Transcript The Interview

The Interview
• Those who want to use qualitative methods
because they seem easier than statistics are
in for a rude awakening (Taylor and Bogan
1994: 53).
Four interview situations
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Informal interviewing
Unstructured interviewing
Semistructure interviewing
Structured interviewing
Informal interviewing
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Lack of control
Lack of structure
Reminder tool
Constant jotting
To build greater rapport
Unstructured interviewing
• Minimum control
• Awareness of both (interviewer and
interviewee)
• Based on clear plan
• Most widely used in cultural anthropology
Usefulness
• Develop formal guides for semi structure, to
learn what questions to include,
• Building initial rapport: before moving to
more formal interviews,
• Talking to informants who will not tolerate
formal interviews
Semistructured interviewing
• One chance only
• Based on interview guide
• When dealing with elite members of a
community
Structured interviewing
• (uniformity) All informant asked the same
questions
• Explicit set of instructions for interviewers
• For example: self-administered
questionnaires
Tape recorder
• Use in all situations
• Different types of transcriptions
• Not a substitute for note taking
Deference and expectancy effects
• 1.when informants tell you what they think
you want to know
• 2. Tendency from experimenters to obtain
results they expect
How do anthropologists collect
data?
Four types of field notes
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Jottings
The diary
The log
Field notes: methodological, descriptive and
analytic
Informed consent form