Intensive Interview Essay

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Crafting and Conducting Intensive Interviews Types of Interviews Qualitative Research: Using informational, intensive, and investigative interviewing strategies • Informational: Gathering accurate facts and responses for demographic questions and detailed description of events with focus on chronology, places, and people involved. Usually used for people with an objectivist cast • Intensive Interviewing: A gently-guided, and one-sided conversation in order to gather the personal experiences of the research participants in relation to the research topic. The research topic can be broad (history of people during the Cold War) or focused (local elementary school teachers’ views on policies) • Investigative: Focus on finding hidden actions and …show more content…

Doing so will comfort your interviewee and guide the conversation easier • Learn any slang or definitions when needed (for example, prisoners use different words when talking about other inmates). Don’t assume they refer to themselves using the same terms that you would use • Practice interviews for emotionally heavy topics before so you don’t feel emotional during the interview Constructing Your Interview Guide • There are many institutional review boards (IRB) that require a submission of an interview guide before you can conduct an interview • It’s recommended that you write down the topics you intend to talk about and as many questions as you can think of when preparing your guide. The more prepared you are, the more likely you’ll get approved. As well, you’ll be better prepared for the actual …show more content…

Instead, ask how it felt (example, how did you feel when they behaved in anger?) or what it means to them (example, what does suffering mean to you?) Constructivist Grounded Theory Interviews • A big focus is on how interviewers and participants use language and form and meanings • This focus can allow you to insert new questions to gain more meaning (example, asking what having a heart attack on a holiday meant to them) • When the participant makes reference to a generalized term, probe them for more details (example, if they mention that they are having a good day, ask them what a good day is for them) • Try not to leave any open meanings. Ask questions to gain more details • How, what, and when questions lead to huge amounts of data, so asking for more details can be

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