INTERVIEW
Introduction to Interview
-An interview is a method of data collection which involves an
interviewer asking questions from the interviewee on one on
one or group basis.
- The type of research(quan or qual) determines whether an
interview will be structured or unstructured.
- Interviews have various advantages as well as
disadvantages
Effects Of Interpersonal Variables In
Interviews
• The relationship and interaction between interviewer and interviewee may affect the
quality and amount of information obtained in an interview.
Gender:
• Differential effects of female and male interviewers.
• Rubin & Greene (1991): Interviewees showed more negative attitudes toward gender-
exclusive language when the interviewer was female.
• Young men (male interviewers): Least use of gender-inclusive language.
• Older women (female interviewers): Most use of gender-inclusive language.
Gender (Cont.)
• Stephenson et al. (1999): For senior citizens in the U.S., cross-gender interviews led
to different conversation patterns:
• Women: Talked more about career, education, and WWII experiences in cross-gender
interviews.
• Men: Focused more on family, especially reproductive family, in cross-gender
interviews.
Ethnicity
Word, Zanna & Cooper (1974): White interviewers showed less positive body language
towards black applicants, which led to worse performance, increased nervousness, and a
perception of less friendliness from the interviewer.
Awosunle & Doyle (2001): In a simulated job interview study:
•White raters gave higher performance scores to candidates with East London accents
(regardless of race) compared to African-Caribbean accents.
•Black raters gave higher scores to candidates with African-Caribbean accents
compared to East London accents.
•This showed a "same race" effect based on accent cues.
Formal Role
- Sex and ethnic differences can have a greater impact if the interviewee views the
interviewer as an authority figure.
- The researcher's style can influence how they are perceived, but even informal styles
might still be seen as authoritative.
- Interviewees may respond less fluently, feeling constrained by the need to use
"correct" language or provide acceptable content.
- Interviews are often linked with authority or failure (e.g., young offenders, unemployed),
which can shape how interviewees interpret and respond to the process.
- Interviewers need to be aware of this perspective to interpret responses fairly.
Halo Effect
Where one positive or negative characteristic may influence the impression of the
interviewer in an overall positive or negative direction, halo effect occurs.
Social Desirability
To be socially desirable, people don't answer truthfully. Instead, they choose what is
considered to be morally right or acceptable in society even if their actions differ from it.
Evaluative Cues
- Interviewers must avoid displaying any subtle behavior that could be interpreted as
disagreement or encouragement.
- Even small, unintentional signals can influence how the interviewee frames their answers.
Types Of Interview
• Telephone interview
• Non-direct interview
• Informal Interview
• Semi-structured Interview
• Structured but open-ended interview
• Structured Interview
TELEPHONE INTERVIEW
Telephone interview approach recruits’ interviewees who are too busy or too intimidated to be interviewed in
person. It is quite common in survey research.
Certain issues about the use of telephone interviewing are: First, it won’t be appropriate to some groups of
interviewees, such as those with no or limited access to telephones.
Second, it is unlikely to work well with interviews that are likely to go on for a long time, especially significant
for qualitative interviews, which are mostly time consuming for interviewees.
Third, it is not possible to observe body language to see how interviewees respond in a physical sense to
questions (to discern such things as discomfort, puzzlement, or confusion). Simply put it would be harder to
interpret interviewees mood.
Fourth, there can be technical difficulties with recording interviews and there is always the possibility that the
line can be poor. Special equipment would be required.
Telephone interview also has certain benefits when compared to face to face
qualitative interviewing.
First, is cost, it would be much cheaper to conduct qualitative interviews by
telephone.
Second, interviewees may be less distressed about answering sensitive questions
by telephone when the interviewer is not physically present, which would be
more effective.
Third, the method can generate detailed and considered replies.
Fourth, the saving of time and travel costs can regard this method as highly
efficient for dispersed groups and when interviewers’ safety is a consideration.
Fifth, it will provide greater anonymity, greater economy, and lack of
geographical dependence.
INFORMAL INTERVIEW
An informal interview serves as a flexible, adaptable method. It’s
aim is to gather data for research. It is slightly directive when it
comes to guiding the interviewee gently to stay on topic by using
prompts only when the conversation “dries up”. At its most non-
structured, an informal interview resembles a non-directive
approach, offering the interviewee freedom to respond in their own
terms
Origin of Informal Interviews
• The researchers at Hawthorne were also responsible for an
early use of the almost non-directive interview in industrial
relations research work.
• Early structured interviews were not successful, not least
because many were conducted by the worker’s supervisor and
the relationship was necessarily lop-sided in power. Employees
were reluctant to get marked out as complainers.
The researchers' “indirect approach” used non-judgmental, neutral
interviewers who listened patiently, displayed no authority, and
asked questions only when necessary—to prompt more talking,
ease anxiety, offer praise, cover missing topics, or explore implicit
assumptions.
This non-threatening environment encouraged employees to be
more open. One worker expressed relief, saying, "I tell you, it does a
fellow good to get rid of that stuff" (Roethlisberger and Dickson,
1939; see also Hollway, 1991)
Characteristics and Benefits of Informal
Interviews
● Interviewees can talk in their own terms in the relaxed atmosphere of the informal
interview.
● They don’t have to answer pre-set questions that they might find confusing or that
they just don’t wish to answer. They are not constrained by fixed-answer questions
that produce rather narrow information.
● This approach has been used in social science research for a while and has
recently become popular in applied research, especially among supporters of
qualitative methods. They believe that trying to be completely objective by acting
cool, distant, and impersonal as an interviewer is more likely to make people feel
anxious
● Interviews can be done informally, and 'on the fly' and,
therefore, do not require scheduling time with respondents. In
fact, respondents may just see this as 'conversation.’
● Informal interviews may, therefore, foster 'low pressure'
interactions and allow respondents to speak more freely and
openly.
● Informal interviewing can be helpful in building rapport with
respondents and in gaining their trust as well as their
understanding of a topic, situation, setting, etc. .
● Informal interviews can provide the foundation for developing
and conducting more structured interviews
SEMI STRUCTURED INTERVIEW
• SSIs are a flexible qualitative research method used to explore
a respondent's experiences, beliefs, and perceptions. Unlike
structured interviews, which focus on fixed questions, SSIs
allow for the exploration of new topics that arise during the
conversation.
• This approach captures rich, in-depth data and is particularly useful
for complex or personal issues. Phenomenological
Perspective views responses as reflecting the participant's
psychological reality, influenced by the interview interaction.
The Interactionist Perspective sees interviews as co-constructed
between the researcher and respondent.
Comparison: Semi structured vs Structured
interview
• Structured Interviews: Rigid, pre-determined questions focused on
quantitative data, offering high reliability but low flexibility.
• Semi-Structured Interviews: More flexible, allowing exploration of
emerging topics and building rapport for richer, deeper data. However, they
are more time-consuming and harder to analyze
Key features of semi structured Interviews
• Advantages: Flexibility, rapport-building, rich data.
• Disadvantages: Reduced control, time-consuming, complex
analysis.
Constructing an interview schedule
• Define Broad Themes: Identify the general topics to cover (e.g.,
personal experiences, coping strategies).
• Sequence Topics: Organize themes logically and introduce sensitive
topics later.
• Create Specific Questions: Frame clear, neutral questions and include
follow-up probes for clarity.
• Tips: Ensure neutrality, avoid jargon, and ask open-ended questions to
encourage detailed responses.
Follow up techniques and prompts
• Use Probes to encourage elaboration (e.g., "Can you tell me more?").
• Apply the Funnelling Technique: Start broad, then narrow down based
on responses.
• The interview schedule should evolve based on early interviews.
Conducting the interview
• Focus on Flexibility: Allow natural conversation flow while keeping the
interview on track.
• Build Rapport: Make respondents feel comfortable for open, honest
responses.
• Active Listening: Be open to exploring new topics as they arise.
• Ethical Responsibility: Monitor the respondent's comfort, adjusting the
approach if necessary.
Tape recording the interview
• Advantages: Accurate record, allows focus on conversation.
• Disadvantages: May make some respondents uncomfortable, and
transcription is time-consuming
• Tape-recording requires interpretative analysis, acknowledging its
limitations
Qualitative Analysis
• Approach: Iterative and interpretive, focusing on understanding the
respondent's psychological world.
• Steps:
– Initial Read: Read the transcript to identify key themes.
– Theme Clustering: Group related themes into broader categories.
– Finalizing Themes: Create a master list of themes and examples
from the transcript.
• Levels of Analysis: Explore typologies, theory development,
contradictions, or life histories
Handling Multiple Interviews
• Analyze one transcript at a time, either carrying forward or
creating new themes for each interview. Use coding and
categorization to organize data while maintaining the
connection to individual narratives.
Writing up the Findings
• Introduction: Briefly introduce the research area and theoretical background.
• Methodology: Detail the study's procedures, including interview design and
data analysis.
• Analysis/Results/Discussion: Present themes with verbatim excerpts,
explaining their significance and linking them to existing literature. Results may
be presented sequentially or integrated with discussion.
• Reflection: Acknowledge how your background and interview style influenced
the research. Documenting self-reflection strengthens the study’s transparency
and validity.
Tools for Analysis
• Use CAQDAS software (e.g., NVivo, ATLAS.ti) to organize
and code data, but remember that these tools are aids, not
substitutes for interpretative work.
• Advantages : Consistency across interviews, depth and
detail, flexibility in responses, adaptability, rich quality data.
• Disadvantages : Time consuming, challenging to
analyze, risk of inconsistencies in follow up, required
skilled interviewers, potential for bias.
STRUCTURED BUT OPEN ENDED INTERVIEW
• To avoid the looseness and inconsistency that accompany informally gathered interview
data, the interview session can use a standardised procedure. The interviewer gives pre-set
questions in a predetermined order to every interviewee.
• This keeps the multiplicity of interpersonal variables involved in a two-way conversation to
a minimum and ensures greater consistency in the data gathered.
• The respondent is still free to answer, however, in any way chosen. Questions are open-
ended and, as in most of the other interview types, leading questions are avoided.
Advantages
1. Consistency Across Interviews: The structured format ensures that each interviewee is
asked the same core set of questions, allowing for more straightforward comparison between
candidates or responses.
2. Depth and Detail: Open-ended questions encourage interviewees to provide more
detailed, nuanced answers. This can reveal insights about their thought processes,
experiences, and personalities that closed-ended questions might miss.
3. Flexibility in Responses: The open-ended nature allows interviewees to share unexpected
or additional information, providing a fuller picture of their views or qualifications.
4. Adaptability: Interviewers can ask follow-up questions based on the interviewee's answers,
which makes it possible to explore topics more deeply or clarify ambiguities without
deviating from the core structure.
5. Rich Qualitative Data: The format often results in in-depth qualitative data that can be used
to understand complex issues, attitudes, or motivations more effectively than structured
closed-ended questions.
Disadvantages
1. Time-Consuming: Open-ended responses require more time to answer, which can make
the interview process longer for both interviewers and interviewees.
2. Challenging to Analyze: Open-ended responses generate qualitative data, which can be
harder to quantify and compare systematically. Analyzing such data can be more subjective
and require careful interpretation.
3. Risk of Inconsistencies in Follow-Up: While the core questions are structured, follow-up
questions may vary between interviews. This can lead to slight inconsistencies in data
collection, especially if multiple interviewers are involved.
4. Requires Skilled Interviewers: To make the most of this format, interviewers need to be
skilled at asking probing questions and managing the flow of the conversation, which not all
interviewers may be trained for.
5. Potential for Bias: Open-ended questions give interviewees more freedom in their
responses, which might lead interviewers to interpret answers in a way that aligns with their
own expectations, especially if they unconsciously favor particular types of responses.
STRUCTURED INTERVIEW
A structured interview is described as a type of interview in which the
researcher asks a set of predefined questions in a consistent order. This
type of interview is highly standardized, with little room for deviation or
follow-up questions. The goal is to ensure that every respondent is asked
the same questions in the same way, to improve comparability and
reliability of responses.
Key features of Structured interview
• •Standardization: All respondents are asked the same questions in the
same sequence, minimizing interviewer influence on responses
• • Closed-ended questions: Often, the questions are closed-ended,
meaning they provide fixed response options, which makes data
analysis easier and more systematic.
• • Quantitative focus: Since the responses can be easily coded and
quantified, structured interviews are commonly used in quantitative
research.
• • Control over variables: The structured nature helps control for
variations between interviews, reducing bias and increasing the
reliability of the data.
• • Reduced Bias: One of the advantages of structured interviews is the
reduction in interviewer bias. Since the interviewer is restricted to a set
of questions, personal opinions and influences are less likely to affect
the interview process.
The main advantage of structured interviews is that they produce
consistent, comparable data that can be analyzed statistically. A
structured interview is a highly formalized and standardized
method of collecting data, typically with closed-ended questions,
designed to ensure consistency and comparability of responses
across participants. It is commonly used in quantitative research
and is particularly useful when the researcher seeks to minimize
interviewer bias and ensure reliability.
Limitations with structured interview
1. Characteristics of the Interviewers:
Interviewers’ characteristics, such as race or gender, can influence respondents'
answers, though evidence is mixed.
2. Response Sets:
Some researchers suggest that structured interviews are especially vulnerable to
"response sets," which are consistent but irrelevant response patterns (Webb et
al., 1966).
This issue is particularly significant in multiple-indicator measures like Likert
scales, where respondents might answer a series of related questions in a
uniform way that doesn't actually reflect the concept being assessed.
3. Social Desirability Bias:
The social desirability effect refers to respondents giving answers they perceive
as more socially acceptable.
For instance, Dohrenwend (1966) found that Puerto Ricans in New York scored
higher on mental health inventories, not due to more mental health issues, but
because they viewed certain responses as more acceptable.
4. The problem of meaning:
The core argument is that human communication not only relies on shared
meanings but also actively creates them. Structured interviews assume that
interviewers and respondents interpret terms the same way, yet this is often not
the case. The critique highlights that structured surveys ignore the potential
differences in meaning, essentially bypassing this issue.
INTERVIEW CONTEXT
• In an archetypal interview, an interviewer stands or sits in front of the respondent
asking the latter a series of questions and writing down the answers.
• The archetypal way deviates – More than one interviewer and More than one
interviewee.
1. More than one interviewee
• In the case of group interviews or focus groups, there is more than one, and usually quite
a few more than one, respondent or interviewee. Nor is this the only context in which
more than one person is interviewed.
• In survey interviews it is very advisable to discourage as far as possible the presence and
intrusion of others during the course of the interview.
• Investigations in which more than one person is being interviewed tend to be exercises in
qualitative research, though this is not always the case.
2. More than one interviewer
• This is a very unusual situation in social research, because of the considerable cost that is
involved in dispatching two (or indeed more than two) people to interview someone.
• Bechhofer et al. (1984) describe research in which two people interviewed individuals in a wide range of
occupations.
• However, while their approach achieved a number of benefits for them, their interviewing style was of the
unstructured kind that is typically employed in qualitative research, and they argue that the presence of a
second interviewer is unlikely to achieve any added value in the context of structured interviewing.
In person or by telephone
• Interviews can be conducted in either way- in person interviews or conducting telephone interviews.
Advantages of telephone interviews over in person interviews:
1. Quicker and cheaper to administer- saves time and travelling cost.
2. Telephone interviews are easier to supervise, interviews can be tape recorded to assess the data quality.
3. Remoteness of the interviewer removes the potential source of bias.
• Limitations of telephone interviews:
1. Problem of ex-directory, and people who are not contactable through telephone.
2. Respondents with hearing impairments might find telephone interviews more difficult.
3. Telephone interviews cannot be made very long.
4. Interviewers cannot engage in observations.
5. Difficult to ascertain whether the correct person is replying.
6. Visual aids like diagrams and photographs cannot be used.
Computer Assisted Interviewing
• Mainly used in commercial survey research. There are two main formats:
1. CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing)
2. CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing)
• For telephone interviews CATI is used whereas for Face to Face interview CAPI is preferred.
In computer-assisted interviewing, the questions that comprise an interview schedule appear
on the screen. As interviewers ask each question, they ‘key in’ the appropriate reply using the
keyboard (for open questions) or using a mouse (for closed questions) and proceed to the
next question.
• Advantages:
1. This enhances control over the interview process.
2. Easy to transfer data
• Limitations:
1. Limited visibility on the screen.
2. Miskeying
Mobile phones in such surveys help researchers reach young adults and minorities.
• Limitations:
1. No easily accessible mobile phone user lists.
2. People “hang up”when contacted.
GIVING INFO, ANONYMITY AND
CONFIDENTIALITY (AXIOLOGY)
• The interviewer is to ease the atmosphere by giving full information about the
purpose of the research, for whom it is conducted, what sorts of topics will be
covered, and how confidentiality or anonymity will be maintained.
• An investigator, on an ethical basis should promise anonymity to all participants,
by guaranteeing that a participants’ identity will never be revealed when data is
published.
• The participants have the right to privacy, and procedures should not be
planned that invade this without warning.
RECORDING INTERVIEW
• To not distort the respondents’ answers and consequently introduce error
interviewers should write down respondents’ replies as exactly as possible.
Interviewers have three common ways of saving data: note taking, audio-
recording or visual- recording.
1. Note taking
• Though once the norm to take notes during an interview, the practice is hugely
inefficient and extremely distracting. Hence you may find yourself jotting one or
two things down during an interview but these will usually be as an aid in
remembering what has been missed or where further probing is required later
on.
• The taking of notes will interrupt conversational flow and will almost certainly
distract the participant. They are generally to be avoided.
2. Audio recording
• Many people feel inhibited in the presence of a recording microphone. The
interviewer needs to justify its use in terms of catching the exact terms and
richness of the interviewee’s experiences.
• The interviewee’s informed consent to recording should be gained and
anonymity must again be assured.
• The interviewee has to be free to have the recording switched off at any time.
The recorder has the advantage of leaving the interviewer free to converse
naturally and encourage the greatest flow of information.
3. Video recording
• A ‘live’ video camera in the room may dominate and can hardly help
retain the informal atmosphere that a loosely structured, open-ended
interview is supposed to create. It is possible to acclimatise
interviewees to its presence over a number of sessions, but this is
costly in time.
The great value, is in the recording of non-verbal communication at a
detailed level and the chance to analyse this at a comfortable pace.
• Both video and audio recordings could be conducted unobtrusively by simply
not revealing their presence to the interviewee, but, in this case, serious ethical
issues must be addressed. Two answers to possible dilemmas here are as
follows:
1. Inform the interviewee of the recording process but keep equipment completely
hidden.
2. Give information about the recording only after the interview has taken place,
but emphasise that recordings can be heard or viewed, sections omitted or the
whole recording destroyed at the interviewee’s request. This second option is of
course potentially wasteful and time- Consuming.
Unstructured Interview
• In the structured interview, the questions are predetermined both in content and in form. But
in the case of unstructured interviews, neither the content nor the form of the questions is
predetermined and may vary from one respondent to another.
• The interviewer's only task is to raise the topics that are to be dealt with during the
conversation. Thus, the interviewer might elicit conversation
• . The respondent will be allowed to develop the chosen theme as he wishes and to maintain
the initiative in the conversation
• THE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH INTERVIEW IS NOT SCIENTIFIC, BUT ONLY
REFLECTS COMMON SENSE
• THE QUALITATIVE RESEARCH INTERVIEW Is NOT OBJECTIVE, BUT
SUBJECTIVE
• THE INTERVIEW RESULTS CANNOT BE TRUSTED; THEY ARE BIASED
• THE INTERVIEW FINDINGS ARE NOT RELIABLE; THEY REST UPON LEADING
QUESTIONS
• THE INTERPRETATIONS OF INTERVIEWS ARE NOT INTERSUBJECTIVE;
DIFFERENT INTERPRETERS FIND DIFFERENT MEANINGS
• QUALITATIVE RESEARCH INTERVIEW IS NOT A FORMALISED METHOD; IT
IS TOO PERSON-DEPENDENT
• QUALITATIVE RESEARCH INTERVIEW IS NOT SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESIS-
THESTING; IT IS ONLY EXPLORATIVE
• QUALITATIVE RESEARCH INTERVIEW IS NOT QUANTITATIVE; ONLY
QUALITATIVE
• QUALITATIVE RESEARCH INTERVIEW DOES NOT YEILD GENERALISABLE
RESULTS; THE SUBJECTS ARE TOO FEW
• QUALITATIVE RESEARCH INTERVIEW IS NOT VALID, IT RESTS ON
SUBJECTIVE IMPRESSIONS
THANK YOU!!
Presented by Group 1
.
G R OU P M EM B E RS :
• Divjot PSY/23/3 • Harleen PSY/23/39
• Simarjeet PSY/23/4 • Kanu PSY/23/40
• Niyati PSY/23/8 • Shaminder PSY/23/50
• Hridya PSY/23/10 • Megha PSY/23/57
• Vani PSY/23/12 • Mannat PSY/23/66
• Mitali PSY/23/21 • Manya PSY/23/78
• Tisshya PSY/23/22 • Agrima PSY/23/80
• Vrinda PSY/23/30 • Tazeem PSY/23/81
