1. INTERVIEWS

2. Introduction
Interviews are particularly useful for getting the story behind a
participant's experiences. The interviewer can pursue in-depth
Information around a topic. Interviews may be useful as follow-
up to certain respondents to questionnaires, e.g., to further
investigate their responses.
Usually open-ended questions are asked during interviews.
Before you start to design your interview questions and process,
clearly articulate to yourself what problem or need is to be
addressed using the information to be gathered by the
interviews. This helps you keep clear focus on the intent of each
question.

3. Preparation for Interview
Choose a setting with little distraction. Avoid loud lights or noises, ensure the interviewee is comfortable (you might ask them if they are), etc. Often, they may feel more comfortable at their own places of work or homes.
Explain the purpose of the interview.
Address terms of confidentiality. Note any terms of confidentiality. (Be careful here. Rarely can you absolutely promise anything. Courts may get access to information, in certain circumstances.) Explain who will get access to their answers and how their answers will be analyzed. If their comments are to be used as quotes, get their written permission to do so. See getting informed consent.
Explain the format of the interview. Explain the type of interview you are conducting and its nature. If you want them to ask questions, specify if they're to do so as they have them or wait until the end of the interview.

4. Cont… Indicate how long the interview usually takes.
Tell them how to get in touch with you later if they want to.
Ask them if they have any questions before you both get started with the interview.
Don't count on your memory to recall their answers. Ask for permission to record the interview or bring along someone to take notes.

5. Types of Interviews
Informal, conversational interview - no predetermined questions are asked, in order to remain as open and adaptable as possible to the interviewee's nature and priorities; during the interview, the interviewer "goes with the flow".
General interview guide approach - the guide approach is intended to ensure that the same general areas of information are collected from each interviewee; this provides more focus than the conversational approach, but still allows a degree of freedom and adaptability in getting information from the interviewee.
Standardized, open-ended interview - here, the same open-ended questions are asked to all interviewees (an open-ended question is where respondents are free to choose how to answer the question, i.e., they don't select "yes" or "no" or provide a numeric rating, etc.); this approach facilitates faster interviews that can be more easily analyzed and compared.
Closed, fixed-response interview - where all interviewees are asked the same questions and asked to choose answers from among the same set of alternatives. This format is useful for those not practiced in interviewing.

6. Types of Topics in Questions
Behaviors - about what a person has done or is doing
Opinions/values - about what a person thinks about a topic
Feelings - note that respondents sometimes respond with "I think ..." so be careful to note that you're looking for feelings
Knowledge - to get facts about a topic
Sensory - about what people have seen, touched, heard, tasted or smelled
Background/demographics - standard background questions, such as age, education, etc.
Note that the above questions can be asked in terms of past,
present or future.

7. Sequence of Questions
Get the respondents involved in the interview as soon as possible.
Before asking about controversial matters (such as feelings and conclusions), first ask about some facts. With this approach, respondents can more easily engage in the interview before warming up to more personal matters.
Intersperse fact-based questions throughout the interview to avoid long lists of fact-based questions, which tends to leave respondents disengaged.
Ask questions about the present before questions about the past or future. It's usually easier for them to talk about the present and then work into the past or future.
The last questions might be to allow respondents to provide any other information they prefer to add and their impressions of the interview.

8. Wording of Questions
Wording should be open-ended. Respondents should be able to choose their own terms when answering questions.
Questions should be as neutral as possible. Avoid wording that might influence answers, e.g., evocative, judgmental wording.
Questions should be asked one at a time.
Questions should be worded clearly. This includes knowing any terms particular to the program or the respondents' culture.
Be careful asking "why" questions. This type of question infers a cause-effect relationship that may not truly exist. These questions may also cause respondents to feel defensive, e.g., that they have to justify their response, which may inhibit their responses to this and future questions.

9. Interview Techniques
Structured Interview
Unstructured Interviews

10. Structured Interview
At its most formal it may be considered as an oral presentation of a written questionnaire.
The interviewer will read out the questions and the person being interviewed will give their response; other interaction is kept to a minimum.
Structured interviews will usually have a fixed number of questions and even the possible responses may be restricted.
This implies that the questions used in structured interviews will tend to be closed questions although this is not always thecase.

11. Cont…
Those who favor the structured interview will argue that this method is more efficient in terms of the time taken to collect the data and the degree of reliability and validity will be greater than in the more unstructured interview formats. The main disadvantages with a structured approach is that the data gathered will lack the richness obtained by more open-ended interviews, and because the number of possible responses is often limited, participants may be forced into giving responses which do not reflect their true feelings about an issue.

12. Unstructured interviews
It tend not to use prepared questionnaires or interview schedules, rather will have a number of themes or issues which they aim to explore.
The questions asked will be more likely to be open-ended, with the participant providing responses in their own words.
The respondent may have more control over the conduct of the interview in that they are often allowed to discuss issues as they arise and not necessarily in an order predetermined by the interviewer.
The result of this more open-ended approach is a richness of data which is unbiased by any interpretation which the interviewer may have placed on it.

13. Cont…
The main difficulties with unstructured interviews is that they are time consuming, and perhaps more importantly, the data collected from different respondents will obviously be different, and therefore not always comparable; this may raise issues of reliability and validity for data collected in this way.

14. Conducting Interview
Occasionally verify the tape recorder (if used) is working.
Ask one question at a time.
Attempt to remain as neutral as possible.
Encourage responses
Be careful about the appearance when note taking. That is, if you jump to take a note, it may appear as if you're surprised or very pleased about an answer, which may influence answers to future questions.
Provide transition between major topics, e.g., "we've been talking about (some topic) and now I'd like to move on to (another topic)."
Don't lose control of the interview. This can occur when respondents stray to another topic, take so long to answer a question that times begins to run out, or even begin asking questions to the interviewer.

15. Interviews may be conducted as face to face, which is more usual, or at a distance via telephone or videoconferencing.
Face to face interviews have the advantage of providing both interviewer and interviewee with non-verbal cues which will promote the development of rapport between the two people involved.
The non-verbal information may also be used by the interviewer to supplement the verbal information provided by the respondent.
The main drawback with face to face interviews is that they tend to be more costly than alternatives. The participants or the interviewer may be involved in travelling to the interview location and this will be expensive in terms of time and money.

16. Telephone interviews are a possibility but they are more likely to be successful if the researcher and the participant already know one another.
It is a good idea to warn prospective respondents to expect a call rather than simply "cold call" participants.
Certain topics, especially those of a personal nature, are probably not suited to the impersonal nature of the telephone interview, though it should be noted that some people may well prefer to disclose personal information via the telephone, rather than face to face.
Videoconferencing, where an interview is conducted via a video link may seem like an ideal compromise, but unfortunately the technology is not readily available yet, and little is known about how people might respond to being interviewed under these novel conditions.

17. Immediately After Interview
Verify if the tape recorder, if used, worked throughout the interview.
Make any notes on your written notes, e.g., to clarify any scratchings, ensure pages are numbered, fill out any notes that don't make senses, etc.
Write down any observations made during the interview. For example, where did the interview occur and when, was the respondent particularly nervous at any time? Were there any surprises during the interview? Did the tape recorder break?

18. Analysis of interview
Analysis of interview data will to a large extent be determined by the way in which the data has been recorded and the theoretical perspective (qualitative or quantitative) of the researcher.
In most cases the transcript, i.e. a verbatim report of what was said by whom, will form the basis of subsequent analysis.
Simple quantitative analysis might involve word counts to assess the relative contributions of the interviewer/interviewee.
Word frequency counts can also be useful in identifying which topic featured most during the interview.
This data might allow comparisons to be made, for example between patients satisfied or dissatisfied with their care. This form of content analysis in which a number of features of the interview are defined and identified is a common feature of quantitative analysis.

19. Cont…
Qualitative approaches tend to focus on the descriptive or theoretical aspects of the transcript data.
Descriptive accounts are often called an ethnography and are usually written from the perspective of the participant.
Interpretation of these accounts may well be left to the reader. Theoretical studies attempt to develop and verify theory from the transcript data; grounded theory is an example of this.
Qualitative researchers will often begin their analysis through the coding of data and the identification of themes. A typical sequence might involve the researcher first making themselves familiar with all the material to be analysed. During this process major categories or themes will be identified and further analysis will seek to locate these themes within the text.

20. Cont…
The researcher will then attempt to extract meaning from the text with reference to the thematic coding and the identified locations with the transcript. This is an iterative process and may well mean that coded material is examined repeatedly as new themes and idea emerge.
The "results" of this process will be largely descriptive, with quotes from the original material often being used to illustrate the findings reported.