Interviews

Interviewing
By; Shahbaz Mehmood

Interviews as a
Data Collection Tool
 Interviewing is a form of questioning characterized by the fact that it
employs verbal questioning as its principal technique of data
collection.
 Interviews are employed by people in everyday life, but as a scientific
tool of social research, or better as a method of data collection,
interviewing is different with regard to its preparation, construction,
and execution in that it is prepared and executed in a systematic
way.
 Interviews basically consist of asking questions, listening to
individuals and recording their responses.
 Interviews allow participants to provide rich, contextual descriptions
of events. Interviews are a systematic way of talking and listening to
respondents and are another way to collect data from individuals
through conversations.
 Kvale (1996) regarded interviews as “an interchange of views
between two or more people on a topic of mutual interest, sees the
centrality of human interaction for knowledge production, and
emphasizes the social situatedness of research data.”
2

Why Interview?
The most obvious way of finding the information is to ask someone
who may be able to help. Interviews also have a large number of
potential advantages for a qualitative researcher. Specifically, in an
information setting some of the advantages are especially
significant. There are many reasons to use interviews for collecting
data and using it as a research instrument. Gray (2004) provided the
following reasons
• There is a need to attain highly personalized data.
• There are opportunities required for probing.
• A good return rate is important (speed).
• When respondents are not fluent in the native language of the
country, or where they have difficulties with written language.
• Immediacy
3

Types & Styles of Interviews
Interviewing as a research method typically
involves you, as researcher, asking
questions and, hopefully, receiving answers
from the people you are interviewing. It is
very widely used in social research and
there are many different types.
A commonly used typology distinguishes
among structured, semistructured and
unstructured interviews. The different types
can link to some extent to the 'depth' of
response sought (Robson 2002, 269).
4

Interview Types
Fully structured interview: Has predetermined
questions with fixed wording, usually in a pre-set order.
The use of mainly open-response questions is the only
essential difference from an interview-based survey
questionnaire.
Semi-structured interview: Has predetermined
questions, but the order can be modified based upon the
interviewer's perception of what seems most appropriate.
Question wording can be changed and explanations
given; particular questions which seem inappropriate with
a particular interviewee can be omitted, or additional ones
included.
Unstructured interviews: The interviewer has a general
area of interest and concern, but lets the conversation
develop within this area. It can be completely informal.
5

Interviewing Tips
Your task as interviewer is to try to get interviewees to talk freely
and openly. Your own behavior has a major influence on their
willingness to do this. To this end you should:
Listen more than you speak Most interviewers talk too much. The
interview is not a platform for the interviewer's personal experiences and
opinions.
Put questions in a straightforward, clear and non-threatening way
If people are confused or defensive, you will not get the information you
seek.
Eliminate cues which lead interviewees to respond in a particular way
Many interviewees will seek to please the interviewer by giving 'correct'
responses ('Are you against sin?').
Enjoy it (or at least look as though you do) Don't give the message
that you are bored or scared. Vary your voice and facial expression.
It is also essential that you take a full record of the interview. This
can be from notes made at the time and/or from a recording of the
interview.
6

More Interviewing Tips
 Try to be interactive and sensitive to the language and
concepts used by the interviewee
 Try to keep the agenda flexible
 Aim to go below the surface of the topic being discussed
 Explore what people say in detail
 Check you have understood respondents' meanings
 Try to discover the interviewee's own framework of meanings
 Avoid imposing own structures and assumptions
 Need to consider how perceived by interviewees and the
effects of characteristics such as class, race, sex, and social
distance on the interview
7

Interview Guides
A guide is not a rigidly structured set of
questions to be asked verbatim as written,
accompanied by an associated range of pre-
worded likely answers. Rather, it is a list of
items to be sure to ask about when talking to
the person being interviewed. You want
interviewees to speak freely in their own
terms about a set of concerns you bring to
the interaction, plus whatever else they
might introduce.
8

Steps to Develop the Guide
WHO (the World Health Organization) suggested six steps
to devise an interview guide. These include
Identify appropriate topics and questions
Decide on the level of detail
Draft the questions
Order the questions.
List any probes or prompts and
Pilot the questions. Have the informant identify the
problems during the pilot.
9

Preparing for Interviews
It is necessary for the researcher to prepare before the actual
interview. The interview prep should start well before the interview
actually begins. Once the interview is conducted the researcher
needs to make sure that the respondents have:
A clear idea of why they have been approached
Basic information about the purpose of the interview and the
research project of which it is a part
Some idea of the probable length of the interview and that you
would like to record it (explaining why and getting permission)
A clear idea of precisely where and when the interview will take
place
(Gillham, 2000).
10

Questions to Avoid In
Interviews
 Long questions The interviewee may remember only part of the
question, and respond to that part.
 Double-barrelled (or multiple-barrelled) questions, e.g. 'What do you
feel about current video game content compared with that of five years
ago?' The solution is to break it down into simpler questions ('What
do you feel about current video games?'; 'Can you recall any video
games from five years ago?'; 'How do you feel they compare?').
 Questions involving jargon Generally you should avoid questions
containing words likely to be unfamiliar to the target audience. Keep
things simple to avoid disturbing interviewees; it is in your own
interest as well.
 Leading questions, e.g. 'Why do you like the concept of welfare
reform?' It is usually better to modify such questions, to make them
less leading and more objective.
 Biased questions Provided you are alert to the possibility of bias, it is
not difficult to write unbiased questions. What is more difficult,
however, is not (perhaps unwittingly) to lead the interviewee by the
manner in which the question is asked, or the way in which you
receive the response. Neutrality is called for, and in seeking to be
welcoming and reinforcing to the interviewee, you should try to avoid
appearing to share or welcome their vIews. (Robson 2002, 275)
11

Introduction Strategies
 Explain purpose and nature of the study to the respondent, telling
how, or through, whom she or he came to be selected.
 Give assurance that the respondent will remain anonymous in any
written reports growing out of the study, and that his or her
responses will be treated in strictest confidence.
 Indicate that s/he may find some of the questions far-fetched, silly
or difficult to answer, for the reason that questions that are
appropriate for one person are not always appropriate for another.
Since there are no right or wrong answers, s/he is not to worry
about these but to do as best he can with them. We are only
interested in his/her opinions and personal experiences.
 S/He is to feel perfectly free to interrupt, ask clarification of the
interviewer, criticize a line of questioning, etc.
 Interviewer will tell respondent something about herself or himself
– his/her back-ground, training, and interest in the area of enquiry.
 Interviewer is to ask permission to tape-record the interview,
explaining why s/he wishes to do this.
(From Davis, 1960; see also Lofland and Lofland, 1995, pp. 84-5, cited in Robson 2002, 281).)
12

Types of Questions to Ask
There is an almost unlimited range of items that can be
addressed during an interview. These can include
content related to the respondent’s:
Behavior and experiences
Opinions and beliefs
Feelings
Knowledge
Sensory and non-verbal descriptions
Background and demographic information
13

Maintaining Control
of the Interview
 Know what it is you want to find out
 Ask the right questions to get the
information you need
 Give appropriate verbal and non-verbal
feedback
 Good feedback vs. bad feedback
 Avoid bias whenever possible
14

Controlling Your Biases
 List ways in which your characteristics
might bias you in your efforts at research
interviewing.
 Then write how you might counteract these
biases.
 And then write how these efforts to
counteract your biases might themselves
lead to other biases.
15

Interviews

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