Interviews and Surveys

1. Interviews and Surveys

2. Interviews Steinar Kvale, Svend Brinkmann, InterViews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing.

3. The Interview Interviewer Interviewee Interview

4. Interviews • Unstructured • Semi-structured • Structured

5. Interviews • Unstructured Interviews • Researcher has a small set of self prompts to investigate research question. One question can lead to a number of followup questions depending on the response. They tend to be more like conversations than interviews.

6. Interviews • Semi-Structured Interviews • Some interview questions fully decided, others might not be fixed, and the other of questions in not fixed. The researcher has leeway in asking followup questions.

7. Interviews • Structured Interviews • Fixed and predetermined questions and sequence of questions. No new questions added during interview, and questions given to interviewee by interview begins.

8. Kvale’s Seven Stages • Themazing • Designing • Interviewing • Transcribing • Analyzing • Verifying • Reporting

9. Kvale’s Seven Stages 1. Themazing • What is the theme of the interview?

10. Kvale’s Seven Stages 2. Designing • How will the intended knowledge be obtained?

11. Kvale’s Seven Stages 3. Interviewing • Conduct the interviews carefully

12. Kvale’s Seven Stages 4. Transcribing • Converting interview into written text

13. Kvale’s Seven Stages 5. Analyzing • Based on the appropriate type of investigation

14. Kvale’s Seven Stages 6. Verifying • Checking that validity, reliability, and generalizibility of the findings

15. Kvale’s Seven Stages 7. Reporting • Communicate findings in a scientific and ethical manner.

16. Interview Questions • Direct Questions • Introducing a new topic • Indirect Questions • Projective questions • Structuring Questions • Transitioning to new topics • Interpreting Question • Clarifying questions • Silences • Introductory Questions • Warm up questions • Followup Questions • Listen for “Red Lights” • Probing Questions • Unlimited scope question • Specifying Questions • Exact information

17. Interviews • Establish a rapport • Treat interviewees with respect • Think about your appearance • Think about body language • Maintain firm eye contact • Don’t Invade their space

18. Interviews • How are you going to record • Tape recorder • Pen and paper - veratim • Video recorder

19. Analysing Text

20. Analysing Text • Faced with the lack of organisation of data and the sheer amount of rambling can be somewhat overwhelming • With the best will in the world about trying to avoid bias, when there is multiple interpretations of data, selecting the one that best matches your research question becomes very tempting.

21. Simple Tabulation Reasons for Choosing a career

22. Choosing categories • Use ones from the literature • Blame someone else / comparison • Use categories connected with your research question • Derive categories from data

23. Deriving Categories • Verbatim Analysis • Knowledge management <> Knowledge engineering <> Knowledge representation <> Knowledge reasoning • “Compatible with Windows” <> “Windows-Compatible” • Gist Analysis • “Compatible with Windows” == “Windows-Compatible” • Superordinate Analysis • Derive superclasses • Windows-Compatible + Linux-Compatible => category of “Compatibility”

24. How are you going to analyse • Colour Coding

25. Analysis of Interviews

26. Meaning Analysis • Meaning Coding • Adding tags or keywords to text segments that represent the main themes of the interviews • Meaning Condensation • Summarising larger sentences into short, simple sentences. • Meaning Interpretation • Adding more details, background and context to specific parts of the interview

27. Language Analysis • Linguistical Analysis • Looking at the linguistics and grammar • Conversation Analysis • Treating the interview as a conversation • Narrative Analysis • Treating the interview as a story • Discourse Analysis • Try to evaluate the truth of the responses • Deconstruction • Taking the interview apart and putting together again

28. Eclectic Analysis • Bricolage • Using a collection of techniques as a collage • Theoretical Reading • Creating your own reading on the text

29. Interviews FAQ

30. What books should I read about interviews? • Anything and everything by Steinar Kvale • “Interpreting Qualitative Data” by David Silverman • “Research Design” by John Creswell

31. Do I need to record the interview? • Yes, definitely, you can use • Pen-and-paper • Audio recording • Video recording • But whichever you use, you must do a verbatim recording of the interview, both questions and answers.

32. How do I think of questions for the interview? • There really should be two sources • All questions need to come from the research question of the experiment • If you find literature with a sufficiently similar research topic, you can use or adapt those questions

33. How many people should I interview? • 15 ±10 people • is a good rule-of thumb

34. Are there situations where I shouldn’t use interviews? • Yes, loads of situations, e.g. electoral voting behaviour, or capturing a person’s attitudes and interactions with their environments.

35. When should I do the interviews? • Typically there are two times to do interviews; • As part of the requirements gathering process • As part of the evaluation process

36. Are there software packages that can help me ?? • Loads • ATLAS.ti • nVIVO • MaxQDA • NUD*IST • HyperRESEARCH • But, do not underestimate the power of Excel, it’s a brilliant tool when used well

37. Further Tips • Decide on an order of questions that easily flows one to the next • Try to use language that is easy to understand and relevant to the interviewee • Avoid Leading questions • Try to stop the interviewee using qualifiers • Add a few control questions into the interview for validation • Avoid smalltalk during the interview • LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN

38. Questionnaires A.N. Oppenheim, Questionnaire Design

39. Questionnaire • Identify which organisation you work for, or are studying at. • Check your grammar, twice (Rule of Thumb – two proofreads gets rid of 95% of errors).

40. Surveys: Questionnaires • Think clearly about questions (need to constrain answers as much as possible) • Make sure results will answer your research question • Can use Internet for conducting surveys if need to cover wide geographic reach

41. Surveys: Questionnaires • “This survey sets out to ... • Please note if you fill in this questionnaire, your answers will be treated in highly confidential way. Neither I, the Dublin Institute of Technology nor any other third part will identify your name, email address or any other personal details, nor will it be possible to identify you in any way in the report I will publish as part of my MSc dissertation. I would like to personally thank you for your time in taking part in this survey.”

42. Questionnaires • Open-ended • Close-ended • Combination of both

43. Questionnaires • Open-ended Close-ended

44. Questionnaires • Open-ended • Slower to administer • Harder to record responses • Does not stifle response • Answerer can raise new issues • Answerer feels they can speak their mind • What does a blank answer mean ????

45. Questionnaires • Close-ended • Faster to administer • Easier to record responses • Answerer can only give predefined answers • Answerer cannot raise new issues • Answerer feels constrained • More likely to answer all questions (box tick)

46. Questionnaires • Self-administered • Interviewer administered

47. Questionnaires

48. Questionnaires • Keep questions short and simple • Avoid questions with “not” • Avoid questions with bias • Avoid sensitive questions (ask indirectly) • Do not ask compound questions, just ask one question at a time • e.g. "Do you know what services are available to you and how to find out?"

49. Questionnaires • Likert scales • Poor, Weak, O.K., Good, Excellent • Very Low, Low, O.K., High, Very High • 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

50. Thank them • "Thank you for taking the time to participate in this survey"