- Interviewing In Qualitative Research Exam Questions Ch.20

Chapter 20 - Interviewing in qualitative research

Test Bank

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 01

01) Which of the following is not a difference between qualitative and quantitative interviewing?

• The interview tends to be much less structured in qualitative research. In quantitative research, the interview is structured to maximize the reliability and validity of measurement of key concepts. It is also more structured because the researcher has a clearly specified set of research questions that the interview is designed to answer. Instead, in qualitative research, there is an emphasis on greater generality in the formulation of questions.

• In qualitative interviewing, there is much greater interest in the interviewee’s point of view; in quantitative research, the interview reflects the researcher’s concerns.

• In qualitative interviewing, interviewers can depart significantly from any schedule or guide that is being used. They can ask new questions that follow up interviewees’ replies and can vary the order of questions or the wording of questions. In quantitative research, none of these things should be done, because they will compromise the standardization of the interview process and hence the reliability and validity of measurement.

• As a result, qualitative interviewing tends to be flexible (see Research in focus 20.1 for an illustration), responding to the direction in which interviewees take the interview and perhaps adjusting the emphases in the research as a result of significant issues that emerge in the course of interviews. By contrast, structured interviews are typically inflexible, because of the need to standardize the way in which each interviewee is dealt with.

a. The approach is less structured in qualitative research

b. The approach is generally less rigorous in qualitative research

c. In qualitative research, rambling or going off-topic is often encouraged

d. Qualitative research tends to be more flexible and sensitive to context

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 02

02) A totally unstructured interview would be considered poor research practice in the social sciences.

a. True

b. False

The almost totally unstructured interview. Here the researcher uses at most an aide-mémoire as a brief set of prompts to him or herself to deal with a certain range of topics. There may be just a single question that the interviewer asks, and the interviewee is then allowed to respond freely, with the interviewer simply responding to points that seem worthy of being followed up. Unstructured interviewing tends to be very similar in character to a conversation (Burgess 1984). Dalton (1959) refers to the importance of ‘conversational interviewing’ as the basis for his data collection strategy. These are not interviews in the usual sense, but a series of broken and incomplete conversations that, when written up, may, according to Dalton, be ‘tied together as one statement’ (1959: 280). Conversational interviews are characterized by being precipitated by events. In some instances, these were prompted by Dalton, who asked managers at the end of an important meeting an open-ended question like ‘How did things go?’, but in others they were simply the result of overheard exchanges in shops or offices. See Research in focus 20.1 for another illustration of an unstructured interview style.

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 03

03) In either an unstructured or semi-structured interview, the interview process is likely to be flexible.

a. True

b. False

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 04

04) What should you not do in the preparation of an interview guide?

• create a certain amount of order on the topic areas, so that your questions about them flow reasonably well, but be prepared to alter the order of questions during the actual interview;
• formulate interview questions or topics in a way that will help you to answer your research questions (but try not to make them too specific);
• try to use a language that is comprehensible and relevant to the people you are interviewing;
• just as in interviewing in quantitative research, do not ask leading questions;
• remember to ensure that you ask or record demographic information of a general kind (name, age, gender, etc.) and a specific kind (position in company, number of years employed, number of years involved in a group, etc.), because such information is useful for contextualizing people’s answers.

a. Create order in the topic areas

b. Develop questions which demonstrate how much you know about the area in questions

c. Ask leading questions

d. Record demographic information of a general kind

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 05

05) Kvale (1996) has proposed 10 criteria of a successful interviewer. Which of the following is not one of them?

1. Knowledgeable: is thoroughly familiar with the focus of the interview; pilot interviews of the kind used in survey interviewing can be useful here.
2. Structuring: gives purpose for interview; rounds it off; asks whether interviewee has questions.
3. Clear: asks simple, easy, short questions; no jargon.
4. Gentle: lets people finish; gives them time to think; tolerates pauses.
5. Sensitive: listens attentively to what is said and how it is said; is empathetic in dealing with the interviewee.
6. Open: responds to what is important to interviewee and is flexible.
7. Steering: knows what he or she wants to find out.
8. Critical: is prepared to challenge what is said—for example, dealing with inconsistencies in interviewees’ replies.
9. Remembering: relates what is said to what has previously been said
10. Interpreting: clarifies and extends meanings of interviewees’ statements, but without imposing meaning on them.

a. Confrontational

b. Gentle

c. Steering

d. Critical

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 06

06) Identify two types of questions, as recommended by Kvale (1996). Please select all that apply.

1. Introducing questions: ‘Please tell me about when your interest in X first began’; ‘Have you ever . . . ?’; ‘Why did you go to . . . ?’
2. Follow-up questions: getting the interviewee to elaborate his or her answer, such as ‘Could you say some more about that?’; ‘What do you mean by that . . . ?’; ‘Can you give me an example . . . ?’; even ‘Yeeees?’
3. Probing questions: following up what has been said through direct questioning.
4. Specifying questions: ‘What did you do then?’; ‘How did X react to what you said?’
5. Direct questions: ‘Do you find it easy to keep smiling when serving customers?’; ‘Are you happy with the amount of on-the-job training you have received?’ Such questions are perhaps best left until towards the end of the interview, in order not to influence the direction of the interview too much.
6. Indirect questions: ‘What do most people round here think of the ways that management treats its staff?’, perhaps followed up by ‘Is that the way you feel too?’, in order to get at the individual’s own view.
7. Structuring questions: ‘I would now like to move onto a different topic.’
8. Silence: allow pauses to signal that you want to give the interviewee the opportunity to reflect and amplify an answer.
9. Interpreting questions: ‘Do you mean that your leadership role has had to change from one of encouraging others to a more directive one?’; ‘Is it fair to say that you don’t mind being friendly towards customers most of the time, but when they are unpleasant or demanding you find it more difficult?’

a. Awkward questions

b. Difficult questions

c. Probing questions

d. Indirect questions

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 07

07) Interviews in the social sciences are rarely transcribed, it takes too long and is cumbersome to do.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 08

08) Telephone interviewing is more commonly used in qualitative research than face-to-face interviewing.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 09

09) In synchronous online interviews, communication takes place in real time so that the questions posed by the researcher are answered more or less immediately by the participant.

a. True

b. False

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 10

10) Which of the following is not an advantage of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) interviewing?

• Skype interviewing is more flexible than face to face interviewing.
• There are obvious time and cost savings as the need to travel is removed
• The convenience of being interviewed by Skype may encourage people to agree to be interviewed.
• There are fewer concerns about the safety of both parties in an interview situation.

a. It is more flexible

b. It reduces time and cost

c. It demonstrates the tech savviness of the researcher to the participant

d. It has no safety concerns for the researcher

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 11

11) Identify two disadvantages of VOIP (Voice over internet protocol) interviewing. Please select all that apply.

There is some evidence that prospective Skype interviewees are more likely than face-to-face interviewees to fail to be present for an interview.

a. Technological problems

b. Cyberbullying

c. Cancellation more likely

d. Data privacy concerns

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 12

12) In a life history interview, the participant discusses the totality of their life experience in a relatively unstructured manner.

a. True

b. False

Type: multiple response question

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 13

13) Which of the following are Plummer’s (2001) distinctions between three types of life story? Please select all that apply.

1. Naturalistic life stories. These are life stories that occur whenever people reminisce or write autobiographies, or when job applicants write out letters of application and are interviewed.
2. Researched life stories. These are life stories that are solicited by researchers with a social scientific purpose in mind. Most research based on life history/story interviews are of this kind.
3. Reflexive and recursive life stories. This recognizes that the life story is always a construction in which the interviewer is implicated. An oral history interview is usually somewhat more specific in tone in that the subject is asked to reflect upon specific events or periods in the past. It too is sometimes combined with other sources, such as documents. The chief problem with the oral history interview (which it shares with the life history interview) is the possibility of bias introduced by memory lapses and distortions (Grele 1998). On the other hand, oral history testimonies have allowed the voices to come through of groups that are typically marginalized in historical research (a point that also applies to life history interviews), either because of their lack of power or because they are typically regarded as unexceptional (Samuel 1976).

a. Naturalistic life stories

b. Imagined life stories

c. Researched life stories

d. Reflexive and recursive life stories

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 14

14) In feminist research, a hierarchical relationship exists between the researcher and the participant

a. True

b. False

• a high level of rapport between interviewer and interviewee;
• a high degree of reciprocity on the part of the interviewer;
• the perspective of the women being interviewed; a non-hierarchical relationship.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 20 - Question 15

15) Which of the following is not an advantage of qualitative interviewing compared to participant observation?

It is likely that there is a wide range of issues that are simply not amenable to observation, so that asking people about them represents the only viable means of finding out about them within a qualitative research strategy. For example, in Emma Bell’s (2001) research on payment systems in the chemical industry, it was not really possible to explore the systems and rules whereby payments were made by observing shopfloor practices, although the latter was very useful in gaining an understanding of the cultural context in which payment systems were located. For most workers, payment is an issue that sur- faces through consideration of issues that relate to the ‘effort-bargain’, and this understanding was more readily accessed through interviews.

Reconstruction of events

Qualitative research frequently entails the reconstruction of events by asking interviewees to think back over how a certain series of events unfolded in relation to a current situation. An example is Pettigrew’s (1985) research on ICI, which entailed interviewing about contemporaneous events but also included ‘retrospective interviewing’, as Pettigrew defines it (see Research in focus 3.16). This reconstruction of events is something that cannot be accomplished through participant observation alone.

Ethical considerations

There are certain areas that could be observed—albeit indirectly through hidden hardware such as a microphone—but to do so would raise ethical considerations. For example, Ditton (1977) never disclosed to his fellow workers in the bakery that he was interested in pilferage, although he did seek to protect their anonymity by omitting names and changing other irrelevant facts in the published study. He goes on to claim that he could not have disclosed his interest in pilferage, partly because he did not decide to concentrate on this subject until sometime after the conclusion of the study. How- ever, in this case, participant observation does raise ethical issues relating to the observation of criminal activity and the extent to which the researcher actively participates in it.

Reactive effects

The question of reactive effects is by no means a straight- forward matter. As with structured observation (see Chapter 12), it might be anticipated that the presence of a participant observer would result in reactive effects (see Key concept 12.8). People’s knowledge of the fact that they are being observed may make them behave less naturally. However, participant observers, like researchers using structured observation, typically find that people become accustomed to their presence and begin to be- have more naturally the longer they are around. Indeed, members of social settings sometimes express surprise when participant observers announce their imminent departure when they are on the verge of disengagement. Interviewers clearly do not suffer from the same kind of problem, but it could be argued that the unnatural character of the interview encounter can also be regarded as a context within which reactive effects may emerge. Participant observation also suffers from the related problem of observers disturbing the very situation being studied, because conversations and interactions will occur in conjunction with the observer that otherwise would not hap- pen. This is by no means an easy issue to resolve and it seems likely that both participant observation and qualitative interviewing set in motion reactive effects but of different kinds.

Less intrusive in people’s lives

Participant observation can be very intrusive in people’s lives in that the observer is likely to take up a lot more of their time than in an interview. Interviews in qualitative research can sometimes be very long and re-interviewing is not uncommon, but the impact on people’s time will probably be less than having to take observers into account on a regular basis, though it is likely that this feature will vary from situation to situation. Participant observation is likely to be especially intrusive in terms of the amount of people’s time taken up when it is in organizational settings. In work organizations, there is a risk that the rhythms of work lives will be disrupted.

Longitudinal research easier

One of the advantages of participant observation is that it is inherently longitudinal in character, because the observer is present in a social setting for a period of time. As a result, change and connections between events can be observed. However, there are limits to the amount of time that participant observers can devote to being away from their normal routines. Consequently, participant observation does not usually extend much beyond two to three years in duration. When participant observation is being conducted into an area of research that is episodic rather than requiring continued observation, a longer time period may be feasible. Pettigrew’s (1985) research at ICI combined interviewing in late 1975, 1976, and early 1977, the latter parts of 1980 and early 1981, and again in 1982, with his interventions into the company as a consultant. During that period 134 people were interviewed from the ICI corporate headquarters and the four divisions under study. Several of these individuals were interviewed more than once, and the total number of research interviews amounted to 175. Kanter (1977) employed a similar strategy combining consultant activity with research over a five-year period. Research in focus 20.8 gives an example of a longitudinal telephone interview study that, although it took place over a shorter six-month time period, traced a period of dramatic change following the closure of a car plant that marked the loss of the last remaining British-owned car manufacturer. In summary, interviewing can be carried out within a longitudinal research design somewhat more easily, because repeat interviews may be easier to organize than repeat visits to participant observers’ research settings, though the latter is not impossible. Following up interviewees on several occasions is likely to be easier than returning to research sites on a regular basis.

Greater breadth of coverage

In participant observation, the researcher is invariably constrained in his or her interactions and observations to a fairly restricted range of people, incidents, and localities. Participant observation in a large organization, for example, is likely to mean that knowledge of that organization beyond the confines of the department or section in which the observation is carried out is not likely to be very extensive. Interviewing can allow access to a wider variety of people and situations.

Specific focus

As noted in Chapter 17, qualitative research sometimes begins with a specific focus, and indeed Silverman (1993) has been critical of the notion that it should be regarded as an open-ended form of research. Qualitative interviewing would seem to be better suited to such a situation, since the interview can be directed at that focus and its associated research questions. Thus, the research by Bryman and his colleagues on the police had a very specific research focus in line with its Home Office funding— namely, conceptions of leadership among police officers (Bryman, Stephens, and A Campo 1996). The bulk of the data gathering was in two police forces and entailed the interviewing of police officers at all levels using a semi- structured interview guide. As it had such a clear focus, it was more appropriate to conduct the research by inter- view rather than participant observation, since issues to

a. Research issues resistant to observation

b. More ecological validity

c. Less intrusive

d. Specific focus