Intensive interviewing

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Intensive interviewing
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Interviews

• An interview is a conversation between a
  researcher (someone who wishes to gain
  information about a subject) and an informant
  (someone who presumably has information of
  interest on the subject).
• (Berger, Media and communication research methods)

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Intensive interviews

• Intensive interviewing relies on open-ended
  questions to develop a comprehensive picture of
  the interviewees background, attitudes, and
  actions
• Open ended questions
• May be highly unstructured, or structured
• Interviews tend to be lengthy
• May be hours in length
• Becomes like a directed conversation
• Requires active probing of responses
• Learn about setting before interviewing

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Preparing for the interview

• Study the topic
• Know the language used to describe the content
  area
• Know the respondent, if possible
• Plan an outline of topics to cover in an
  interview
• Grand tour questions open ended questions that
  are designed to elicit lengthy narratives
• Be ready to begin interviewing at any point from
  initial contact on
• Provide a compelling reason why the person should
  be willing to talk to you
• I make 100 an hour and you are on the clock

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Sampling

• Random selection of informants is rare
• Typical group members
• Experts
• Demanding interviewees
• Select interviewees who
• Are knowledgeable on the subject of interest
• Are willing to talk
• Represent a range of perspectives from within a
  group
• Selection of new interviewees should continue
  until a saturation point is reached, that is,
  until new interviews yield little additional
  information

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Establishing and maintaining rapport

• Do not violate standards of social behavior
• Show respect for your interviewee
• Do not react in a negative manner to what she/he
  says
• Demonstrate your appreciation for the time and
  effort the respondent provides you
• Assure the informant of confidentiality
• Show interest in interviewee early in the
  interview
• Early in the interview, explain clearly the
  purpose of the interview
• Be mindful of pace

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Asking questions and recording answers

• Plan questions around an outline (but be flexible
  in terms of divergences and topic order)
• Make questions short and to the point
• Use nondirective probes
• um humh anything else silence
• Follow up questions should be tailored to answers
• Clarifications should be specificnot What do
  you mean?
• When a respondent is on a roll do not try to
  change direction
• Unless the respondent is simply repeating
  himself/herself

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Data collection

• Tape recorders are a good idea and usually are
  ignored
• Constant note-taking is a distraction
• However, some respondents will give away good
  information when the tape recorder gets turned
  off

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Triangulation

• Combining participant observation and intensive
  interviewing can deepen understanding
• May follow up experiment with depth interviews
• May call back selected survey participants to
  conduct depth interviews
• Etc.

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Sources

• Schutt, R. K. (2004). Investigating the Social
  World, (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA Pine Forge.