QUALITATIVE

INTERVIEWING
INTERVIEWING
is a basic form of inquiry that allows us to put behavior in context and provides
access to understanding their action.
Many disciplines use interviews and they come in many different forms.
Interviews range from tightly structured to unstructured and conversational.
INTERVIEWING OBJECTIVES
Open-ended questions and probes
- Yield in-depth responses about people’s
• Experiences
• Perceptions
• Opinions
• Feelings
• Knowledge

Data Consists of verbatim quotations

TYPES OF INTERVIEWS
Structured (Very much like a survey)
• Follows a strict set of questions
• No deviation to ensure consistency across participants

Semi-Structured (A little wiggle room to discover new information)

- Uses an Interview guide is a means of maintaining consistency across interviewers & interviewees
- Use when you have an idea of the focus and scope of the topic you want to explore

Unstructured (A lot of space to explore and discover new information)

• General list of questions to guide conversation so that you can learn about a topic
• Use when you are not sure what is important to ask about a topic
• Not sure how to ask
CHOOSING THE TYPE OF
INTERVIEW
Pick the Type of Interview that is right for your stage of research

Exploratory Developing Theory Test Hypotheses

UnStructured Semi-Structured Structured
INTERVIEW GUIDE
Directs the Flow of Discussion - > In general a list of topics to cover

Organization Tips:
- Explain to the participant what to expect in - Try to eliminate all
the interview - redundant questions
- Unnecessary questions
- Ask permission to record and take notes
- Explain the rights of the participants, eg., - Pilot Interview Guide
voluntary, can stop at any time etc - with a friend or colleague to tighten it up and rephrase questions to
better target the information you want to elicit
- Build Rapport with Participant - To gauge the amount of time the interview will take

- Grand Tour Question - No more than 90 minutes – 30 -45 avg

- Questions should start from General and

move toward specific
- Always maintain an open door of
communication to follow-up with additional
questions of clarification

Example: http://courses2.cit.cornell.edu/fit117/CP_I_InterviewGuide1.htm
BUILDING RAPPORT
Goal Techniques
Gain the trust of participants Be pleasant
Build participants confidence to share Engage in general pleasantries
information with you
- Ask how the participant is doing
- Encourage the participant to believe
that their opinion really does matters - See if they need any water or to use
the bathroom
- familiarize the participant to taking a
talking role in the interview - design a great Grand tour Question
GRAND TOUR QUESTION
Design a Question that is EASY to answer Example:
- choose a topic that the participant will “Tell me about the work that you do?”
find easy to answer and to elaborate on
“What made you buy the Computer/
- phrase the question in such a way that Tablet/Smartphone?”
promotes explanation or description
AVOID LEADING QUESTIONS
Leading is a threat because people want to do well

Leading Questions are those that are phrasing to elicit what you want to hear or a
particular perspective

Instead ask neutral questions:

- E.g., What did you like or dislike about your experience with the iPad?

Avoid Questions or Follow-up that Show a Value Judgment

“ Wouldn’t it be good if they liked the system you spent months building!”
“Yeah, I agree … is so awful! … or So Great!”
Avoid behavior that conveys that you are pleased or disappointed with responses
- E.g., expression of surprise, jumping to take notes
- this will make participants change their responses to fit you
EXPECTATIONS
- Don’t expect the interviewee to be able to directly answer your research question
- Ask questions that help you get at the information you need to answer your research
questions
- Get comfortable with and allow silence, give the participant a chance to think
- The more interviews you do the better you will get and the more relaxed you’ll be
 TRANSFORMING Transcription,
INTERVIEW DATA FOR Transcription,
Transcription
ANALYSIS
TRANSCRIPTION: DETAILED &
EXACT
Simple (Start here) Sophisticated
Do: All sorts of notation exists to denote
▪ Types the words spoken on the audio voice inflection, volumn, pauses, etc.
file
▪Try your best to type every word. This is needed in some forms of analysis.
▪ Trouble hearing, use square brackets to Use only when analysis requires.
denote
▪ [inaudible] or
▪ use [your best guess at the words spoke]

If you have video, you can include

notes about body posture, facial
expression etc.
Don’t:
Add any interpretation of meaning
Contributors use notation based on the system established in conversation
analysis and ultimately derived from the work of Gail Jefferson. This is the
basic set. Other, infrequently used, symbols are explained in footnotes when
they appear. For a full account, see Atkinson and Heritage, 1984, pp. ix—xvi,
and Jefferson (2tXI4).

1.1 Just noticeable pause

( . 3) , (2 . 6) Examples of timed pauses
word (word Square brackets aligned across adjacent lines
lword denote the start of overlapping talk
.hhhh In-breath (note the preceding fullstop) and out-breath
respectively
wo(h)rd (h) shows that the word has breathiness (or perhaps
"laughter" or "crying") bubbling within it
wor- A dash shows a sharp cut-off
wo:rd Colons show that the speaker has stretched the
preceding sound
(word) A guess at what might have been said
( Very unclear talk
A: word= The equals sign shows that there is no discernible pause
B: =word between two speakers’ turns. If put between two sounds
within a single speaker’s turn, shows that they run
together
wgrd WORD Underlined sounds are louder, capitals louder still
°word° Material between "degree signs" is quiet
»wordword‹ Inwards arrows show faster speech, outward slower
«word word
†word Upward arrow shows upward intonation
word Downward arrow shows downward intonation
#word# Material between hash marks is delivered in a "croaky"
voice
fword2 Material delivered in a "smile" voice
QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS Discovering Meaning
IS ABOUT FINDING Uncovering New Phenomena &
Processes
PATTERNS IN DATA
QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
Can be descriptive and/or explanatory
BASICS OF QUALITATIVE
ANALYSIS
Systematic Coding of Data
- Descriptive 1-2 word characterization of patterns/themes

Systematic Code Refinement

- A brief narrative description of code category, that identifies properties and features of the patterns/themes
- Review elements that are within the code category to ensure they match the description if not recode the data appropriately.
- Sometimes you need to break categories into

Systematic Categorizing/Grouping
- Identify the relationships between code groupings
- Merge groupings when appropriate

This can be an inductive or deductive process

- inductive (the codes emerge from reading through the data)
- deductive (the categories are informed by the theory or research question or analytic framework)

Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2014). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques

and procedures for developing grounded theory. Sage publications.
RESULTS OF QUALITATIVE
DATA ANALYSIS
Thick Descriptions (Geertz, 1973)
- detailed account of field experience or interviews where the researcher makes
explicit the patterns of cultural and social relationships and puts them in context
- explains human behavior as well as context in which such behavior is meaningful
Explanatory Theories (Grounded Theory - Corbin & Strauss, 2008; 2014)
- explanations of social and cultural phenomena gathered from observation in context
and discussion with key informants and derived from systematic analyses of these
data
THREATS TO VALIDITY OF
INTERVIEW DATA
Deference Effect Expectancy Effect
- People telling you want they think you - tendency for experimenters to
want to hear - Get the answers they were expecting
- So as not to offend ou
- To be seen as competent
- Not due to correct intuition
- But due to them shaping the nature of the
responses

- results are because of response,

deference, and expectancy
- We need to be prepared to find contradictions
- Understand (Our biases) what we hope will
happen before we interview ANYONE
VALIDITY & CREDIBILITY
However, QUALITative researchers have tried to provide a framework for validity in QUALITative research

Transparency Systematic Methods

- awareness and articulation of biases - consistent use and reporting of data
and initial perceptions and intuitions collection context, participants, and
methods for analysis of the data
- awareness and articulation of the
analysis: - Inter-rater Reliability
• process,
• choices and interpretations the researcher
Seek out Alternate interpretations &
makes during the inquiry process explanations
- Data Triangulation
- Member Checking

Yvonna S. Lincoln. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry (Vol. 75). Egon G. Guba (Ed.). Sage.
VARIOUS ANALYSIS
TECHNIQUES FOR
INTERVIEW DATA
http://www.slideshare.net/mbakdos/pdu-211-research-methods-qualitative-data-
analysis
 DEFINITIVE RESOURCES:
BOOKS

Lofland, J. and Lofland, L.. Berg, B. L. (2001). Seidman, I. (2012). Interviewing Creswell, J. W.
(1995) Analyzing Social Qualitative research as qualitative research: A guide (2013). Research design:
Settings: A Guide to methods for the social for researchers in education and Qualitative, quantitative,
Qualitative Observation sciences. the social sciences. Teachers and mixed methods
and Analysis. college press. approaches. Sage
http://wtf.tw/ref/seidman.pdf publications.
DEFINITIVE RESOURCES:
BOOKS

Corbin, J., & Strauss, A.

Matthew B. Miles, & A. Goldman, R., Pea, R., Yvonna S. Lincoln.
(2014). Basics of qualitative
Michael Huberman. Barron, B., & Derry, S. J. (1985). Naturalisti
research: Techniques and
(1994). Qualitative data (Eds.). (2014). Video c inquiry (Vol. 75).
procedures for developing
analysis: An expanded research in the learning Egon G. Guba
grounded theory. Sage
sourcebook. Sage. sciences. Routledge. (Ed.). Sage.
publications.
(3rd Edition now available)
DEFINITIVE RESOURCES:
ACADEMIC PAPERS
Quantifying Qualitative Data
Michelene T.H. Chi (1997) Quantifying Qualitative Analyses of Verbal Data: A Practical
Guide, Journal of the Learning Sciences, 6:3, 271-315, DOI: 10.1207/s15327809jls0603_1
http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327809jls0603_1

Thick Description – Ethnography

Geertz, C. (1994). Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture.Readings in the
philosophy of social science, 213-231.
Excerpt #1: http://www.brookechornyak.com/files/thick-description.pdf
Excerpt #2: http://www.staff.u-szeged.hu/~magnes/downloads/greetz.pdf
PRACTICAL RESOURCES:
SLIDES
Overview of Interviewing: Techniques for dealing with Different Types of Participants
(Slides by Dr. Beki Grinter – GA Tech – Qualitative Research Methods)
http://hccedl.cc.gatech.edu/documents/162_Grinter_6.pdf

Qualitative Data Analysis – Different Types of Analyses (SlideShare – Lecturer: Agatha

Ardhiati)
http://www.slideshare.net/mbakdos/pdu-211-research-methods-qualitative-data-analysis

How to Use Word To Analyze your Data

http://www.slideshare.net/jennacondie/working-with-word-for-qualitative-data-analysis
PRACTICAL RESOURCES:
WEBSITES & PAPERS
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Qualitative Research Guidelines Project - http://www.qualres.org/
Member Checking: http://www.qualres.org/HomeMemb-3696.html

Rigor in Qualitative Research (Really nice summary of Lincoln & Guba (1985))
http://ajot.aota.org/article.aspx?articleid=1876643#.VS0nyVZIoNA

How to Collect Data for Thick descriptions for Ethnographies & Case Studies
http://vanderbilt.edu/writing/manage/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Taking%20Good%20Notes%20in%20the
%20Field.pdf

Tips for qualitative interviewing

http://www.dism.ssri.duke.edu/pdfs/Tipsheet%20-%20Qualitative%20Interviews.pdf

Example Interview Guide:

http://courses2.cit.cornell.edu/fit117/CP_I_InterviewGuide1.htm