Qualitative Research Methods: Interviewing. Mini-Master Class July 2017 Carol Martin

Transcription

1 Qualitative Research Methods: Interviewing Mini-Master Class July 2017 Carol Martin

2 The aims To collect personal accounts Views, opinions and attributions Experiences and feelings Accounts of actions Sequences of events and narratives Quality criteria: Richness Freely offered with minimum shaping by the interviewer Covering the domains that enable the researcher to answer their research questions

3 Constraints Accounts have an uncertain relationship with events and experiences The interviewer and the setting for the interview itself can shape the account given

4 Differences between interviews and structured data collection tools Questionnaires and structured interviews assume that participants understand the question in the way the researcher intends understand themselves can remember adequately when asked have words for their experience are motivated to offer and can achieve an objective, truthful account Hollway and Jefferson (2000) That is, they assume a straightforward relationship between the answer given and lived experience

5 The most common types of interviewing used in health research are: Face to face and individual, e.g. Semi-structured Narrative But there are other types, e.g. Unstructured Elite Group or couple Technologically defined - telephone or video; or paper

6 Research as a conversation Rubin and Rubin (2005) describe a research interview as an extended conversation with key qualities They recommend that interviewers are aware of the way they affect interviews- reflexivity Like ordinary conversation, partners maintain continuity, clarify meaning, indicate understanding, ask for stories, reach an ending Differences: recording, keeping on topic while maintaining depth and clarity

7 Answering the research questions The general view is that participants will not be able to answer research questions directly- they need translating into questions that elicit Rich detailed accounts Of specific events and experiences And with, sometimes, an amount of opinion

8 The importance of the words we use You want to find out what clients value about their therapy You can ask Did therapy help you? How much did therapy help you? What did you value about your therapy? Tell me about a time when therapy helped you Each elicits different answers

9 Tasks of the interviewer To put the participant at their ease To explain the research To obtain informed consent and manage other ethical issues such as risk To direct the participant as required To listen actively To facilitate full responses To end the interview, thank the participant and make practical arrangements

10 In interviews Keep a map of the domains in mind Take time to frame questions Keep main questions open or reframe as requests Ask for detail- pick up on interesting words, gestures, phrases Try to fill in gaps

11 Planning interviews: Schedules vs topic guides Schedules often outline specific questions, with an order and prompts, with suggested wording and may make for more standard interviews; potentially reduce unpredicted data Topic guides often list a range of topics that serve as a check for the interviewer; they may enable participants more control; findings may become more variable

12 Structures An introductory question Provides context Warming up Main questions May follow a time line May cycle round if several examples or types of experience are being explored Final questions and an invitation to offer anything new

13 Types of question Main questions facilitate the participant to respond to your research concerns with their experiences and perspectives Probes help manage depth, focus, detail and evidence Follow-up questions pursue concepts and themes introduced by the participants

14 Main questions A limited number of main questions (max around 7) Each introduces a new topic or stage These are relatively broad: focus later Ask for description of events before opinion These tend to be helpful - how, who, what, where, when... It is usually better to avoid using why? and do you?

15 Probes These structure the interview by Regulating the length of answers and extent of detail Clarifying and filling in gaps Keeping on topic Sorting out the sequence of events Helping sort which answers are more dependable You need to develop a variety of easily accessible probes Verbal, e.g. that s interesting, go on Non-verbal, e.g. waiting, facial expression- interest

16 Examples of probes Can you say more about that? What do you mean by? Do you mean that.? When do you think..happened? Before..? Have you experienced other..? Do you have specific experiences in mind, or is this a general opinion? Can you tell me about one?

17 Follow up questions Different for each participant and generated in the moment To extend the content of the participant s response, to elicit talk about internal states such as feelings Allow a response tailored to the participant and their psychological or emotional state. May help you get through a processed speech to a spontaneous account Example- you said that.. I wonder how that affected you

18 Most popular type: Semistructured interviews Involve a list of open questions that allow the participant to respond in a focussed way to the researcher s interests Often have an underlying structure that may ask for a range of experiences or include a time line

19 Assumptions of semi-structured interviewing Involve a list of open questions that allow the participant to respond in a focussed way to the researcher s interests Often have an underlying structure that may ask for a range of experiences or include a time line Semi-structured interviews tend to be used when researchers know what information they are interested in, e.g. an event want to take the account at face value And usually contain open questions or requests to speak on a specific issue (the basics are often the same in each interview)

20 Narrative interviewing One type of unstructured interview where the participant tells the story of their life, or of a part of their life, e.g. the story of my life abroad The researcher aims to avoid distorting the account through minimal intervention and encouragement to develop the account And hands over to the participant to lead much of the time It is used when a structure might inhibit the participant or for discovery

21 Principles for less structured interviews Intervene in the most unobtrusive way possible Ask open-ended questions or make requests rather than closed questions Elicit stories and examples, not just opinions Don t ask why? Use the participant s own language when you follow up after a response Adapted from Hollway and Jefferson (2000)

22 Free Association Narrative Interviews are a hybrid of semi-structured and narrative interviews There are key topic areas and questions to be used as needed the aim is for the participant to give their own account of their experience in their own words there is often a time sequence to the questions or areas of interest There is a second interview to complete data collection and increase depth

23 Bias or countertransference? The less structured the interview, the greater the risk of the interviewer introducing topics and views they consider important, and of shaping the interview in ways they don t understand These influences can be understood to some degree by analysing reflectively, e.g. using the concept of countertransference Use of interviewer experience can add depth; it can be used to understand interview process See Kvale (1996) and Hollway and Jefferson (2000)

24 Useful references Gillham, B. (2005) Research interviewing: the range of techniques. Open University. Kvale, S. (1996) Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing. SAGE Kvale, S. (2009) InterViews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. SAGE Hollway, W. & Jefferson, T. (2000) doing qualitative research differently: free association, narrative and the interview method. SAGE Mason, J. (2002) Qualitative Researching. 2 nd edn. SAGE Rubin, HJ & Rubin, IS. (2005) Qualitative Interviewing: the art of hearing data. SAGE.