Transcript introduction

INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods
Outline
 What
is Qualitative Interviewing?
 Underlying theory
 Interview techniques
Suchman and Jordan’s Critique
Aspects of ordinary conversation:
 Local control
 Question redesign
 Answer elaboration
 Detection and repair of misunderstandings
Qualitative Interviewing
“[to gain] a fine-textured
understanding of
beliefs, attitudes, values
and motivations in
relation to the behaviors
of people in particular
social contexts.” [pg. 39
Bauer and Gaskell]
“to obtain descriptions
of the life world of the
interviewee with
respect to interpreting
the meaning of the
described
phenomena.” [pg. 5-6
Kvale]
Reasons to Conduct Qualitative
Interviews
Developing detailed description of an event
2. Integrating multiple perspectives
3. Learning how events are interpreted
4. Bridging inter-subjectivities
5. Identifying variables and framing
hypotheses for quantitative research
1.
[Learning from Strangers. Pg. 9-11]
Keeping in Mind...
 an
interview is a negotiation between
interviewer and interviewee (who exert
reciprocal influence)
 an Inter-View [Kvale]
 What is the underlying theory of social
reality?
Keeping in Mind...
 “when we understand knowledge as the
social justification of belief rather
than as accuracy of representation,
conversation replaces confrontation with
nature.”
 “the certainty of our knowledge is a
matter of conversation between
persons, rather than a matter of
interaction with a nonhuman reality.”
Mediation
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through memory
through interviewees self-perception
through interviewers perceptions
the presence of the interviewers and others
extreme cases: teenagers/pre-teens,
politicians
Advantages & Disadvantages
• efficiency: generate
a large amount of
material on a specific
topic in a short amount
of time
• getting at the internal
world of meaning and
interpretation of
individuals
• artificiality:
distance from
event/experience
(remember Becker
on the accuracy
gained from close
observation)
Types
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individual depth interviews
narrative interviews: focusing on a specific
experience
expert interviews
ethnographic interviews: usually situated in
interviewees cultural milieu, often spontaneous
and informal
joint interviews and focus groups: i.e.
husband and wife, family, household, coworkers, etc.
Interview Techniques
Main goal: get your interviewees to talk openly
and at length about a topic you have selected,
but in their own words and in relation to their
own experiences.
This involves developing and extending your
skills of conversation in a particular way
Interview Techniques

Recalling Suchman and Jordan
1. Give the interviewee as much control over the
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conversation as possible
Allow interviewee to redesign the questions
Allow/encourage interviewee to elaborate on
answers
Confirm and clarify responses
Detect and repair misunderstandings
Interview Techniques
what can go wrong?
suspicion, evasion, stonewalling
 Interviewees who speak very little, or are
extremely talkative, or go way off-topic
 speaking in generalities only, attempting to
do the analysis for you (‘let me tell you
how people use the Internet here’)
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Interview Techniques
 first
things first: explain yourself
and your expectations
 establishing rapport
 topics the interviewee enjoys talking about
 commiserate, empathize, be human
Interview Techniques
 avoiding generalities
 ask for concrete examples, personal
stories
 accessible questions with appropriate
vocabulary (i.e. don’t use terms like
‘discourse’ or ‘globalization’)
 quality concerns
 avoid leading questions: “don’t you think...”
“isn’t it true...”
 clarify and confirm
Interview Techniques
 encouraging verbosity
 avoid yes/no questions, ask questions
that require descriptive or narrative
answers.
○ “tell me about a time when you ...”
○ “can you give me an example of...”
○ “how would you describe...”
 be quiet and wait
 ask follow up questions, allow
interesting tangents to develop
Interview Techniques
 discouraging verbosity
 politely interrupt
 throw them off guard with abrupt topic
changes
Interview Techniques
‘Probes’
D: “...it got to a time where we had to come to
work on Sundays and I was going bad, this is
Internet, I’ve got to be careful of myself. So,
and the Lord spoke to me in several ways.”
 J: “you said that you had to be careful with the
Internet, how so, what do you mean by that?”
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Interviewing in Other Cultures
 issues
with language
 attitudes in that particular
society/subculture towards authority and
the right to speak
 ideas about and experience with research
practices
 private information (age, weight, income)
 rapport and suspicion (of identity, of
methodology)
 time and scheduling
Key Ideas to Remember
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explain yourself and gain permission
ask open-ended questions in accessible
language
follow the interviewees lead, clarify and
confirm, detect and repair
misunderstandings
use probes
Tuesday
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Discussing examples of ‘good’
and ’bad’ interviews