Qualitative interviews

Question 1

What is the purpose of qualitative interviews?

Answer 1

• “insider accounts”
• Information about the topic
• Insight on lived experiences

Question 2

Which type of qualitative interview corresponds to a positivist approach?

Answer 2

Structured interview

Question 3

Which type of qualitative interview corresponds to an interpretivist approach?

Answer 3

Unstructured interview

Question 4

What characterises structured interviews?

Answer 4

• Maximise comparability
• Clear structure
• Strict list of questions
• Little room to elaborate
• Reflects the researcher’s concerns

Question 5

What characterises semi-structured interviews?

Answer 5

• Rich and detailed answers
• Flexible structure
• Topic list
• Some comparability
• Room for elaboration and new questions
• You adapt to how the conversation is flowing
• Bottom-up knowledge production

Question 6

What characterises unstructured interviews?

Answer 6

• Open-ended
• Point of view of participants
• Interviewee gives direction, interviewer follows the flow, while keeping the topic in mind
• Informal conversation

Question 7

Which type of interview may be best suited if subjects don’t have a lot of time?

Answer 7

Structured interview

• to get answers to your questions with the time you have

Question 8

What are the alternatives to structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews?

Answer 8

• Mobile/walking interviews
• Life history interviews
• Focus groups

Question 9

What characterises mobile/walking interviews?

Answer 9

• Environment as prompt
• Research about landscape
• How is the subject experiencing the environment?

Question 10

What characterises life history interviews?

Answer 10

Insight into one’s life trajectory
- biographical

Question 11

What characterises focus groups?

Answer 11

• Group dynamics
• Interactions

Question 12

How do you prepare an interview?

Answer 12

• Do your work: know the social, economic, political context of the interview
• Manage expectations: time spent for interviewee, location
• Explain your research: be clear, don’t use scientific jargon, purpose of interview, data usage
• Think about the setting: where you and your informant are comfortable speaking
• Prepare topic list/questions

Question 13

What characterises a topic list or questions for an interview?

Answer 13

It’s a dynamic document, where you add topics and questions

Question 14

What is the correct attitude and behaviours to adopt during an interview?

Answer 14

• Active listening
• Mindful of non-verbal communication (body language of interviewer and yourself)
• Refrain from judgement
  -> open attitude
• Give recognition
• Be flexible
• Think about first question, how you engage the interview
• End on positive note
• Avoid finishing sentences
• Ask about actions and develop on their opinions
• Be attentive to what is not said, the elephant in the room

Question 15

How can you engage the interview?

Answer 15

• Start with focused question on subject’s values in the context of the research

or

• Start with a broad question to start the discussion

Question 16

Why is it important to avoid finishing the interviewee’s sentences?

Answer 16

You’re trying to have answers in their own words

Question 17

Why is it important to ask the interviewee about their actions, and develop on their opinions?

Answer 17

You’re trying to leave with their perspectives, not generalised opinions

Question 18

What are prompts in an interview?

Answer 18

• Elicitation: photographs, objects, environment
• Sensitive silence
• Repeating their last words
• Body language

Question 19

What should you do after an interview?

Answer 19

• Go over the notes taken before and during the interview, and add some
  -> reflective/theoretical ideas
• Transcribe the recorded audio

Question 20

What is a key concern for feminist researchers regarding qualitative interviews?

Answer 20

The interview method tends to reproduce the problematic discourses and power relationships of wider society

-> hinders the capacity of the interview to truly reveal others’ perspectives

Question 21

What can you do to mitigate the risk of an interview to reproduce the problematic discourses and power relationships of wider society?

Answer 21

1. Sustained immersion
2. Active listening

Question 22

What does sustained immersion in an interview refer to?

Answer 22

Attempt to review material produced during interviews collaboratively with research participants

-> reflexive interviewing

Question 23

What do DeVault and Gross (2012) mean by ‘active listening’?

Answer 23

• Close attention to what is asked and said during the interview
• Detailed examination of interview text regarding the structure of exchanges and language used