1. Conducting Effective Interviews
Chapter Five
Conducting Effective Interviews

2. Interview Data
A research interview is a conversation that has a structure and a purpose. Researchers use interviews
(1) When we cannot observe human behavior, feelings, or interpretations.
(2) When we are interested in irreplicable past events..
(3) To conduct intensive case studies of a few individuals
(4) To collect data from many people representing a broad range of ideas.
(5) When interviewing will yield better, more, or cheaper data than other tactics.
(6) When it is the only way to get data on a topic.

3. Types of Interviews
Choose the type of interview that is best suited to obtaining the best data that addresses your research question. There are a number of ways to categorize interviews. A. By Structure Structured: Questions and the order in which they are asked are predetermined. Unstructured: Nothing is set ahead of time. Semi-structured: Questions and issues are set, but wording and order of questions are not. B. By Philosophical or Disciplinary Orientation Philosophical orientations: neo-positivist, romantic, constructionist, postmodern, transformative, de-colonizing. Disciplinary orientations: ethnographic, phenomenological, etc.

4. Types of Interviews, cont’d.
C. Focus Group Interviews
An interview on a topic with a group of people who have knowledge of the topic.
Data is socially constructed within the interaction of the group.
Popular in marketing and social science research contexts.
D. Online Interviews
Pros: Eliminates geographic constraints on participant selection, and often allows video recording.
Cons: Access, technology failure, and potential for confidentiality breaches.
Synchronous online interviews are conducted in real time through CMC.
Asynchronous online interviews are not conducted in real time.

5. Asking Good Questions
Good questions are open-ended, worded in a way that is clear and familiar to the respondent, and yield descriptive data, even stories about the phenomenon.
Examples:
Tell me about a time when...
Give me an example of...
Tell me more about that...
What was it like for you when...

6. Asking Good Questions, cont’d.
A. Good Questions and Questions To Avoid
Good: experience and behavior, opinion and values, feeling, knowledge, sensory, background/demographic.
Useful with reticent interviewees: hypothetical, devil’s advocate, ideal position, interpretive.
Avoid: multiple, leading, and yes-or-no questions.
Use “why” questions judiciously.
B. Probes: Questions or comments that follow up something already asked.
C. Interview Guide: A list of questions you intend to ask in an interview.
Format and level of detail depend on how structured the interview will be. .
Ask for relatively neutral, descriptive information at the beginning of an interview.

7. Beginning the Interview
Choose a respondent who will contribute to the development of insight and understanding.
Five issues to address at the outset of every interview:
1. The investigator’s motives and intentions and the inquiry’s purpose
2. Protecting respondents by using pseudonyms
3. Deciding who has final say over the study’s content
4. Payment (if any)
5. Logistics
To manage the time spent in an interview for best results
Know enough about the topic to ask meaningful questions
Move things along by asking respondents for basic descriptive information.
Gather information ahead of time from informants.

8. Interviewer and Respondent Interaction
Practice combined with feedback on performance is the best way to develop the needed skills. Also, observe experienced interviewers at work.
Word questions in language clear to the respondent.
Be aware of your stance toward the interviewee.
Rapport--stance vis-à-vis the person being interviewed
Neutrality--stance vis-à-vis the content of what that person says.
Be caring and respectful toward the individual, no matter how you feel about the topic.
Give respondents an opportunity to clarify their own thoughts and experiences.

9. Recording and Transcribing Interview Data
A. Recording
Audio/Video: The best method: Preserves everything that is said for analysis; video also captures nonverbals.
Contemporaneous note-taking: Use when mechanical recording is not feasible or not authorized.
Subsequent note-taking: Use if writing or recording during an interview might be intrusive.
No matter what data collection method you use, write down your reflections (distinct from the data) immediately following the interview.

10. Recording and Transcribing Interview Data, cont’d.
B. Transcription
Verbatim transcription: provides the best database for analysis but is time consuming.
Voice recognition software: may only recognize the voice of the trained speaker (you). Workaround: parroting.
The format of the interview transcript should be set up to enable analysis; see Exhibit 5.2
C. Assessing Data Quality
Influences on responses: health, mood, motives for participating, selection of information.
Consider the information in any single interview in light of other interviews and data sources.