A Practical Introduction to In-depth Interviewing

Alan Morris

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781446287637, 9781446287293
• eBook ISBN: 9781473926981
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

Are you new to qualitative research or a bit rusty and in need of some inspiration? Are you doing a research project involving in-depth interviews? Are you nervous about carrying out your interviews?

This book will help you complete your qualitative research project by providing a nuts and bolts introduction to interviewing. With coverage of ethics, preparation strategies and advice for handling the unexpected in the field, this handy guide will help you get to grips with the basics of interviewing before embarking on your research. While recognising that your research question and the context of your research will drive your approach to interviewing, this book provides practical advice often skipped in traditional methods textbooks.

Written with the needs of social science students and those new to qualitative research in mind, the book will help you plan, prepare for, carry out and analyse your interviews.    

1 The what and why of in-depth interviewing

In-depth interviewing is the most common qualitative research method. This is not surprising as when it is done well it is a powerful way to gather data. This chapter gives a brief history and definition of the in-depth interview and reviews its advantages and limitations. The question of when to use in-depth interviews is then discussed. The different kinds of in-depth interviews are summarised. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the current debate around the authority of the data obtained from interviews. Chapter headings include:

• A brief history of the interview in social research
• What is an in-depth interview?
• The strengths of in-depth interviews
• The limitations of in-depth interviews
• When to use in-depth interviews
• The different approaches to interviews
• Increasing reflexivity of the interview in the contemporary period

A brief history of the interview in social research

Interviewing as a method to understand our social world has a long history. Probably the first use of interviews in social research was Charles Booth’s seminal study of poverty in London in the 1880s. Much of his data were obtained from interviews he conducted with School Board Visitors (SBVs) in the poverty-stricken East End of London. The job of the SBVs was to keep a record of children in the households to which they had been assigned. When a child failed to attend school, they were expected to visit the household and establish the reasons for non-attendance. This would involve interviewing the parents. Acute poverty meant that school attendance was poor and as a result SBVs over a period of time accumulated an intimate knowledge of the households they were responsible for. Booth conducted hours of interviews with the SBVs in order to acquaint himself with their exhaustive knowledge of the circumstances of the households in question (Bales, 1994). Noteworthy is that Booth refused to interview the actual residents. He walked through the areas under study but did not enter any homes, noting that to do so would be ‘unwarrantable impertinence’ (in Bales, 1994: 345).

In the United States of America, as early as 1924, Emory Bogardus, Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California, wrote that interviewing is ‘one of the important methods now being used in social research …’ and in 1926 he published what is considered to be the first detailed account of in-depth interviewing as a method (Bogardus, 1926). In his seminal 1924 article on interviewing, he lists the various kinds of interviews that were already well established at this time – ‘The physician, the lawyer, the priest, the journalist, the detective, the social worker, the psychiatrist and the psychoanalyst make regular use of it’ (Bogardus, 1924: 456).

In the realm of psychiatry, Sigmund Freud’s (1856–1939) pioneering work on psychoanalysis and the role of the unconscious was based on interviews with his patients over an extended period. Freud used free association – a particular and unusual variant of the interview. Unlike ordinary conversation, free association requires that patients do not censor themselves but instead say whatever comes to mind however unpleasant or embarrassing. This method, Freud argued, allows the analyst to access the unconscious of the patient – ‘the pure metal of valuable unconscious thoughts can be extracted from the raw material of the patient’s associations’ (Freud, 1905: 112).

However, in the social sciences in the first part of the twentieth century there was still a great deal of doubt about using interviews as a method. The interviewing of ordinary citizens was viewed with scepticism. Class prejudice encouraged the perception that ordinary citizens would mislead the interviewer. W.I. Thomas, the joint author of the early classic, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, commented,

Interviews may be regarded as part of personal observation, but the ordinary inhabitant has a singular interest in misleading the outsider and putting a different face on things. (Thomas, 1912: 771–2 in Lee, 2008: 312)

It was only in the late 1930s that the in-depth interview started gaining recognition as an acceptable method in the social sciences (Lee, 2008). In 1939, Pauline V. Young in her book, Scientific Social Surveys and Research, wrote,

The personal interview is penetrating; it goes to the ‘living source.’ Through it the student … is able to go behind mere outward behaviour and phenomena. He [sic] can secure accounts of events and processes as they are reflected in personal experiences, in social attitudes. He can check inferences and external observations by a vital account of the persons who are being observed. (in Platt, 2001: 36)

In the contemporary period, in-depth interviewing is undoubtedly the most used qualitative method (Denzin, 1989; King and Horrocks, 2012). It is now so ubiquitous as a method and a means to understand our social world that social researchers talk about the ‘interview society’ (Atkinson and Silverman, 1997; Gubrium and Holstein, 2001; Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009). Besides being at the core of social research, through television, radio, print media and the internet we are constantly exposed to the interview as a mode of obtaining information and opinions.

What is an in-depth interview?

The semi-structured in-depth interview (I will be focusing on semi-structured in-depth interviews in this book) is similar to a conversation in that there are two individuals discussing a topic of mutual interest and ideally the discussion is relaxed, open and honest (Mason, 1998). In essence, it involves a researcher asking questions and following up on the responses of the interviewee in an endeavour to extract as much information as possible from a person (the interviewee) who has expertise on the topic/s the interviewer is interested in. This expertise is usually premised on the interviewee having direct experience of the topic under review and produces what Kvale and Brinkmann (2009) have called ‘interview knowledge’. The in-depth interview ideally should be a flexible and free-flowing interaction in which the interviewer allows the interviewee a good deal of leeway. However, the interviewer also directs the conversation as discreetly as possible so as to ensure that the interviewee conveys as much relevant information as possible in the time allocated and covers the topics that have been designated by the interviewer as important. Interviewees are able to express themselves in any way they desire. The expectation is that they tell their story in their own words. Unlike a conversation, in a research interview there is far more probing by the interviewer. A probe involves asking interviewees to elaborate or explain an answer. It is an endeavour to obtain more clarity and detail on a particular topic.

The length of interviews varies. Usually an hour appointment is made, but ultimately the time taken depends mainly on the depth of interviewee’s answers, the topic and the skill of the interviewer. Some interviewees will give detailed and elaborate answers and the interviewer does not have to do much besides keep the interview on track. Some topics lend themselves to interviewees giving rich answers. For example, once you have gained their trust, there is little doubt that a person who has endured domestic violence will have a good deal to say. An inexperienced interviewer is less likely to adequately probe than a skilled experienced interviewer and is also more likely to interrupt inappropriately. Probing and the degree to which an interviewer should intervene are discussed in detail in Chapter 6.

Some qualitative researchers argue that one interview with an interviewee is not enough and that in-depth interviewing should involve ‘repeated face-to-face encounters between the researcher and informants …’ (Taylor and Bogdan, 1984: 7). Multiple interviews are almost always done when the research involves a longitudinal study (Grinyer and Thomas, 2012). There are clear advantages to doing multiple interviews (see Earthy and Cronin, 2008) but the disincentive is that it is time-consuming and costly. Also, in many instances interviewees wil...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• 1 The what and why of in-depth interviewing
• 2 Ethics – the need to tread carefully
• 3 Developing the interview guide
• 4 Selecting, finding and accessing research participants
• 5 Preparing for the interview
• 6 Conducting the interview
• 7 Dealing with difficulties and the unexpected
• 8 Transcribing, analysing and writing up the interviews
• Index