Qualitative interviewing

1. 1
Chapter 10:
Qualitative
Interviewing
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

2. 2
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Learning Objectives
• Recognize when to use qualitative interviewing
as a data-gathering tool
• Understand that there are multiple meanings
or constructions about reality
• Know the advantages and disadvantages of
semi-structured versus unstructured interviews
• Understand the use of focus groups or
interviewing a group of people simultaneously

3. 3
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Learning Objectives, cont.
• Be able to describe how to approach and
interact with participants
• Learn how to record or log data
• Understand ways to analyze and interpret
qualitative data
• Recognize how to enhance the quality of
information gathered

4. 4
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
• A qualitative interview is an interaction between
an interviewer and a respondent where the
interviewer has a general plan of inquiry,
including topics to be covered
• The interviewer might not have a specific set of
questions to be asked in a particular order
• Can be thought of as a purposeful conversation
• Allows researchers to study more complex
processes or the “hows” involving human
perspective

5. 5
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Qualitative Interviewing
• Qualitative interviews can be the sole way of
gathering data in criminal justice studies
• Allows the research to understand the subjects’
perspectives
• Can gather firsthand accounts of their
impressions and their lived experiences
• Can also be used to understand how people feel
about their roles and identities

6. 6
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Key Features of Qualitative Interviewing
• Richness of human experience
• Approach to learning
• Critical realist perspective
• Your stance about the nature of reality (ontology)
• The nature of knowledge

7. 7
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Kinds of Qualitative Interviews
• Interview schedule: The structure of the
interview that may have predetermined
questions or topical areas to be discussed
• The interview schedule will influence how
in-depth and interactive your interviews
should be

8. 8
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Structured and Semi-Structured Interviews
• A structured interview schedule consists of
predetermined questions and answer sets
• Structured interviews create standardized
responses so respondents are given the same
stimulus, allowing for responses to be compared
• Semi-structured interview has standardized
questions but allows the interviewer to explore
themes that emerge during the interview
• Researcher can probe for additional information

9. 9
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Unstructured Interviews
• Unstructured interviews are the most open style
of interviewing
• Provides the most breadth, depth, and natural
interaction with participants
• Two main approaches: conversations and
interview guide
• Conversations is an informal “chat” where conversation flows
organically
• Interview guide includes a list of topical areas that you want to
cover in the conversation

10. 10
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Focus Group Interviews
• 6–12 people brought together to engage in
guided group discussion of some topic
• Focus groups can be used to generate
hypotheses, or combined with other types of
data gathering such as participant observation
• Can show how opinions are produced,
expressed, and exchanged in everyday life
• Can be either natural groups or artificial groups
• Natural groups have an existing connection
• Artificial groups are made up of individuals selected according to
some criteria and are brought together for research purposes

11. 11
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Discussion Question 1
Would you attend a focus group if asked? Why or
why not?

12. 12
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Discussion Question 2
What if you interviewed a focus group?
Would you choose conversation or interview
guiding? Why?

13. 13
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Designing Qualitative Interview Questions
• Interview questions can assume different forms
• The branch approach involves having a main
topic with branching questions
• The river-and-channel approach involves many
streams of questioning that lead into the main
channel, with some streams diverging
• Must also decide what order to tell the story
• A diachronic delivery of material starts at the beginning and
progresses chronologically
• A synchronic framework does not depend on time

14. 14
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Interview Schedule
• Best to create an outline of more categories of
information you want to obtain before you start
writing
• You can create categories and nested sets of topical
areas.
• How a question is worded can affect the response
• Be sure the questions encompass the overall
subject, there is a good flow between questions, the
order makes sense, and the language is appropriate
• Avoid double-barreled questions, complex
questions, difficult language, and affective words

15. 15
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Probes
• Prompt participants to elaborate on responses
by filling in more detail and depth
• It is important to have built-in prompts in case
you have quiet respondents
• You can use an attention probe (e.g., lean in), a
continuation probe (e.g., nod), clarification probe
(e.g., ask the respondent to clarify), or follow-up
questions

16. 16
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Gaining Access to Participants
• Establish your role: determine if you are an insider or
outsider
• To gain access to a formal organization, you will need
identify yourself as a researcher and make a formal
request and receive formal approval
• Best to use a four-step process: sponsor, letter, phone
call, and meeting
• To gain access to information subcultures, researchers
can gain access using a sponsor or hang out where
subjects hang out
• Compensation might be necessary to encourage
participation

17. 17
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Discussion Question 3
What if you were searching for study
subjects? Are there any groups you would
be interested in studying that would claim
you as an insider?

18. 18
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Conducting Qualitative Interviews
• Qualitative interviews can be in-person, on the phone,
online, or through a survey
• Face-to-face are most common
• Reflexivity refers to your subjectivity and the meaning
you give to information
• It is important to remain critically conscious of your
reflexivity when conducting qualitative interviews
• During interviews, you will need to develop a rapport
with respondents
• This can be done through informal conversations or
finding something you and the respondent have in
common

19. 19
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Conducting Qualitative Interviews, cont.
• Might need to conduct several conversations
with the respondents
• Active interviewing is a social exchange that
allows for natural conversation and spontaneity
• The respondents’ answers determine the
subsequent questions
• During an interactive interview, you are
purposefully interactive
• The researcher must put on a social
performance where he or she must be the actor,
director, and choreographer

20. 20
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Conducting Focus Group Interviews
• Must decide whether to have a natural or
artificial group, what the physical arrangement of
the group should be, and the appropriate length
of the interview
• Need to be aware of groupthink and dominant
group members
• If you are gathering data on a sensitive topic,
you must realize that participants can be upset
by having to share such information and that you
cannot ensure confidentiality

21. 21
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Recording Data
• After recording information, researchers must
transcribe the dialogue verbatim
• After returning from interviews, you must write up field
notes no later than the morning after
• Memoing involves writing about your research process
and is important to recognize subjectivity
• Operational, coding, and analytic are three types of
memos
• Operational memos are steps that you took in the
research process
• Coding memos allow you to document how you coded data
• Analytic memos provide ways to explore relationships in the data.

22. 22
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Data Analysis and Making Claims
• Data is managed through tables, charts, and
other visual displays
• Data reduction involves putting aside information
that seems irrelevant
• Thinking units can also be used to sort stories
• Lofland and Lofland (1995) suggests the
following thinking units: meanings, practices,
episodes, encounters, roles, relationships,
groups, organizations, settlements, social
worlds, and lifestyles

23. 23
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Identifying Codes and Themes
• Coding assigns meaning to data
• Process of organizing raw data into categories
• Open coding involves exploring all possible
meanings before assigning conceptual definitions
• Microanalysis involves going deeper into the data
and challenging your original frame of reference
• The next step is to form categories and assign
data to these categories
• Data will have higher-level themes and lower-
level categories

24. 24
© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Quality and Rigor
• To enhance the quality of qualitative
analysis, researchers should have an
established audit trail
• An important check is to look for negative
cases that contradict the emerging themes
• Also perform member checks where other
researchers read the descriptions and
verify the accuracy of the work