The qualitative research interview How to design and conduct an interview Carolina Wannheden (carolina.wannheden@ki.se) Resources Interviews Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing (Kvale, 2009) carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 2 1
Experienced challenges interviewing What challenges may you experience when conducting an interview study? Reflect on and discuss own experiences in your groups carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 3 Experiences Difficult to extract valuable, relevant knowledge Credibility Why am I interviewing, what is the purpose, aim? You have to know what you want to achieve Preparing interview questions How to get to the knowledge you re after Whom to interview How to analyze the data How to record the interview (tape record, notes) How to keep objectivity carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 4 2
Experiences cont. Non-verbal communication How to compare the results of the different interviews How to deal with interruptions How to encourage interviewees to participate Time, location How to start and how to finish carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 5 7 Stages of Interview Inquiry (Kvale, 2009) 1. Thematizing 2. Designing 3. Interviewing 4. Transcribing 5. Analyzing 6. Verifying 7. Reporting Monday (Workshop) Monday (Workshop) Tuesday (In groups) Take notes only! Wednesday (In groups w/ supervision) Wed-/Thursday (In groups) Friday (Submit report) carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 6 3
PREPARATION carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 7 Which data do I need? Why? Research question? Experiences Behavior Attitudes Perceptions Motivations for actions and decisions Whose perspective? Provider, patient, relative Women, men Old, young How? What? Who? When? carolina.wannheden@ki.se * Adapted from qualitative interviews lecture by Birgitta Rubensom 2011-04-11 8 4
Sample Selection Try to get as varied information as possible Purposive sampling Convenience sampling Snow-ball sampling How many informants? 15 +/- 10 (until saturation) It depends on purpose and context!! carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 10 Thematizing & Designing Why Clarifying the purpose of the interview What Obtaining preknowledge of the subject matter to be investigated How Deciding which techniques of interviewing and analyzing to apply in order to obtain the intended knowledge Develop an interview guide Thematizing Designing carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 11 5
INTERVIEWING carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 12 Interviewing Setting the interview stage Briefing Define the situation, describe the purpose, use of recorder etc., confidentiality, informed consent, ask if informant has any questions Interview Address the themes/questions you want to cover Take notes during the interview (it is good to have a second note-taker) Debriefing Ask if informant has anything more to say, experience of the interview, summarize main points Reflecting after the interview Set aside 10 min after interview to take notes on how you experienced the interview Compare notes from the interview carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 13 6
Interviewing Primary task is to get description (What, How) What happened and how did it happen? How did you feel then? What did you do? What did you experience? Explanations (Why) should be postponed towards the end of the interview Many why questions may lead to an overreflected intellectualized interview carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 14 Good Interview Questions A good interview question should contribute thematically to knowledge production and dynamically to promoting good interview interaction (Kvale, 2009) Thematic dimension relates to the What (the knowledge you want to gain) Spontaneous - structured questions depending on purpose Dynamic dimension relates to the How (promote positive interaction) Questions should be easy to understand, short, devoid of academic language carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 15 7
Research + Interview Questions Research Questions (Thematic dimension) Interview Questions (Dynamic dimension) What is your main responsibility in the care of patients? Which clinical decisions are challenging? What kind of decisions do you make? Do you experience any decisions to be more challenging than others? What is challenging about? What makes a decision challenging? Can you describe what information you use when deciding about? How do you get the information you need? carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 16 Types of interview questions (Kvale, 2009) Type of question Introductory questions Follow-up questions Probing questions Specifying questions Example Can you tell me about? ; Do you remember an occasion when? ; What happened in the episode you mentioned? Direct questioning of what has been said, nodding, mm, repeating significant words Could you say something more about that? ; Can you give me a more detailed description of what happened? ; Do you have further examples of this? What did you actually do when you felt a mounting anxiety? ; How did your body react? ; Have you also experienced this yourself? carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 17 8
Types of interview questions cont. (Kvale, 2009) Type of question Direct questions (postpone until later parts of the interview) Indirect Questions Structuring Questions Silence Interpreting Questions Example Have you ever reported a medication error? ; When you mention competition, do you then think of a sportsmanlike or a destructive competition? How do you believe other providers experience the provider-patient relationship? I would now like to introduce another topic: Allow pauses in order to give the informant time to associate and reflect. Let the informants break the pauses themselves You then mean that? ; Is it correct that you feel that? ; Does the expression cover what you have just expressed? carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 18 Interview Guide Briefing What you want to tell the informant before the interview (purpose, duration and structure, informed consent ) Interview The themes you want to cover and questions you want to ask Debriefing Closing remarks (how you will use the results, provide contact information and ask if you may contact the informant in case of further questions & to validate results ) carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 19 9
carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 20 World Café In your groups: Thematizing and Design Formulate the purpose of the interview Formulate your research questions Thematic dimension ( What? ) Rotation 1 Formulate your interview questions Dynamic dimension ( How? ) Rotation 2 Specify what to say during the briefing/debriefing OR Continue with your interview questions carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 21 10
YOUR ASSIGNMENT carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 25 Perform an interview to explore a clinical problem Your groups will interview each other in pairs All group members participate in two interviews with the role of interviewer (I), interview participant (P), notetaker (N), or observer (O) Aim for an interview duration no longer than 60 min I P N O O O O O O O Group A Group B carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 26 11
During the interview The interviewer (I) is responsible for leading the dialogue with the interview participant (P) Use your interview guide to make sure all themes/questions are covered Take notes The note-taker (N) assists in note-taking and making sure everything is covered The observers (O) observe the dynamic aspects of the interview and take notes of that carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 27 Analysis & Verification Take 10 min after each interview to reflect on how the interview went What worked well? What could be done differently? How was the atmosphere? How was the tone (emotional, factual, )? In your own groups, compare and analyze the notes from your interviews and identify challenges/problems and their (possible) causes Use the analysis framework from your Case Studies course After you have completed the analysis, present your results to each other G2G (group to group) and give feedback. Take notes on the feedback you get! carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 28 12
Reporting 1. Description of problem/case 2. Purpose of the interview 3. Ethical considerations 4. Interview guide 5. Thick description Background and preconceived ideas of the interviewer Role, background, experience of the interviewee Interview context (location, duration, other participants (note-taker, observer ), tone (emotional, factual, )) 6. Results (your analysis) 7. Verification (Feedback from peer group) carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 29 WW DD carolina.wannheden@ki.se 2011-04-11 30 13