Interviewing

Kristi Winters
Conditions of use
This work is licensed under a 
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

You may reuse this information under the following conditions:

 Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified

by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they
endorse you or your use of the work).
 No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon

this work.

You are free:

 to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work

 to make commercial use of the work

2
Exercise

 Take 2 min to conduct an interview with

someone near you
 Interview question: what sort of weekend did
your peer have?
The art of listening

 Qualitative research allows us the space to

incorporate more than just a pre-determined
answer (quantitative example: strongly agree,
agree, neither agree nor disagree...).
 Borg, James (2007) ‘Persuasion: The art of
influencing people.’
The art of listening

 To incorporate this additional information we

need to know how to pay attention to it.
 Paying attention means ‘active listening’ and
awareness of body language.
 Pauses
 Facial expressions
 Hand gestures
 All of it is ‘data’
 You can’t analyse what you don’t notice!
Being a good listener

 Active listening –
 concentrating on hearing
 empathetically comprehending what another is
saying.

His thoughts were slow, his words were few,

And never made to glisten,
But he was a joy wherever he went,
You should have heard him listen. (Borg, 2007)
Being a good listener
 Remove all the distractions from your mind:
 Thoughts (recalling previous conversations)
 Senses (focusing on the room temperature)
 Emotions (excitement at new promotion)

 Other impediments to active listening

 Being preoccupied (not feeling well, argument)
 Aversion to the person speaking
 Lack of interest in the topic
 Audio noise (background music) or visual noise (tv on but
muted, people walking in).
Being a good listener
 Hearing versus listening
 Hearing – physiological process of transmitting
from the world to our brains and interpreting
sounds.
 Listening – psychological process of interpreting
and understanding what is heard.
 Have you ever recited something back to
someone to prove you were ‘listening’ to them
when you really weren’t? ‘You said we need to get
milk tomorrow – see I can watch tv and listen to
you at the same time.’
Being a good listener

 Built-in disadvantage:
 Our own brains are a major obstacle to being a
good listener
 We talk at a rate of 120 to 150 words per minute
 We think at a rate of 600 to 800 words per minute.
 Since we can think at a rate of between four to
five times faster than people can speak we tend to
think of other things, not just what is being said.
 Listener is always ahead (or *thinks they are
ahead) of the speaker.
Being a good listener

 What does this mean?

 When listening to anything (bright and energetic
lecturer or the radio) our mind can wander, we
lose concentration.
 Get lost in our own thoughts and completely lose
the meaning of words even though we can hear
them.
Being a better listener

 Stop anticipating
 Don’t assume you know where the speaker is
going.
 Don’t interrupt on the assumption you know what
they are going to say.
 Don’t finish their sentences – you may guess the
wrong ending!
 Don’t speak over the other person.
Being a better listener

 Employ empathy.
 Try to both psychologically and emotionally
connect with the speaker: are they expressing a
frustration, a warm memory, an opinion?
 Paraphrase – allows you to verify what you’ve
heard with the speaker to confirm and refine
understanding
 ‘It seems like what you’re saying is that your previous
experience is making you reluctant to try something new
again.’
Paralanguage
 Not just what is said but how it is said:
 Volume (drops voice to a whisper, gets quite loud
and agitated)
 Rate of speech (Excited, rapid pace, thoughtful,
considered pauses)
 Tone, pitch and inflection (can change the
interpretation)
 You want me to go?
 You want me to go?
 You want me to go?
 You want me to go?
Test!
 Are you listening to me right now or just hearing
me?
 Attempt active listening in future lectures.
 Attempt active listening throughout your interview
and focus group session.
 Attempt actively listening with a partner or friend.
 Harder than you think, but has the added benefit of
improving communication and (as a consequence)
relationships.
Exercise

 Try again: 2 min to conduct an interview with

someone near you
 Interview question: how are you finding your
Birkbeck experience? (try to get a deep
understanding of at least one aspect)
Interviews
 If you’ve been interviewed you’ve probably
participated in a structured, quantitative interview.
 Survey questions must be asked as they are written:
 Reliability – measure should produce identical response
when asked repeatedly
 Validity – measures should capture concept it attempts to
measure
 ‘Thinking about politics, do you consider yourself a partisan or
not?’
 ‘Thinking about politics, do you consider yourself
Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat or what?’
Interviews

 ‘Qualitative interviewing’ as a term indicates

the use of semi-structured and unstructured
interview techniques.
 Focus is not upon eliciting a predetermined
response, but in the opinions, viewpoints, or
experiences of the interviewee.
 Instead of short answers, the interviewer
encourages full, rich responses to questions.
Interviews

 In a qualitative interview there is wide scope

for improvisation – relevant tangents can be
spontaneously followed and developed.
 Questions can be asked in a different order,
and rephrased.
 As the question and response structure is
more flexible, interviews can take place over
two or three meetings if necessary.
Interviews – semi-structured

 Researcher pre-prepares a list of questions

on specific topics (interview guide).
 Interview guide does not have to be followed
in order.
 Other questions may be added to later
interviews as a result of the interviewee’s
responses.
 Aim is to cover all the questions on the guide
with each individual interviewed.
Interviews - unstructured
 Researcher has general topics to be covered
but does not prepare specific questions.
 A question is asked and the interviewer
listens to the responses:
 Can follow-up on certain points for elaboration
 Requires dynamic listening – noting areas of
follow-up while allowing the respondent to
complete their answer (e.g. do not interrupt)
 May sound more like a conversation than an
interview.
Interviews

 Difference between quantitative and

qualitative interviews is flexibility
 Quants – wording must be asked identically;
question order cannot be changed; interviewers
cannot expand on a question or rephrase
questions; probes asked only when directed.
 Qual – questions can be rephrased; order of
questions is flexible; questions can be restated in
different language; probes as and when; relevant
tangents are encouraged.
Which format?
 Allow research question to guide you
 If your research question has clear focus, specific
areas of interest (what motivates 18 to 25 year
olds to vote?)
 Semi-structured best
 If your research question is exploratory,
attempting to illuminate individual experiences,
views, memories (what are the perceptions and
experiences of voting amongst 18 to 25 year
olds).
 Unstructured best
Kvale’s (1996) seven stages of an
interview
 Thematizing: Formulate the purpose of the investigation
and describe the concept of the topic to be investigated
before the interviews start.
 Designing: Plan the design of the study, taking into
consideration all seven stages, before the interview
starts.
 Interviewing: Conduct the interviews based on an
interview guide and with a reflective approach to the
knowledge sought.
 Transcribing: Prepare the interview material for analysis,
which commonly includes a transcription from oral
speech to written text.
 Analyzing: Decide, on the basis of the purpose and topic
of the investigation, and on the nature of the interview
material, which methods of analysis are appropriate.
Kvale’s (1996) seven stages of an
interview
 Verifying: Ascertain the generalizability, reliability, and
validity of the interview findings.
 Reliability refers to how consistent the results are
 Dependability – the study could be replicated by others
(reliability)
 Validity means whether an interview study investigates
what is intended to be investigated.
 Credibility – mapping theory onto observations in an
appropriate way (internal validity)
 Transferability – the findings could be generalised across
settings (external validity)
 Reporting: Communicate the findings of the study and
the methods applied in a form that lives up to scientific
criteria, takes the ethical aspects of the investigation into
consideration, and that results in an readable product.
The interview guide
 Depending on your approach can be a list of
questions or a list of topics
 Have a clear idea of what it is you’re interested in.
 Consider: ‘Just what about this thing is puzzling
me?’ (Lofland and Lofland 1995: 78).
 Draw on relevant background literature;
 Discuss with colleagues, specialists, even friends or
relatives;
 Brainstorm a list of aspects of the topic which you find
intriguing or interesting.
The interview guide
 Be sensitive to your own tunnel vision. Ask
open-ended (not leading) questions - provide
more insights.
 Think outside the box – what other things
might be relevant to understand this person’s
perspective:
 If interviewing agnostics or atheists, questions on
childhood religious practices (of parents,
grandparents, baby-sitters, education) may be
relevant.
Preparing your interview guide
 Question flow – questions should be ordered (or
segmented) so as to gently transition from topic to
topic;
 Although the questions should be open-ended, be
sure responses will address your research question
(‘tell me about your mother’ too broad);
 Use plain language – OK to ask about AWS with
party members who advocate for women’s
representation but maybe not with casual activists.
Preparing your interview guide

 Avoid leading questions/normative

assumptions. People may try to give you the
answers they think you want. Evaluate your
question wording for your own biases:
 ‘Thinking back to the last time you voted in a local
or national election, what memories or
experiences can you recall?’
Preparing for the interview

 Do the background research necessary to

understand the situation of the interviewee –
will allow you to better understand off-handed
references to acronyms, individuals, code-
words.
 Consider asking fact-based, non-intrusive
questions at the beginning.
 Eases interviewee into the interview.
 Allows time to pass if interview is being recorded.
Kinds of questions – direct
 Kvale (1996:133-135) nine types of questions (I
have reordered into two categories – guiding and
probing)
 Introducing questions: ‘Have you ever…’; ‘Could you tell
me about when…’ .
 Direct questions: ‘Do you agree with the aims of the policy”;
‘What about that makes you feel uncomfortable?
 Indirect questions: ‘What do your colleagues think of the
recent changes to the policy?...What is your view?
 Structuring questions: ‘I’d like to ask about a different
topic….’
Kinds of questions – probing
 Follow-up question: ‘Could you elaborate on that?’
 Probing question: ‘You mentioned bias, can I ask
what you had in mind when you mentioned it?’
 Specifying question: ‘How did you react when X
said that?’
 Interpreting questions: ‘Is it fair to say that you feel
let down by him?’
 Silence – allow a pause in the conversation to
indicate to the interview s/he can continue speaking.
Stages of the interview questions
 Charmaz (2002) categorise interview
questions into three stages:
 Open-ended initial questions – ‘How did you first
learn of…’; ‘When did you start…?’
 Intermediate questions – ‘ How did you feel
when…?’; ‘What impact do you think this will have
on you?’
 Ending question – ‘Has this been a good
experience for you?’; ‘Has your views of this
changed since…?; ‘Looking back, is there
anything you would have done differently?’
Kvale’s (1996: 145) Quality Criteria
 Extent of spontaneous, rich, specific, and relevant answers from
the interviewee.
 Shorter interviewer’s questions and longer interviewee’s
answers.
 Higher the degree to which the interviewer follows up to clarify
the meanings of the relevant aspects of the answers, the better.
 The ideal interview is (to a large extent) interpreted throughout
the interview.
 Interviewer attempts to verify his or her interpretations of the
subject’s answers during interview.
 The interview is ‘self-communicating’ –a story contained in itself
that does not requires much in extra descriptions and
explanations.
Kristi’s cautions
Although qualitative interviewing does allow for more
flexibility in question wording, some warnings from the
quants side may be helpful:
 Terms matter – changing a word can change the sorts of
responses you get. Compare:
 To what extent do you support programmes designed to achieve
gender equality by increasing the number of women MPs?
 To what extent do you support positive discrimination to increase the
number of women MPs?
 Think back to partisanship questions in the first part of the lecture.
 If there is an important concept you’re interested, use the term
consistently.
Preparing for the interview
Recording
 If possible, it is best to record an interview for accurate
transcription and analysis (not just what they said but
how they said it).
 Become familiar with the equipment before the
interview:
 Practice asking questions from a variety of distances.
 Have a friend help you by answering questions – is the
direction of the microphone important? How clear are the
responses?
 How does background noise effect the sound quality?
 If doing a telephone interview, practice using equipment first.
 Write down your notes on your thoughts/impressions/insights
immediately after the interview – the recording equipment
can’t do this for you.
Preparing for the interview
 Consider taking notes anyway – equipment failure,
voices not picked up by machine.
 When you make notes only after the interview is over,
your memory is a good at filtering for the essentials
but may be subjective.

 Using a recorder
 Get the interviewee’s permission.
 Ensure the recorder is placed for optimum recording
quality
Preparing for the interview
 Using a recorder
 Consider putting it somewhere not too prominent
– don’t want to reminder of recording in their face.
 Leave it running don’t snap off the recorder after
the last answer. Record ‘post-interview’ chit chat
 Sometimes people will give you feed back or
continue to answer previously raised questions. If
its possible leave it running until you leave the
room.
Preparing for the interview
 If taking notes develop shorthand for words you expect
to hear;
 Star or otherwise note comments or reactions you find
important during the course of the interview (laughed,
chose words carefully, pointed to today’s newspaper
headlines);
 Practice the experience of interviewing and writing notes
before conducting your first interview;
 Immediately after the interview type up your notes as
well as memories, reactions or impressions;
 If doing multiple interviews in one day do post-interview
write-up BEFORE next interview – don’t rely on your
ability to remember the details of three one-hour
interviews at the end of the day.
Transcription
 Can be useful for either audio or written recording.
 Can be very time consuming: one hour of interviewing can take
five to six hours to transcribe.
 Consider transcribing only those areas of the interview which are
most useful.
 Systematise coding schema:
 ‘….then we went to Rob’s house (italics for words that are not

heard clearly.
 ‘It’s always been a priority to me, especially when *….* with her

as a little girl (missing text).

 ‘…and then I told him to go home. (sigh) I felt bad, but I didn’t

know what else to do.’ (include verbal pauses? Laughs?)

 ‘She is a great woman [pulls photo from wallet]…that’s us, me

and her, right there [smiles at photo]. She’ll always be an

inspiration to me.’
Transcriptions

 Don’t consider transcription and data analysis

as separate tasks.
 Interpret as you go – note insights and highlight
potentially important sections of your interviews.
 Transcribing while collecting interviews may
provide guides for additional questions which
would otherwise not be noticed until all the
interviews were over.
Transcriptions
 Precision in transcribing:
 Structure of spoken word is different from written
word.
 Transcribe one interview and systematise coding
and practices then apply to others.
 Process of transcribing is tiring – review work after
a break to ensure completeness and accuracy.
 If subject uses acronyms or refers to a first name
consider elaborating, ‘I discussed the changes to
the AWS [All Women’s Short-list] with John [Doe]
just last month.’