*HOMEWORK:

Interview Schedule

Sequencing of Questions:

Funneling—start with broad, general, easy questions and work toward the more specific, narrow, and/or difficult ones.

• Open-ended (especially if sensitive topics or difficult question) should be placed late in interview
• Easy-to-answer questions should be asked first (facts, demographics [arguable]) rather than feelings, opinions, or beliefs).
• Questions with answers that may guide should be early in interview
• Questions should be asked in logical order (time sequencing, cover completely before moving to next question or topic)
• Avoid creating a response set (i.e., if answering in a particular order influences the participant and doesn’t accurately reflect the question or the interviewees accurate answers). E.g. from our class… Do you think most people love their mothers… followed by, do you love your mother? Another example is salary next to job. How do you reduce the likelihood of response sets? By changing the order or format of the questions and/or answers.
• Reliability-Question pairs should be asked. This is a procedure where the researcher asks two questions, one phrased positively and the other negatively. Do this to check the reliability of the research (definition of reliability: consistency of measurement) (definition of validity: test measures what is says it’s measuring).

Determining the Format of Interview Items:

• Vary the interview: ask different types of questions with varying length and type of anticipated responses. Use responses with various times, facts, beliefs, opinion and experiences.
• What’s the difference between open and close-ended questions? Close ended have predetermined range of answers: gender, age, yes/no, true/false, do you get along with your teacher, etc.—An open-ended question allows for any answer… What’s you’re relationship with your teacher like?
• Probes: semi-structured interview uses probes— a probe is a follow-up question
  • Repeat the question: when interviewee hesitates or doesn’t seem to understand the question
  • Repeat the answer: neutral. Ensure recording is accurate, allows the interviewee time to think and expand on the idea
  • Indicating understanding and interest: researcher indicates that he/she heard the answer allowing interviewee to elaborate
  • Pausing: Researcher pauses indicating an incomplete answer. The interviewee has begun to answer the question and the researcher is waiting for the rest of the answer.
  • Neutral Question or Comment: How do you mean that? Tell me more? Please continue?
• How do you select people to interview?
• Who is the most reasonably qualified to be the interviewer? (training)
• Who is the population being interviewed? And how does that matter?
• What is the content of the interview
• What are the resources to conduct the interview? ($, Time, Staff, Materials, Administrative Support)
• Who can provide appropriate supervision and expertise?

Matching Interviewer and Interviewee Characteristics:

• Don’t often have luxury of being able to match interviewer and interviewee characteristics
• Be care of over-identifying with your interviewee

Access to Interviewees:

• Follow the proper chain of command to get permission
• Get consent from the organization, agency, etc.
• Gain cooperation from potential research participants (convince them the research and their participation is important, and the study is legitimate Give them your researcher affiliation (school, company, etc.) and endorsement; and show the potential interviewees that the study and results will be of interest to them (What ever you promise, offer, say, be sure to do it!!!) 

Where to Conduct the Interview:

• Researchers office (most economical, most control over environment; interviewee feels more vulnerable, interviewee may not show up, formality can be intimidating or inconvenient)
• Interviewee’s homes (may be more relaxed, more naturally, more likely to be attend than when in the office; costly (no shows), privacy limited, environment not conducive or safe)
• Neutral settings: (public setting, may feel most safe for researcher and client; but less privacy)

How Should the Interviewers Look? (Dress, grooming, officially, neutrally). Dressing too far up looks like you’re ‘above’ them and too far down looks unprofessional. Act professionally. Have your language reflect the level of understanding of the interviewee, but don’t adopt a new slang or style to try to be like them; don’t talk down to them, including children. Be yourself and be as neutral and professional yet inviting as you can. Do be aware of any major potential barriers (socio-cultural) and plan for them accordingly.

Developing the Relationship:

Give the purpose and limitations of interviewer’s contract; be trustworthy, positive toward the population, friendly, courteous, and kind while focusing on the goals of the interview. You have no personal interest in their response (don’t care what the response is... and be aware of bias!).

Remember, you have different relationships and roles. Be guided by social work values and ethics. Interviewee has right to refuse the study and refuse to answer any questions. NOT interviewing to help a client or client’s system, but you ARE trying to obtain data about and from a particular population. Think of the interviewing in direct practice as for the interviewee (or client), while the research interview is for you, the interviewer. Interviewer empathy, warmth, and/or distance with the interviewee may influence interviewee, so be careful. Try to be as neutral and un-bias as possible. It is unethical to start pseudo-therapeutic relationship.

Formulating and Asking Questions:

• Keep the language simple
• Avoid double-barreled questions: 2 questions at once, question starts with statement of alleged fact that is the premise on which the question is based (e.g. I’m sure you dislike the class, how did you motivate yourself in the class—the interviewee may not have disliked the class). Other double-barreled questions are built on hidden premises (e.g., when did you become a drug addict?—assumes the interviewee would agree that he/she’s a drug addict)
• Avoid Double-Negative Questions: double negatives imply a positive and that can be confusing.
• Discourage biased responses: let interviewee know there’s a wide range of answers; ask them to answer truthfully even if the answer is difficult, embarrassing, or different from social norms. Provide a wide range of answer options in different orders. (After setting up the question about bar patronage you say “you go to the bar, once a month, once a year, twice a day…”)
• Avoid Interviewer Bias: Interviewees feel interview is a test, may want to please you, or they may want your opinion before they respond. You may bias by phrasing of questions, expressions, body language, tone of voice, etc. Ask questions consistently.
• Reinforce Interviewees Answers:  How do you show appreciation for cooperation and honesty? Make comments that don’t evaluate the response, but rather recognize the answers completeness or level of detail.

Recording the data:

• Accurately reflect the interviewee’s intent, not the exact words.
• Unobtrusive as possible: the recording doesn’t affect the flow of the interview, doesn’t distract interviewee from giving a complete answer, and promotes open honest answers.
• Securely facilitate the sending of data from the recording instrument to the data bank or central location.

• Hand written recording (note taking) is important for semi-structured and unstructured interviews. Write quotes verbatim only if they’re important or to make illustrations—in the text it would say… “To further illustrate the students dissatisfaction with the school’s lunch services, one 8^th grade boy stated, ‘yesterday, the chicken was undercooked; it was still pink and slimy in the middle’.”  Don’t be afraid to ask them for a second or excuse yourself for having to write. Develop a coding procedure to make data collection as complete yet quick as possible.
• Recording devises: use only when appropriate. You must be able to answer the question: Do I really need it and why do I need it? Make sure the interviewee is aware of recording before the interview. Many places such as offices, schools, companies, etc. have guidelines on audio and visual recording—check through the chain of command if it’s allowed. Keep copies all of your data and protect it! The point is save things in multiple places (save raw data, on computer hard drive, flashdrive or floppy disk, and paper,). Be aware that machines break so always have back up data folders and a back up plan. Imagine loosing all the data from the 30 surveys or interviews... Also, transcription takes a lot of time. Transcribing from a recording is time consuming and you can over-rely on the electronic device and miss or lose data.

Conduct your interviews as if they’ll be evaluated by someone trying to determine the quality, accuracy, depth and relevance of the data you collected.