1. Presented By: Dr. Lunceford and Antonio
Banks

2. Outline For Workshop
 General Overview Of Qualitative Interviews
 Aspects of Qualitative Research Interviews
 Qualification Criteria for the Interviewer
 Interviewer Issues
 Types of Interview Questions
 Guidelines for Preparing Interview Summaries

3. What is a Qualitative Interview?
 Qualitative interviews are interviews designed
to :
 Have the interviewee do a majority of the
speaking
 Encourage the participant to provide rich and
detailed experiences.
 Help the interviewer understand how and why the
participant experienced certain events in their
lives as they did.

4. Aspects of Qualitative Research
Interviews
 Life World: You should focus on a participant’s lived
experiences and not just their beliefs or attitudes about
issues
 Meaning: You should focus on the meaning of what the
participant says and also pay attention to how they say it
 Qualitative: You should seek to find knowledge in a
qualitative manner; expressed in normal language and
doesn’t aim to quantify any responses
 Descriptive: You should seek to obtain open, rich
descriptions of different aspects of the participant’s life world
 Specificity-
 Deliberate Naiveté: As an interviewer you should be open to
new experiences while interviewing people versus expecting
the same generic answers.

5. Aspects of Qualitative Research Interviews
Continued
 Focused: You should make sure that you stay focused on the central
theme of what you are studying; keeping deviations from the central theme
at least on par with what you are talking about and trying your best to revert
back to discussing the central theme.
 Ambiguity: You have to understand that sometimes the participants
answers may be ambiguous and represent conflicting as well as
contradicting in their own life world .
 Change: Sometimes the process of being interview can make the
participant develop new insights and awareness on the issues that have
taken place so sometimes their descriptions and meanings may change
throughout the course of the interview
 Sensitivity: You should be aware that different interviewers can produce a
range of responses on the same themes depending on their sensitivity to
and their knowledge of the interview topic
 Interpersonal Situation
 Positive Experience: A well conducted research interview can provide
enriching new insights for the interviewer and the interviewee on their life
situations.

6. Qualification Criteria for the Interviewer
 Knowledgeable: Important that the interviewer have a wide base of
knowledge regarding the topic that they are conducting the
interview about.
 Structuring: Important that the interview be structured; helps to
provide a guideline for the interviewer to follow and allows the
interviewer to easily develop any post-interview questions they may
have
 Clear: As an interviewer you should be able to ask clear, concise,
easy and short questions for the participants to answer. Questions
should be free of professional/sociological jargon.
 Gentle: As an interviewer you should be able to let your interviewee
formulate/finish their thoughts at their own speeds; letting them
complete at their own pace is vital; many questions have never
been asked before and takes time to formulate valuable answer
 Sensitive: As an interviewer you should be able to actively listen to
the content of what is being said as well as how it

7. Qualification Criteria for the Interviewer
 Open: As an interviewer you would be able to hear which
aspects of the interview are important and focus on the main
questions/ issues associated with the interview
 Steering: As an interviewer you should be aware of what is
relevant to completing the interview and what information you
need. As a result of this, you will be able to, in turn, guide the
interview towards relevant discussion, as well as away from
topics that will not be pertinent to you research
 Critical: As an interviewer you should be able to take what is
being said for more than face value. You should be able to
write down the important critical points to aid in
 Remembering: Being able to harness the interviewing skill
of recall when interviewing participants enhances the
information and data you may be able to gain from it.
 Interpreting

8. Interviewer Issues
 Non Talker: Get them to explore their thoughts with phrases such
as : “could you elaborate on that” “could you talk a bit about”, “well
ok, but could you explain why you think that way”, “can you tell
more about why you feel that way,” etc.
 Rambler: You should be able to politely say “excuse me, but I was
wondering if we could change the subject a bit and get back to your
thoughts on … “ or “ excuse me, but I was wondering if you could
come back to the point you mentioned about…”
 Uncomfortable: When you sense that a participant is
uncomfortable with a section of the interview you can ask questions
such as “ which part is uncomfortable for you? Can you talk about
the part that you feel more comfortable with ?”
 Contradicting Statements: If a participant makes contradicting
statements, at the beginning of the contradiction you can issue
statements such as “ Excuse me, but before you mentioned that
(first statement), but now you’re saying (new, contradicting
statement), can you clarify this for me please?

9. Interviewer Issues Continued
 Confused: If the paricipant is confused by
your wording of the question, you can simply
state “ok, sorry, then let me try to reprase it for
you-(then rephrase your question in more
laymen’s terms)”
 Personal Questions
 Flirt
 Inquisitive

10. Type of Interview Questions
 Introducing Questions
 Follow Up Questions
 Probing Questions
 Specifying Questions
 Direct Questions
 Indirect Questions
 Structuring Questions
 Silence
 Interpreting Questions

11. Guidelines for Preparing Interview
Summaries
 Description
 Memos
 Theoretical Memos/ Notes:
 Methodological Memos/Notes:
 Personal Memos/ Notes: