Qualitative Interviewing

What is Qualitative Interview?

- Is an interaction between an interviewer

and a respondent where the interviewer
has a general plan of inquiry, including the
topics to be covered, but not necessarily a
specific set of questions that must be asked
in a particular order.
What is Qualitative Interview?

Purposeful conversation (Patton, 2002)

What is Qualitative Interview?

Set of questions are based on deliberate plan

but are inherently flexible.
 The structure of an interview that
may have predetermined questions or
topical areas to be discussed with
participants in called Interview Schedule.
Different Kinds of Qualitative Interview

1.Structured Interview
2.Semi-structured Interview
3.Unstructured Interview
4.Focus Group Interview
Structured Interview

-consist of predetermined questions

and answer sets.
Structured Interview

-the process where slivers of information

are retrieved for a very particular
purpose.
Example study:

Muslim Student’s Perception of being

Monitored by Law Enforcement
Example:
Interviewer:
After finding out about being monitored, did you
feel any differently when you were at school?

Participant:
I felt that people were looking at me more
suspiciously
Example:
Interviewer: (Probe)
Can you give me an example of this happening?
Participant:
I was buying lunch, and all of the sudden, I felt that
everyone was watching me. It seemed like the cashier was
afraid to take my money and didn’t want to interact with
me. It made me feel like a suspect. There are not many
Muslim students at my school, but lately I have gotten to
know a few.
Disadvantages of Structured Interview

-lack of depth
-occasionally stilted exchanges with
participants
-limited ability to explore unexpected
responses
Semi-structured Interview
-have standardized questions, but it allows you to
explore themes that emerge in the interview.
-make it possible to use unscheduled probes or
spontaneous questions that are relevant to the
dialogue.
-allows you to discover emerging theme
Example:
After the conversations;
Interviewer:
Did you talk with the other Muslim students about being
monitored?
Participant:
Yes, we were shocked when we discovered that this was
going on. We kind of came together in a way. I wasn’t that
close with them before this.
Unstructured Interview
-most open style of interviewing
-provides more breadth, depth and natural
interactions with participants.
Two main approaches to Unstructured
Interview
1. Conversation
2. Interview Guide
1. Conversation
-is an informal “chat” where participants may
forget that they are being interviewed and the
conversation flows organically.
Conversation
Example:
You might be in a local night club or hanging out
on the street and strike up a conversation with the
member of the group of interest.
Conversation
-this can be used on exploratory studies where theory
could be developed. But usually, is used during
participant observation and ethnographic studies.
Ethnographic studies
-is a systematic study of people and cultures.
-designed to explore cultural phenomena where the
researcher observes society from the point of view of
the subject of the study.
2. Interview Guide
-includes a list of topical areas that you want to
cover in the conversation.
Focus Group Interview
-a group interview or a guided discussion with a
small group of participants.
-can be used to interview 6-12 particpants
Note:
Interview Schedule for FGD can be structured, semi-
structured or unstructured.
Designing Qualitative
Interviews Questions
Approaches to framing Interview Questions

1. Tree and Branch Approach

2. River and Channel Approach
1. Tree and Branch Approach
-approach to have a main topic such as safety in sex
work, with branching questions that you explore at the
same level. One line of questioning, such as safety from
clients, does not take precedence from the other areas,
like safety from police.
-less exploratory
2. River and Channel Approach
-involves many streams of questioning that lead into
main channel, with some streams diverging.
2. River and Channel Approach
-Maybe you interview sex workers and find that while
discussing safe or unsafe situations, some sex workers
mention their leisure activities-such as having lunch
with their pimp. You may find that some workers talk
about how these activities make them feel safe. This is
where the questions return to the main channel
(safety).
2. River and Channel Approach
-On the other hand, maybe the sex workers feel like
their activities outside of the job are important parts of
their lived experience. In this case, the topic diverges.
You may decide to probe more about other activities
that the sex workers do outside of work.
-now, this becomes more exploratory and allows
deeper exploration of the topic.
Techniques in writing FGD Questions
1. Diachronic Delivery
2. Synchronic Delivery
1. Diachronic Delivery
-starts at the beginning and progresses chronologically.
-this approach may center on developments overtime.
1. Diachronic Delivery
Example of the sex workers:
You may ask them to describe how they dealt with
safety issues when they first started working and how
these may have changed overtime.

note:
Diachronic story lines are sometimes explanatory, such as why
sex workers get involved in selling sex.
2. Synchronic Delivery
-structures does not depend on the element of time.
You may move from sector to sector.
-in this approach, you may ask how sex workers
negotiate their safety in different spheres of their lives,
such as at home, on the street, or with the police.
-you may also want to understand how the process
operates.
Things you should ask on your main questions
1. Do they encompass the overall subject?
2. Is there a good flow in terms of transition from
question to question?
3. Does the chronology (if synchronic) make sense?
4. Is the language at the appropriate level for your
participants?