opportunities through chat rooms for interviewing, and is a growing method of conducting in-depth interviews. There are clearly major problems in establishing rapport, and non-verbal behaviour will be missed entirely. However, some research suggests that respondents may be willing to be more open about personal matters in this kind of format. Issues of authenticity of identity may also be an issue. Methods of using the web include e-mail interviews, bulletin boards and interactive web sites. Chat rooms can be used to simulate focus groups. Exercise 1

Types and Methods of Interview Which is the more appropriate interview approach (structured etc; face-to-face etc) in each of the following studies? 1. A study of experiences of extra-marital sexual relations among middle-aged men and women.

2. A study of how social workers, doctors and psychologists counsel people who are having marital problems

3. A study of the factors involved in caring for old people in a remote country in southern Asia that the researcher has not visited.

4. A study of old people’s experiences of community nursing and care services (district nurse, ‘meals on wheels’, home helps etc)

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4. Locating and Selecting Respondents: Who, How Many? The different approaches to interviewing have different requirements for selection of respondents. In structured interviews, often there will be a need for a detailed sampling frame to determine how a representative sample is generated, and who can be interviewed (for example, patients with a condition, women under 40 etc.). In qualitative interviewing, on the other hand, neither the number nor the type of respondents can be entirely specified in advance, as there needs to be a willingness to change course as the data is collected. When we are working with something as complex as the experiences of life and their meanings for participants, research needs to permit a capacity to react to what is being found. The details of who is to be interviewed, how respondents are to be found and what will be asked in the interviews may all emerge during the study (Seidman 1998: 29). That, however, does not mean that there is no need to plan ahead, and there are some theoretical as well as some practical issues concerning selection of respondents that need to be considered. There are a number of ways of approaching the question of how and how many people to interview.

1. Interview as many as possible There is a temptation to conduct as many interviews as one can within a setting, maybe even interviewing everyone involved (for example, all the staff of a care unit or all the surgeons in a hospital). There is a logic to this, based on being comprehensive, but it may be very wasteful in time. It is feasible that after interviewing three people in a setting, all the subsequent data generated is repetition: the same points come out time and time again. This approach feels rather quantitative in character: the aim is to ensure that everyone has been surveyed to get a total picture. It will be appropriate when using a structured interview schedule that may be analysed statistically

2. Choose a small, but representative sample Like the previous approach, the intention here is to make sure that the analysis of data will reflect the broad view of participants in a setting. A sampling strategy would be to select participants to represent different categories, for example, doctors, nurses and technical staff. The problem is of course that such a selection strategy is very crude. Unlike quantitative data collection, where randomised samples can be used and statistics

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applied to test ‘significance’ with a smaller sample and a non-statistical analysis it is not really possible to be ‘representative’ in sampling.

3. Choose respondents to maximise diversity The intention here is to get as wide a range of perspectives as possible, even if these are extreme and do not represent the ‘average’ view. However, it enables the data to count much more than if analysis is based on a broadly representative sample This kind of approach is known as theoretical sampling and is very different from a quantitative sampling strategy. The number of people interviewed is relatively unimportant, and more important is that each interviewee can add something to the researcher’s understanding of the setting. The objective is to uncover the widest range of meanings held by the participants in the setting. When you do not uncover new meanings in an interview, this means you have interviewed enough participants! (Taylor and Bogdan 1984: 83). This is known as theoretical saturation. It does require that data analysis is partly concurrent with data collection, so that it is clear when no new meanings are emerging from the in-depth interviews. This approach has been widely adopted in qualitative in-depth interviewing, and provides an economical way to sample. It is well suited to descriptive and exploratory research, and to some kinds of evaluation research. It is less suitable for multi-setting, large-scale studies using more than one interviewer. Exercise 2

Sampling Interview Respondents What approach to sampling would you adopt in the following research studies? 1. Interviews to determine patient satisfaction with a GP consultation

2. A comparison of satisfaction between two GP practices

3. Interviews to discover what factors affect whether patients are satisfied with a GP consultation

4.2 How to Recruit Respondents There are various ways to recruit, ranging from the formal to the informal. If you require a random sample, you could select potential interviewees from the electoral

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register or telephone directory. Recruiting in qualitative research tends to use networks, either existing ones known to the researcher, or ones known to key informants in the setting. Especially where theoretical sampling approaches are to be used, there will also need to be an element of snowballing, whereby respondents are encouraged to supply names of further potential interviewees to the researcher. Snowballing can be very effective as a technique to manage qualitative interviews, as the supply of respondents can be regulated, simply be asking for contacts at the end of interviews. This avoids having to cancel pre-arranged interviews when theoretical saturation occurs. The following methods can be used for recruitment.

1. Approach a senior member of an organisation This can be used to generate potential interviewees, and has the advantage that it may provide a good supply of respondents. However, it may lead to bias if the selection by a manager is based on her/his judgment of who is appropriate. The other concerns mentioned in chapter 1 also apply to the use of a formal approach such as this. If you wish to interview senior management, it will be essential that you make a formal approach to the organisation, and there may be problems gaining access to these respondents, as there may be concern that confidentiality will be breached leading to commercial disadvantage to the organisation.

2. Use informal networks If you know people in an organisation, this can be a way in. Here the snowballing methods may be valuable. It has the advantage that you can avoid any need for sponsorship from a senior member of an organisation. It has the disadvantage that it may not enable you to get to the entire range of perspectives. If you want to research an informal group, this approach will be the most appropriate.

3. Direct approaches On occasions, you may need to approach people in public places. This is not a good method for in-depth interviewing given the length of time required for interviews and the need for quiet. Cold-call telephoning is similarly unlikely to be successful for this kind of research design . These approaches are more suited to closed question designs.

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4. Advertising Taking an advertisement in a local newspaper or a magazine read by your target group may be productive, but response rates are poor for the expense involved and the respondents will inevitably be highly self-selected. This could lead to bias, especially where a research topic is controversial.

5. World-wide web Discussion forums exist on most topics and joining a group and asking for volunteers to be interviewed may yield some respondents. You will probably need to participate in the group for some time before you will be trusted, especially as you will be expecting people to meet you face-to-face for the interview.

5. Getting Agreement to Undertake Interviews It is important that the interviewer seeks the informed consent of the respondent to participate in the study. In most cases, this should be obtained in writing. The interviewer has an important role in explaining why the study is necessary and converting waivers without coercion. Whilst it is possible to recruit respondents on the doorstep, it is preferable to invite them to participate in advance either in writing or by telephone. A written invitation on letter headed paper explaining the purpose of the study can enhance the credibility of the study and increase response rates. Nevertheless such an invitation should be careful to explain that participation is entirely voluntary. The interviewer must reassure the respondent of their confidentiality or anonymity, and inform them that their identities will not be revealed in the aggregated findings. It is important that the interviewer introduces her/himself, explains why the study is being done, why the respondent has been selected and what will happen to the interview data. Respondents should be encouraged to ask questions. All of this will help the interviewer to establish a rapport with the respondent. Note that in some circumstance you will need to get permission to interview certain people. This will be the case where they belong to an official organisation such as the police or army, where you want to interview them because they represent a professional group or an organisation such as an NHS trust, or when you want to interview them on the premises of an organisation such as a hospital or GP surgery. Note too that all interviews with patients, NHS staff and interviews conducted on NHS premises require prior ethical permission. It is also the case that some people although not official gatekeepers (e.g. management, ethics committees) still perform an informal gate-keeping role. They are

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important to get ‘on side’ as they can make it much harder to get to respondents without their assistance. Exercise 3

Gaining Agreement for Interview 1. What is the disadvantage of interviewing people you know or work with?

2. Why might you need to approach an informal gatekeeper when conducting interview research?

3. Why should we be cautious if a person is eager to be interviewed?

6. Structuring the Interview To conduct a good interview, interviewers need certain skills, including reflective questioning, summarising and controlling the interview process. Also, interviewers need to be unbiased, systematic and thorough, and offer no personal views. He or she also needs to be well informed on the purpose of the research interview and to be well prepared and familiar with the questionnaire or topic guide. In addition, he or she needs to be a good listener. In addition to these generic skills, all interviews (even unstructured ones!) need some degree of structure. This will vary from what is basically a closed question questionnaire through to an interview guide in an unstructured interview.

6.1 Structured and Semi-structured Interviews When carrying out a structured interview, it is important that the interviewer adheres closely to the interview instructions, namely: · following the correct order and filtering throughout the questionnaire. Filtering enables the interviewer or the respondent to know which question to go to next. For example, a structured interview may include a filter such as: If yes to Q1, go to Q3 If no to Q1, go to Q2. · reading out pre-codes and prompts where instructed. A prompt is a prepared answer such read out to the respondent by the interviewer. · probing when necessary. A probe is a follow-up question that is used after the respondent has given their first answer. It is used to elicit a more detailed

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response. Sometimes probes are general and non-directed. In contrast some probes are very specific, for example, clarifying time of day. · not reading out pre-codes for questions requiring spontaneous answers · writing down or taping open-ended responses in full. Using a structured interview is a way of trying to ensure consistency between interviews. However it is still important that interviewers are trained to administer the questionnaires and well briefed on the interview topic, ensuring familiarity with some of the terms and jargon that may be contained in answers. Interviewers carrying out structured or semi-structured interviews for a quantitative study should: · stick closely to any written instructions about filtering questions, what to read out etc. · refrain from giving personal opinions (for any type of design) · be systematic and consistent in the way they interact with each respondent (again, for any type of design)

6.2 Structure in a Qualitative Interview Qualitative interviews should not be based on a rigid list of questions that must be answered in the time available. If this is the case, it is not an in-depth interview (Jones 1985: 46). However, there is no such thing as a totally un-structured interview (or at least, if there is, then it is not really adequate for research). Even the informal interviews during participant observation are structured by the researcher’s desire to clarify some aspect of a setting. In preparing an interview, a researcher needs to have some broad questions in mind. But the process of in-depth interviewing is about being able to make choices ‘on the hoof’ as an interview progresses, to ensure that data is gathered in relation to the research topic, but without guiding the respondent into an area to such an extent that it precludes their being able to say what is most important for them. The key here is to permit sufficient flexibility in structure, so that it is possible to respond quickly to what is important for the interviewee, asking questions in relation to what we hear from the respondent, not from what is written on our briefing sheet (ibid: 47).

The Three-Phase Qualitative Interview According to Seidman (1998) we can discern three phases to a typical in-depth interview:

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1. Focused Life History In this phase, the interviewer’s task is to put respondents’ experiences in context, by asking them to provide as much information as possible about themselves, in relation to the topic of the study (ibid: 11). Seidman offers an example of a study of the experiences of trainee teachers, in which this first phase of interviewing encouraged them to contextualised their experiences in relation to their life history, in particular their own schooldays and any coaching or tutoring they did before becoming trainees. He asked the question ‘how did you become a trainee teacher?’ rather than ‘why?’, to gain as much background as possible.

2. The Details of Experience Here the emphasis is on the concrete details of the present experience of respondents in the research topic area, to re-construct their experiences. In Seidman’s example of research on trainee teachers he asked them what they actually did, not about their opinions about the work. Respondents may be asked about relationships with colleagues and students. One technique might be to ask them to re-construct an entire day in their work lives from getting up to going to bed.

3. Reflection on the Meaning In the third phase, respondents are asked to reflect on the meaning of their experience. This is not about how satisfying the experience may be, but how the respondents make intellectual and emotional connections with the experiences that are the subject of the research topic. The intention here is to find out how respondents make sense of the experiences that they have, and how it relates to other aspects of their lives and their selves. This interview phase will draw on the first and second phases. Knowing something about the life history and also about the daily experiences, enables the interviewer to ask detailed in-depth, relevant questions concerning the meaning of events for each individual respondent. It is clear from this that the critical third phase can only succeed if preceded by detailed earlier phases. Seidman (1998) actually suggests that there should be three separate interviews, each lasting up to 90 minutes. If time is more limited, then a single extended interview covering the three phases may be adequate. Seidman’s case for separate interviews is alluring, as it ensures that a structure is sustained, making sure that phases one and two are adequately dealt with before moving to the final crucial phase. I would add that this kind of approach can enable a rough analysis of phases one and two to be undertaken before the third interview, to ensure that the interviewer is fully briefed on critical issues and has been able to prepare adequately to ask the

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kind of in-depth questions required in phase three. If interviews are spaced from three to seven days apart, this also enables respondents to reflect on what they said, giving a potential for a more reflective third interview (Seidman 1998: 15). The three-phase interview schedule is a good start towards this. It enables an interview to move from a relatively unstructured early phase, where the researcher is led by the respondent as the latter recounts their life history and their daily experiences, to a more focused latter phase, in which the researcher attempts to integrate the earlier materials to get at the critical meanings that the experiences have for the respondents.

6.3 Interview Guides in Qualitative Interviewing In-depth interviews are not based on a formal schedule, as are more structured interview approaches. But it is important to have some kind of interview guide that can enable an interviewer to ensure that they cover important areas. Interviewing, especially as a novice, can be stressful, and a simple aide-memoire will assist an interviewer to recall any important areas that have not been covered during the interview. The first step in preparing the guide will be to write down the research question. You need to make sure that your interview is always focused on the research question. You need to avoid getting side-tracked, although at the same time, you can be open to ideas that you did not expect to emerge during interviews. Using the three stages outlined in the previous section is the basis for the guide. You can draft a series of cues that are intended to facilitate interviewees to talk about the subject, moving from background through to specific reflections.

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Focused Life History Use descriptive questions such as: Tell me about what it was like back in (date or place) when you were … I think that you had some background in .., didn’t you? Can you tell me about that? What got you interested in … ? These kinds of questions should elicit the kinds of materials that will enable you to move on to

Details of the Experience The second phase of the interview will need to get a full record of the experiences of the interviewee. The simplest way to do this is to use questions like: Tell me about a typical day in your life/your office/your work Can you start with what usually begins your day? So what happens after that, on a typical day? The responses can be probed to get maximum detail from the respondent. You may also ask: So is there ever anything different that happens? What might happen if x occurs at work? These kinds of questions should provide you with data on the ‘facts’ of the setting. You need to note down the key issues that emerge, so these can be used in the third phase

Reflecting on the Experience This is where you attempt to elicit the meanings of the experiences for respondents. By now, hopefully there will be some kind of rapport, but you still need to go gently, and this is where non-directive questions can be use effectively. We will look at the techniques you can use in this phase of the interview later. Ask this kind of question: You mentioned … as something that often happens, what do you feel about that? What’s it like when … happens? It sounds like you have thought quite a bit about … I wonder if you have any ideas about what might be happening in this situation?

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I guess that having worked/lived/done … for such a long time, you’ve had plenty of time to make your own judgements about it?

Of course, sometimes people will jump from phase one to two or three before you had planned. If that happens, allow the conversation to flow, rather than saying ‘stop, I don’t want to talk about that yet’! But remember where you were, and when it seems right, pull back the conversation by saying: A moment ago you were telling me about … We will consider what to do if the interview goes entirely off-track later.

Probing Probe questions are more directive than those that you use to get each phase of the interview going. They are aimed to jog the memory of the respondent, and take the form of: What did that place look like? Can you remember what you said then? How did it feel at that moment? Who else was there? Taylor and Bogdan (1984) suggest other questions that can be used to dredge up memories: Did your parents ever tell you stories about how you were when you were growing up? What kinds of stories do you tell when you get together with your family/workmates from that time?

The 3-phase interview You want to interview a patient about having Parkinson’s disease. Produce an interview guide for a three-phase interview. You need not write down individual questions, just topic areas to cover in the three phases.

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7. Preparing for the Interview Before an interview, it is necessary to do some preparatory work. Some of the preparation will concern purely practical issues. The more important aspects concern planning the structure of the interview. We will look at each in turn.

7.1 Practical Arrangements for the Interview The main practical issues are:

A place to meet You need to agree in advance where the interview will take place, and of course a time that is mutually suitable. There are clearly advantages in arranging interviews at a place that is known to you: you can ensure that the room is appropriate, quiet and private, that there is adequate light and heating/air-conditioning, that there is an electricity socket if you need this for recording equipment, that there are chairs and if possible a table. The disadvantage is that this will be seen as your ‘territory’ and may inhibit your interviewee from feeling comfortable and willing to speak openly. If you opt for a place that is on the respondent’s ‘turf’, you will take a chance that some of the above are not available. I have interviewed in many unsatisfactory settings, from shared rooms where a telephone continually interrupted the interview, to a mud hut in Thailand where the distractions were barking dogs and man-eating flies! If you do choose to go to the respondent’s choice of location, you should ask about the arrangements and try to ensure at least that the room will enable an uninterrupted and private interview to take place. If you are invited to a respondent’s home, this is a good sign, but you need to ensure you will feel comfortable and secure going to such a location. Settings where children (or pets!) are vying for your respondent’s attention are to be avoided if possible.

NB If you are going to meet a respondent at an outside location, you should take these precautions: · tell someone where and when you are meeting, and make sure that if you are not back at a certain hour, that some kind of action will be taken to check your safety · carry a mobile phone

Sufficient Time for the Interview You need to agree in advance how long the interview will take so you are able to have sufficient time to complete it satisfactorily.

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If you are meeting on more than one occasion, try to make a regular arrangement, and typically do not leave gaps of more than about a week between interviews. It will help respondents if they are aware that more than one interview will be needed. Life history research will take many meetings, over a number of months to complete.

Recording Equipment We will look at this in the next section.

Interpreting If your respondents do not speak English, you need to arrange for a competent interpreter. Make sure you know exactly what language needs interpreting, and that the interpreter is fluent in the dialect to be spoken. If you are unable to obtain a professional interpreter, you may be able to use a family member or friend of the respondent to translate. But this carries some risks: such an interpreter may have their own cultural agenda and may choose to translate accordingly. For instance, some questions may be perceived by an interpreter as culturally too sensitive to ask. They may paraphrase what is said in either or both directions, and you will get answers to questions you did not ask! Interpreters need to understand the research process: there is a big difference between interpreting in a doctor’s surgery and providing the level of accuracy of translation that is required when you are trying to access complex reflections on experience.

Interviewing People with Disabilities If your respondent has a disability, you will need to prepare in advance to ensure that you can conduct the interview adequately (for example, that communication will be adequate) and that the respondent will be catered for physically.

Telephone Interviews If you are interviewing by telephone, there are a number of specific practicalities. · You need to make sure you can record both sides of the conversation using appropriate recording technology. Check that line quality is adequate and that your respondent can hear you. · Ensure you agree a time for the interview when your respondent will not be interrupted. · Make sure it is your (not your respondent’s) phone bill that is being debited for the call! · Attempting to conduct group interviews using conference calling is to be avoided: it is very hard to establish rapport among a group of people by telephone.

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Preparing for an interview You want to interview teenage women about their sexual health. List the practical issues you need to address for this research project

8. Methods of Recording Interviews In structured or semi-structured interviews, interviewers must record all answers carefully, distinguishing between questions which only allow one answer and multiple-response questions. Any verbatim answers need to be written down as accurately as possible. In unstructured interviews, an interviewer would normally tape record the discussion rather than attempting to get it all down on paper. This frees the interviewer to really listen to what is being said and respond accordingly. You should arrange to use some kind of audio or video device to record your interviews unless there is a very good reason why this is not feasible (for example, because a respondent is not willing to be recorded). Consent to record the interview is necessary from the respondent. You need to explain the confidentiality and anonymity of the interview, and this can be done when you first agree an interview. A small portable recorder that uses an ordinary cassette (not a mini-cassette) or recordable CD is the best option. Cheaper, more bulky recorders are available, and it is also possible to spend much more on a studio-quality recorder. It is probably best to use a mono rather than stereo recorder as this can enhance the sound quality. Do not buy a voice-activated model as any pauses during the interview will be lost, and low-volume speech may not be recorded at all. Digital recorders are now available which remove the need for cassettes, but do ensure you have sufficient memory capacity to record the interviews you plan between downloads. It is inadvisable to use a Dictaphone, as the cassettes last for a short period and often quality of recording will be poor.

8.1 Microphones The quality of your recordings depends on the microphone you use. Do not rely upon the internal microphone in a tape recorder: this may not pick up voices of both interviewer and respondent adequately. The best microphones are omni-directional, meaning that they will pick up sounds equally well on all sides. Small flat microphones that rest on a tabletop can be purchased from electronics outlets. These require a battery to actuate them, and

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you must therefore remember to turn on the microphone at the start of the interview, and off afterwards to conserve the battery!

If using a flat microphone, place it about half way between you and your respondent, or in the middle of a table for a group interview. If you are able to avoid having the recorder on the table top, this will minimise any hum from the motor being recorded. An alternative is to ask your respondent to wear a lapel microphone and to do the same yourself, ensuring excellent recording quality. You will need to check the sockets on the recorder can take two separate microphones. Always test the equipment before starting the interview. Set the recorder working, and chat with your respondent for a minute. Then replay the tape to check it has recorded adequately. Cassettes should be of a good quality, and ones intended for voice recording can be purchased. Sixty-minute cassettes will have a better quality than 90 or 120 minutes ones, but you need to remember to turn over the tape after 30 minutes. If you need to change the tape, ask your respondent to pause for a moment. One tip I have learnt is to leave a recorder running for as long as possible. Some respondents say important things after you have officially ended an interview. You will miss these if you ritually switch off your machine as you say ‘well thank you, that’s all’. Only when you are sure that a respondent has really finished, switch off.

8.2 Video Recording Using video can pick up non-verbal behaviour but is unlikely to be worth the hassle of setting up. Video-recording an interview can inhibit openness among respondents. It can be very helpful in group interviews however, as it can be hard to discern from an audio tape who is speaking if a group is large.

8.3 One-way Mirrors If you have the facility of a room with a one-way mirror, you could use this in order for a second researcher to observe an interview, possibly attending to non-verbal behaviour. However, this technique is rarely used in in-depth interviewing, being more often used for training, clinical or psychological observation.

8.4 Note-taking If you cannot use audio-tape, you will have to record an interview by hand. If you can learn shorthand, this will be of great assistance. If not, you will have to make the best of what will inevitably be a partial record of an interview. Remember to note your own questions as well as trying to record your respondent’s answers.

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There is an argument for taking brief notes even during a recorded interview. These should be limited to notes that can remind you to ask questions later in the interview, notes for interviews with other respondents, and notes of any striking non- verbal behaviour. A respondent may be inhibited if you are scribbling away: far better to keep eye contact and try to remember these times after the interview. Your post-interview notes can be used to reflect on what was said by the respondent. These reflections are an adjunct to the interview data. They can also enable you to reflect on your interview style and refine this (Taylor and Bogdan 1984: 104) After an interview, label the tape clearly so you know the name of the respondent, the date and location. We will consider transcription of tapes in the unit on data analysis. It is worth noting that transcription should take place as soon as possible after an interview. Any unclear passages on the tape can then be completed with the assistance of the interviewer’s recall of the interview. Finally, when ending the interview, remember to give the respondent a contact telephone number in writing for the interviewer or study organiser, as there may be something that the respondent wants to add or ask about.

9. Conducting an Individual Interview We have looked already at the kinds of questions that might be used during an in- depth interview. In this section we turn to the techniques that can be used to make an interview run smoothly.

9.1 Establishing Rapport Before commencing the interview, the interviewer should take the time to explain the reason for the interview, including the aim of the research project and what will happen to the interview data. He/she should check whether the interviewee has any questions. Questions should be asked in a relaxed informal manner so that the interview appears more like a discussion or conversation. The interviewer must be aware of the effect of body language in indicating interest, encouraging the interviewee to talk and maintaining a non-threatening atmosphere.

9.2 Emulate a Conversation Try to make the in-depth interview seems as much as possible like the normal conversational situation in which people disclose information to others. You need to try to relate to the respondent on a personal level and if this is hard for you, it is going to affect the quality of the data. Don’t be afraid to devote some time at the start of your interview to building a relaxed mood. However, you should be very cautious about revealing information about yourself, and in particular your personal attitudes or beliefs, as these may affect what a

The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / Yorkshire & the Humber 2009 25 Using Interviews

respondent is subsequently willing to say. If you disclose about yourself, keep to neutral topics such as the journey to the interview, the attractiveness of the furnishings or even the weather!

9.3 Listen If you do not listen to your respondent, you will miss the nuances of what is being said. Don’t think about your next question while a respondent is talking. If you cannot remember what you want to ask next, you can always refer to the guide. Much more likely, if you have listened intently, the next question will flow naturally from what has just been said. It will also mean you will ask a ‘real’ question, not one to which you already know the answer (Seidman 1998: 63 ff.).

9.4 Be Non-Judgmental If you want a respondent to open up about their life, they need to feel secure that they will not be judged for it. On occasions, interviewees may say things you find objectionable, foolish or upsetting. Your role is not to judge your respondent however, and you need to find ways to sustain a neutral demeanour. This is most easily done if you suspend your judgments during an interview (Taylor and Bogdan 1984: 94). If this is not possible, you need to respond neutrally. For example, if a respondent makes a racist comment that is relevant to your research topic, you may want to say ‘tell me more about this’, rather than frown, move on to another area or remonstrate with them for their racism.

9.5 Let People Talk Open-ended questions are intended to get respondents to enter into a ‘stream of consciousness’, in which few cues from you are required to keep them talking. Practice with a mirror looking interested, nodding occasionally or even using an ‘eyebrow flash’ (McCracken 1988: 35) to indicate you want your respondent to keep talking. Don’t frown or look away as they non-verbal cues will inhibit your respondent. Try to adopt an open posture, not leaning forward too aggressively in your chair, or leaning back as if uninterested. Pay attention to what is being said, as this will ensure the conversation will flow smoothly. Of course, on occasions, respondents diverge magnificently from the research topic, and your skill is needed to bring them back on track without making them feel you are bored. Try: ‘yes that’s very interesting. Could I just ask you about something you said a moment ago’, and then go back to your main line of questioning. Silences may be very telling. Do not feel uncomfortable with a silence in a qualitative interview. If you do, you may try to rush in and fill it quickly with another question. You need to give the respondent the opportunity and the time to reflect and to add additional information. The length of the silence may be important and

The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / Yorkshire & the Humber 2009 26 Using Interviews

should be indicated in the final transcript. Develop your skill in leaving long pauses. In our society, we find these uncomfortable and so often jump in with speech so encouraging them to talk.

9.6 Be Attuned to Words and Gestures If your respondent is leaking emotions via their body language, you will know you are on sensitive ground. Use this positively, to encourage reflection but without upsetting your respondent or getting into difficult areas that you may not be able to support your respondent through. You have an ethical responsibility not to harm your respondents through opening old wounds. Be willing to say ‘perhaps we should move on now’, if you realise you are on dangerous ground. If a respondent says they do not want to talk about something, reassure them that you won’t ask about that topic. Non-verbal behaviour can often be revealing of lies or distortions, and you can use this to reduce the possibility that a respondent is misleading you consciously or unconsciously. Closed posture, looking away or shifting in the seat are all signs that what is being said may not be wholly accurate. If you suspect this is happening, you can gently probe to see whether you can clarify, perhaps saying ‘I wonder if there’s another way of thinking about that’ or ‘how do you feel about that deep-down?’

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9.7 Specialised Questioning Strategies A number of specific questioning techniques are suggested by McCracken (1988: 35-7).

The Grand Tour Start an interview with low-profile, non-directive questions to get talk going without specifying the particular topic. This is the purpose of the life history and the daily details of experience parts of the interview.

Floating Prompts Repeat the last few words of what is said by a respondent, using an interrogative tone: Respondent: ‘… and eventually it seemed the right thing to do was change job …’ Interviewer (neutrally): ‘Right to change job?’ If you can carry it, off, a raised eyebrow can be sufficient stimulus to keep the respondent talking.

Planned Prompts These are more directive and gives a respondent an opportunity to provide detail. The contrast prompt asks something like ‘you’ve talked about x and now about y, what exactly is the difference between these?’ The category prompt seeks clarification from a respondent to define key elements of the story. S/he may have mentioned a specific example: you ask ‘what other examples of that kind of thing happen?’ and from that, you are able to understand more about how the respondent categorises her reality. The exception prompt asks for (or immediately picks up on) an example of exceptions to what normally happens, and to see how accounting for these helps a respondent to reflect on the reality The auto-driving prompt is quite intrusive. The researcher provides a stimulus: a photograph or an object, and asks the respondent to comment upon it. This can be used where it would be hard to generate commentary on this particular topic.

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10. Conducting a Focus Group Interview Many of the techniques that are used in in-depth interviews with individuals may also be applied to group interviews. However there are some additional issues that emerge because of the rather different structure of the interaction.

10.1 Preparation Group interviews need careful planning, and the right people need to be invited to participate. You should beware of using ‘naturally-occurring groups’ as these may not have adequate focus to be appropriate for research. They also need to be facilitated adequately, to ensure they discuss what they are meant to discuss (Morgan 1998: 34). How large a group to interview is a moot point, but generally it is suggested that six to eight participants is the right size group (Hedges 1985: 75-6). If group interviews are being conducted for reasons of economy of time or cost, then this is an optimal number, but I have conducted very productive group interviews with three or even two participants. The value of the group interview is as much concerned with enabling a semi-natural conversation to be recorded between participants. There are a few obvious practical issues to be addressed. You need a room large enough to accommodate all the participants, preferably around a table. Recording needs to be arranged so that all participants can be adequately heard. Transcribing group interviews can be a problem, as it may be hard to identify all the voices in a large group. It is best to start with a round of ‘names and jobs’ so that a transcriber will have a better chance of identifying each contribution to the discussion. You should explain that it will aid data collection if the discussions are orderly, and that participants allow each other opportunities to speak without interruptions.

10.2 Techniques in Group Interviews The key skill as a group interview leader is as a moderator, rather than specifically as an interviewer. While some of the techniques for managing an interview noted in the earlier section on individual interviews are relevant, typically, the objective in a group interview is for the researcher to say as little as possible. The task is primarily to keep the discussion on topic.

Getting Started You will need to relax your participants, and get them talking freely. You need to explain the purpose of the interview clearly and simply, and explain the recording method. You also need to ensure that participants understand the confidentiality of the research.

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You will need to introduce people to each other, and perhaps incorporate some kind of round-robin of names and roles with a simple question such as ‘how long have you been involved in … ?’ Everyone will have a turn to answer this initial question, and this will at least give all a chance to speak up early in the interview. You may want to do a further round-robin on a second question, but after that, it will become too repetitive if you expect a structured response. You do not want to conduct a series of individual interviews, after all! (Hedges 1985: 80-81).

Encouraging Talk The first rounds should stimulate discussion and then it is a matter of allowing the conversation to progress organically. Try to avoid direct questions, as these will close down the discussion and may make people feel they are being confronted in front of others. If you want to explore a point, you can use the technique of repeating the last part of a comment as a question, as was seen earlier. Try to avoid the impression of controversy in anything that has been said, so that people do not feel nervous about disclosing.

Neutrality You need to give an impression of enthusiasm and interest in what is being said, without overly partisan towards any view. You must never disclose your own views or feelings, as this could bias the discussions. If asked directly, you may need to explain that your moderator role means you prefer not to comment during the interview.

Group Dynamics An important responsibility of the moderator is ensuring that the group functions effectively. The objective is to facilitate discussion without allowing one or more individuals to dominate it. It may be necessary for you to interject to ensure quiet members have an opportunity to contribute. You can ask ‘What do you feel about that?’ to someone who has not had a chance to contribute. If one person is dominating, you can say: ‘That’s interesting. I’d like to get other opinions on that from around the table’. You also need to be aware of any tensions in the group, rivalries, or anything that could lead to disruption. If a legitimate view is being strongly challenged by a majority of participants, you may wish to say something like: ‘Participants in other groups have something similar, would you like to expand on your point?’

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Stimuli Sometimes you may wish to introduce some stimulus material into the group: for example a text or a picture. This can be used to observe how people react, and assess the impact on individuals or the group as a whole. Scenarios are sometimes used in this way, and this can provide useful structure to an interview. You should not under-estimate how long it will take to discuss a scenario however, and do not expect too much from a single focus group interview.

Overall Plan You should have a general idea of how you expect the interview to proceed, and some kind of time-scale for all the elements you want to cover. It is your responsibility to ensure that the interview keeps to the expected time. Do not run on longer than you agreed with participants. Exercise 6

Focus Group Preparation Devise some stimuli for a focus group interview on a participant of your choice

11. Sources of Error and Bias in Interviewing Because of the personal nature of interviewing, the scope for introducing error and bias is quite large and can affect all the following stages of the interviewing process: § asking the questions § recording the answers § coding the answers § interpreting the answers

Sources of interviewing error will affect a study randomly, i.e. in all directions, whereas sources of interviewing bias affect the study results systematically, i.e. in the same direction. Sources of error include: · deviation from the written instructions in a structured interview , e.g. not following the correct order of questions, not following the correct filters on the question routing, not using show cards with pre-coded answers, reading out pre-coded

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answers which were not to be read out, and changing the wording of the questions. · interrogation error, which occurs when questions are phrased differently from respondent to the next, for example, asking ‘What is your age?’ could produce a different response than asking ‘How old are you?’ Use of the word ‘old’ can result in some respondents giving a younger age. · interpretation error, which occurs when the interviewer has to make a subjective judgement as to how to code an answer. This is most likely to happen when the potential answers are pre-coded and the interviewer has to attempt to squeeze the respondent’s answer into an existing box. · recording error. It is generally recognised that the more an interviewer has to write down, the more likely he/she is to make a mistake in the recording of that data. There is a tendency to abbreviate answers, not necessarily correctly. Exercise 7

Minimising error and bias in qualitative interviews In a qualitative interview, how would you reduce interviewer error and bias?

11.1 The Pilot Study In order to ensure that you will achieve your objectives in an interview, that you can ask the ‘right’ questions or that you have not forgotten or omitted some issue that is really important to the respondent, you will need to conduct a pilot study using your draft questionnaire. The ideal situation is to try the interview on one or two respondents who are similar to those in your sampling frame, perhaps slightly more if you are doing a structured interview where you need to ensure equivalence of questioning. However, if the real participants are difficult to access or few in number, then you may have to test the questionnaire on slightly different participants. At the very minimum, you could try out the questionnaire on your colleagues or friends It is essential that the interview be phrased in plain and clear language. If the participants of your study are to be members of the public, you should pilot the interview with a lay person in preference to a professional colleague, even if the lay person is a friend or relative. You may be so familiar with medical terminology and jargon that you forget other people may not understand it. You can also use a pilot interview to test the equipment and make sure both parties are audible. Carry out pilot interviews a few days before you begin interviewing in earnest, so you can remember what worked well in the pilot.

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Avoiding Poor Questions Read the attached transcript below of a research interview between a practice nurse and a patient. Identify (by line number) those parts of the interview where the interviewer asked: 1. leading questions (where the question encourages a particular answer) 2. ambiguous questions (where the meaning is unclear) 3. two questions in one sentence 4. State how this may have influenced the outcome of the study, and suggest ways in which the questions could have been better phrased.

The study below aims to explore how parents decide to use their primary care services when their children are ill. (I = Interviewer, R = Respondent) 1 I : Thank-you for agreeing to spare me some time for this interview. 2 I’m doing a study of parents with small children - I’m interested in how they use 3 their local General Practitioner services. 4 I’d like to ask you some questions about the times when your child has been ill. 5 How old is she? 6 R : Six. She was six in June. 7 I Can you tell me about the last time she was ill? 8 R What do you mean by ill? How ill? 9 I Well, anything really, not necessarily ill enough to go to a doctor. I mean, eh, has 10 she had any colds or high temperatures or anything like that or more serious illness? 11 R Yes. 12 I She had em? 13 R She had a bad cough and cold about two months ago. 14 I And how did you handle that? Did you take her to the doctor?. 15 R Well, I didn’t take her to the doctor straight away. I gave lots of Calpol

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and I 16 waited, and I tried to keep her cool, but then she seemed to get hotter and hotter 17 and eventually by night-time I decided that I had to call the doctor out. 18 I What time was this? 19 R About 3 am. She’d been awake all night and she’d been getting hotter and hotter 20 and I got more worried. You know how it is when you’re worried. 21 I You were worried about meningitis? 22 R Yes, she was very poorly, so I called the doctor out. 23 I So you asked for a home visit. How quickly did he come? 24 R It was a woman. A different doctor. She came very quickly actually. I was 25 surprised she came so quickly. I thought that we would be waiting all night, you 26 know. But she was there within half an hour. 27 I What did she do? 28 R Well she took Anna’s temperature and, you know, she said she was OK. Not to 29 worry and that if we were still worried we should go to the GP in the morning. I 30 wanted some antibiotics but I didn’t get any. 31 I So the next day did you take her to the GP or did you treat her yourself? 32 R Eh, yes. 33 I Sorry, did you treat her yourself? 34 R Well, I gave her some Calpol, but then I took her down to the health centre and 35 we saw DR X and he examined her and I felt more reassured. 36 I Good. Was that reassurance important? 37 R Yes. I needed somebody to look at her properly and to listen to me. 38 I What about the time she was ill before that? 39 R (silence - respondent thinking) Well, I think she was ill around Christmas. She 40 had chickenpox. 41 I She must have felt pretty ill with that?

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42 R No, actually. It hardly seemed to bother her. She was covered in spots, but she 43 carried on playing with her presents and she didn’t like it when I told her she couldn’t go to school. 44 I Did you take her to the doctor’s?. 45 R Yes, of course. As soon as I saw the spots. I took her straight down. And we 46 saw Dr X. He knew what it was straight away. 47 I So at what point did you decide to go to the doctor’s? 48 R I’m not sure. I just wanted to know what the spots were. I wasn’t worried ‘cos 49 there was a lot of it about at the time. 50 I How did you decide whether to go to the doctor’s or call out a doctor for a home visit? 51 R Well, it depends on the time of day and how worried you are.

12. Handing and Analysing Interview Data The way you analyse your interview data will depend on whether your interview is structured or unstructured.

12.1 Structured Interview Data With structured interviewing, most answers will be either pre- or post-coded. They can then be subjected to statistical analysis. Interviews will need to be coded so that all responses can be allocated a number. This data can then be loaded into a data file, for use in a statistical package. Most people use either SPSS or EPI-Info to carry out their statistical analysis. SPSS is very user friendly but it can be very expensive to purchase. EPI-Info on the other hand is freely available (for further details of these two software packages you are advised to refer to The NIHR RDS EM / YH Resource Packs An introduction to Using EPI Info and An Introduction to Using SPSS.) For further details on quantitative data analysis you are recommended to read The NIHR RDS EM / YH Resource Pack An Introduction to Using Statistics in Research. 12.2 Qualitative Interview Data If you have carried out a semi-structured or an in-depth interview (or have open- ended questions in a structured interview), then you can analyse the data using qualitative methods. It would be quite wrong to try and quantify the results of an in- depth interview. For instance if you carried out ten in-depth interviews you should

The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / Yorkshire & the Humber 2009 35 Using Interviews

not say that six out of the ten people interviewed took a particular viewpoint. Instead you should be looking at how and why the respondents differ in their views. The first stage of qualitative analysis is to examine your transcripts of all your interviews. It is important that you get all the tapes of your interviews transcribed. It is much more difficult, if not impossible to try and do your analysis from the tapes alone. Using transcripts means that you pick up on the detail, including all of those points that you might have forgotten. But don’t forget to allow sufficient time to get the tapes transcribed. This can be a very painstaking process and you should never underestimate the amount of time that it can take. Once you have all of your transcripts together, you will need to carry out some form of thematic analysis. This is really a systematic way of identifying all the main concepts which arise in the interviews, and then trying to categorise and develop these into common themes. Most people now use a qualitative data analysis software package such as NVivo or AtlasTI to conduct qualitative analysis. For further details of how to analyse qualitative data, you should read The NIHR RDS EM / YH Resource Pack An Introduction to Qualitative Research.

13. Summary Interviewing covers structured, semi-structured and unstructured or qualitative approaches. You should be able to describe the main advantages and disadvantages of each of these, and also of face-to-face, telephone and focus group interviews. I have looked in detail at the preparation for interviewing, the structure of these different kinds of interview, and the skills and techniques needed for a successful interview. Interviewing is an important method of data collection in research in health and medicine, and plays a role in many research studies, especially where data on experiences or beliefs is needed. The theory can be learnt from a text such as this, but what is also needed is practice!

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14. Answers to Exercises

Exercise 1 1. Individual web-based in-depth interviews could be used as this is a sensitive issue and this may be a hard-to-reach group. 2. Individual semi-structured telephone interviews, as these busy professionals may be hard to access for face-to-face interviewing 3. Semi-structured focus group interviews with a range of caring agencies 4. Individual face-to-face interviews

Exercise 2 1. Representative sampling using a structured interview schedule 2. Small samples to cover main sub-groups e.g. elderly, young parents 3. Theoretical sampling to gain broad selection of patients.

Exercise 3 1. In general, there may be conflicts of interest, especially if you are in a position of power in relation to colleagues. Workers may not be willing to speak openly to someone they know, because it may breach informal rules about privacy in the workplace. Friends may be poor interviewees, as they may make assumptions about shared beliefs. 2. Approaching informal gatekeepers may facilitate access to a group. However, if they are self-appointed, working through them may actually inhibit access to colleagues who resent their self-importance. 3. An over-enthusiastic potential interviewee may wish to use the opportunity of an interview to criticise the organisation or a colleague. While this may be important, to shed light on an aspect of the micro politics of a setting, this may not be relevant to your study, and may be a waste of both your times, as the data will not be useful. However, such a person could be a useful informant and maybe a contact to obtain other respondents.

Exercise 4 Have a look at section 6 of this pack for suggestions about the kinds of questions in each stage of the interview.

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Exercise 5 Some of the issues you will need to consider are: a) a neutral place to conduct the interviews. Their family homes may not be conducive to open-ness, but a health clinic could seem too impersonal and ‘cold’. b) if you are going to a destination outside your control, make sure a colleague knows your movements and carry a mobile phone. c) if you are going to use a recorder, make sure you know how to operate it. You will need to ask permission to record and plan what to do if permission is refused. d) check if you will need an interpreter for any of the participants who may not speak good English.

Exercise 7 There is no single right answer, however some possible suggestions are: § train all of the interviewers in the appropriate skills. § ensure that all of the interviewers are thoroughly briefed on the research topic. § pilot the interview. § accompany interviewers and monitor their questioning and recording. § use structured questions where possible and avoid verbatim answers. § avoid having to select a pre-coded response for a verbatim answer - let the respondent select the code where possible. § avoid giving strong personal opinions; in particular do not show disapproval or disagreement with the respondent, regardless of what you may really think.

Exercise 8 1. Leading questions (by line number): 21, 23, 38, 41 2. Ambiguous questions: 9, 38 3. Two questions in one: 9, 14, 31, 50 There is a danger that the interviewer could have confused or biased the interview. The interviewer assumes a number of things, for instance, that the doctor was male, or that the chickenpox had made the child feel ‘pretty ill’. Luckily the respondent actually corrects her on these points but it may not always be so easy to pick up. If it’s a minor matter, the respondent may not bother to clarify the question. Questions should be phrased without assumptions, for example, at line 21, the question ‘You were worried about meningitis?’ could be rephrased as ‘What in

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particular were you worried about?’ Likewise line 36 could be replaced with ‘How important was that reassurance?’ There are a number of questions where the interviewer asks two questions instead of one. The interviewer then has to probe the respondent’s answer, otherwise she would not have been able to interpret the answer. Obviously it would be preferable to break these multiple questions up and ask them one at a time.

15. References Hedges A (1985) Group Interviewing. In Walker R (ed.) Applied Qualitative Research. Aldershot: Gower. Jones S (1985) In-depth interviewing. In Walker R (ed.) Applied Qualitative Research. Aldershot: Gower. McCracken G (1988) The Long Interview. London: Sage. Morgan DL (1998) The Focus Group Guidebook. London: Sage. Seidman I (1998) Interviewing as Qualitative Research . New York: Teachers College Press. Taylor SJ and Bogdan R (1984) Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods. New York: Wiley Interscience.

16. Further Reading May N and Pope C. (1995) ‘Qualitative Interviews in Medical Research’. British Medical Journal, 311: 251 – 253. Miles M, Huberman A. (1994) Qualitative Data Analysis. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage. Oakley A. (1981) ‘Interviewing Women: a contradiction in terms’ in Roberts H (ed) Doing Feminist Research. London: Routledge.

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COMMENTS

(PDF) Using Interviews in a Research Project
Abstract. The interview is an important data gathering technique involving verbal communication between the researcher and the subject. Interviews are commonly used in survey designs and in ...
Types of Interviews in Research
There are several types of interviews, often differentiated by their level of structure. Structured interviews have predetermined questions asked in a predetermined order. Unstructured interviews are more free-flowing. Semi-structured interviews fall in between. Interviews are commonly used in market research, social science, and ethnographic ...
Chapter 11. Interviewing
Introduction. Interviewing people is at the heart of qualitative research. It is not merely a way to collect data but an intrinsically rewarding activity—an interaction between two people that holds the potential for greater understanding and interpersonal development. Unlike many of our daily interactions with others that are fairly shallow ...
The Complete Guide to Conducting Research Interviews
Deciding if the interviews are a good fit for your research, picking the right people to interview, preparing a questionnaire are all important steps to succeed. This guide is meant to assist you from A to Z in interviewing, including the best practices in interviewing, preparation, and analysis — generated by Ece Kural, PhD in International ...
PDF Using Interviews in a Research Project
USING INTERVIEWS IN A RESEARCH PROJECT Introduction The interview is an important data gathering technique involving verbal communication between the researcher and the subject. Interviews are commonly used in survey designs and in exploratory and descriptive studies. There are a range of approaches to interviewing, from
How to use and assess qualitative research methods
Semi-structured interviews are characterized by open-ended questions and the use of an interview guide (or topic guide/list) in which the broad areas of interest, sometimes including sub-questions, are defined . The pre-defined topics in the interview guide can be derived from the literature, previous research or a preliminary method of data ...
Qualitative Interviewing
Interviewing is often described as the "foundational" method of qualitative research, with good reason (Liamputtong 2013).Using verbal communication and face-to-face conversation as a means to share our experiences and views of the world around us is fundamental to human social life (Serry and Liamputtong 2017).With a strong grounding in the social convention of conversation, then ...
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The use of interviews is recommended for people and groups who are reluctant to fill out forms (scales and questionnaires) or engage in other data collection strategies. ... Due to some ethical and methodological issues, especially since more than one meeting with the interviewees in the research project was not planned, a "second chance ...
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Using Interviews in a Research Project by Nigel Joseph Mathers; Nicholas J Fox; Amanda Hunn; Trent Focus Group. A work pack to guide researchers in developing interviews in the healthcare field. Describes interview structures, compares face-to-face and telephone interviews. Outlines the ways in which different types of interview data can be ...
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Interviews are also not suited to answering all qualitative research questions, but instead have specific strengths that should guide whether or not they are deployed in a research project.
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In this paper, we analyse the use of interviews in research aimed at making decisions for conservation. Through a structured review of 227 papers, we explore where, why and how interviews were used in the context of conservation decision making ... 2.1 Initial project design (identify research question/s, type of interview and formulate ...
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Step three: The interview. If at all possible, arrange to conduct the interview at the subject's workplace. It will make them more comfortable, and you can write about their surroundings. Develop rapport that will make the interview easier for both of you. The more silence in the room, the more honest the answer.
How to carry out great interviews in qualitative research
A qualitative research interview is a one-to-one data collection session between a researcher and a participant. Interviews may be carried out face-to-face, over the phone or via video call using a service like Skype or Zoom. There are three main types of qualitative research interview - structured, unstructured or semi-structured.
Interviews and focus groups in qualitative research: an update for the
Qualitative research is an approach that focuses on people and their experiences, behaviours and opinions. 10,11 The qualitative researcher seeks to answer questions of 'how' and 'why', providing ...
(PDF) How to Conduct an Effective Interview; A Guide to Interview
Vancouver, Canada. Abstract. Interviews are one of the most promising ways of collecting qualitative data throug h establishment of a. communication between r esearcher and the interviewee. Re ...
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Interviewing. This is the most common format of data collection in qualitative research. According to Oakley, qualitative interview is a type of framework in which the practices and standards be not only recorded, but also achieved, challenged and as well as reinforced.[] As no research interview lacks structure[] most of the qualitative research interviews are either semi-structured, lightly ...
Planning Qualitative Research: Design and Decision Making for New
Then, using two common research contexts, we apply each approach to design a study, enabling comparisons among approaches and demonstrating the internal consistency within each approach. Given the nuance and complexity of qualitative research, this paper provides an accessible starting point from which novice researchers can begin their journey ...
Conducting a Research Interview
projects. For qualitative research, the semistructured or unstructured interview is often used and this can be carried out in various ways. Methods discussed in this directed reading include the face-to-face interview, group interviews such as focus groups, and remote inter-view conducted by telephone or using the computer. These methods
Structured Interview
Revised on June 22, 2023. A structured interview is a data collection method that relies on asking questions in a set order to collect data on a topic. It is one of four types of interviews. In research, structured interviews are often quantitative in nature. They can also be used in qualitative research if the questions are open-ended, but ...
Trent Focus for Research and Development in Primary Health Care Using
USING INTERVIEWS IN A RESEARCH PROJECT . Fur ther reading and resour ces . Software for Qualitative Data Analysis: 1. QSR Nudist is developed by: Qualitative Solutions & Research Pty Ltd,
Trent focus for research and development in primary health care: Using
Reference as: Fox, N: Using Interviews in a Research Project Trent RDSU 2006 Dr Nick Fox School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield Last updated: 2006 TRENT RDSU Informatics Collaboratory for the Social Sciences (ICOSS) The University of Sheffield 219 Portobello Sheffield S1 4DP 0114 2228356 www.trentrdsu.org.uk enquiries ...
(PDF) Using interviews in a research project
Qualitative research methods seeks to explore rich information usually collected from a fairly small samples and includes methods such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, action research and ethnographic studies. Quantitative research is essentially concerned with numerical measurement and numerical data.
Interview research
Researchers typically use interview guides or semi-structured interview protocols to ensure consistency while allowing flexibility for follow-up questions and probing. Below, we go into the following typical privacy-related issues for interview research: Issues when recording the interview; How to inform participants
Using Interviews in a Research Project
The NIHR Research Design Service for Yorkshir e & the Humber . Using Interviews in a Research Project . Author . Nick Fox . This Resource Pack is one of a series produced by The NIHR RDS for the East Midlands / The NIHR RDS for Yorkshire and the Humber.