I was on the school newspaper and yearbook staff at various times as a student, so I have some experience doing interviews. However, as I observed and participated in research interviews this week, I learned that there is a lot more involved when interviewing for research purposes.
As I observed my professor interviewing one of my peers, I noticed that he was polite and respectful of the person being interviewed. He made sure to thank the participant both before and after the interview. Whatever your reason for conducting an interview, it is important to be respectful of the participants time and effort to take part in the interview. They are giving up something to answer your questions. It is important to make the participant feel comfortable. This requires taking time to ask some general questions and build a rapport with the participant, especially if this is the first meeting. In addition, an interviewer must be respectful to the participant, even if he/she does not agree with the thoughts expressed by the participant. The interview is never about the person doing the interview. The point of the interview is to gather information from the participant, which means they should be doing more talking that the interviewer.
When conducting an interview, it is important to clarify information by asking follow-up questions or restating what the participant said. Although you may already have a list of questions prepared, you have to be willing to deviate from those questions based on responses given by the participant. If the questions are vital to the research, you will want to come back to those questions later.
While practicing my interview skills with a classmate, I noticed that it can be difficult to take notes of everything said by the participant. For that reason, it is important that the interview is recorded. Once the transcript is complete, you can share that with the participant. This allows the participant the opportunity to clarify or elaborate on any topics discussed during the interview. Recording the interview allows you to take notes of physical reactions during the interview as well.
During my practice session, I noticed that my classmate wasn’t very sure of the subject matter we were discussing, even though she selected the topic. I wasn’t sure how to handle that situation. I didn’t want to make my classmate uncomfortable or frustrated. For our practice session, I allowed extra time for her to respond to questions and skipped over some of the more difficult questions on the list. However, in a research setting, I wonder how long I would continue before ending the interview. The same question resurfaced as we looked at coding an interview with a participant who hadn’t used a specific program being researched. How much time do you spend in an interview when it’s clear the participant has no idea what they are talking about?
I learned a lot the last week about conducting interviews, but I think there is still a lot for me to learn. One strategy I have for learning about different research methods is to read studies where the methods have been used. This will help me to better understand the methods and applications as well as how to report on various types of studies. Although I have learned a lot from the textbook, I think reading about real-life applications of research methods will help me better understand the methods and if/when I should apply them to my own research.
