Qualitative Interviewing
Qualitative interviewing for in-depth understanding of participants' perceptions and meanings, various interview protocols and types of questions, with guidance on rapport building and execution. Genres include ethnographic, depth, group, narrative, and postmodern interviews.
Qualitative Interviewing
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Presentation Transcript
Research Purposes • To access a phenomenon that cannot be directly observed • To access in-depth thoughts and feelings about a phenomenon • To understand the participants’ meaning of a phenomenon • To identify participants’ language use • To triangulate other sources of data • To understand the participant’s code of communication
Types of Interview Protocols • Structured interviews (Chapter 8) are not generally used in qualitative interviewing) • Semi-structured interviews are sets of questions used to guide the interview • The questions may be rephrased. • The order of the questions is not fixed. • Unstructured interviews are guided by a set of topics for discussion (e.g. “talking points), but questions are often freely created during the actual interview.
Types of Questions(Spradley, 1979, p.60) • Descriptive Questions • Grand-tour questions and Mini-tour questions • Experience questions • Natural language questions • Structural Questions • Verification questions • Cover-term questions • Included Term questions • Substitution-frame questions • Card-sorting structural questions • Contrast Questions • Contrast Verification questions • Directed contrast questions • Rating questions • Dyadic contrast questions and triadic contrast questions • Contrast set sorting question • Twenty-questions game
Executing the Interview • Interviewers should remember that rapport is a relational quality jointly established between the interviewer and interviewee throughout the interview. • Informants should be allowed to use their own words and speak at their own pace. • Interviewers should probe for more information. • Use transitions to make connections between parts of the interview. • Interviewers should paraphrase often to check for understanding. • Interviewers should demonstrate supportiveness. • Interviewers must remain flexible and adaptive.
Genres of Qualitative Interviewing • The Ethnographic Conversation • The Depth Interview • The Group or Focus Interview • The Narrative Interview • The Postmodern Interview