Sample questions raised by students about the challenges of preparing and conducting interviews.

-- Several of my interviews will be on projects completed years ago.

How do I go about getting accurate information from people's memory?

-- My topic is on the criteria for success of the collaborative planning process.  Since my interviewees may not have thought

expressly about this topic before, how do I approach it? (I believe they have the information, but have probably not defined it in this

way before)  Do I ask open ended or closed ended questions?

-- Do I prep the people before the interview: tell them ahead of time what I'll be asking so that they can prepare?

Notes below are copied from our USP 186-187 course textbook

Colin Robson. 2002. Real world research: a resource for social scientists and practitioner-researchers. 2nd ed. Madden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers.

• 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.

Box 9.1 Circumstances in which a qualitative research interview is most appropriate (p. 271)

1. Where a study focuses on the meaning of particular phenomena to the participants.
2. Where individual perceptions of processes within a social unit - such as a work-group, department or whole organization - are to be studied prospectively, using a series of interviews.
3. Where individual historical accounts are required of how a particular phenomenon developed - for instance, a new shift system.
4. Where exploratory work is required before a quantitative study can be carried out. For example, researchers examining the impact of new technology on social relationships in a workplace might use qualitative interviews to identify the range of different types of experience which a subsequent quantitative study should address.
5. Where a quantitative study has been carried out, and qualitative data are required to validate particular measures or to clarify and illustrate the meaning of the findings. For instance, people with high, medium and low scores on a new measure of stress at work might be interviewed to see whether their experiences concur with the ratings on the measure.
(From King, 1994, pp. 16-17.)

Your job 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: (from p. 274)

• 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. (p. 274).

Content of the Interview (p. 274)
In interviews which are to a greater or lesser extent pre-structured by the interviewer, the content, which can be prepared in advance, consists of

• a set of items (usually questions), often with alternative subsequent items depending on the responses obtained;
• suggestions for so-called probes and prompts;
• and a proposed sequence for the questions which, in a semi-structured interview, may be subject to change during the course of the interview.

Probes: A probe is a device to get interviewees to expand on a response when you intuit that they have more to give. Obvious tactics, such as asking 'Anything more?' or 'Could you go over that again?' Sometimes when an answer has been given in general terms, a useful probe is to seek a personal response, e.g. 'What is your own personal view on this?' There are also very general tactics, such as the use of

a period of silence;
an enquiring glance;
'mmhmm. . .';
repeating back all or part of what the interviewee has just said.

Prompts: Prompts suggest to the interviewee the range or set of possible answers that the interviewer expects. The list of possibilities may be read out by the interviewer, or a 'prompt card' with them on can be shown (e.g. a list of names of alcoholic drinks for a question on drinking habits). (p. 276)

Questions to avoid in interviews (p. 275)

• 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 pop music compared with that of five years ago?' The solution here is to break it down into simpler questions ('What do you feel about current pop music?'; 'Can you recall any pop music 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 Huddersfield?' lt is usually straightforward to modify such questions, provided you realize that they are leading in a particular direction.
• 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.

The sequence of questions: (p. 277)

• Introduction Interviewer introduces herself, explains purpose of the interview, assures of confidentiality, asks permission to tape and/or make notes.
• (Warm-up) Easy, non-threatening questions at the beginning to settle down both of you.
• Main body of interview Covering the main purpose of the interview in what the interviewer considers to be a logical progression. In semistructured interviewing, this order can be varied, capitalizing on the responses made (ensure 'missed' topics are returned to unless this seems inappropriate or unnecessary. Any 'risley' questions should be relatively late in the sequence so that, if the interviewee refuses to continue, less information is lost.
• (Cool-off Usually a few straightforward questions at the end to defuse any tension that might have built up.
• Closure Thank you and goodbye. The 'hand on the door' phenomenon, sometimes found at the end of counselling sessions, is also common in interviewing. Interviewees may, when the recorder is switched off or the notebook put away, come out with a lot of interesting material. There are various possible ways of dealing with this (switch on again, reopen the book, forget about it) but in any case you should be consistent, and note how you dealt with it.

Box 9.4 Introducing yourself: a list of self-instructions

I. Explain purpose and nature of the study to the respondent, telling how or through whom he came to be selected.

2. Give assurance that respondent will remain anonymous in any written reports growing out of the study, and that his responses will be treated in strictest confidence.

3. Indicate that 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, he is not to worry about these but to do as best he can with them. We are only interested in his opinions and personal experiences.

4. He is to feel perfectly free to interrupt, ask clarification of the interviewer, criticize a line of questioning, etc.

5. Interviewer will tell respondent something about himself - his background, training, and interest in the area of enquiry.

6. Interviewer is to ask permission to tape-record the interview, explaining why he wishes to do this.
 (From Davis, 1960; see also Lofland and Lofland, 1995, pp. 84-5.), cited in Robson 2002, 281).

Pdf of articles about interviewing
The list of files below was compiled by Sam Popkin in Political Science for a workshop on field research (focused on interviewing). I include copies of the pdf files here for educational use only. They will be removed from the web site at the end of class. Thank you to Susan Shaler for alerting us to this list of files. The graduate students taking the workshop on interviewing and field research were instructed to start with the two Dexter articles, then Whyte, then Schwarz. The order in which you read the rest doesn't matter.

Goldstein Getting in the Door.pdf;

Leech Techniques for Unstructured Interviews.pdf;

Peabody Elite Interviewing.pdf;

Rivera Interviewing ELites -- Russia.pdf;

Schwarz Logic of Conversation.pdf;

Whyte What Kind of Truth Do You Get.pdf;

Woliver Ethical DIlemmas.pdf;

Zuckerman Interviwing Ultra-Elite.pdf;

Berry Validity & Reliability.pdf;

Dexter Elite & Specialized Interviewing.pdf

Dexter Goodwill of Important people.pdf;

Fenno Observation, COntext, Sequence.pdf;