2. Background of Author
• Born in Norway and graduated
from university of Oslo
• Professor of Educational
Psychology and Director of the
Centre of Qualitative Research at
the University of Aarhus
3. Introduction
Conversation are old way of obtaining systematic knowledge
o Thucydides- history of wars
o Socrates- philosophical knowledge through dialogues
The term “ interview” is of recent origin
o Literally an inter-view, i.e. an exchange of views between two
persons conversing about a theme of common interest.
In social science research, qualitative interviews are employed
as research methods
o Glaser and Strauss’s sociological study of hospitals (1967)
played a pioneering role in qualitative Research
Technical, epistemological and cultural reason accounts for the
growing use of qualitative research interviews
4. Introduction (cont..)
Forms of interviews
o Structured- conversation that is purpose determined by the
interviewer
o Semi-structured life interview- describes the life world of the
interviewee in respect to interpreting the meaning of the
described phenomena.
Ethical issues permeate interview research
o Knowledge produced depends on the social relationship of
interviewer and interviewee
5. Epistemological issues of interviewing
Aspects of Semi-structured life interview
1. Life world- interviewee’s lived everyday world
2. Meaning – understanding the meaning of central themes of
subjects’ lived world.
3. Qualitative- knowledge expressed in normal language
devoid of quantification
4. Descriptive- interviewee encouraged to describe as possible
their experience and feeling and how they act.
5. Specificity- actions and situations elicited to the point, not
general opinions
6. Qualified naïveté- the interviewer exhibits openness to new
and unexpected phenomena (rather than ready made
categories)
6. Aspects of Semi-structured life interview (cont)
7. Focus- subjects allowed to bring forth dimension found
important
8. Ambiguity- interviewer task is to clarify
9. Change- subjects may discover new aspects of themes
10. Sensitivity
11. Interpersonal situation
12. Positive experience- rare and enriching experience to the
subject (New insight)
7. Ethical Issues of interviewing
Main Discussion
Interview as a moral inquiry
o Concerns the means as well as the ends of an interview inquiry
o Complexities in researching private lives and placing account in
public domain
Ethical issues at seven research stages
o Thematizing- go beyond scientific value of knowledge to
improving human situation (formulation of research questions)
o Designing- obtain the subjects consent, secure confidentiality
and possible consequences to the subject
o Interview situation- consider the consequences to the subject
e.g. tiredness/stress etc.
o Transcription- protect the confidentiality of the interviewee
o Analysis- involve the subject in how statements are interpreted
8. Ethical issues at seven research stages (cont)
o Verification- report knowledge that is secured and verified
o Reporting- again issue of confidentiality
When not to use interview
When predicting the behavior of larger groups e.g. voting
behavior
Studying people’s behavior and their interaction with their
environment
9. Conducting an interview
Setting the interview stage
o Brief intro
o Round off with interviewer mentioning key points - debrief
Scripting the interview
o Thematically- “what” of an interview (theoretical conceptual)
o Dynamically – “how” of an interview (keeping the interaction)
Interviewer questions
o Brief and simple
oIntroduction questions, follow-up questions, probing questions,
specificying questions, direct/indirect question, structuring
questions , silence and interpreting questions
The art of second questions
o Identifying the key item among the many dimensions
10. Interview Variations
Interview subjects
o Across cultures- cultural factors that affects relationship (i.e.
observing taboo etc)
o Children- allow them to give voice to experiences and understand
their world
o Elites- power asymmetry, interviewer should be knowledgeable to
gain respect
Interview Forms
o Factual – e.g. witness psychology
o Conceptual- conceptual clarification e.g. studying kingship
structures in foreign cultures
o Focus group – consist of 6-10 subjects led by a moderator meant to
bring different views without consensus
o Narrative – stories told by the subject spontaneously
o Discursive- how knowledge and truth is created within discourses,
and the power relations of discourses
11. Interview Variations (cont…)
Confrontational Interviews
o Brings the conflict and power dimensions of the interview
conversation (Direct confrontation)
o The interviewer may challenge what the interviewee says
15. Interview Quality (cont…)
Standard Criticism of Qualitative Interviews
a. Not scientific, only reflects a common sense
b. Not quantitative, only qualitative and thus not scientific
c. Research interview is not objective, but subject
d. Qualitative interviews do not test hypotheses; only exploratory
and thus not scientific
e. Too person-dependent and not scientific
f. Interview results not trustworthy; they are biased
g. Interview results due to leading questions and thus unreliable
h. Interpretation of interview results subjective
i. Depends on subjective impressions
j. Interview findings are not generalisable; there are too few
subjects
16. Transcribing Interviews
Oral and written language
o A transcript is a translation from one narrative mode-oral
discourse-into another narrative mode-written discourse
Methods of recording
o Audiotape, videotape, note-taking and remembering
Quality transcription depends
o Nature of the materials and the purpose of the investigation
o Time and money
o Availability of reliable and patient typist
17. Analyzing interviews
Modes of interview analysis
Analyses focusing on meaning
oMeaning coding
oMeaning condensation-abridgement /shortening long
expression
oMeaning interpretation- e.g. critics interpretations of
poem or a film, patient’s dreams etc.
Analyses focusing on language
oLinguistic analysis
oConversation analysis
oNarrative analysis
oDiscursive analysis
oDeconstruction
Analysis as bricolage
ono analytical method followed
Analysis as theoretical reading
oReflecting theoretically on specific themes of interest
18. Other issues discussed
Reliability and validity of interview knowledge
o Bothers on method, theoretical conception
Reporting interview knowledge
o Quotes should be contextualized, rendered in readable style, be
loyal to the habitual language of an interviewee
o Findings reported as interviews
o Researcher’s dialogue with the interview texts
o Structured in narrative modes
o Dialogues with stylistically edited
