"The, book will have- an immediate amlwery

wide audience. It is a marvelous statement, Steinar Kvale

very synthetic, very accessible, and so nicely
interpretive. ”
—Norman K. Denzin, University-ofIllinois,
Urbana-Champaign

Interviewing is an essential tool in the

repertoire of the qualitative researcher, and
yet the intricate relationship between the
“hows” and the “whys” of the interview
process is not always easily understood.
Steinar Kvale’s Interviews provides both
Interviews
theoretical underpinnings and practical
aspects of the interview process. After
examining the role of the interview in the
research process, Kvale considers some of
the key philosophical issues relating to
interviewing: the interview as conversation,
hermeneutics, phenomenology, concerns f
f !
about ethics as well as validity, and post­
modernism. Having laid out the framework, [L if'- '»mT 1
the author takes the reader through the
seven stages of the interviewing process,
from designing a study to writing it up.

Fundamental and essential, Interviews is

written for students and professionals in
qualitative and research methods,
psychology, education research, nursing,
social work, counseling, family studies,
gerontology, evaluation, sociology, and
anthropology.

ISBN 0-8039-5819-6 hardcover

ISBN 0-8039-5820-X paperback

Visit our website at www.sagepub.oom

 SteinarKvale
#
#

InteiViews
I

Ail Introduction
to Qualitative
Research
Interviewing

/ Ä \ S A G E Publications
I jL I International Educational and Professional Publisher
/ Thousand Oaks London New Delhi
C o p y rig h t © 1996 by Sage Publications, Inc.

A ll rights reserved. N o part o f this b o o k may be repro d uced or u tilize d in

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P rinted in the U nited States o f A m erica

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List of Boxes, Figures, and Tables xi
Kvale, Stcinar, 1938-
InterViews: An in tro d u c tio n to q ualitative research interv iew ing / Acknowledgments x jjj
a u tho r, Steinar Kvale. Preface xv
p. cm.
“ O rig in ally published by Stu d en tlitte ratu r. © Steinar Kvale and
S tudentlitteratur, L u nd , Sweden, 19 94”— Verso t.p. PART I: Introduction \
Includes bib lio g rap hical references and index.
ISBN 0-8039-5819-6 (cloth: acid-free paper). — 1. Interviewing as Research 3
ISBN 0-8039-5820-X (pbk.: acid-free papr). The Interviewer as a M iner or as a Traveler 3
1. Interview ing in sociology. 2. Interview ing. 3. So cio lo gy—
Research— M e th od o lo g y . I. Title. Conversation as Research 5
H M 4 8 .K 9 1996 Interview Research in the Social Sciences 8
3 0 1 '.0 1 — dc2 95-50205
Theoretical Issues ]()
T his b o o k is printed on acid-free paper. M ethodological Issues \2
Overview of the Book 13
01 10 9 I

PART II: Conceptualizing the Research Interview 17

Sage P ro d u ctio n Editor: A strid V ird in g
Sage Typesetter: Janelle LeM aster 2. The Interview as a Conversation 19
Knowledge as Conversation 19
 Socrates’ Philosophical Dialogue on Love 21 Designing 98
A Therapeutic Interview on I late 24 The Temporal Dimension 99
A Research Interview on Learning 27 Interview Forms 101
The Mode of Understanding in llu: Qualitative H ow Many Interview Subjects D o I Need? 101
Research Interview 29 Resources Available 103
Interviews in Three Conversations 36 W hen N ot to Interview 104

3. Postmodern Thought, Hermeneutics, From M ethod to Craftsmanship 105

Phenomenology, and Dialectics 38
6 . Ethical Issues in Interview Inquiries 109
Postmodern Construction 41
Ethical Issues at Seven Research Stages 110
Hermeneutical Interpretation 46
Ethical Guidelines 110
Phenomenological Description 52
Ethical Codes 110
Dialectical Situating 55
Informed Consent 112
Philosophy and Interviews 57
Confidentiality 114
4. Qualitative Research in Science and in Practice 59 Consequences 116
The Scientific Status of the Interview 59 The Role of the Researcher 1 17
Positivism 61 Ethical Issues at the Start of a Study 118
Objectivity in Qualitative Research 64 Ethical Theories 120
Qualitative and Quantitative Research 66
7. The Interview Situation 124
Qualitative Market Research 70
T he Interview Conversation 124
Feminism and Qualitative Research 72
Framing the Interview 127
Psychoanalytical Knowledge Production 74
The Interview Guide 129
Psychoanalysis as a Research M ethod 74
Interview Questions 131
Therapeutic Research Between Scylla and Charybdis 79
An Interview About Grades 136

P A RT III: The Seven Stages of an Interview 8. The Q uality of the Interview 144
Investigation 81 Interview Q uality 144

5. Thematizing and Designing an Interview Study 83 The Interview Subject 146

Interviewer Qualifications 147
Openness and Emotions in Interview Studies 83
H am let’s Interview 151
The Seven Stages of Interview Research 87
The Ethics of Interviewing 153
Interviews About Grades 89
Thematizing 94 Leading Questions 157

Content 95 9. From Speech to Text 160

Purpose 97 Recording Interviews 160
 Transcription Reliability and Validity 163 Production of an Invalid Understanding 221
Oral and W ritten Language I 166 The Consequences of an Invalid Understanding 222
Transcribing Interviews 168 Questions Put to Texts 223
Com puter Tools for Interview Analysis ! 173 The Quest for “The Real M eaning” 225

10. The 1,000-Page Question 176 13. The Social Construction of Validity 229
Dismiss or Interpret the 1,000-Page Question? 176 The Trinity of Generalizability, Reliability, and Validity 229
W hat Does the 1,000-Page Question M ean? 177 Generalizability 231
“ Have”— Too Late! 177 Reliability and Validity of Interviews 235
“ 1,000 Pages”— Too M uch! 178 Validity in Modern and Postmodern Contexts 236
“H o w ”— Ask “W h a t” and “W h y ” First 179 Validity as Quality of Craftsmanship 241
“M e thod” Versus Knowledge 180 Com municative Validity 244
“Transcripts”— Beware! 182 Pragmatic Validity 248
“Collected” Versus Coauthored 183 Validity of the Validity Question 251
“Analyze” Versus Narrate 184
14. Im proving Interview Reports 253
M ethod of Analysis 185
Boring Interview Reports 253
11. Methods of Analysis 187 Investigating W ith the Final Report in M ind 256
Steps o f Analysis 187 W riting for the Readers 2.58
Approaches to Interview Analysis 188 Ethics of Reporting 259
M eaning Condensation 193 Im proving Standard Modes of Reporting 262
M eaning Categorization l ^6 Standard Structure of a Report 262
M eaning Structuring Through Narratives 199 M ethod 262
M eaning Interpretation 201 Results 262
Ad H oc M eaning Generation 203 W riting as Social Construction 268
Issues of Analysis 204 Enriching Interview Reports 271
Control of Analysis 207 Journalistic Interviews 271

12. The Plurality of Interpretations 210 Dialogues 272

The Primacy of the Question 210 Therapeutic Case Histories 273

Questions Posed to an Interview Text 213 Narratives 274

T hree Contexts of Interpretation 213 Metaphors 274

Three Com m unities of Validation 217 Visualizing 275

Interpretation of Content or of Person 218 Modes of Presentation in the Present Book 276

L
P A RT IV : Conclusion 277

15. Conversations A bout Interviews 279

Reception of Interview Studies 279
Ten Standard Objections to Interview Research 28 1
Internal Critiques of Interview Research 291
Conversations About Conversations 295

References 299

Author Index 307

List of Boxes,
Subject Index 311
Figures, and Tables
About the Author 326

Boxes

Box 2.1. Aspects o f Qualitative Research Interviews 30

Box 3.1. Literature on Philosophies Pertaining to
Interview Research 39
Box 3.2. Hermeneutical Canons of Interpretation 48
Box 4.1. The Psychoanalytical Research Interview 75
Box 5.1. Emotional Dynamics o f an Interview Study 85
Box 5.2. Seven Stages o f an Interview Investigation 88
Box 5.3. Literature on Qualitative Research 90
Box 6.1. Ethical Issues of the Seven Research Stages 1 11
Box 6.2. Ethical Questions at the Start of an Interview Study 119
Box 7.1. Types of Interview Questions 133
Box 8.1. Q uality Criteria for an Interview 145
Box 8.2. Q ualification Criteria for the Interviewer 148

XI
xii In te r v ie w s

Box 11.1. Six Steps of Analysis 189

Box 13.1. Validation at Seven Stages 237
Box 14.1. Investigating W ith the Final Report in M in d 257
Box 14.2. Structuring an Interview Report 263
Box 14.3. Reader Questions About Methods 264
Box 14.4. Guidelines for Reporting Interview Quotes 266
Box 15.1. Sex, Violence, Religion, Feminism, and Interviews 282
Box 15.2. Ten Standard Reactions to Qualitative Interviews 284
Box 15.3. 'Ten Internal Critiques of Interview Research 292

Acknowledgments
Figures

Figure 1.1. The Research Interview Seen as Interviews 15

Figure 11.1. Five Approaches to Interview Analysis 191

Figure 11.2. Dimensions and Categories of the Grading

Perspective 197

Figure 11.3.. Influence of Grades on Pupil’s Relationship to

Teacher 198

Figure 15.1 . Knowledge Construction Through the Earlier versions of parts of the present book have been published in
Interview and the Research Conversation 280 the follow ing journals and books:

Kvale, S. (1983a). The qualitative research interview— A phenomenological and a

T ables
hermeneutical mode o f understanding. Journal o f Phenomenological Psychology,
14, 171-196. [Reprinted from: Kvale, S. (1979). Dct kvalitative forskningsinter-
Table 5.1. From Interview Statements to Questionnaire view— Ansatser til en f.-cnomcnologisk-hcrmeneutisk forstSelsesform. In T. Broch,
Items 94 K. Krarup, P. K. I.arsen, &: (). Rieper (lids.), Kvalitative metoder i dansk saw -
fundsforskning (pp. 160-185). Kobenhavn: Nyt fra Samfundsvidenskaberne.I
Table 7.1. Research Questions and Interview Questions 131
Kvale, S. (1983b). The quantification of knowledge in education: O n resistance toward
Table 9.1. Two Transcriptions of the Same Interview qualitative evaluation and research. In B. Bain (Ed.), The sociogenesis of language
Passage 164 and human conduct (pp. 433-447). New York: Plenum.

Table 9.2. Two Transcriptions of Leona’s Story of Kvale, S. (1986). Psychoanalytic therapy as qualitative research. In P. Ashworth,
Her Puppy 165 A. G iorgi, & A. de Koning (Eds.), Qualitative research in psychology (pp. 155-
184). Pittsburgh: Duqucsne University Press.
Table 11.1. The Natural M eaning Units and Their Central
195 Kvale, S. (1987). Interpretation of the qualitative research interview. In B. M ook,
Thetnes
F. Wertz, & F. van Zuurcn (Kds.), Advances in qualitative psychology (pp. 25-40).
Table 11.2. Essential Description of Style o f 1 earning 196 I.issc, The Netherlands: Swets 6c Zeitlinger.

Table 12.1. Contexts of Interpretation and Com m unities Kvale, S. (1988). The 1000 page question. Phenomenology 4- Pedagogy, 6, 90-106.
of Validation 214
XIV I ntervi ews

Kvale, S. (1 9 89 ). T he prim acy o f the interview . Methods, N o . 1, pp . 3-37.

Kvale, S. (19 89 ). T o validate is to question. In S. Kvale (Lid.), Issues of validity in

qualitative research (p p. 73-92). L u n d , Sw eden: S tndentlitteratnr.

Kvale, S. (1 994). T en standard objections to qualitative research interview s. Journal of

Phenomenological Psychology* 25, 147-173.

Kvale, S. (1 995). T he social construction of validity. Qualitative hnjitiry, /, 19-40.

The topics of these articles and chapters arc, with the exception of
those from 1986 and 1995, treated more extensively in this book.

Preface

This hook has two purposes. First, it provides new interview re­
searchers with practical guidelines for “how to do” research inter­
views. Second, it suggests— for novice and experienced interview
researchers alike— conceptual frames of reference for “how to think
about” interview research.
l'lte book arose from my own use of interviews in a study on the
educational effects o f grading in Denmark in 1978. The experiences
with what was then a new form of research instigated reflection on
methodical and theoretical issues. At that time, there was an awaken­
ing interest in qualitative research, which led to lectures and courses
on qualitative methods, which led again to a Center o f Qualitative
Research at the Institute o f Psychology in Aarhus— as well as courses
elsewhere, in particular at the University o f Oslo and the Saybrook
Institute in San Francisco.
There was little literature on interview research in the early 1y80s,
and a demand for writings on the topic resulted in several articles and
book chapters (see the Acknowledgments). They originated as prepa­
rations for research qourses and were further developed in dialogues
xvi Intervi ews Preface xvi i

with the participating students. The students’ insightful comments, the journal articles and the book; and to Kristin Bergstad w ho has
and their often difficult questions, stimulated and contributed signifi­ worked to transform my Norwegian-Danish English into readable
cantly to the present work. These earlier articles and chapters have English.
now been rewritten and extended as the present book. Interviews arc conversations where the outcome is a coproduction
I am indebted to Scandinavian co-teachers and organizers in the . of the interviewer and the subject. This book is the result of the variety
qualitative research courses, such as Erie Bryn, Jette Fog, and Tove o f conversations about interview conversations with the persons men­
Arendt Rasmussen; colleagues in the Danish network of qualitative tioned above. They do not, however, share all of the views presented
research Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Grethe Skylv, and Jan Helge Larsen, and here. I am thankful for their significant contributions to the present
Biorn Hasselgren at the N ordic courses. By teaching together with book.
quantitative researchers such as Finn Tschudi, Bo Som m erlund, and
Ole Steen Kristensen—-the first two arc mathematicians— I learned — Steinar Kvale
that quantitative research need not be understood in a positivist frame
and to regard the qualitative versus quantitative controversy as a
pseudo-issue.
In the mid-1980s there was a marked increase in public investment
in Ph.D. education in Denmark. This included the financing of courses
on qualitative methods by the Danish Research Council for the Social
Sciences, the Danish Research Academy, and N ordic Research
Courses. The financial support made it possible to invite foreign
scholars to promote and inspire qualitative research in Denmark,
including the present work. These guests include H ubert Dreyfus,
Stuart Dreyfus, Elliot Eisner, Regi Enerstvedt, K. Anders Ericson,
Amedeo Giorgi, Ken Gcrgcn, M ary Gergen, David Goode, Hanne
Haavind, Patti Lather, Jean Lave, Lasse L 0 vlie, Ference M arton, Elliot
Mishler, M artin Packer, Bryan Pfaffenberger, Donald Polkinghorne,
Marcia Salner, Renata Tcsch, Finn Tschudi, and John Van M aanen.
For critical readings of the manuscript I am indebted to lllln
B0 wadt, H enrik Brogaard, Marsha Flam mond, M ary Ann M cG uire,
Klaus Nielsen, Tone Saugstad, and Carsten 0sterlund. Knud-Erik
Sabroe has kindly provided the example o f the ethical com plaint re­
ported in Chapter 6. M itch Allen at Sage has encouraged the book
project and given valuable comments, and Peter Labella has helpfully
kept the manuscript on track during final editing. I am further in­
debted to David M organ, Lynn Schlesinger, and an anonym ous re­
viewer for their suggestions for improving the manuscript.
I am grateful to Birgit W enzel, w ho assisted by com piling the
literature used in the book; to Annie Dolmer Kristensen and Lone
Hansen, who have patiently written and edited the many versions of
 PART

Introducti on

If you want to know how people understand their world and their life,
why not talk with them? In an interview conversation, the researcher
listens to what people themselves tell about their lived world, hears
them express their views and opinions in their own words, learns
about their views on their work situation and family life, their dreams
and hopes. The qualitative research interview attempts to understand
the w orld from the subjects’ points o f view, to unfold the meaning of
peoples’ experiences, toluncover their lived world prior to scientific
explanations.
2 In te r v ie w s
*

The qualitative research interview is a construction site of know l­

edge. An interview is literally an interview, an inter change o f views
between two persons conversing about a theme of mutual: interest.
This book attempts to lay o u t the richness and the scope o f qualitative
interviews in social science research. It tries to link methods of— and
ideas about— interviews, continually drawing attention to the inter­
play of practical and theoretical issues of interview research.

Interviewing as Research
In this chapter I first present two alternative metaphors for the
research interviewer’s role— as a miner or as a traveler. I then turn to
the interview as a conversation and give a few examples before
addressing the position o f qualitative interviews in social science
research. Thereafter some theoretical and methodological issues
raised by employing interviews as a research method are introduced.
The chapter concludes with a model of interviews as literally inter
views, followed by an overview of the book’s chapters.

T he Interview er as a M in e r or as a T raveler

T w o contrasting metaphors of the interviewer— as a miner or as a

traveler— can illustrate the implications of different theoretical under­
standings of interview research.
In the miner metaphor, knowledge is understood as buried metal
and the interviewer is a miner who unearths the valuable metal. Some
miners seek objective facts to be quantified, others seek nuggets of
essential meaning. In both conceptions the knowledge is waiting in
the subjects’ interior to be uncovered, uncontaminated by the miner.
The interviewer digs nuggets of data or meanings out of a subject’s
pure experiences, unpolluted by any leading questions. The interview
researcher strips the surface of conscious experiences, the therapeutic
interviewer mines the deeper unconscious layers. The precious facts
and meanings are purified by transcribing them from the oral to the

3
4 I nterViews Interviewing as Research 5

written mode. The knowledge nuggets remain constant through the pertains to a transformative conversation that is “ the result of an
transformations of appearances on the conveyor belt from the oral encounter with an author, character, plot, stanza, line, or archaic torso
stage to the written storage. By analysis, the objective facts and the which has made a difference to the critic’s conception of who she is,
essential meanings are drawn out by various techniques and molded what she is good for, what she wants to do with herself; an encounter
into their definitive form. Finally the value of the end product, its which has re-arranged her priorities and purposes” (p. 107).
degree of purity, is determined by correlating it with an objective, The two metaphors— of the interviewer as a miner or as a traveler—
external, real world or to a realm of subjective, inner, authentic represent different concepts of knowledge form ation. Each metaphor
experiences. stands for alternative genres and has different rules of the game. In a
The alternative traveler metaphor understands the interviewer as a broad sense, the miner metaphor pictures a com m on understanding
traveler on a journey that leads to a tale to be told upon returning in modern social sciences of knowledge as “given.” The traveler
home. The interviewer-traveler wanders through the landscape and metaphor refers to a postmodern constructive understanding that
enters into conversations with the people encountered. The traveler involves a conversational approach to social research. The miner
explores the many domains of the country, as unknow n territory or metaphor brings interviews into the vicinity of hum an engineering;
w ith maps, roaming freely around the territory. The traveler may also the traveler metaphor into the vicinity of the humanities and art.
deliberately seek specific sites or topics by following a method, with
the original Greek meaning of “a route that leads to the goal.” The
interviewer wanders along with the local inhabitants, asks questions C o n v e rs a tio n as Research
that lead the subjects to tell their own stories of their lived world, and
converses with them in the original Latin meaning of conversation as Conversation is a basic mode of human interaction. H um an beings
“wandering together w ith.” talk with each other— they interact, pose questions, and answer ques­
W hat the traveling reporter hears and sees is described qualitatively tions. Through conversations we get to know other people, get to
and is reconstructed as stories to be told to the people of the inter­ learn about their experiences, feelings, and hopes and the w orld they
viewer’s own country, and possibly also to those with w hom the live in.
interviewer wandered. The potentialities of meanings in the original There are m ultiple forms of conversations— in everyday life, in
stories are differentiated and unfolded through the traveler’s interpre­ literature, and in the professions. Everyday conversations may range
tations; the tales are remolded into new narratives, which are convinc­ from chat and small talk, through exchanges of news, disputes, or
ing in their aesthetic form and are validated through their impact upon formal negotiations, to deep personal interchanges. W ithin litera­
the listeners. ture, the varieties of conversation span drama to novels to short
The journey may not only lead to new knowledge; the traveler stories, which may contain longer or shorter passages o f conversa­
might change as well. The journey might instigate a process of reflec­ tions. Professional conversations include journalistic interviews, legal
tion that leads the interviewer to new ways of self-understanding, as interrogations, academic oral examinations, religious confessions,
well as uncovering previously taken-for-granted values and customs therapeutic dialogues, and— to be discussed here— qualitative research
in the traveler’s home country. The transformative effects of traveling interviews. Each of these conversational genres uses different rules
are expressed in the German term Bildungsreise— a scholarly, form a­ and techniques.
tive journey. Through conversations, the traveler can also lead others The research interview is based on the conversations of daily life
to new understanding and insight as they, through their own story­ and is a professional conversation. One form of research interview— a
telling, may come to reflect on previously natural-seeming matters of semistructured life w orld interview— w ill be treated in this book. It is
course in their culture. Rorty’s (19.92) picture of inspired criticism defined as an interview whose purpose is to obtain descriptions of the
«
 Interviews Interviewing as Research 7
6

life world of the interviewee with respect to interpreting the meaning Interview inquiries may include multiple actors in a social scene.
of the described phenomena. Two further views on the fairness of grades— from a fellow pupil and
The use of the interview as a research method is nothing mysteri­ from a teacher— follow:
ous: An interview is a conversation that has a structure and a purpose.
It goes beyond the spontaneous exchange of views as in everyday Pupil: I find that the teachers actually evaluate in a rather fair way.
conversation, and becomes a careful questioning and listening ap­ It is not possible to cheat them either, which many believe they
proach w ith the purpose of obtaining thoroughly tested knowledge. can. If you sit there— and as soon as someone has raised his hand,
The research interview is not a conversatidn between equal partners, and the teacher has asked him and then— (raises his hand). W ell,
because the researcher defines and controls the situation. The topic of I do n ’t think it will work. I do n’t think they are that stupid.
the interview is introduced by the researcher, w ho also critically fol­ * * * * *
lows up on the subject’s answers to his or her questions.
Examples o f interviews will be given throughout this book (particu­ Interviewer: D o you think that there arc some pupils who want to
larly in Chapters 2 & 7). To illustrate this form o f inquiry, I will bluff by raising their hands?
present interview passages taken from a study of the effects o f grading Teacher: W ell, I do n’t think so, I don’t think they are particularly sly
in Danish high schools (Kvale, 1980): in that respect— in some way or another— to give the impression
that they know more than they do. That is not my impression— at
In te rv ie w e r: Y o u m e n t io n e d p re v io u s ly s o m e t h in g about g rad e s, least not in my classes.
w o u ld y o u please try a n d say m o r e a b o u t th a t?

Pupil: Grades are often unjust, because very often— very often— they These later statements contradict the first pupil; the second pupil finds
are only a measure of how much you talk, and how much you the grading fair and believes that teachers see through other pupils’
agree with the teacher’s opinion. For instance, I may state an attempts to raise their grades by bluffing, and this view is confirmed
opinion on the basis of a tested ideology, and which is against by the teacher interviewed. W ith such contradictory inform ation
the teacher’s ideology. The teacher will then, because it is his obtained from these three actors in the classroom scene, one m ight be
ideology, which he finds to be the best one, of course say that tempted to discard the qualitative interview as a research method— the
what he is saying is right and what I am saying is wrong. knowledge obtained is not objective, but subjective in the sense that
it depends too much on the subjects interviewed. T hroughout this
Interviewer: H ow should that influence the grade?
book I will argue that, on the contrary, it is in fact a strength of the
Pupil: W ell, because he w ould then think that I was an idiot— who
interview conversation to capture the multitude of subjects’ views of
comes up with the wrong answers.
a theme and to picture a m anifold and controversial human world. A
Interviewer: Is this not only your postulate? main issue will be how to obtain reliable and valid knowledge of the
Pupil: N o, there are lots of concrete examples. social world through the various views of the interacting subjects. In
later chapters (Chapter 12, Questions Posed to an Interview Text, and
In response to an open question from the interviewer, the pupil Chapter 13, Validity as Quality of Craftsmanship) I will return to the
himself introduces a dimension of his experience of grades—-they arc- interpretation and validation of the statements above and also discuss
unfair— and he spontaneously gives his reasons for why they are their representativity (Chapter 5, Interviews About Grades).
unfair. The interviewer critically follows up the answers, asks for
specifics, and tests the strength of the pu p il’s belief by doubting it.
8 I nterViews Interviewing as Research 9

Interview Research in the Social Sciences essential for obtaining knowledge of the social world, including
scientific knowledge.
If conversations did not exist, there would hardly he any shared Until recently, the field of qualitative inquiry was fragmented into
knowledge about the social scene. As a thought experiment we might different disciplines with com m unication gaps across interpretative
imagine that human conversation did not exist, and therefore that the communities. W ith an absence of com m on literature, procedures, and
knowledge acquired through conversations— as personal knowledge criteria, interviewers have to a large extent had to rely on their
for the reader and as general knowledge for hum ankind— was nonex­ individual creativity. One consequence is that isolated researchers
istent. Yet in the social sciences, conversation as a method of obtaining have invented small qualitative wheels over and over again.
knowledge has— until recently— rarely been mentioned in method This state o f affairs is now changing with the increasing number of
textbooks. books, journals, and conferences in the field of qualitative research.
Conversation is an ancient form of obtaining knowledge. Thucydides Cross-disciplinary works have been published, such as Handbook of
interviewed participants from the Peloponnesian Wars to write the Qualitative Research edited by Denzin and Lincoln (1994) and Hand-
history of the wars, and Socrates used dialogue to obtain philosophical buch Qualitative Sozialforschung edited by Flick, Kardoff, Keupp,
knowledge. W ithin the modern social sciences, which originated in Rosenstiel, and W o lff (199 1). Several journals dedicated to qualitative
the 19th century, systematic interview research is, however, a new research have appeared in the past decades: Qualitative Sociology
phenomenon of the past decades. Conversations have belonged to the (first published in 1978), Qualitative Studies in Education (first pub­
realm of the humanities and philosophy, whereas social science m eth­ lished in 1988), Qualitative Health Research (first published in 1991),
odology has long been modeled on the natural sciences. The present and the cross-disciplinary Qualitative Inquiry (first published in
emphasis on the interview as conversation and on the interpretation 1995). W ith the new literature, a com m on knowledge base is available
of its meanings brings interview research closer to the dom ain o f the for methodological and theoretical development of qualitative re­
humanities. search.
Interviews have, however, been previously employed in the social Sophistication in qualitative research is today rather unevenly
sciences. Anthropologists and sociologists have long used inform al distributed in the social sciences. Although much of what is said here
interviews to obtain knowledge from their informants. Sociologists may be old news within anthropology and sociology, it can be rela­
and psychologists have talked with their human subjects in order to tively new, and perhaps shockingly unscientific, within some depart­
obtain necessary background knowledge for conducting questionnaire ments of psychology. O ne might have assumed that the production of
studies and laboratory experiments. W hat is new in recent decades is knowledge through the hum an interaction o f the interview might be
that qualitative interviews are increasingly employed as a research a central concern in psychology. In the psychological profession, the
method in their own right, with an expanding methodological litera­ interview is an essential too!— for example, in personnel selection, in
ture on how to carry out interview research systematically. counseling, and in therapy. A scientific psychology leaning heavily on
Technical as well as theoretical reasons might be suggested for natural sciences has, however, generally neglected the hum an aspects
today’s growing research use of qualitative interviews. The develop­ of knowledge production, including the knowledge potentials of the
ment in the 1950s of small portable tape recorders made the exact hum an conversation. T hroughout this book I will draw on insights
recording of interviews easy. In the 1980s, computer programs facili­ from the use of interviews in psychological practice, in particular the
tated the qualitative analyses of transcribed interviews. Broad changes psychoanalytic interview (Chapter 4, Psychoanalytical Knowledge
in current thought, reflected in philosophy, emphasize themes such as Production).
the everyday lived world and its common language, meaning, and T hat there has been little systematic reflection on the practical and
interrelations. Narratives and conversations are today regarded as conceptual issues o f us^ng interviews as a research m ethod may also
10 Interviews Interviewing as Research
11

be due to the closeness o f the research interview to the conversations

existing hard-core quantitative arsenal o f the social sciences. Rather,
of daily life. This may have im plied that it was superfluous to reflect
the mode o f understanding implied by qualitative research involves .
on the interview methodologically. To contemplate the nearness of
alternative conceptions o f social knowledge, o f meaning, reality, and [
the research interview to everyday conversations may also have been
truth in social science research. The basic subject matter is no longer
threatening to the scientific legitimacy o f the “young” social sciences.
objective data to be quantified, but meaningful relations to be inter­
A further reason for the lack o f conceptualization and of com m on
preted. The transition from the miner metaphor of interviewing as
frames for understanding qualitative research may be that its proxim ­
digging up nuggets of meaningful data to the traveler metaphor of
ity to the hum an sciences has been at odds with dom inating concep­
interviewing as the construction of stories was discussed in this
tions of social science as a natural science. The somewhat controversial chapter’s introduction.
position of interview research in the social sciences w ill be taken up
There is a move away from obtaining knowledge primarily through
again in Chapter 4.
external observation and experimental m anipulation o f hum an sub­
jects, toward an understanding by means o f conversations with the
hum an beings to be understood. The subjects not only answer ques­
T h e o re tic a l Issues
tions prepared by an expert, but themselves formulate in a dialogue
their ow n conceptions o f their lived world. The sensitivity of the
Developing the interview as a research m ethod involves a challenge
interview and its closeness to the subjects’ lived world can lead to
to renew, broaden, and enrich the conceptions of knowledge and
knowledge that can be used to enhance the hum an condition. The
research in the social sciences. The research interview is not merely a
interview as such is, however, neither a progressive nor an oppressive
new m ethod, yielding qualitative texts rather than quantitative data,
m ethod. As will be discussed later, the knowledge produced can be
but reflects alternative conceptions of the subject matter of the social
used cither to enhance the investigated subjects’ condition or to
sciences. M any apparently methodological problems do not stem from
m anipulate their behavior more efficiently (sec Chapter 4).
the relative newness of the interview method or from insufficiently
W ith in philosophy in the past half century the positivist philoso­
developed techniques, but are the consequences of unclarified theo­
phy o f science has declined. Positivism conceived o f the social sciences
retical assumptions.
as natural sciences, to be based on objective quantifiable data, with
Some authors have pointed out a neglect of theory in current
the prediction and control o f the behavior o f others as a goal. Today
qualitative research. Strauss (1995) thus criticizes the absence of
there is a shift toward philosophical lines of thought closer to the
theoretical discussions in the large majority of the chapters in Denzin
humanities. These include a postmodern social construction of reality,
and Lincoln’s Handbook of Qualitative Research (1994), mentioned
hermeneutical interpretations of the meanings o f texts, phenom eno­
above. Giorgi (1994) concludes a review of recent literature on
logical descriptions of consciousness, and the dialectical situating of
qualitative methods in this way: “Thus, greater theoretical clarity and
hum an activity in social and historical contexts. That the qualitative
consistency as well as deeper reflection or better utilization of im agi­
interview is being focused on today, may in part be due to the
native possibilities still seem to be called for in order to bring better
correspondence o f themes central to current philosophy and to the
theoretical conceptualization and more consistent practices to quali­
qualitative interview, such as experience, meaning, life world, conver­
tative research” (p. 190).
sation, dialogue, narrative, and language (sec Chapters 2 Sc 3). Thus
Addressing the methodological questions of conducting an inter­
a postmodern approach w ill, in line witl? the traveler metaphor of the
view leads to theoretical issues— conceptions of the specific themes
interviewer, emphasize the constructive nature of the knowledge
investigated, as well as of the nature of the social world. Qualitative
created through the interaction of the partners in the interview
methods are not merely some new, soft technology added to the conversation.
12 I nt crVi ews Interviewing as Research 13

Throughout this book I will attempt to spell out the implications levels of significance for acceptable evidence, and so forth. Standard
of these philosophical analyses for the understanding of interview forms of tables and figures are also available for presenting the
research. 1 am not offering a comprehensive theory of the research quantitative data.
interview. Rather, different philosophical conceptions of conversation The situation is quite the contrary for qualitative research in two
and its use as a research method w ill be presented. They will provide senses: First, there are few standard rules or com m on methodological
theoretical contexts for conceptualizing the methodological and theo­ conventions in qualitative research communities; and second, hardly
retical issues that arise when using interview conversations as a any general texts have existed in which questions of m ethod, such as
research method and they will be addressed in Part II o f this book, those raised above, were discussed. This second problem is being
Conceptualizing the Research Interview. quickly resolved, and the task today is rather to find one’s way in the
expanding literature on qualitative research. An overview of literature
pertaining to interviewing is given later, in Box 5.3 in Chapter 5.
M e th o d o lo g ic a l Issues The first issue— standard rules for qualitative interviewing— is
more complex. There is no com m on procedure for interview research.
Research using interviews involves a deceptive simplicity; it is easy Interview research is a craft that, if well carried out, can become an
to start interviewing w ithout any advance preparation or reflection. art. The varieties of research interviews approach the spectrum of
The novice researcher may have a good idea, grab a tape recorder, go human conversations. The forms of interview analysis can differ as
out and find some subjects, and start questioning them. The recorded widely as there are ways of reading a text. The qualitative interview
interviews are transcribed and then— during analysis of the many is sometimes called an unstructured or a nonstandardized interview.
pages of transcripts— questions about the purpose and content of the Because there are few prestructured or standardized procedures for
study start to come up. This kind of theoretical naïveté and m ethodo­ conducting these forms of interview, many analyses of the methodical
logical spontaneity may in part be counterreactions to the abstract decisions have to be made on the spot, during the interview. This
theories and formalized methodology taught in some social science requires a high level of skill in the interviewer, w ho needs to be
departments. knowledgeable about the interview topic and to be familiar w ith the
A novice researcher w ho is more methodologically oriented may methodological options available, as well as having a grasp o f the
have a host of questions about the methodological and practical issues conceptual issues of producing knowledge through conversation.
in an interview project. For example: H ow do I begin an interview In this book I w ill attempt to steer between the free spontaneity of
project? H ow many subjects will I need? Could the interviews harm a no-method approach and the rigid structures of an all-method
the subjects? H ow can Fiavoid influencing the subjects with leading approach by focusing on the expertise, skills, and craftsmanship of the
questions? Can I be sure that 1 get to know what the subjects really interview researcher. Some of the decisions that will have to be made
mean? Is transcription of the interviews necessary? H ow do I analyze on the way through the stages o f an interview inquiry, and the
the interviews? W ill the interpretations be subjective? H ow do I report methodological options available, are outlined in Part III: The Seven
my extensive interviews? Stages of an Interview Investigation.
If corresponding questions were raised about, for example, ques­
tionnaire surveys, they would be fairly easy to answer. Standard
techniques exist for conducting surveys, and there are a m ultitude of O v e rv ie w o f the B o o k
textbooks that provide generally accepted rules and guidelines for
necessary sample sizes, formulation of questions and o f response M y aim in this book is to provide an overview and some guidelines
alternatives, coding of answers, statistical methods of analysis with for doing interview research, and to present philosophical perspec-
14 ! n t (I t V i c w s Interviewing as Research 15

fives that w ill be helpful for thinking about interviews. O n a horizontal

methodological level, the chapters in Part III take the reader through
the methodological stages of an investigation with an emphasis on
interviewing as a craft and on the techniques that that involves,
providing practical guidelines for conducting research interviews. An
interview investigation will be outlined in seven method stages, from
the original idea to the final report: (1) thematizing, with a conceptu­
alization of the research topic and form ulation o f the research ques­
tions; through (2) designing the study so it addresses the research
questions, treating both knowledge construction and moral im plica­
tions; to (3) the interview ing itself; (4) transcribing; (5) analyzing;
(6) verification; and (7) reporting. The chapters take issue w ith the
apparently mystical skills of interviewing, breaking them down in
discrete steps, giving examples, and pointing out the practical and
conceptual complexities involved.
O n a vertical epistemological level, the chapters in Part II suggest
theoretical frames of reference for conceptual clarification o f the
methodological issues, providing contexts for how to think about
interview research. Epistemology here refers to theories of knowledge.
O ne of the book’s main themes is the interconnectedness of the
practical issues o f the interview m ethod and the theoretical issues of
the nature of interview knowledge.
Because the use of qualitative interviews as a systematic research Figure 1.1. The Research Interview Seen as Interviews
method is not only relatively new but controversial as well, I first treat
the epistemological themes in Part II, Conceptualizing the Research
Interview, and then turn to the methodological issues in Part III, The The ambiguous drawing in Figure 1.1 was introduced by the Danish
Seven Stages of an Interview Investigation. Novice readers w ho are psychologist Rubin as an example of the figure/ground phenomenon
primarily interested in the practice of interviewing can turn directly in visual Gestalt perception— it can be seen alternatively as two faces
to Chapter 7, The Interview Situation, to get “a sense o f the trade” or as a vase, but not as both at the same time. I use the figure to
and then continue through the concrete methodological steps in an illustrate the present perspective on the interview conversation as inter
interview investigation. They can then return to the conceptual dis­ views. W e can focus on the two faces of the ambiguous figure, see
cussions in Part II and the overall m ethod design in the first two them as the interviewer and the interviewee, and conceive of the
chapters o f Part III. interview as the interaction between the two persons. O r we can focus
The qualitative research interview is a construction site for know l­
on the vase between the two faces, see it as containing the knowledge
edge. An interview is literally an inter view, an inter-change of views constructed inter the views of the interviewer and the interviewee.
between two persons conversing about a theme o f m utual interest. The There is an alternation between the knowers and the known, between
interdependence of human interaction and knowledge production is the constructors of knowledge and the knowledge constructed. This
a main theme throughout this book. dual aspect of the interview— the personal interrelation and the
16 Interviews

inter-view knowledge that it leads to— will run through the chapters
of this book, which alternate between focusing on the personal inter­
action and on the knowledge constructed through the interaction.
I emphasize the human inter action of the inter view as producing
scientific knowledge. The interrelation of the interviewer and his or PART
her subjects is treated in Chapter 2, The Interview as Conversation,

II
and the moral implications o f this human interaction are taken up in
Chapter 6, on ethics. The situational interaction of interviewer and
interviewee is the main emphasis of Chapters 7 and 8, on the interview-
situation. The conversation between the reader and the texts produced
from the interviews goes through the chapters on analysis (Chapters
10, 11, ÔC 12). In the last three chapters (Chapters 13, 14, & 15), the
focus on the inter views of researcher and subject is extended to
encompass the inter views of the interview researcher and his or her
audience. This extension of the interviews is illustrated in Figure 15.1,
which extends Figure 1.1. Chapter 15, the final chapter, addresses
different conversations about the value and validity of the knowledge
produced by research interviews, concluding with their potentials for
increasing our understanding of the human conversation.
The nature of the knowledge constructed inter the views of subject
and researcher is discussed in relation to conversations in Chapter 2 C o n c e p tu a liz in g
and to philosophical conceptions of knowledge in Chapter 3, and
followed up in Chapter 4 with different views on science and research. the Research In te rv iew
Chapter 13, on validation, focuses on the truth value of the knowledge
produced and the constitution of true knowledge in a dialogue, and
Chapter 15 pictures the conversation as a privileged access to a hum an
world understood as a conversational reality.

The m eaning of the three key terms o f the subtitle— interviewing, re­
search, and qualitative— are addressed in this epistemological second
part of the book. The mode of understanding in a qualitative research
interview is outlined, discussed in relevant philosophical contexts, and
related to conceptions o f scientific research in the social sciences. The
conceptual understanding o f the interview that is developed will serve
as a frampwork for clarifying the methodological and theoretical issues
arising during the stagei of an interview investigation.
•
17
18 Interviews

In Chapter 2, the qualitative research interview is regarded as a one

2
form of conversation and related to other forms of conversation, such
as a philosophical discourse or a therapeutic interview. The chapter
concludes w ith an outline of the mode of understanding of the
qualitative research interview and a discussion of the interview in
relation to different conversational contexts.
Philosophical traditions congenial to the nature of qualitative re­
search interviewing are presented in Chapt.er 3. They involve post­
modern linguistic constructions of reality, hermeneutical interpreta­
tions of the meaning of texts, phenomenological descriptions of
consciousness, and dialectical development through contradictions.
The meaning of research is discussed in Chapter 4 with regard to The Interview as a Conversation
conceptions of science, including a positivist conception of science
hardly compatible with qualitative interviewing. The meaning of I he research interview is a specific form of conversation. In order to
qualitative is treated in relation to a com m on quantitative versus clarify the nature of the research interview I w ill comparc it to other
qualitative controversy. The issue of objectivity and subjectivity in forms of conversation. Excerpts from three different conversations are
qualitative interviews is also addressed and, finally, examples of presented here: first, Socrates teaching Agathon the conceptual nature
qualitative research in practice are included: market research, feminist o f love; then, a patient learning about her own feelings of hate in a
research, and psychoanalysis. therapeutic session as presented by Rogers; and finally, a research
Readers w ho are unfamiliar with social science methodology and interview on the experience of learning about interior architecture as
philosophy may, as suggested in the first chapter, go directly to the reported by Giorgi. These different interviews invoke different forms
depiction of the interview situation in Chapter 7 and subsequent of interaction that produce different kinds of knowledge. The chapter
chapters on the interview stages and then return to the follow ing concludes with an outline of the mode of understanding of the
conceptual discussions. qualitative research interview, followed by a discussion of the inter­
view in relation to different conversational contexts.

K n o w le d g e as C o n v e rsa tio n

In Chapter 1 a traveler metaphor of interview research was intro­

duced, emphasizing conversation. I will distinguish among the use of
conversation as part of everyday interactions, as a professional inter­
change, and as a philosophical dialogue. These three uses may be seen
as specific forms of a common language understanding of conversation
as an “oral exchange of sentiments, observations, ideas, opinions”
(Webster’s, 1967); they involve different forms of interaction and
levels of reflection on the form and the content of the conversation.

19
20
Interviews The Interview as a Conversation 21

In the spontaneous conversations of daily life attention w ill tend to The intentions o f the conversing partners give way to what Gadamer
be on the conversation topic, whereas the purpose and the structure calls “the law o f the subject matter.” W hen one enters into a dialogue
of the conversation remain unproblematized. If, however, some kind with another person and is then carried further by the dialogue, it is
of break occurs, there may be a change from a spontaneous level to a no longer the will o f the individual person that is determinative.
meta-level where the aim and form o f the talk is reflected. This may Rather, the law of the subject matter is at issue, and it elicits statement
be the case if, for example, one of the participants asks, “W hy are you and counterstatement and in the end plays these into each other.
asking me about this?” This ideal description of a conversation pertains to a philosophical
Professional interviews take a variety of forms, such as a legal discourse, and may in some cases also apply to the interactions of daily
interrogation, a job interview, a therapeutic interview, or a research life. In professional conversations, however, there is usually an asym­
interview. They each have their different purposes and structures, with metry of power with specific, and sometimes contradictory, underly­
less or more systematic questioning techniques, as well as a reflection ing purposes.
upon the aim and mode of questioning. In relation to conversations 1 now give an example of a philosophical conversation and exam­
in everyday life, the research interview is characterized by a m ethodo­ ples of two professional conversations, a therapeutic interview and a
logical awareness of question forms, a focus on the dynamics of research interview. The philosophical conversation seeks truth
interaction between interviewer and interviewee, and a critical atten­ through an argumentative discourse; the therapeutic interview aims
tion to what is said. In professional interviews there is usually an to instigate changes in the patient’s personality and self-understanding
asymmetry of power: The professional is in charge of the questioning through interpretations in an emotional interaction; and the research
of a more or less voluntary and naive subject. In contrast to the interview seeks through questioning to obtain knowledge of the
reciprocal interchanges of everyday and philosophical conversations, subject’s world. The nature of the knowledge constituted through the
there tends to be a one-sided questioning of the subject by the interactions o f the three conversations differs: logical conceptual
professional. knowledge, em otional personal knowledge, and empirical knowledge
In a philosophical discourse the partners arc on an equal level and of the everyday world.
there is a reciprocal questioning of the logic of the participants’
questions and answers, as well as of the true nature of the knowledge
being debated. The discourse rests on a joint commitm ent o f the S ocrates’ P h ilo s o p h ic a l D ia lo g u e o n Love
participants to seek truth— it is an attempt to get beyond mere opinion
to true knowledge. It is guided by a questioning of the conversation’s Plato’s “Symposion” is a philosophical dialogue in a dramatic form.
subject matter, with the partners in the dialogue follow ing mutually A party has been cast in honor o f the poet Agathon, w ho in the year
binding rules for argumentation (see Bernstein, 1983). 416 B.C. had received a prize for one of his plays. The guests, each in
The hermeneutical philosopher Gadamer (1975) describes a genu­ their turn, give speeches in honor of Eros, the god of love. I'heir talks
ine conversation on the basis of Plato’s dialogues: are accom panied by plenty o f wine: Aristophanes has to miss his
turn because o f severe hiccups, but does give his speech; a drunken
A conversation is a process o f two people understanding each other. Alcibiadcs crashes into the party w ith a speech o f love to Socrates,
Thus it is characteristic o f every true conversation that each opens
w ho— as dawn arrives— is the only one still seated at the table.
him self to the other person, truly accepts his point of view as w orthy of
The “Symposion” consists of monologues and dialogues, alternat­
consideration and gets inside the other to such an extent that he
understands not a particular individual, but w hat he says. The thing that ing am ong rhetorical speeches, rigorous argumentation, and humor.
has to be grasped is the objective rightness or otherwise o f his o p in io n , Plato’s form of com munication is indirect: Socrates’ assumed igno­
so that they can agree w ith each other on the subject, (p. 347) rance and his ironical styje neither confirm nor disconfirm the many
22 l i i t crVi cws The interview as a Conversation 23

knowledge claims put forth. His uncovering of contradictions in his “So can you still allow Love to be beautiful, if this is the case?”
W hereupon Agathon said, “I greatly fear, Socrates, I know nothing
opponent’s arguments offers indications to those w ho will listen.
o f w hat I was talking about.” (Plato, 1953, pp. 167-173)
In his own speech, Socratcs dcpicts Eros as desire for beaiity, good,
and truth. He starts by questioning the preceding speaker, Agathon,
In this passage, Socrates takes Agathon’s speech on love as his point
w ho has given a rather pompous talk in the rhetorical tradition o f the
of departure. He repeats it in a condensed form and interprets what
Sophists. The introduction and the conclusion o f this passage of the
Agathon has said and then asks for his opponent’s confirmations or
dialogue follow:
disconfirmations of the interpretations. Socrates starts out by appear­
ing naive and innocent, he praises Agathon’s views on Eros, then
“ I m ust say, my dear A gathon, you gave your speech an excellent
follows up by uncovering one contradiction after another in Agathon’s
introd u ction , by stating that your duty was first to display the character
o f Love, and then to treat of his acts. Those opening words I thoroughly position. Several of the arguments end with a question leading to a
adm ire. So com e now , complete your beautiful and m agnificent descrip­ given answer, which Agathon then accepts. In the end Agathon is led
tio n o f Love, and tell me this: Are we so to view his character as to take to retract his views completely and to agree with Socrates’ position.
Love to be love o f some object, or o f none? M y question is not whether This dialogue on the nature of love is open to several readings. In one
he is love o f a m other or a father— how absurd it w o u ld be to ask whether
interpretation, the dialogue is a genuine conversation in Gadam er’s
Love is love o f mother or father-— but as though I were asking about our
(1975) sense, here as an open philosophical inquiry seeking true
n o tio n o f “ father,” whether one’s father is a father o f somebody or not.
Surely you w o u ld say, if you wished to give the proper answer, that the knowledge about the nature o f love through a discursive argumenta­
father is father o f son or o f daughter, w o u ld you no t?” tion. It is not the understanding of a particular individual, but of the
“ Yes, o f course,” said Agathon. objective rightness of what he says, so that the two of them can agree
* * * * * on the subject matter. In another reading, Socratcs already has a true
knowledge of the nature of love, and the purpose of the conversation
“N o w the n,” said Socrates, “let us agree to w hat we have so far
is educational, through a critical questioning of Agathon to lead him
concluded. First, is not Love directed to certain things; o f w hich, in the
and the other participants in the symposium toward an insight into
second place, he has a w ant?”
“Yes,” he said. the nature of love that Socratcs already possesses. At the basis o f his
“T hen, granting this, recollect w hat things you nam ed in our questioning there is a fundamental belief that Agathon already pos­
discussion as the objects o f Love: if you like, I w ill rem ind you. W h a t sesses true knowledge of the nature of love but needs help to uncover
you said, I believe, was to the effect that the gods contrived the w orld this truth, and Socrates takes the role of midwife, delivering the truth.
from a love o f beautiful things, for o f ugly there was no love. D id you
His questioning is not open, nor is it neutral on the content of the
no t say som ething o f the sort?”
“Yes, I d id ,” said Agathon.
dispute, but presupposes a specific theory of knowledge— the belief
“A nd quite properly, my friend,” said Socrates; “then, such being the in man as an immortal and reborn soul, where learning is recognition
case, must not Love be only love o f beauty, and no t o f ugliness?” He of what the soul has already known.
assented. The philosophical discourse is a harsh form of interaction—
“W ell then, we have agreed that he loves w hat he lacks and has n o t?”
Socrates likens himself to a legal interrogator— that aims at gaining
“Yes,” he replied.
theoretical knowledge through the unrelenting rigor of a discursive
“A nd w hat Love lacks and has no t is beauty?”
“T hat needs must be,” he said. argumentation. Research interviews generally have a milder form; the
“W ell now , w ill you say that w hat lacks beauty, and in no wise interviewee is an informant, not a philosophical opponent. The inter­
possesses it, is beautiful?” viewer asks questions of the interview subject in order to obtain
“Surely no t.” knowledge about his or her life situation, and rarely enters into
24 Interviews The Interview as a Conversation 25

tenacious arguments with the subject about the logic and truth of his com ing any more. It doesn’t do any good. I don’t like you. I hate
or her statements. It is beyond the scope of the research interview for you! I wish you never were born.
the interviewer to argue the strength of his or her own conception of C (Counselor): You just hate me very bitterly.
the topic investigated or to try to change the subject’s convictions. In
S: I think I’ll throw you in the lake. I’ll cut you up! You think people
contrast, the therapeutic interview aims at changes— through personal
like you, but they don’t. . . . You think you can attract women,
interaction rather than through logical argumentation— and the
but you can't.. . . I wish you were dead.
changes sought are not primarily conceptual, but emotional and
C: You detest me and you’d really like to get rid o f me.
personal.
S: You think my father did bad things with me, but he d id n ’t! You
think he wasn’t a good man, but he was. You think I want

A T h e ra p e u tic Inte rv iew on H ate intercourse, but I don’t.

C: You feel I absolutely misrepresent all your thoughts.
Since Freud’s invention of psychoanalysis at the turn of the century, S: . . You think you can get people to come in and tell you everything,
a large body of experience has been gathered about the use of and they’ll think they’re being helped, but they’re not! You just
therapeutic interviews. The presentation below of a passage from a like to make ’em suffer. You think you can hypnotize them, but
therapeutic interview has a twofold purpose: to indicate the possibili­ you can’t! You think you’re good, but you ain’t. I hate you, I
ties for research interviewers to learn from the techniques developed hate you, I hate you!
w ithin the therapeutic profession, and to demonstrate some of the C: You feel 1 really like to make ’em suffer, but that 1don’t help them.
differences between therapeutic and research interviews.
S: You think I haven’t been straight, but I have. I hate you. All I’ve
Rogers was a pioneer in developing an open, client-centered inter­ had is pain, pain, pain. You think I can’t dircct my own life, but
view form, originally termed non-directive and later changed to client-
I can. You think I can’t get well, but I can. You think I had
centered, with the insight that all interviewing implies a sense of hallucinations, but I didn ’t. I hate you. (Long pause. Leans on
direction. Rogers also pioneered the use of tape recorders and the
desk in strained, exhausted pose.) You think I’m crazy, but I’m
transcription of entire therapy sessions, making the therapeutic in­
not.
teraction and questioning techniques available for public scrutiny.
C: Y o u ’re sure 1 think you’re crazy.
Rogers’s writings on therapeutic interviews have been a source of
S: (Pause.) I’m tied, and I just can’t get loose! (Despairing tone of
inspiration for the development of qualitative interviews for research
purposes.
voice, and tears. Pause.) I had a hallucination and Vvcgot to get
it out!
The following sequence is taken from Client-Centered Therapy
(Rogers, 1965). It was conducted by a counselor applying Rogers’s * * * * *
approach, and in this case it is reproduced from notes the therapist
S: I knew at the office I had to get rid of this somewhere. I felt I could
took during the interview.
come dow n and tell you. I knew you’d understand. I couldn’t
say I hated myself. That’s true but I couldn’t say it. So I just
S (Subject): (Silent for two minutes. Then begins to talk in a hard flat
thought o f all the ugly things I could say to you instead.
voice, quite unlike her usual tone. Does not look at counselor.
There was much repetition, but the following excerpts give the C: The things you felt about yourself you couldn’t say, but you could

major thoughts.) You feel I want to come, but I don’t! I’m not say them about me.
S: I know we’re getting to rock bottom . . . (pp. 211-213)
 Interviews The Interview as a Conversation 27

*
The emotional tone of this counseling sdssion was described as A Research Interview on L earn in g
follows:
The purpose of the qualitative research interview discussed here is
Just as it is impossible to convey on paper the venom and hatred in the to understand themes of the lived daily world from the subjects’ own
client’s voice, so it is utterly impossible to convey the depth o f empathy perspectives. The structure of the research interview comes close to
in the counselor’s responses. The counselor states, “ I tried to enter into
an everyday conversation, but as a professional interview it involves
and to express in my voice the full degree o f the soul-consuming anger
which she was pouring out. The written words look incredibly pale, but a specific approach anil technique of questioning. Technically, the
in the situation they were full o f the same feeling she was so coldly and qualitative research interview is semistructured: It is neither an open
deeply expressing.” (p. 212) conversation nor a highly structured questionnaire. It is conducted
according to an interview guide that focuses on certain themes and
In this therapeutic session the subject takes the lead right from the that may include suggested questions. The interview is usually tran­
start, introduces the focal topic— the detestable counselor— and tells scribed, and the written text together with the tape recording are the
how much she hates him. He responds by reflecting and rephrasing material for the subsequent interpretation of meaning.
her statements, emphasizing their emotional aspects. He does not, as The following interview passage is taken from the article “An
w ould be likely in a normal conversation, take issue with the many Application of Phenomenological M ethod in Psychology” by Giorgi
accusations against him. In this specific sequence the counselor neither (1975). The research question guiding the interview was: W hat con­
asks questions for clarification, nor does he offer interpretations. At stitutes learning in the everyday world? The first half of the interview,
the end, after “she has gotten it all o u t,” the subject acknowledges the conducted by a student, is reproduced here.
counselor’s ability to understand her, and she herself offers an inter­
pretation: I couldn’t say I hated myself, so I just thought of all the ugly R (Researcher): Could you describe in as much detail as possible a
things I could say to you instead. situation in which learning occurred for you?
The purpose of the counseling interview was to help the patient S (Subject: K. W ., 24 year-old female, housewife and educational
with her emotional problems, and the counselor consistently reflected researcher): The first thing that comes to m ind is what I learned
the emotional aspects of the patient’s statements about his relationship about interior decorating from Myrtis. She was telling me about
to her, which in this case led to the subject interpreting her own the way you see things. Her view of looking at different rooms
behavior. In psychoanalytical terminology, the topic o f this session has been altered. She told me that when you come into a room
was transference, the patient’s intense emotional relationship with the you do n ’t usually notice how many vertical and horizontal lines
therapist. It is difficult to draw any strong line of demarcation between there are, at least consciously, you don’t notice. And yet, if you
a therapeutic and a research interview. Both may lead to increased were to take someone who knows w hat’s going on in the field
understanding and change, but with the emphasis on personal change of interior decorating, they would intuitively feel if there were
in a therapeutic interview and on intellectual understanding in a the right number of vertical and horizontal lines. So, I went
research interview. Although the main purpose of therapeutic inter­ home, and I started looking at the lines in our living room, and
views is to assist patients to overcome their suffering, a side effect is I counted the number of horizontal and vertical lines, many of
general knowledge about the human situation. This will be discussed which I had never realized were lines before. A beam . . . I had
later in relation to psychoanalysis as a research method (see Chapter never really thought of that as vertical before, just as a protrusion
4, Psychoanalytical Knowledge Production). from the wall. (Laughs) I found out what was wrong with our
living room design: many, too many, horizontal lines and not
28 Interviews
The Interview as a Conversation

enough vertical. So I started trying to move things around and was to investigate the subject’s experience of learning, and the inter­
change the way it looked. I did this by moving several pieces of viewer’s questions aimed at a cognitive clarification of the subject’s
furniture and taking out several knick-knacks, de-emphasizing story of learning. The mode of interviewing was inspired by a phc
certain lines, and . . . it really looked differently to me. It’s nomenological philosophy, which is based on a descriptive study of
interesting because my husband came home several hours later consciousness to be discussed in the next chapter (Chapter 3, Pheno­
and I said, “Look at the living room; it’s all different.” N ot menological Description); the analysis of this interview will be treated
knowing this, that I had picked up, he didn’t look at it in the later (Chapter 11, M eaning Condensation).
same way I did. He saw things were different, he saw things were
moved, but he wasn’t able to verbalize that there was a de-
emphasis on the horizontal lines and more of an emphasis on the T he M o d e o f U n d e r s ta n d in g in
vertical. So I felt I had learned something. the Q u a lita tiv e Research In te rv ie w

R: W hat part of that experience w ould you consider learning?

I now outline the mode of understanding in the qualitative research
S: The knowledge part that a room is made up of horizontal and
interview, of which the above interview on learning is one example.
vertical lines. The application of that to another room; applying
In Box 2.1, 12 aspects of the mode of understanding in the
it to something that had been bothering me for quite a long time
qualitative research interview are depicted in a condensed form. They
and I could never put my finger on it. I think the actual learning
may be found more or less explicitly formulated in descriptions of
was what was horizontal and vertical about a room. The learning
research interviews. As brought together here, they represent an
that was left with me was a way of looking at rooms.
attempt to describe the main structures of the qualitative research
R: Are you saying then that the learning was what you learned from
interview. They will now be discussed in greater detail, with examples
Myrtis, what you learned when you tried to apply . . . ?
from the interview on learning reported by Giorgi and from my own
S: Since I did apply it, I feel that 1 learned when 1 did apply it. I would interviews on grading in high schools (see Chapter 1, Conversation as
have thought that I learned it only by having that knowledge, Research; Chapter 5, Interviews About Grades; & Chapter 7, An
but having gone through the act of application, I really do n ’t feel Interview About Grades).
I w ould have learned it. I could honestly say, 1 had learned it at
that time. (pp. 84-86) I. Life World. The topic of the qualitative research interview is the
lived world of the subjects and their relation to it. The purpose is to
This interview investigated what constitutes learning for a w om an in describe and understand the central themes the subjects experience
her everyday world. It began with an open request to describe a and live toward. In thej interview reported by Giorgi, the topic of
situation where learning occurred. The woman chose the learning learning was introduced by the interviewer, whereas the subject
situation she would talk about— interior decorating; she described this herself chose the specific instance of learning from her everyday world
freely and extensively in her own words. The answer spontaneously to talk about. In my own investigation, grades were a central theme
took the form o f a story, a narrative of one learning episode. The in the life world of the high school pupils, and the interviews sought
interviewer’s first question introduced learning as the theme of the to describe and reflect the meanings that grades had for the pupils.
interview; her remaining questions depart from the subject’s answers The qualitative research interview is theme oriented. Two persons
in order to keep learning in focus and to ask for clarification o f the talk together about a theme that is of interest to both. The resulting
different aspects of the subject’s learning story. interview can then be analyzed primarily with respect to the life world
This interview gives a good picture of a semistructured research that is described by the person, or the subject describing his or her life
interview focusing on the subject’s experience of a theme. The purpose
30 Interviews The Interview as a Conversation 31

world. The interviews about grades were analysed with regard to the 2. Meaning. The qualitative research interview seeks to describe
com m on social situation constituted by the grades, such as submissive­ and understand the meanings o f central themes in the life w orld o f the
ness to teachers, com petition with peers, and instrumentalization of subjects. The main task in interviewing is to understand the meaning
learning. The interviews could also have been analyzed with respect of what the interviewees say. Recall the several questions in the
to the personality structures o f the individual pupils in relation to interview reported by Giorgi (1975), which sought to clarify the
grading. In this study, however, it was the com mon structures of the precise meanings of the subject’s descriptions.
school situation constituted by the grades that were of interest and not The interviewer registers and interprets what is said as well as how
individual differences among the pupils. it is said; he or she must be observant of— and able to interpret—

Box 2.1 Continued

Box 2 . 1

Aspects o f Q u a lita tiv e Research Interview s Deliberate Naïveté. The interviewer exhibits an openness
to new and unexpected phenomena, rather than having
ready-made categories and schemes o f interpretation.
The purpose of the qualitative research interview treated Focused. The interview is focused on particular themes; it
here is to obtain descriptions of the lived world of the is neither strictly structured with standardized questions,
interviewees with respect to interpretations of the meaning nor entirely “non-directive.”
of the described phenomena.
Ambiguity. Interviewee statements can sometimes be am ­
Life World. The topic o f qualitative interviews is the every­ biguous, reflecting contradictions in the world the subject
day lived world of the interviewee and his or her relation lives in.
to it.
C.bangc. The process of being interviewed may produce
Meaning. The interview seeks to interpret the meaning of new insights and awareness, and the subject may in the
central themes in the life world of the subject. The inter­ course of the interview come to change his or her descrip­
viewer registers and interprets the meaning o f what is said tions and meanings about a theme.
as well as how it is said.
Sensitivity. Different interviewers can produce different
Qualitative. The interview seeks qualitative knowledge ex­ statements on the same themes, depending on their sensi­
pressed in normal language, it docs not aim at quantification. tivity to and knowledge of the interview topic.
Descriptive. The interview attempts to obtain open nu- Interpersonal Situation. The knowledge obtained is produced
anced descriptions o f different aspects of the subjects’ life through the interpersonal interaction in the interview.
worlds.
Positive Experience. A well carried out research interview
Specificity. Descriptions o f specific situations and action can be a rare and enriching experience for the interviewee,
sequences are elicited, not general opinions. w ho may obtain new insights into his or her life situation.
32 Interviews The Interview as a Conversation 33

vocalization, facial expressions, and other bodily gestures. An every­ patient why he is sick, but rather asks the patient what is wrong, what
day conversation often takes place on a factual level. A pupil may state: he is feeling, and what the symptoms are. O n the basis of the
“I am not as stupid as my grades at the examinations showed, but I information obtained, the doctor may then formulate a hypothesis of
have bad study habits.” Com m on reactions could then be on a factual which illness may be likely, Further questioning proceeds from this
level: “W hat grades did you get?” or “W hat are your study habits?”— hypothesis, and on the basis of the patient’s answers and results from
questions that also may yield important inform ation. A meaning-
other methods o f investigation, the doctor then makes the diagnosis.
oriented reply would, in contrast, be something like, “You feel that
For both the doctor and the researcher there are cases where it is
the grades are not an adequate measure of your competence?” Recall im portant to know the subject’s own explanations of his or her
the consistent rephrasings of the emotional messages in the' client’s condition and to ask questions about why. The primary task for both
statements by the counselor in the interview reported by Rogers the doctor and the researcher, however, remains that of obtaining
(1965).
descriptions so they will have relevant and precise material from which
A qualitative research interview seeks to cover both a factual and a
to draw their interpretations.
meaning level, though it is usually more difficult to interview on a
meaning level. It is necessary to listen to the explicit descriptions and 5. Specificity. The qualitative research interview seeks to describe
meanings as well as to what is “said between the lines.” The inter­ specific situations and action sequences from the subject’s world. It is
viewer may seek to formulate the “im plicit message,” “send it back” not general opinions that are asked for. Knowing the opinions, for
to the subject, and obtain an immediate confirmation or disconfirma- example, of a pupil about the grading system, is subordinated in a
tion of the interviewer’s interpretation of what the interviewee is research interview to obtaining concrete descriptions from the pupils
saying.
— how they experience the grading, how they and the other pupils
react to it. O n the basis of extensive and rich descriptions o f specific
.3. Qualitative. 1 he qualitative research interview aims at obtain­ grading situations, the interviewer will be able to arrive at meanings
ing nuanced descriptions from the different qualitative aspects of on another level, instead of posing such questions as “W hat is your
the interviewee’s life world; it works with words and not with num ­ opinion of grading?” Still, it should be recognized that this type of
bers. Precision in description and stringency in meaning interpreta­ general opinion question may be relevant, yielding inform ation that
tion correspond in qualitative interviews to exactness in quantitative is o f interest in itself and that may also be compared with the
measurements.
understanding of grades expressed in the spontaneous descriptions of
grading situations.
4. Descriptive. The qualitative research interview aims at obtaining
uninterpreted descriptions. The subjects describe as precisely as pos­ 6. Deliberate Naïveté. The qualitative interview attempts to gather
sible what they experience and feel, and how they act. Recall the descriptions of the relevaijt themes of the interviewee’s life world that
interview reported by Giorgi (1975) in which the introductory ques­ are as rich and presuppositionless as possible. Rather than the inter­
tion asked the subject for a detailed description of a situation in which viewer having preformulated questions and ready-made categories for
learning occurred. The focus is on nuanced descriptions that depict analysis, the deliberate naïveté and absence of presuppositions advo­
the qualitative diversity, the many differences and varieties of a phe­ cated here implies an openness to new and unexpected phenomena.
nom enon, rather than on ending up with fixed categorizations. The interviewer should be curious, sensitive to what is said— as well as
The question of why the subjects experience and act as they do is to what is not said— and critical of his or her own presuppositions and
primarily a task for the researcher to evaluate. An analogy to a doctor’s hypotheses during the interview. Presuppositionlessness thus also im ­
diagnosis may be clarifying. The doctor does not start by asking the plies a critical consciousness of the interviewer’s own presuppositions.
34 The Interview as a Conversation 35
Interviews

7. Focus. The qualitative research interview is focused on certain 10. Sensitivity. Interviews obtained by different interviewers, us­
themes in the interviewee’s life world. It is neither strictly structured ing the same interview guide, may be different due to varying levels
with standardized questions, nor entirely “nondirective,” but is fo­ o f sensitivity toward, and knowledge about, the topic of the interview.
cused on certain themes. The task o f the interviewers in the grading Thus an interviewer who has no ear for music may have difficulties
study was to keep the grades at the focus of the interview, but within obtaining nuanccd descriptions of musical experiences from his or her
different perspectives or contexts— such as social milieu in school, interviewees, in particular with probing more intensively into the
examinations, and the pupils’ plans for the future. It is then up to the meaning of the music. If a common scientific requirement of obtaining
subjects to bring forth the dimensions they find im portant within the intersubjectively reproducible data were to be followed here, the
focus area. The interviewer leads the subjecit toward certain themes, interview form might have to be standardized in a way that would
but not to certain opinions about these themes. restrict the understanding of musical experiences to more superficial
aspects understandable to the average person. A qualitative research
8. Ambiguity. A subject’s statements are sometimes ambiguous. An interview w ould instead seek to employ the varying abilities of the
expression can imply several possibilities of interpretation, and the interviewers to obtain different nuances and depths of the themes of
subject may also give apparently contradictory statements during an the interview.
interview. It becomes the task of the interviewer to clarify, as far as The requirement of sensitivity to, and a foreknowledge about, the
possible, whether the ambiguities and contradictory statements are topic of the interview contrasts with the presuppositionless attitude advo­
due to a failure of com m unication in the interview situation, or cated above. The tension between these two aspects may be expressed
whether they reflect real inconsistencies, ambivalences, and contradic­ in the requirement for a deliberate conscious naïveté on the part of the
tions in the interviewee. The aim o f the qualitative research interview interviewer, which is demonstrated in Socrates’ interview of Agathon.
is not to end up with unequivocal and quantifiable meanings on the
themes in focus. W hat matters is rather to describe precisely the 11. Interpersonal Situation. The research interview is an inter
possibly ambiguous and contradictory meanings expressed by the view, an interaction between two people. The interviewer and the
interviewee. The contradictions of interviewees may not merely be subject act in relation to each other and reciprocally influence each
due to faulty com m unication in the interview situation, nor to their other. A strong case of emotional interaction took place in the
personality structures, but may in fact be adequate reflections of counseling session reported by Rogers (1965). Sullivan (1954) ana­
objective contradictions in the w orld in which they live. lyzed the psychiatric interview as an interpersonal situation where the
relevant data are constituted by the interaction itself, in the specific
9. Change. It may happen in the course of an interview that subjects situation created between interviewer and interviewee. He empha­
change their descriptions of, and meanings about, a theme. The sized the subjective moment in obtaining knowledge in an interview
subjects may themselves have discovered new aspects of the themes situation— in participant observation it is the interviewer as a person
they are describing, and suddenly see relations that they had not been w ho is the method, the instrument.
conscious of earlier. Thus, in the therapeutic interview reported by The interview situation may, for both parties, be characterized by
Rogers (1965), the patient started, through her talking and the coun­ positive feelings of a common intellectual curiosity and a reciprocal
selor’s rephrasings of her statements, to obtain insight about her respect. The interview may also be anxiety provoking and evoke
critique of the counselor as actually being directed at herself. O n less defense mechanisms in the interviewee as well as in the interviewer.
dramatic levels the questioning in research interviews may instigate The interviewer should be conscious of the interpersonal dynamics
processes of reflection where the meanings of themes described by the w ithin the interaction and take them into account in the interview
subjects are no longer the same after the interview. situation and in the later analysis of the finished interview. I he
36 Interviews The Interview as a Conversation 37

reciprocal influence of interviewer and interviewee on a cognitive and Second, the conversation may be conceived of as a basic mode of
an emotional level is, however, not necessarily a source o f error, but knowing. Rorty (1979), a neopragmatist philosopher close to post­
can be a strong point of qualitative research interviewing. Rather than m odern thought, has emphasized the constitution o f knowledge
seeking to reduce the importance of this interaction, what matters in through the conversation. W hen we understand knowledge as the
the research interview is to recognize and apply the knowledge gained social justification of belief rather than as accuracy of representation,
from the interpersonal interaction. conversation replaces confrontation with nature. The notion of mind
as re-presenting an objective w orld can be discarded, “ If we see
12. Positive Experience. A qualitative research interview can be a knowledge as a matter of conversation and social practice, rather than
favorable experience for the interviewee. An interview is a conversa­ as an attempt to mirror nature” (Rorty, 1979, p. 171). The certainty
tion in which two people talk about a theme of mutual interest. A o f our knowledge is a matter of conversation between persons, rather
well-conducted qualitative interview can be a rare and enriching than a matter o f interaction with a nonhum an reality. If we regard
experience for the interviewee. It is probably not a very com m on know ing not as having an essence but as a right to believe, we may see
experience in everyday life that another person— for an hour or “conversation as the ultimate context within which knowledge is
more— is interested only in, sensitive toward, and seeks to understand understood” (p. 389).
as well as possible another’s experiences and views on a subject. In T hird, human reality may be understood as persons in conversa­
practice, it is often difficult to terminate a qualitative interview: tion. To the hermeneutic philosopher Gadamer, we are conversational
Subjects may wish to continue the dialogue and explore further the beings for w hom language is a reality (see Bernstein, 1983). In a
themes and the insights of the interview interaction. postmodern conversational version of social constructivism, Shotter

* * * # * (1993) attempts to describe the conversational worlds within which

we have our being: “For conversation is not just one of our many
The 12 aspects outlined above illustrate the mode of understand­ activities in the world. O n the contrary, we constitute both ourselves
ing in the qualitative research interview treated in this book. In C h a p ­ and our worlds in our conversational activity. For us they are founda­
ter 3, philosophical positions congenial with this understanding o f the tional. They constitute the usually ignored background within which
research interview will be presented, and in Chapter 4 this mode of our lives are rooted” (p. vi).
understanding is contrasted with established conceptions of social The conversation in the present approach is not only a specific
science research. empirical method: It also involves a basic mode of constituting know l­
edge; and the hum an world is a conversational reality. These three
understandings of conversation— m ethodological, epistemological,
Interviews in Three Conversations
and ontological— will be applied throughout this book, but with a
m ethodological emphasis on the interview as a specific form of
This chapter on the interview as a conversation concludes by show­
conversational technique.
ing the interviewer-traveler in three conversational contexts. First, the
In Chapter 3, philosophical positions compatible with a conversa­
research interview is treated as a specific professional form o f conver­
tional approach to interview research are outlined. The emphasis on
sational technique in which knowledge is constructed through the
conversation as a mode o f know ing is particularly strong within
interaction o f interviewer and interviewee as outlined in the above
postm odern and hermeneutical philosophy, and the social, power, and
description of the mode of understanding in the qualitative research
material aspects of the conversational interaction are prom inent in
interview. In contrast to the reciprocal interchanges o f everyday life,
postmodern and dialectical understandings of conversations.
as well as of philosophical conversations, it is the interviewer w ho, as
a professional, asks and the interviewee who answers.
 Interviews and Philosophy 39

invariant essential meanings in the descriptions. A dialectical access

focuses on the contradictions of a statement and their relations to the
contradictions of the social and material world. There is an emphasis
on the new, rather than on the status quo, and on the intrinsic relation
of knowledge and action.
These four philosophies highlight different aspects of knowledge
relevant to the qualitative interview. T hey differ in fundamental ways
and some of their intricate relations and differences w ill be pointed
out at the end of this chapter. The complex philosophical positions are
presented here in a brief and dense form with an emphasis on their
epistemological aspects as relevant to qualitative research interviewing.
Postmodern Thought, The presentations serve as contexts for reflection— in later chapters

Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, — on the theoretical and methodological issues raised by the use of
interviewing as a research method.
and Dialectics Box 3.1 depicts some literature on the philosophical positions to
be presented, pertaining in particular to their implications for research
The techniques of interviewing have been extensively treated in in the social sciences.
literature, while the philosophical implications of the mode of under­
standing in qualitative interviews have seldom been addressed. The
terms used to describe the interview in the preceding chapter— such
as experience, consciousness, description, meaning, interpretation, and
interaction— were taken from the vernacular. In this chapter I present Box 3.1
philosophical lines of thought that have analyzed the very themes
central to qualitative research interviewing— postmodern thought, Literature on Philosophies
hermeneutics, phenomenology, and dialectics. Pertaining to Interview Research
A postmodern approach focuses on interrelations in an interview,
on the social construction of reality in an interview, on its linguistic
and interactional aspects including the differences between oral dis­ P o s tm o d e r n T h o u g h t
course and written text, and emphasizes the narratives constructed by A ndersen, W . T. (1 995). (Ed.). The truth about truth— De-confusing and

the interview. From a hermeneutical understanding, the interpretation re-constructing the postmodern world. N e w Y o rk : T archer/P utnam .
G e rge n, K. J. (19 94 ). Realities and relationships. Soundings in social
of meaning is the central theme, with a specification of the kinds of constructionism. C a m bridg e, M A : H a rv a rd University Press.
meanings sought and attention to the questions posed to a text. The Kvale, S. (1 992). (E d.). Psychology and postmodernism. L o n d o n : Sage.

concepts of conversation and of text are pivotal, and there is an L y otard, J. F. (19 84 ). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge.
M anch ester, UK: M anchester University Press.
emphasis on the interpreter’s foreknowledge of a text’s subject matter.
R o se na u, M , P. (19 92 ). Postmodernism and the social sciences. P rince to n,
A phenomenological perspective includes a focus on the life world, an N J: P rinceton University Press.
openness to the experiences of the subjects, a primacy of precise
(continued)
descriptions, attempts to bracket foreknowledge, and a search for

38
40 Interviews Interviews and Philosophy 41

Postm odern C onstruction

Box 3.1 Continued

Postmodern thought represents a broad movement in current art
I
and philosophy, particularly as expressed in different versions by such
H e r m e n e u tic s French thinkers as Baudrillard, Derrida, Foucault, and Lyotard (see
G a d a m e r, H . G . (19 75 ). Truth and method. N e w Y o rk : Seabury. Anderson, 1995). Though long influential in the humanities, post­
Messer, S. B., Sass, L. A ., & W o o lfo lk , R . L. (1 9 88 ). (Eds.). Hermeneutics modern thought has now reached the social sciences, too (Kvale,
and psychological theory. N e w B runsw ick, N J: Rutgers U niversity
1992; Rosenau, 1992). In his book The Postmodern Condition: A
Press.
Packer, A. L., &c A dd ison , R. B. (1 989). Entering the circle— Hermeneutic Report on Knowledge, Lyotard (1984) characterizes the postmodern
investigation in psychology. A lbany: S U N Y Press. age by a disbelief in universal systems of thought. There is a lack of
P alm er, R . E. (19 69 ). Hermeneutics. E vanston, IL: N orthw e ste rn U n iv e r­
credibility toward meta-narratives of legitimation— such as the E n­
sity Press.
R a d n itz k y , G . (19 70 ). Contemporary schools of metascience. G o th e n b u rg , lightenment belief of progress through knowledge and science, as well
Sw eden: A k adem iforlaget. as the M arxist utopia to be reached through emancipation of the
w orking class, and the modern belief in economic growth.
P h e n o m e n o lo g y The philosophy o f the Enlightenment was a reaction against the
G io r g i, A . (1 970). Psychology as a human science. N e w York: H a rp e r &c religious dogma of the medieval ages. The belief in one true and
R ow .
almighty G od, for all people and from eternity to eternity, was
G io r g i, A. (19 85 ). (E d.). Phenomenology and psychological research. Pitts­
burgh: D uquesne University Press. replaced in the modern era by a belief in one true and objective reality,
M o ustakas, C . (19 94 ). Phenomenological research methods. T h o u sa n d universal and stable. Today— with a delegitimation of global systems
O aks, C A : Sage.
of thought— there is no longer a stable foundation to support a
Spiegelberg, H . (I9 6 0 ). The phenomenological movement, Vol. II. The
H ague , T he N e the rlands: M a rtin u s N ijh o ff. universal and objective reality. Rorty’s (1979) critique of the objectiv­
ism im plied by the conception of “ knowledge as a mirror of nature”
D ia le c tic s pertains in particular to the dom inating mental representations of a
C o rn fo r th , M . (19 71 ). Materialism and dialectical method. N e w York: cognitive psychology. “The illusion o f the double w orld” entailed
In te rn atio na l Publishers. thereby has been criticized by marginal positions as diverse as the
R iegel, K . F. (19 75 ). (E d.). The development of dialectical operations.
phenomenological philosophy of Sartre and Merleau-Ponty and the
Basel, Sw itzerland: Karger.
Sartre, J.-P. (19 63 ). The problem of method. L o n d o n : M e th u e n . radical behaviorism o f Skinner (Kvale & Grenness, 1967). The m o d ­
ern dichotomy of an objective w orld distinct from subjective images
In te r r e la tio n s is today breaking down and being replaced by a hyperreality of signs
Bernstein, R. J. (19 83 ). Beyond objectivism and relativism. P h ila d e lp h ia: referring to other signs, texts referring to other texts.
U niversity o f Pennsylvania Press.
Philosophy in the past half century has been characterized by a
M a d is o n , G . B. (1 9 90 ). The hermeneutics of postmodernity. B lo o m in g to n :
In d ia n a University Press.
series of “turns,” such as the linguistic, the conversational, the narra­
R y an , M . (1 9 92 ). Marxism and deconstruction. B altim ore, M I ) : Jo h n s tive, and the pragmatic turn. The conception of knowledge as a mirror
H o p k in s University Press. of reality is replaced by a conception of “the social construction of
reality” (Berger & Luckmann, 1966), where the focus is on the
interpretation and negotiation of the meaning of the social world.
 interviews and Philosophy 43
42 Intervi ews
*

W ith the breakdown of the universal meta-narrativesjof legitima­ beyond the texts, but the participants’ discourse is of interest in its

tion, there is an emphasis on the local context, on the social and ow n right, and the authors pose questions, such as, H ow is the talk

linguistic construction o f a perspectival ieality where knowledge is constructed? and W hat does it achieve? They emphasize discourse

validated through practice. There is an openness to qualitative diver­ analysis as not so much a method as an approach, focusing on the con­

sity, to the m ultiplicity of meanings in local contexts; knowledge is structive nature of questioning, transcribing, and analyzing in inter­
perspectival, dependent on the viewpoint and values of the investiga­ view research.
tor. H um an reality is understood as conversation and action, where
knowledge becomes the ability to perform effective actions. Today, Knowledge as Narrative. In open interviews people tell stories,
the legitimation question of whether a study is scientific tends to be narratives, about their lives. In current thought, there is a shift from

replaced by the pragmatic question of whether it provides useful modern formalized knowledge systems to the narrative knowledge
embodied in storytelling (Lyotard, 1984). W ith a skepticism about
knowledge.
The qualitative research interview is a construction site of know l­ global systems of thought, a renarrativization o f culture takes place,

edge. The knowledge generated by interviews is related below to five w ith truth to be worked out locally in small narrative units and with

features of a postmodern construction of knowledge: the conversa­ the collective stories contributing to uphold the values of the com m u­

tional, the narrative, the linguistic, the contextual, and the interrela- nity. The narrative character of the knowledge in the human sciences

tional nature of knowledge. These intertwined features are taken as a has been treated by Polkinghorne (1988) and the specific narrative
starting point for clarifying the nature of the knowledge yielded by nature of interview research by Mishler (1986), who analyzes the

the research interview and for developing its knowledge potentials. structures of the stories subjects tell.

Knowledge as Conversation. An interview is a conversation, a Knowledge as Language. The medium of the interview is language,
dialogue between two partners about a topic of m utual interest. W ith and the knowledge produced is linguistic. Current philosophy has
the loss of faith in an objective reality that could be mirrored and undergone a linguistic turn, with an emphasis on language games,
mapped in scientific models, there is a move toward discourse and speech acts, linguistic and textual analyses, and hermeneutic interpre­
negotiation about the meaning o f the lived world. The Socratic tation. The linguistic turn has been radicalized in postmodern philoso­
concept of dialogue is com ing to the fore. The primacy of conversation phy: Language constitutes reality, each language constructing reality
is broadly recognized within current philosophy as well as outside in its own way. The focus on language shifts attention away from the
postmodern philosophy, such as in Gadam er’s hermeneutic analyses notion of an objective reality, as well as away from the individual

of the conversation, and in the discourse philosophy of Habermas— subject. There is no longer a unique self who uses language to describe
where truth is to be sought through a rational discourse aim ing at an objective world or to express itself; it is the structures of language
consensus. In Rorty’s neopragmatic philosophy, conversation is a ba­ that speak through the person..
sic mode of knowing, and in Shotter’s conversational constructionism In interview research, language is both the tool of interviewing and,
we live in conversational realities (Chapter 2, Interviews in Three in the form o f tapes and transcripts, also the object of textual inter­

Conversations). pretation. Nevertheless, it has been rare in the social sciences for
Both the research interview and the philosophical discourse rest on interview researchers to analyze the language medium they use as tools
conversation as access to knowledge. The nature of the interview for and objects of their research. As one exception, Jensen (1989) has
conversation can be clarified by drawing on a philosophical analysis argued for applying the techniques of linguistics as a “statistics” of
of discourse. Thus in Potter and W etherell’s (1987) application of qualitative research.
discourse analysis, interview texts do not merely refer to some reality
44 Interviews Interviews and Philosophy 45

Knowledge as Context. The interview takes place in an interper­ There is a shift today from the individual m ind to relations between
sonal context, and the meaning of the interview statements depends persons: “ Constructionism replaces the individual with the relation­
on this context. W ith the collapse of the universal systems of knowl­ ship as the locus of knowledge” (Gergen, 1994, p. x). The knowledge
edge, the local, m anifold, and changing language contexts come into created by the inter-view is inter-relational. The interrelational know l­
prominence. Knowledge obtained within one context is not automat­ edge of the interview has been particularly recognized by therapists.
ically transferable to, nor commensurable with, the knowledge within To Sullivan (1954), the psychiatric interview is an inter-personal
other contexts. W ith the heterogeneity of contexts, the issues of trans­ situation, the data obtained are neither objective nor subjective but
lations between contexts— such as from the interviewers’ conversa­ inter-subjective. In an interview about the therapeutic interview, the
tions with their subjects to their conversations with other researchers Jungian therapist H illm an (1984) replied to the interviewer:
— and of transitions from one modality to another— such as from oral
to written knowledge— come into the foreground. The m ain thing is that we both get o ut o f the way. W h a t can block the
Interviews are sensitive to the qualitative differences and nuances interview is “us,” your thinking about w hat you have to get done here,
o f meaning, which may not be quantifiable and commensurable across and my thinking about my ow n thoughts, opinions, biography, myself.
contexts and modalities. The contextuality of the meaning obtained The “y o u ” and the “ m e” can prevent the “inter.” It’s not o ur views that
matter, it’s the “inter.” (p. 8)
is central in the narrative approaches, as discussed by Mishler in his
Research Interviewing— Context and Narrative (1986). The differ­
New Views on Inter Views. The current qualitative research wave
ences between the oral and the written language contexts become
in the social sciences may become comprehensible when situated in a
critical through the transcription from an oral to a written modality
(Mishler, 1991). postmodern frame of reference. The recent interest in interview
research is, in the present analysis, not merely a result of internal
developments in social science m ethodology, but reflects a broader
Knowledge as Interrelational. An interview is literally an inter view,
historical and cultural questioning and construction of social reality.
an inter change of views between two persons conversing about a
The im plicit conceptions of the knowledge produced by interviews
common theme. In postmodern thought there is an emphasis on
and the explicit analysis of knowledge construction by postmodern
knowledge as interrelational and structural, interwoven in webs of
philosophers thus converge on the conversational, narratival, linguis­
networks. Knowledge is neither inside a person nor outside in the
tic, contextual, and interrelational features of knowledge. None of
world, but exists in the relationship between person and world. In an
these features o f knowledge are specific, new postmodern insights of
introduction to phenomenological philosophy, Lyotard (1991) points
the past decades. The pervasiveness o f these aspects of knowledge as
out that the intentional relation o f subject and situation does not unify
expressions o f a postmodern loss of belief in an objective reality is
two isolated poles; on the contrary, the subject and the situation
new, however, as is the recognition of their intertwinedncss in the
cannot be defined except in and by this relationship. Merleau-l’onty,
communal construction of knowledge of a social reality.
a phenomenological psychologist and philosopher whose work has
The affinities of knowledge construction in postmodern thought
also been regarded as a precursor to postmodern thought (Madison,
and in research interviews pointed out here do not imply that the
1990), emphasized the interrelational nature of knowledge in his
interview is a postmodern method. Thematically, a com mon focus on
development of a phenomenology of perspectivity. His Phenomenol­
experiences and intentions of individual subjects in interviews con­
ogy of Perception (Merleau-Ponty, 1962), which is a critique of the
trasts with a postmodern decentering o f the individual. Historically,
prejudice of an objective world in psychology, thus concludes with a
the conversation as a systematic tool for the creation of knowledge
quote from Saint Exupery’s The Little Prince: “M an is but a network
can be traced at least to Thucydides and Socrates. The psychoanalytic
of relations.”
46 I ntcrVicws Interviews ami Philosophy 47

interview, developed by Freud, has since the turn of the century been The hermeneutic discipline is an attempt to reflect upon the mode
a m ain production site of new psychological knowledge. Yet the of understanding in the humanities, such as by interpretations in
extended use of qualitative interviews as a research m ethod in the literature and historical research, as well as in theology and law.
social sciences is a new phenomenon of the past decades, and has here Radnitzky (1970, p. 22) offers a definition of hermeneutics, which I
been related to changes in the concept of knowledge in a postmodern have abbreviated slightly: Hermeneutic human sciences study the
era as introduced by the traveler metaphor in the first chapter. objectivations of human cultural activity as texts with a view to
Postmodern philosophy has been applied by Scheurich (1995) in an interpreting them to find out the intended or expressed meaning, in
analysis of the power relationship between the interviewer and the order to establish a co-understanding, or possibly even a consent; and
interviewee, and by Lather (1995) in an extension of the concept of in genera! to mediate traditions so that the historical dialogue of
validity. m ankind may be continued and deepened.
I now turn to the philosophical positions that to some extent The topic o f the so-called Betti-Gadamer controversy was whether
provided the background from which postmodern thought developed hermeneutics involves specific techniques of literary interpretation, as
— and reacted against— and that in their own right have provided maintained by Betti, or whether it entails a more fundamental ques­
analyses relevant to qualitative interviews. tioning of the meaning of being, which was Gadamer’s position
(see Palmer, 1969). I emphasize below the methodological im plica­
tions o f hermeneutics and outline some aspects of hermeneutical
Herm eneutical Interpretation interpretation.

Hermeneutics is the study of the interpretation of texts. The pur­ The Hermeneutical Circle and Canons of Interpretation. The inter­
pose o f hermeneutical interpretation is to obtain a valid and common pretation of meaning is characterized by a hermeneutical circle. The
understanding of the meaning of a text. Although the subject matter understanding of a text takes place through a process in which the
of classical hermeneutics was the texts of literature, religion, and law, meaning of the separate parts is determined by the global meaning of
there has been an extension of the concept of “text” to include the text, as it is anticipated. The closer determination of the meaning
discourse and even action. Thus, in Truth and Method, Gadamer of the separate parts may eventually change the originally anticipated
(1975) starts with Plato’s dialogues and regards both the conversation meaning of the totality, which again influences the meaning of the
and the oral tradition as presuppositions for understanding the written separate parts, and so on. In principle, such a hermeneutical explica­
texts, which historically are secondary phenomena. In his article tion of the text is an infinite process, while it ends in practice when
“H um an Action as a Text,” Ricoeur (1971) extends the hermeneutic one has reached a sensible meaning, a valid unitary meaning, free of
principles of interpretations of the texts of the humanities to the inner contradictions.
interpretation of the object of the social sciences— meaningful action. Box 3.2 describes seven canons of a hermeneutic meaning inter­
The research interview is a conversation about the hum an life pretation of literary texts. They are taken from Radnitzky’s (1970)
world, with the oral discourse transformed into texts to be interpreted. analysis of the hermeneutical circle, and their implications for the
Hermeneutics is then doubly relevant to interview research, first by interpretation of interviews are pointed out.
elucidating the dialogue producing the interview texts to be inter­
preted, and then by clarifying the subsequent process of interpreting Differences Between Literary and Interview Texts. Although the
the interview texts produced, which may again be conceived as a relevance of a hermeneutical approach to interview research has been
dialogue or a conversation with the text. suggested here, some reservations need to be made concerning differ-
48 Interviews Interviews anil Philosophy 49

Box 3.2 Box 3.2 Continued

Hermeneutical Canons o f Interpretation a possibility that the researcher may in a re-interview enter
into a dialogue with the subjects about the meaning of their
statements.
A first canon involves the continuous back and forth process
A fourth canon is the autonomy o f the text, that the text
between the parts and the whole that follows from the
should be understood on the basis of its own frame of
hermeneutical circlc. Starting with an often vague and
reference, by explicating what the text itself states about a
intuitive understanding of the text as a whole, its different
theme. For the analysis of interviews this means that the
parts are interpreted, and out of these interpretations the
interpretation should stick to the content of the statements
parts are again related to the totality, and so on. In the
and try to understand what they express about the life world
hermeneutical tradition this circularity is not viewed as a
of the subject. The biography of the individual and psycho­
“vicious circle,” but rather as a circulus fructuosis, or spiral,
logical theories about the theme are of subordinate im po r­
which implies the possibility of a continuously deepened
tance here; what matters is to deepen and extend the
understanding of meaning. The problem is not to get away
autonom ous meaning of the interview statements.
from the circularity in the explication of meanings, but to
get into the circle in the right way. During the analysis of A fifth canon of the hermeneutical explication of a text
qualitative interviews, it is com mon to read an interview concerns knowledge about the theme of the text. C onduct­
through first to get at the more or less general meaning. ing a qualitative research interview requires an extensive
One then goes back to certain themes and special expres­ knowledge o f the theme so that the interviewer may be
sions, tries to develop their meaning, then again returns to sensitive to the nuances of meanings expressed and the
the more global meaning of the interview in the light of the different contexts into which the meanings may enter.
deepened meaning of the parts, and so on. A sixth principle is that an interpretation of a text is not
A second canon is that an interpretation of meaning ends prasuppositionless. The interpreter cannot “jum p outside”
when one has reached a “good Gestalt,” an inner unity of the tradition of understanding he or she lives in. The
the text free of logical contradictions. Correspondingly the interpreter of a text may, however, attempt to make these
interpretations of an interview will stop when the meanings presuppositions explicit, and try to become conscious of
of the different themes make sensible patterns and enter how certain formulations of a question to a text already
into a coherent unity. determine which for|ns of answers are possible. Such a
consciousness of presuppositions is necessary when using
A third canon is the testing of part interpretations against
the interview as a research m ethod, because the interviewer
the global meaning of the text and possibly also against
and the interpreter will unavoidably co-determine the re­
other texts by the same author. In interview analysis this
sults. W hat matters here is being as aware as possible about
implies a comparison between interpretations of the single
one’s own presuppositions and modes of influence and to
statements and the global meaning of the interview, and
attempt to take them into account in the interpretation.
possibly with other information about the interviewee. In
contrast to the interpretations of “dead” texts, there exists
(continued)
so 51
Interviews Interviews and Philosophy

condensation may be necessary to arrive at the meanings intended by

Box 3.2 Continued the interviewee. O n the other hand, what appears to be “noise” from
the standpoint of a “pure” meaning interpretation may yield im por­
A seventh canon states that every interpretation involves tant inform ation through the deeper psychological interpretation of
innovation and creativity— “Jedes Verstehen ist ein Besser- nonintended meanings as a form of “depth hermeneutics.”
verstehen” (Every understanding is a better understanding). The nature of the qualitative research interview as a conversation
The interpretation goes beyond the immediately given and has been treated from a hermeneutical perspective by Carson (1986)
enriches the understanding by bringing forth new differen­ and by Weber (1986). The implications of hermeneutics for interpret­
tiations and interrelations in the text, extending its m ean­ ing interview texts will be taken up in Chapter 12.
ing. Correspondingly the immediately experienced m ean­
ings in the interview situations are expanded and refined Knowledge and Interest. From a critical hermeneutical standpoint,
through interpretation. Habermas (1971) has argued for an interlocking of knowledge and
hum an interests. He has outlined three types of knowledge-constitut­
SOURCE: Adapted and extended from Radnitzky (1970).
ing interests: a technical, an understanding, and an emancipatory
interest.
The natural sciences are, according to Habermas, characterized by
a technical knowledge interest directed toward technical control over
ences between the literary texts of hermeneutics and the texts pro­ objectified processes. This knowledge interest dominated a positivist
duced by interviews. First, hermeneutics has traditionally treated the philosophy o f science in which the natural sciences were regarded as
interpretation of finished texts, whereas a research interview involves the methodological ideal for the social sciences. The explicit purpose
both the generation and the interpretation of a text. The interviewers of behaviorist psychology was thus the prediction and control of the
are cocreators of the texts they interpret, and they may negotiate their behavior o f other people.
interpretations with their subjects. The interview text is thus not a Hcrmeneutical research in the humanities is guided by an interest
pre-given literary text, but emerges in the same process as its interpre­ in obtaining a possible consensus of understanding am ong actors
tation; it involves both the creation and the negotiated interpretation w ithin the frame of reference of self-understanding as mediated within
of the text. the culture. The study of literature and history serves in this case to
Second, a literary text is an accomplished work intended as com ­ further the understanding of the human situation.
munication outside the situation in which it originated. The interview For the critical social sciences, Habermas has postulated an eman­
is tied to a specific interpersonal situation, it develops more or less cipatory knowledge interest. Inform ation about social laws may insti­
spontaneously, the subjects addressing themselves to the interviewer gate a process of reflection in the consciousness of the persons
not only by words but also through gestures and im plicit references involved; and the unreflected consciousness, which belongs to the
to their common situation. The transcribed interview text renders an preconditions for such laws, may then change. Habermas relates
incomplete account of the wealth of meanings expressed in the lived psychoanalytical interpretations to the hermeneutics of text interpre­
interview situation. tations, and regards the psychoanalytic therapy as a model for an
Third, literary texts contain well-articulated and highly condensed emancipatory self-reflection of the social sciences.
expressions of meanings; they arc “em inent” texts. The transcribed Several criticisms can be raised concerning Habermas’s triad of
interviews are often vague, repetitious, and have many digressions knowledge-constituting interests. One is that the natural sciences are
containing much “noise.” An extended process of clarification and depicted in a narrow technical mode, in line with a positivist concep-
52 Interviews and Philosophy 53
Interviews

tion of natural science, neglecting other approaches such as an eco­ the human life world by Heidegger, and to include human action by
logical understanding of nature. Another is that psychoanalysis is Sartre. W ith the focus o f the interview on the experienced meanings
pictured in a rather idealized cognitive manner of hermeneutical of the subjects’ life world, phenomenology appears relevant for clari­
interpretations, with little weight on the emotional turmoils inherent fying the mode o f understanding in a qualitative research interview, j
in the therapy situation, as these appear, for example, in the session “Phenomenology is the study of the structure, and the variations of
reported by Rogers (see Chapter 2, A Therapeutic Interview on Hate). structure, of the consciousness to which any thing, event, or person
In spite o f such limitations, Habermas’s analysis is im portant because appears” (Giorgi, 1975, p. 83). Phenomenology is interested in eluci­
it goes beyond the common dichotomy o f facts or values to point out dating both that which appears and the manner in which it appears.
how different human interests constitute different forms of scientific It studies the subjects’ perspectives on their w orld; attempts to de­
knowledge. scribe in detail the content and structure o f the subjects’ consciousness,
In the present context we can include the emancipatory possibilities to grasp the qualitative diversity of their experiences and to explicate
that research interviews have for getting beyond the surface level of their essential meanings. Phenomenology attempts to get beyond
the phenomena, for going deeper than common sense and instigating immediately experienced meanings in order to articulate the prere-
a process o f reflection on the phenomena studied. A social science flective level of lived meanings, to make the invisible visible. Two
guided by an emancipatory knowledge interest would aim at commu­ contributions of phenomenological philosophy to understanding
nicating the insights obtained about the life world of the interviewees qualitative interview research will be discussed here: the phenom eno­
back to the subjects concerned. Com municating a critical under­ logical m ethod and the primacy of the life world.
standing of the life world, which still has an appearance of natural
necessity, may contribute to changes in the socially constructed world. The Phenomenological Method. Spiegelberg (1960; see also Giorgi,
1994) outlined a phenomenological method that includes description,
investigation o f essences, and phenomenological reduction. It is not
Phenom enological Description
possible to give precise instructions for an open description, and
Spiegelberg illustrates the method by using metaphors; for example,
A phenomenological approach in a general nonphilosophical sense
“to the matters themselves,” “seeing and listening,” “keeping the eyes
has been prevalent in qualitative research. In sociology, phenom enol­
open,” “not think, but see.” According to Merleau-Ponty (1962), what
ogy was mediated by the Husserlian-based phenomenology o f the
matters is to describe the given as precisely and completely as pos­
social world by Schuetz, and further by Berger and l.uckm ann in The
sible; to describe rather than to explain or analyze. Phenomenology
Social Construction of Reality (1966). W itho ut explicitly drawing in
is the attempt at a direct description o f experience, w ithout any
the phenomenological philosophy of Husserl, Taylor and Bogdan’s
considerations about the origin or cause o f an experience. In pheno­
Introduction to Qualitative Research— I'he Search for Meanings (1984)
menological philosophy, bbjectivity is reached through intentional
is based on phenomenology in the sense of understanding social
acts o f consciousness and is an expression of fidelity to the phenomena
phenomena from the actors’ own perspectives, describing the world
investigated.
as experienced by the subjects, and with the assumption that the
In the investigation of essences one shifts from describing separate
im portant reality is what people perceive it to be.
phenom ena to searching for their com m on essence. Husserl termed
Phenomenology was founded as a philosophy by Husserl at the turn
one m ethod o f investigating essences as a “ free variation in fantasy.”
of the century and further developed as existential philosophy by
This means varying a given phenom enon freely in its possible forms,
Heidegger, and then in an existential and dialectical direction by
and that which remains constant through the different variations is
Sartre and by Merleau-Ponty. The subject matter of phenomenology
the essence o f the phenomenon.
began with consciousness and experience, was expanded to include
54 Interviews Interviews and Philosophy 55

A phenomenological reduction calls for a suspension o f judg m ent colonization of the life world that reduces qualitative diversity to
as to the existence or nonexistence of the Content o f an experience. isolated facts and variables and that transforms intentional human
The reduction can be pictured as a “bracketing,” an attempt to place interaction to a means-ends rationality.
the com mon sense and scientific foreknowledge about the phenomena The im plications of phenomenological philosophy for qualitative
within parentheses in order to arrive at an unprejudiced description research were developed in a series o f studies at Duquesne University.
of the essence of the phenomena. Phenomenological reduction does Starting w ith van Kaam ’s (1959) study of “The experience o f really
not involve an absolute absence of presuppositions, but rather a being understood,” the method was further applied, systematized, and
critical analysis of one’s own presuppositions. reflected by Giorgi and co-workers (see Giorgi, 1970; Giorgi, Fischer,
8c M urray, 1975). The open phenomenological approach to the
The l'rimacy of the Life World. The qualitative research interview meanings of phenomena in the everyday w orld is illustrated in the
has a unique potential for obtaining access to and describing the lived interview reported by Giorgi (Chapter 2, A Research Interview on
everyday world. The attempt to obtain unprejudiced descriptions Learning) and will be taken up again in the analysis of the interview
entails a rehabilitation of the Lebenswelt— the life w orld— in relation (Chapter 11, M eaning Condensation). In a review of recent literature
to the world of science. The life world is the, w orld as it is encountered on qualitative research, Giorgi (1994) outlines how a more compre­
in everyday life and given in direct and immediate experience, inde­ hensive phenom enological approach w ould deepen the qualitative
pendent o f and prior to explanations. The qualitative interview may perspective. A general presentation of phenomenological m ethod is
be seen as one realization of Merleau-Ponty’s (1962) program for a given by Moustakas (1994). The phenomenographic research in edu­
phenomenological science starting from the primary experience of the cation, which focuses on qualitative descriptions o f our conceptions
world: of the world, was inspired by phenomenology but does not share its
philosophical assumptions (M arton, 1981 ). The mode o f understand­
All my knowledge o f the w orld, even my scicntific knowledge, is gained ing in qualitative research interviews outlined earlier (Chapter 2, The
from my ow n particular p oint o f view, or from some experience o f the
M o de of Understanding in the Qualitative Research Interview) is in
w orld w ith o ut which the symbols of science w ould be meaningless. The
keeping with a phenomenological understanding, with the life w orld
whole universe o f science is built upon the w orld as directly experienced,
I and if we w ant to subject science itself to rigorous scrutiny and arrive at as the point of departure, the qualitative descriptions of meaning, and
a precise assessment o f its m eaning and scope, we m ust begin by re- a deliberate naïveté as expression of phenomenological reduction.
awakening the basic experiences o f the w orld o f w hich science is the
! second order expression, (p. viii)
Dialectical Situating
The geographer’s map is thus an abstraction of the countryside
Dialectics is the study of internal contradictions— the contradiction
where we first learned what a forest, a m ountain, or a river was. In
between the general and the specific, between appearance and essence,
this phenomenological approach, the qualitative studies o f subjects’
between the quantitative and the qualitative. The development of
experiences of their world are basic to the more abstract scientific
contradictions is the driving force of change. Dialectical materialism
studies of the social world; interviews arc in this sense not merely a
involves the fundamental assumption that the contradictions of mate­
few entertaining curiosities in addition to some basic scientific quan­
rial and economic life are the basis of social relations and of conscious­
titative facts obtained by experiments and questionnaires. The quali­
ness. M en act upon the world, change it, and arc again changed by
tative interview is a research method that gives a privileged access to
the consequences of their actions. H um an consciousness and behavior
our basic experience of the lived world. The descriptive focus on the
are studied w ithin the concrete sociohistorical situation of a class
lived interactions of the human world may counteract a technological
society and its forces and relations of production. The objects of the
 56 Interviews and Philosophy 57
Interviews

human sciences are seen as multifaceted and contradictory, consisting Marxist theory, treats the double work situation o f women industrial
of internally related opposites in continual change and development. workers who were also homemakers. Becker-Schmidt (1982) de­
There are marked differences among the many different traditions scribes the economic and social aspects of the wom en’s world and the
of dialectics, such as the official dialectical materialism o f the former conflicts that were generated by the contradictions in their life situ­
socialist countries, the activity theory developed by Leontiev, the ation. The specific contradictions of the w om en’s reactions and atti­
Frankfurt school o f Adorno and Horkheimer, and the existential tudes expressed in the interviews were then interpreted, not only in
Marxism of Sartre, which will be described here. 1 will not discuss the relation to the individual wom en’s personalities, but were also system­
differences, but will offer some general implications that dialectics has atically traced to the com m on economic and social contradictions of
for understanding qualitative interview research. their everyday world, in particular the conflicting demands made by
Sartre attempted to mediate between Marxism, phenomenology their work and their family situation.
and existentialism, and psychoanalysis in The Problem of Method Dialectics takes issue with the coherence criterion o f truth involved
(1963). His critique of the individualizing approach of psychoanalysis in hermeneutics with a good interpretation as a coherent C»estait free
also pertains to much current interview research: “H ow many times of contradictions. From a dialectical perspective, a truth criterion
has someone attempted the feat of psychoanalyzing Robespierre for based on being free o f contradictions in a contradictory w orld is false.
us w ithout even understanding that the contradictions in his behavior Haug (1978) has criticized what she terms the need for consensus and
were conditioned by the objective contradictions of the situation” harmony in qualitative research. If social reality is in itself contradic­
(p. 60). Sartre’s critique of an objectifying Marxist reductionism might tory, the task of social science is to investigate the real contradictions
also be mentioned: “Valéry is a petit bourgeois intellectual, no doubt of the social situation and posit them against each other. In other
about it. But not every petit bourgeois intellectual is Valéry” (p. 56). words, if social processes are essentially contradictory, then empirical
In dialectical thought there is an emphasis upon the new, what is methods based on an exclusion of contradictions will be invalid for
under development. W ith a conception of the social w orld as being uncovering a contradictory social reality.
developed through contradictions, it is important to uncover the new
developmental tendencies in order to obtain true knowledge of the
social world. The statistical average or the representative case of the Philosophy and Interviews
status quo is less im portant than the new tendencies developing as the
status nascendi. Philosophy addresses the conditions for knowledge of the hum an
In a dialectical perspective, knowledge is intrinsically related to situation; it does not provide specific methods for obtaining empirical
action. M arx, in his theses on Feuerbach, criticized the philosophers knowledge of the hum an situation. The philosophies outlined above
for merely interpreting the world differently; what matters is to have analyzed m ajor aspects of the mode o f understanding in the
; change the world. Correspondingly, social scientists have tended to interview, such as life world, meaning, description, ambiguity and con­
provide different interpretations of the social reality, rather than tradictions, intersubjectivity, and change. By clarifying the nature of
/ contribute to its change. For Sartre, knowledge and action are two such phenom ena these philosophies may contribute to conceptualiz­
abstracted aspects of an original concrete relation: Action is an uncov­ ing and reflecting the mode of understanding in the qualitative re­
ering of reality and at the same time a changing of this reality. search interview. In some instances they can also provide inspiration
The implications o f dialectical philosophy for qualitative interview for a m ethodological development of interview research, such as the
research have been little addressed. I include it here in an attempt to open phenom enological approach to conducting and analyzing inter­
counteract the prevalent individualistic and idealistic approach of views, or a hermeneutical approach to interpretation o f interview texts.
m uch interview research. O ne example, an interview study based on
 4
38 In te r v ie w s
t

There are im portant convergences as well as fundamental differ­

ences am ong the philosophies discussed aboVe. Heidegger’d existential
philosophy, based on Husserl’s phenomenology and on the hermeneu­
tic tradition, is now regarded as anticipating postmodern thought, as
is Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological philosophy. Sartre developed
phenomenological and existential philosophy within a dialectical con­
text, and Lyotard s early works focused on phenomenology and
dialectics.
T hough they converge on conceptual reflections o f major aspects
of the interview’s mode of understanding, these philosophies were
developed with different aims and for different areas. There are many
conflicting assumptions among, as well as within, these philoso­ Qualitative Research
phies. The idealistic focus on consciousness and texts in phenom ­
in Science and in Practice
enology and hermeneutics contrasts with a dialectical materialist
emphasis on the social and economical contradictions of society. Both
Before turning from the philosophical understandings of interview
phenom enology and dialectics seek the essences beneath the manifest
research to the concrete procedures of designing an interview inquiry,
appearances, while in postmodern thought the appearance has become
I will address some current positions on qualitative research in aca­
. the essence. Phenomenology attempts to obtain presuppositionless
demic and practical social research. I will first discuss conccptual
j descriptions, hermeneutics emphasizes foreknowledge by interpreta-
controversies that are frequently brought up by mainstream social
; tions. Hermeneutics attempts to obtain interpretations free o f contra-
scientists, such as the scientific status of qualitative research and its
! dictions, whereas dialectics focuses 0 11 these very contradictions of
relation to quantification and objectivity. Then I will discuss three
consciousness and action as reflections of social and material contra­
areas in which qualitative interviewing has been prominent in prac­
dictions. And whereas hermeneutics aims at consensus of interpre­
tice: market research, feminist research, and psychoanalysis. Different
tation, postmodern thought emphasizes the plurality of diverging
as these areas may be, they have in com mon a use of qualitative
interpretations. Dialectical materialism presupposes a basic material
interviews in attempts to develop knowledge that may change persons
reality, postmodern thought emphasizes the linguistic and social con­
and conditions.
struction of a social reality.
These im portant differences will not be pursued in the present
context; in the follow ing chapters the philosophies w ill be used
The Scientific Status of the Interview
pragmatically to highlight different aspects o f the qualitative research
interview, The philosophies will be applied to conceptualize and
The qualitative research interview has sometimes been dismissed as
reflect upon issues encountered throughout the method stages o f an
not being scientific— it may perhaps provide interesting results and
interview inquiry. These involve méthodologie choices in questioning,
serve as preparation to scientific investigations, but the interview as
interpreting, validating, and reporting interview studies, choices that
such is not a scientific method. Critical objections appear endemic to
are often at odds with traditional conceptions of method in the
current qualitative research. In Qualitative Research for Education,
modern social sciences. 1
Bogdan and Biklen (1982) list and discuss eight common questions
about the value of qualitative research. The concluding chapter of
Designing Qualitative Research (Marshall & Rossman, 1995) is titled

59
60 Interviews Interviews in Science and in Practice 61

“Defending the Value and Logic of Qualitative Research.” In this scientific is unwarranted. The automatic rejection of qualitative re­
book’s final chapter, Chapter 1 5 ,1 will return to some of the standard search as unscientific reflects a specific, limited conception of science,
objections to qualitative interview research. instead of seeing science as the topic of continual clarification and
Neither textbooks on social science methodology nor dictionaries discussion. T hroughout the follow ing chapters I w ill argue that the
of the English language provide any unequivocal and generally ac­ qualitative research interview can produce scientific knowledge in the
cepted definition of science. Some of the main definitions of science meaning of methodologically secured new and systematic knowledge.
in Webster’s dictionary (Webster’s, 1967) are, in abbreviated form:
Knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding,
attained through study; systematized knowledge; one of the natural Positivism
sciences; knowledge covering general truths or the operations of
general sciences, especially as obtained and tested through scientific O ne philosophical position that has generally rejected qualitative
m ethod; a system or method based on scientific principles. The research as a scientific method goes under the name of positivism (see,
characterization of qualitative interviews as scientific or unscientific e.g., Kerlinger [1979] and M andler &C Kessen [1959] for positivism
w ill therefore depend on which definition of science is chosen; thus applied to the social sciences; Radnitzky [1970] for a critical discus­
the interview does not belong to the methods of the natural sciences, sion o f the philosophical foundations o f positivism, and Koch [1959]
though it can, as will be shown in this book, produce systematized for a critique of its consequences for psychology). Truth was to be
knowledge. found through method, by follow ing general rules of method that
An alternative, apparently simpler definition of science is as the were largely independent of the content and context of the investiga­
activity of, and the knowledge produced by, scientists. Although tion. Any influence by the person of the researcher should be elim i­
circular, this operational definition points to the social and historical nated or m inimized.
issues of who is a scientist and who has the power to define an activity The founding of the social sciences was closely tied to positivism.
as scientific or unscientific. Com te founded both positivist philosophy and sociology as a science
Some accepted core concepts of the m eaning of science do exist in mid-19th-century France. Positivism began as a positive develop­
in our culture. It is understood that science should produce know l­ ment; it reacted against religious dogma and metaphysical speculation
edge, and that this knowledge should be new, systematic, and ob­ and stressed a return to observable data. Positivist science was to
tained methodologically. A broad definition of science that w ill be provide determinate laws of society with possibilities o f socially
used here is therefore: the methodological production of new, system­ engineering society. The potential contributions of social science to
atic knowledge. social change were lost in the Vienna circle in the 1920s. Its strict focus
The concepts of this working definition— methodical, production, on the logic and validity of scientific statements had a strong impact
new, systematic, and knowledge— are again complex. Depending on on the mid-century development of the social sciences, in particular
how these five terms are defined, qualitative research may again be in the United States.
characterized as either scientific or as unscientific. For example, Social scientists of different critical schools have often labeled
systematic may refer to intersubjectively reproducible data, to quan­ positivism as uncritical. This may pertain to positivist scientists defin­
titative data, to objective results, to generalizable findings, and to ing the political, historical, and social functions of social research as
knowledge obtained by a hypothetical, deductive method. Again, the outside the scientific dom ain. W hen it comes to a critical approach to
scientific status of the interview depends on the definitions chosen. scientific evidence and the rigor of scientific arguments, the positivists
W ith the m anifold meanings of the concept of science, any general have contributed to movihg social research beyond myth and common
characterization of qualitative interview research as scientific or un­ sense.
62 Interviews Interviews in Science and in Practice 63

According to positivist thought, the youn£ social sciences should T hough science was to build on objective, quantified data, the social
follow the experimental quantitative m ethodsof the established natu­ and temporal practices of the researchers producing these data were
ral sciences, in particular o f the most advanced science at the turn of neglected in the positivist social sciences. A closer look at the proce­
the century— physics. Social science should aifn at the prediction and dures for obtaining intcrsubjective agreement among observers about
control of behavior. Scientific statements were to be based upon “objective” facts reveals the many theoretical presuppositions built
observable data; the observation of the data and interpretation o f their into the observational procedures leading to the construction of social
meanings should be strictly separated. The scientific facts should be facts. This pertains to the transformation of meanings into data, for
objective and quantifiable. Data should be unambiguous, intra- and example in psychology by the categorization of group action, and the
intersubjectively reproducible. Scientific statements ought to be value content analysis of texts into atomized meanings as facts (Kvale,
neutral, facts were to be distinguished from values, and science from 1976a). W ith a postmodern perspective, quantified data are not given,
politics. nor ideals for interview research to approximate; social facts are social
To a philosophy o f science that takes as its point of departure the constructions arising from a specific, chosen technological perspective
elim ination of the hum an factor in research, the qualitative interview on the social world.
based on interpersonal interaction must appear unscientific. The mode Although positivist philosophy has had little influence on the
of understanding in research interviews consistently violates the posi­ natural sciences— one article even talks about “the physics of the
tivist demands of scientific knowledge. The m ain aspects o f the physicist” and “the physics of the psychologist” as two entirely differ­
interview, as outlined in Box 2.1 (see Chapter 2), either are irrelevant ent realities (Brandt, 1973)— and is no longer current in the philoso­
to or directly violate a positivist conception of science. The interview phy of science, a positivist understanding of science may still rule in
data consist o f meaningful statements, themselves based on interpre­ some psychology departments. An extreme version of this attitude was
tations, and they are again subject to continual processes o f interpre­ the early behavioristic lim itation of psychology to the objective obser­
tation; the data and their interpretations are thus not strictly sepa­ vation of behavior, with a prohibition against entering into a dialogue
rated. Q uantified knowledge is not the goal of interview research; the with research subjects. Mishler (1986) documents how a behaviorist
main interview findings arc expressed in language, frequently in approach long dominated interview research, and that a mechanical
everyday language. Interview statements can be ambiguous and con­ behaviorist conception of interviews as responses (answers) emitted
tradictory and the findings may not be intersubjectively reproducible, to stimuli (questions) led interviewers to neglect, and even suppress,
for example, because o f the interviewers’ varying knowledge of and the spontaneous tendency that people have to tell stories about their
sensitivity to the interview topic. In conclusion, major features of the lives.
mode of understanding in the qualitative interview appear, from a A closer look at the practices of formalizing and quantifying
positivist perspective, as methodological sources of error, and the research in the social sciences may show that these are linked less to
interview therefore cannot be a scientific method. the actual practices of the natural sciences than to the administrative
Criticizing positivism and a quantitative hegemony in the social procedures of bureaucratic institutions and a general technological
sciences is sometimes dismissed today as attacking a straw man. The approach to hum an action (Kvale, 1976b), both of which attempt to
quantitative man may indeed be made o f straw in some disciplines, eliminate or reduce the subjective dimensions of the subjects ruled.
but as recently as the 1984 congress of the International Union of The strictly formalized procedures of categorization and quantifica­
Scientific Psychology, the presidential address by Klix advocated the tion are ways of ordering and structuring the social world, with
development of psychology as a natural science in accordance with quantification as one means of legitimating administrative decisions.
the principle evolved by Galilei: Measure what is measurable, and In the social sciences, positivism has entailed a philosophic bureau-
make measurable what is not.
64 Interviews Interviews in Science anil in Practice 65

cracy that suppresses the subjective and social dimensions of social intersubjectively testable and reproducible: Repeated observations of
research. the same phenom enon by different observers should give the same
data. Objectivity may here refer to what a number of subjects or judges
observe, referred to as “coder reliability.” Scriven (1972) criticized
O bjectivity in Q ualitative Research this quantitative conception of objectivity as the “ fallacy of intersub­
jectivism”— the sheer number o f observers reporting the same phe­
It has often been claimed that the qualitative research interview nom enon is no guarantee of truth, the success of stage magicians being
lacks objectivity, due in particular to the human interaction inherent one of many possible counterexamples. I can add the extreme position
in the interview situation. Turning to social science texts on m ethod­ of the main character in Ibsen’s play, A?; Enemy of the People— “The
ology and to ordinary language dictionaries, about a dozen meanings most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom is the compact m ajor­
o f objectivity may be found (sec Polkinghorrie, 1989; Webster’s, ity. . . . The minority is always right” (act IV).
1967). Objectivity is often discussed as one side of a polarity: objective/ W ithin a conception of objectivity as intersubjective agreement we
subjective; unbiased/biased; public/private; intersubjective/personal; may distinguish between an arithmetic and a dialogical conception of
reflects the nature of the object/personal impressions only; reality as objectivity. Arithmetic intersubjectivity refers to reliability as mea­
it exists independent of the observer/reality as dependent on the sured mechanically by am ount o f agreement among independent ob­
observer; value free/value laden; impartial/partial; facts/values; physi­ servers. Dialogical intersubjectivity refers to agreement through a
cal/meaning; behavior/consciousness; quantitative/qualitative; stable/ rational discourse and reciprocal critique am ong those identifying and
changing; and universal/local. interpreting a phenom enon. This may take the form of a com m unica­
According to a definition of objectivity as intersubjcctive agree­ tive validation among researchers as well as between researchers and
ment, the lack of intersubjective consensus testifies to objectivity being their subjects (Chapter 13, Com m unicative Validity).
a rather subjective notion. W ith the variety of conceptions of objec­ In principle, qualitative interviews can approach objectivity in an
tivity, the qualitative interview cannot be objectively characterized as arithmetic sense of intersubjectivity. Although a single interview can
either an objective or a subjective method. The objectivity of the hardly be replicated, different interviewers may, when follow ing
knowledge produced by the interview interaction must be discussed similar procedures in a com m on interview guide, come up with closely
with specific respect to the different conceptions of objectivity and the similar interviews from their subjects. W ith a dialogical conception of
topic of the concrete inquiry. Here three conceptions of objectivity intersubjectivity, the interview attains a privileged position— it in­
will be discussed: as freedom from bias, as intersubjective knowledge, volves a conversation and negotiation o f meaning between the inter­
and as reflecting the nature of the object. viewer and his or her subjects.
First, objectivity as freedom from bias refers to reliable knowledge, T hird, objective may also mean reflecting the nature o f the object
checked and controlled, undistorted by personal bias and prejudice. researched, letting the object speak, being adequate to the object
Such a commonsense conception of objective as being free of bias investigated, expressing the real nature of the object studied. The
implies doing good, solid, craftsmanlike research, producing knowl­ objectivity of a method then depends on its relation to the nature of
edge that has been systematically cross-checked and verified. In prin­ the object studied, and it involves a theoretical understanding of the
ciple, the interview can be an objective research m ethod in the sense content matter investigated. Again, the interview may in principle be
of being unbiased. This will be argued later in relation to validity as objective. W ith the object of the interview understood as existing in
craftsmanship (Chapter 13, Validity as Quality of Craftsmanship). a linguistically constituted and interpersonally negotiated social
Second, a conception of objective as meaning intersubjective knowl­ w orld, the qualitative research interview as a linguistic, interpersonal,
edge has been com mon in the social sciences. Scientific data must be and interpreting m ethod becomes a more objective m ethod in the
 Interviews Interviews in Science and in Practice 67

social sciences than the methods o f the natural sciences, which were . . . the existential individual, the core o f the individuality, forever
developed for a nonhum an object dom ain. From this perspective the escapes the scientist. H e is chained to group data, statistical prediction,
and probabilistic estimates. (Kerlinger, 1979, pp. 270, 272)
qualitative research interview obtains a privileged position concerning
objective knowledge of the social world: The interview is sensitive to
T he degree to which the observations can be quantified (translated into
and reflects the nature of the object investigated, in the interview
numbers) is often a good index of the maturity o f a science. (Mussen,
conversation the object speaks.
Conger, & Kagan, 1977, p. 13)
In conclusion, the interview as such is neither an objective nor a
subjective method— its essence is intersubjective interaction. The issue According to the above views, the present introduction to qualitative
of the objectivity of knowledge gained through an interview is linked
interview research is w ithout scientific relevance or is, at best, an
to the pervasive dichotomy of objectivism and subjectivism in Western
indication of an immature science.
thought. Bernstein (1983), in Beyond Objectivism and Relativism,
Some possible reasons for the strong demands for quantification in
describes objectivism as the basic conviction that there exists some
current social sciences will be mentioned. There may be an ontological
permanent, ahistorical matrix or framework to which we can ulti­
assumption that the social world is basically a mathematically ordered
mately appeal in determining the nature of knowledge, truth, reality,
universe in which everything that exists, exists in number form; and,
and goodness. A realist version of objectivism implies that an objective
accordingly, the objective data of a science of the social world must be
reality exists independently of the observer and that only one correct
quantitative. There may also be an epistemological demand that re­
view can be taken of it. The counterposition o f relativism involves a
search data should be quantitative in order to be commensurable
view that all concepts of knowledge, truth, reality, and goodness are
across theories. There may further be a technical interest in quantifi­
relative to a specific theoretical framework, a form o f life or culture.
cation, in that statistical techniques are powerful tools for handling
In an attempt to go beyond the polarity of an objectivist realism versus large amounts of data. The demand for quantification may also stem
an “anything goes” relativism, Bernstein follows a hermeneutical
from the anticipated audience of a research report, such as a disserta­
tradition arguing for a dialogic conception of truth, where true know l­
tion committee, the scientific or the public com munity, or a govern­
edge is sought through rational argumentation by participants in a ment agency. The use of numbers may be rhetorical here; when it comes
discourse. And the medium of a discourse is language, which is neither
to convincing a modern audience, the hard quantified facts may appear
objective or universal, nor subjective or individual, but intersubjective. more trustworthy than qualitative descriptions and interpretations.
I will go into some detail here about the dichotom ization of
Q ualitative and Q uan titativ e Research quantitative versus qualitative research methods. Quality refers to
what kind, to the essential character of something. Quantity refers to
One of the most persistent requirements in m odern social sci­ how much, how large, the amount of something. In Webster’s (1967),
ence has been that scientific knowledge should be quantitative; for qualitative analysis is described as a chemical analysis designed to
example, identify the components of a substance, and quantitative analysis as a
chemical analysis designed to determine the amounts of the com po­
Q uantitative research w hich does seek scientific explanation can he nents of a substance. In chemistry a qualitative analysis is then a
referred to simply as the scientific approach. (Cjalder, 1977, p. .155) presupposition for a quantitative analysis. In the practice of natural
science, both forms of analysis are often required: For example, a
Scientists are not and cannot be concerned w ith the individual case. They recent job announcement for North Sea oil geologists listed the ability
seek laws, systematic relations, explanations o f phenom ena. And their to do “qualitative and quantitative interpretations” of petrophysical
results are always statistical.
sediments as a requirement. Although quantification is an im portant
68 I nt erVi ews Interviews in Science and in Practice 69

tool in the natural sciences, large areas of geology, biology, and research, the content and form of com munication, mainly in the form
zoology are based on qualitative descriptions and interpretations, such of texts, are quantified and made amenable for statistical treatment.
as studies by Darwin and by Lorenz of the interactions of animals with In more open approaches to interview texts, qualitative and quantita­
their habitats. In recent philosophical analyses of the practice of the tive analyses intermingle. The relative emphasis will depend on the
natural sciences, such as those by Hesse, any sharp bifurcation of the type o f phenomena investigated and the purpose of the investigation.
hum an and the natural sciences breaks down (see Bernstein, 1983). In media research of TV soap operas, for example, both linguistic and
Thus, apart from the more basic question of why the social sciences narrative analyses of the plot, and statistical analyses of viewer fre­
should try to imitate the natural sciences, a brief look at the actual quency and social distribution of the viewers may be required to
practice of the natural sciences erodes any automatic outlaw ing of understand and predict the impact of a TV series.
qualitative research as unscientific. N ot just the analysis phase, but the whole research process involves
The issue of qualitative versus quantitative methods has been a the interaction o f qualitative and quantitative approaches (Mayring,
heated topic in the social sciences for some time; attempts at bridging 1983). An investigation starts with a qualitative analysis of the existing
the gap (Lazarsfeld, 1944) and arguments that it is a pseudoissue (e.g., knowledge about a phenom enon and the development of qualitative
Reichardt & Cook, 1979; Tschudi, 1989) have had little impact. And concepts and hypotheses for the specific study. The phases of data
the title of one article appears somewhat premature: “Closing Down collection and data analysis that follow can be mainly qualitative or
the Conversation: The find of the Quantitative-Qualitative Debate quantitative, often with an interaction. The final phase, reporting the
Among Educational Researchers” (Smith & Heshusius, 1986). Some results, is.predominantly qualitative; furthermore, tables and correla­
conceptual and practical problems with a strict qualitative-quantita­ tion coefficients require qualitative interpretations of their meanings.
tive bifurcation will be pointed out here, and some reasons why a There may, however, be a tendency to downplay the qualitative
restricted quantitative conception of science still remains will be aspects o f the research process in published reports. W hether due to
suggested. external editorial requirements, or to self-censorship by the re­
In social science textbooks four basic types of measurement are searcher, ithe “soft” qualitative aspects of the research process and
distinguished: nom inal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. Qualitative re­ product tend to be washed away, leaving only the “ hard” quantified
search leading to an either/or categorization of an interview statement facts as fit for public presentation.
as expressing, for example “com petition” or “no com petition” in­ In conclusion, qualitative and quantitative methods are tools, and
volves scaling on a nom inal level. If the categories also include a their utility depends on their power to bear upon the research ques­
ranking of more versus less, for example as “strong,” “m edium ,” tions asked. As tools they require different competencies, w ith differ­
“little,” and “no” competition, scaling at an ordinal level is involved. ences among researchers in their abilities to and interests in carrying
Scaling at an equidistant interval level, as attempted by intelligence out quantitative computations or conducting linguistic or empathic
tests, and at a ratio level w ith an absolute zero, as by measurement of analysis of qualitative data. Despite the conceptual and practical
temperature, is, however, outside the realm of qualitative research. interweaving of the qualitative and quantitative aspects o f social
Qualitative research may thus lead to weaker forms of measurement— science research, a dichotomized conception with a hegemony on the
such as nom inal and ordinal scaling— and no conceptual foundation quantitative side may still prevail. Today’s social science students
to m aintain a sharp dichotomy of quantitative versus qualitative acquire a professional competency in analyzing the social w orld as a
methods appears here. mathematically constituted universe, but remain amateurs in the face
In the practice of social research, qualitative and quantitative of a linguistically constituted social world.
approaches interact. In the “content analysis” tradition o f media * * * * *

6
70 Interviews Interviews in Science amI in Practice 71

I now turn from academic debates on the position of qualitative In the course of the 20th century, the emphasis in economy has
research in social science to the role of qualitative research in some changed from control of production to control of consumption and
practice-oriented fields, such as market research, feminist research, com m unication. In a consumer society, an extensive knowledge of the
and psychoanalysis. The legitimacy of using qualitative interviews in experiences, meanings, feelings, desires, and lifestyles of the consum­
these rather different fields has rested less on their com patibility with ers is essential for the design and marketing of consumer products. An
the prevailing ideas o f scientific m ethod than on their contributions empathic uncovering of experienced meanings and assuming the
to effecting changes in persons and their conditions. perspective of the potential consumers facilitates m anipulation of
their buying behavior.
Qualitative interviews are extensively used in today’s market re­
Q ualitativ e M a rk et Research search to predict and control consumer behavior. W hat market re­
searchers have called a “depth interview” or “motive interview”
In some quarters, qualitative research has come to be regarded as (Dichter, 1960) and “ focused interviews” with groups (Morgan, 1988)
progressive and quantitative research as repressive. It is maintained come close to the qualitative research interview treated in this book.
that qualitative research is sensitive to the hum an situation, it involves Dichter early developed market interviews inspired by the interpre-
an empathic dialogue with the subjects studied, and it may contribute tational approach of psychoanalysis and in line with the sensitive
to their emancipation and empowerment. nondirective interview techniques that Rogers used in therapy. Di-
The qualitative interview is a uniquely sensitive and powerful chter’s outline of central aspects of qualitative interview techniques
method for capturing the experiences and lived meanings of the was developed decades before the current qualitative wave in the
subjects’ everyday world. Interviews allow the subjects to convey to social sciences.
others their situation from their own perspective and in their own In consumer research it is important to get beyond the surface
words. Several books by social researchers, journalists, and novelists meaning of a product and tap the more hidden, symbolic meanings it
have been based on interviews with groups w ho seldom participate in has for potential consumers. In The Strategy of Desire (1960), Dichter
the public debate. Oscar Lewis’s interviews with Mexican peasant reports an automobile study he conducted for Plymouth. The original
families, The Children of Sanchez (1964), is one example. Such inter­ report from 1939 outlined “a new psychological research technique
view studies can have a politically emancipatory function by bringing to get beyond the limits of current statistical research in an under­
to attention and documenting the living conditions of oppressed standing of the factors which influence the sale of cars” (1960,
groups. It is, however, illusory to consider qualitative methods as such p. 289). The study was based on case histories in the form of detailed
“progressive,” which is evident from a look at the use of qualitative conversational interviews that had been recorded in shorthand and
interviewing in market research. transcribed for analysis. “O ur interviews reveal that cars stand for
In psychology, a technical interest in control over objectified pro­ something, they are not just a means of transportation. A car is really
cesses has generally been associated w ith the natural science-oriented a symbol, an expression of human desires. Its appearance, its mechani­
experiments of behaviorism, with the research interest in predicting cal functions, and its social functions help to build up that symbolic
and controlling the behavior of others. These behaviorist knowledge value” (Dichter, 1960, p. 292). According to Dichter, the empathic
interests and methods were well in line with the hum an engineering psychological study from 1939 changed the style of autom obile
approach Taylor instigated in industry at the turn of the century advertising by taking into account the many hidden meanings of
(Kvale, 1976b). This involved extensive time and m otion studies con products and introducing new marketing approaches, which have
trolling the worker’s behavior, which was made more efficient by the since become commonplace (Holbrook, 1995).
assembly line introduced by Ford.
72 I nterVi ews Interviews in Science and in Practice 73

The issue of method is here simpler than in the social sciences: In hum an actions can be the focus of research (Olesen, 1994). Feminist
consumer research, the legitimacy of a research method is based on its research is “qualitative research by women ‘on’ wom en” with a desire
contribution to increased consumption which in turn increases the to make sense of w om en’s lives and experiences; it “ must take
producer’s sales and profits. It is paradoxical that qualitative inter­ w om en’s oppression as one of its basic assumptions” ; it is research
views— which until recently had been dismissed as unscientific within informed at every stage by an acknowledged political com mitm ent
a behaviorist psychology, whose explicitly stated purpose is to predict (Scottm 1989, pp. 69-70).
and control behavior— have found an extended application in market In a postmodern feminist approach, in contrast to the Enlighten­
research, whose survival depends on its very ability to predict and ment view, the moral and political have priority over scientific and
control consumer behavior in practice. epistemological theory. For feminist researchers, gender is a basic
Qualitative interviews are not in themselves progressive or oppres­ organizing principle that profoundly shapes the concrete conditions
sive; the value of the knowledge produced depends on the context and of our lives.
the use of the knowledge. Qualitative interviews can, for example, be
used to investigate teenage attitudes toward smoking, and the knowl­ Very simply, to do fem inist research is to put the social construction o f
edge obtained used to motivate teenagers to start smoking— or to gender at the center o f one’s inquiry. . . . The overt ideological goal o f

refrain from smoking. Interviews are powerful tools for obtaining feminist research in the h um an sciences is to correct both the invisibility
and distortion o f female experience in ways relevant to ending w o m e n’s
knowledge about human experience and behavior, and this knowledge
unequal social position. (I.ather, 1991, p. 71)
is at the disposal of power and money.
In contrast to the more open technological prediction and control
The feminine side of science in general has been emphasized by
advocated in a natural science-oriented psychology, the softer human­
Shepherd (1993), with a focus on feeling and research motivated by
istic forms of controlling feelings and experiences are more difficult
love, receptivity and listening, subjectivity, m ultiplicity and webs of
to detect. In a Foucault-inspired deconstruction of psychotherapy and
interaction, long-term trusting relationships, cooperation and w ork­
humanistic psychology, Richer (1992) points to these hidden forms of
ing in harmony, intuition, relatedness and a vision of wholeness, anti
control as more efficient than the shaping techniques of behaviorism,
the social responsibility o f science. Specific affinities of a feminist
concluding that, “ Psychology— all of it— is a branch o f the police;
approach and qualitative research are discussed by Olesen ( i 994) with
psychodynamic and humanistic psychologies are the secret police”
regard to subjectivity and experiences, relationships and personal
(p. 118).
interaction, and the intersubjectivity between researcher and partici­
pants. Furthermore, some feminists believe that soft qualitative data
are more appropriate for feminist research, because quantitative m eth­
Feminism and Q ualitative Research
ods encourage an unhealthy separation between those who know and
those who do not. Though the linear talk of men can be captured by
Qualitative approaches to human interaction have gained a strong
questionnaires, the way wom en want to make connections among
position w ithin feminist research. In contrast to an often eclectic
areas of their lives is better approached through qualitative in-depth
qualitative research, feminist approaches have in com m on a focus on
interviews (see Scott, 1985).
the everyday world of women, work with methods appropriate for
A feminist conception of the relationship between researcher and
understanding the very lives and situations of women, and under­
researched is in line with the mode of understanding in qualitative
standing is a means for changing the conditions studied. Feminist
research interviews outlined earlier (Chapter 2, The M ode of Under­
research centers on wom en’s diverse situations and the frames that
standing in the Qualitative Research Interview). There is also an
influence those situations, based on the assumption that interpretive
openness to new ways of cojnceiving research in a postmodern context,
74 Interviews Interviews in Science and in Practice 75

with a conflict between feminist strands caught in a textual relativism significant new knowledge about humankind. In textbooks of psycho­
and a change-oriented feminist political agenda. logical methods, however, the major method by which psychoanalyti­
Feminist research focuses on social movements, organizations, and cal knowledge is obtained— the psychoanalytic interview— is absent.
the m aking of policy, which produces a tension in relation to post­ Freud (1963) regarded the therapeutic interview as a research method:
modernist feminist researchers w ho regard “truth” as a destructive “ It is indeed one of the distinctions of psychoanalysis that research
illusion. The endless play of signs and stories, the shifting sands of and treatment proceed hand in hand” (p. 120 ).
interpretation obscure the existing forms of oppression. The real lives Box 4.1 shows seven characteristics of the psychoanalytical inter­
of wom en get lost in texts leading to a relativist resignation that view based on Freud’s (1963) writings on the therapeutic technique.
enforces the status quo in a world of inequality (see the critique by The counseling session based on Roger’s client-centered approach
Olesen, 1994). O ’Hara (1995), on the other hand, expresses the (Chapter 2, A Therapeutic Interview on Hate) gives an adequate
liberating and moral potentials of postmodern feminism like this: presentation of a dramatic episode in this form of therapeutic inter­
view. Criticisms have been raised about the efficiency of psychoana­
W h a t I feel, and read in the w o rk o f feminist poststructuralists, is an lytical therapy, about the coherence of the theory, and about the
enorm ous sense o f relief, hope and responsibility. Far from despair, the empirical validity of psychoanalytical observations (see Fisher &
idea that each o f us recreates reality w ith each encounter fills me w ith
Greenberg, 1977). I will not address those critiques here, but focus
w ondrous hope, em pow erm ent and co m m unity connection. If there is
no absolute truth “out there” to create pristine “expert systems” that can
instead on the fruitfulness of psychoanalytical therapy in bringing
som ehow solve our problems m ath e m atically ;. . . if we accept that when forth new phenomena and new interconnections. The characteristics
we enter into dialogue we both change; if it is true that we co-create of the psychoanalytic interview as outlined are in marked contrast to
reality, w hich in turn creates us— then we are called to a new com m unity.
If I can m ake culture I must act responsibly, (p. 155)

Box 4.1
Psychoanalytical Knowledge P roduction
The Psychoanalytical Research Interview
I now turn to an innovative form of knowledge production that has
largely remained outside the discussions of scientific m ethod. Psycho­
analysis is the one branch o f psychology that, nearly a century after l'he Individual ('.ase Study. Psychoanalytical therapy is an
its inception, still has a strong professional impact in psychotherapy intensive case study of individual patients over several
and that continues to be of interest to the general public, to other years. The extensive knowledge of the patients’ life world
sciences, and to present a challenge to philosophers. Central areas of and of their past thereby obtained provides the therapist
current psychology textbooks are based on knowledge originally with a uniquely rich context for interpreting their dreams
obtained through the psychoanalytic interview regarding dreams and and neurotic symptoms.
neurosis, sexuality, childhood development and personality, anxiety
The Open Mode of Interviewing. The psychoanalytical in­
and motivation, and the unconscious forces (Rapaport, 1959).
terview takes place in the structured seating of the thera­
peutic hour, the content is free and nondirective; it is based
PSYCH OAN ALYSIS AS A RF.SEARCH M E T H O D
on psychoanalytical theory, yet proceeds in an open man-

The psychoanalytic interview, where knowledge production is not

(continued)
the primary purpose, has been the psychological method for providing
76 In te r v ie w s Interviews in Science and in Practice 77

Box 4.1 Continued Box 4.1 Continued

ner. The patient’s free associations correspond with the therapist develops. Strong emotions, ranging from love to
therapist’s “evenly hovering attention.” Freud (1963) rage, were interpreted theoretically as a “transference” of
warned against scientifically formulating a case during childhood feelings for the parents to the therapist. This
treatment, because that would interfere with the open transference is deliberately employed by the therapist as a
therapeutic attitude with" which one proceeds “aimlessly, means to overcome the patient’s emotional resistance to
and allows oneself to be overtaken by any surprises, always deeper self-knowledge and change. Different depths of
presenting to them an open m ind, free from any expecta­ layers of the patient’s personality are disclosed, depending
tions” (p. 120 ). on the intensity of the emotional ties to the therapist. The
influence of the therapist’s own feelings for the patient,
The Interpretation of Meaning. An essential aspect of
termed “counter-transference,” is not sought eliminated,
psychoanalytical technique is the interpretation o f the
but employed in the therapeutic process as a reflected
meaning of the patient’s statements and actions. The psy­
subjectivity.
choanalytical interpretations are open to ambiguity and
contradictions, to the multiple layers of meaning in a dream Pathology as Topic of Investigation. The subject matter of
or a symptom. They require an extensive context, with the psychoanalytical therapy is the abnormal and irrational
possibility of continual reinterpretations: “The full inter­ behavior of patients in crisis, their apparently meaningless
pretation of such a dream will coincide with the completion and bizarre symptoms and dreams. The pathological behav­
of the whole analysis: if a note is made of it at the begin­ ior serves as a magnifying glass for the less visible conflicts
ning, it may be possible to understand it at the end, after of average individuals; the neuroses and psychoses are
many months” (Freud, 1963, p. 100). extreme versions of norm al behavior, they are the charac­
teristic expressions of what has gone wrong in a given
The Temporal Dimension. Psychoanalytic therapy unfolds
culture.
over several years, in a historical dimension, with a unique
intertwinedness ol past, present, and future. Freud’s inno­ Ihe Instigation o/ Change. The mutual interest o f patient
vation was to see hum an phenomena in a meaningful his­ and therapist is to overcome the patient’s suffering due to
torical perspective: The remembrance of the past is an ac­ his neurotic symptoms. Despite patients having sought
tive force of therapeutic change, and the therapy aims at treatment voluntarily, they exhibit a deeply seated resis­
overcoming the repressions of the past as well as the pres­ tance to a change in self-understanding and action. “The
ent resistance against making the unconscious conscious. whole theory of psychoanalysis is . . . in fact built up on
the perception of the resistance offered to us by the patient
Human Interaction. Psychoanalytical therapy takes place
when we attempt to make his unconscious conscious to
through an emotional human interaction with a reciprocal
h im ” (Freud, 1963, p. 68). Although understanding can
personal involvement. Freud noticed that if the analyst
lead to change, the im plicit theory of knowledge in psycho­
allows the patient time, devotes serious interest to him, and
analysis is that a fundam ental understanding of a phenom e­
behaves with tact, a deep attachment of the patient for the
non can i first be obtained by attempting to change the
phenomenon.
(continued)
78 Interviews Interviews in Science and in Practice 79
*

positivist criteria of scientific method as discussed above (Chapter 4, Despite such differences, it is possible for research interviewers to
Positivism). This may be one reason why the psychoanalytical inter­ learn from the modes of questioning and interpreting developed in
view has not been regarded as a research method in psychology. therapeutic interviews. There arc many problems with psychoanalysis
Although it was rejected by a positivist philosophy o f science, the as a research method, and the scientific status of psychoanalytical
knowledge production in psychoanalysis has challenged thinkers in knowledge is still debated. Some of the issues concerning the validity
the philosophical traditions outlined in Chapter 3. T hough generally of interpretations will be discussed later, in Chapter 13. It is a
critical o f the speculative and reductionist trends of psychoanalytic continuing paradox that the therapeutic interview, which has not been
theory, they have reflected on the unique nature of the personal accepted as a scientific method and for which general knowledge
interaction in the psychoanalytical interview and its potentials for production is a side effect, has produced some of the most viable
personal change as well as its contributions to knowledge about the knowledge in the discipline of psychology.
hum an situation. An early introduction to the area was given by May,
Angel, and Ellenbergcr (1958) in Existence: A New Dimension in
T H E R A P E U T IC R E S E A R C H
Psychiatry and Psychology. There are also Boss’s (1 963) Psychoanaly­ B E T W E E N S C Y U . A A N D C l 1 A R Y B D IS
sis and Daseinsanalysis, based on Heidegger’s phenomenological ex­
istential and hermeneutical philosophy, and Laing’s (1962) The Self A therapeutic research project can be a dangerous voyage, a cruise
and Others, inspired by Sartre’s existentialism. Am ong the philoso­ between anecdotal case stories with little method on the one hand,
phers addressing psychoanalysis are Sartre’s (1963) existential m edia­ and quantified physiological and behavioral measures with little psy­
tion of psychoanalysis and Marxism in The Problem o f Method; chological content on the other. Clinical research has produced a long
Ricoeur’s (1970) phenomenological and hermeneutical Freud and history of rejected articles and shipwrecked dissertations. A therapeu­
Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation; and Habermas’s (1971) criti­ tic research voyage can be likened to Odysseus sailing the narrow strait
cal hermeneutical analysis of psychoanalysis as a model for an eman­ between Charybdis and Scylla on his return from Troy, a passage that
cipatory social science in Knowledge and Human Interests. The pre­ he declared was the most dangerous part of his long research voyage.
sent discussion of the psychoanalytic interview and the mode of O n one side of the perilous strait waits the monster Charybdis,
understanding in the research interview is inspired by these works. swallowing whole ships and their crews. Here, the therapeutic re­
The psychoanalytical interview is related to, and contrasts with, the searcher gets carried away by entertaining and exciting case histories,
research interview and its mode of understanding. The purpose of a often with the therapist as the hero. There is seldom any methodical
therapeutic interview is the facilitation of changes in the patient, and reflection on how the evidence for the story is obtained, nor analyses
the knowledge acquired from the individual patient is a means for of the narrative structures involved, nor of the validity of the know l­
instigating personality changes. The general knowledge of the hum an edge presented. After almost a century of psychoanalytical therapy
situation gained through the psychoanalytic process is a side effect of and theory, the main evidence supporting the psychoanalytic theory
helping patients overcome their neurotic suffering. The qualitative Still rests on knowledge accumulated through psychoanalytical inter­
research interview is a construction site of knowledge production; its views, a research method that has hardly been given any systematical
purpose is to obtain knowledge of the phenomena investigated and thought in the social sciences.
any changes in the interviewed subject is a side effect. The intensive Odysseus tried so hard to avoid Charybdis that he came too close
personal therapeutic relationship may open painful, hidden memories to the other side of the narrow strait, where the six-headed monster
and deeper levels of personality, which are inaccessible through a brief Scylla devoured six members of his crew. Contemporary therapeutic
research interview. researchers may try so hard to avoid therapeutic anecdotes that they
get caught in the positivist straightjacket on the other side and lose
80 Interviews

the lived therapeutic relations in a multitude of statistical correlations

and significances that may be insignificant to the therapeutic situation.
In this form of imitative scientism, the clinical researcher may become
“more Catholic than the Pope”— or, in psychoanalytical terminology
— identify with the aggressor.
Vessels sailing the current qualitative research wave also appear to PART

III
be caught in the narrow strait, blown back and forth between a
“no-method” Charybdis and an “all-method” Scylla. Interview ver­
sions of this research can even fall prey to both monsters. O n the one
side there is hardly any methodological account of, or reflection on
the productions of, the texts in the original conversations, or on the
transformations from living conversations to written texts, or on the
validity of the interpretations of meanings of the text. O n the other,
there is a qualitative hyperempiricism of quantified categorizations
and endless quotes from interview transcripts. Such interview reports
lose the lived reality of the conversation as well as the human situation
portrayed in the subjects’ stories.
I now w ill turn to the method stages of an interview investigation
in Part III and suggest some guidelines for keeping clear of the
no-method and all-method hazards in the dangerous passages of an
interview inquiry on the way from an original vision to a final report.
The goal for the interview researcher is to return from the stages of The Seven Stages of an
his or her qualitative inquiry with a tale that does justice to the Interview Investigation
subjects’ stories of their lived world and that conveys new and valid
knowledge and insights to the listeners to and the readers of the tale.

I now turn from the meaning of the concepts in the book’s subtitle—
qualitative research interviewing— to the methods of carrying out an
interview investigation. This methodological Part III follows the tem­
poral course of a qualitative interview investigation through seven
stages: thematizing, designing, interviewing, transcribing, analyzing,
verifying, and reporting. In Chapter 5, the first two stages— them atiz­
ing and designing— are discussed with respect to the production of
 5
82 I ntcrVicws

knowledge. The moral aspects o f an intervjew inquiry are brought up

in Chapter 6, where ethical issues that may iirise throughout the stages
o f an interview investigation arc discussed]
The interview situation is treated in Chapter 7, with the aim of
im proving the quality of the knowledge produced. Preparing for and
carrying out a research interview is discussed, and an interview about
grades is reproduced to illustrate forms of questioning. Q uality criteria
for qualitative interviews are suggested in Chapter 8, where also ethi­
cal aspects of the interview situation and the issue of leading questions
are also addressed.
The structuring o f the interviews for subsequent analysis is ad­
dressed in Chapter 9. Technical questions of transcribing raise princi­ Thematizing and Designing
pal issues about the differences between oral and written language.
an Interview Study
The chapter concludes by outlining the usd of computer programs for
handling interview texts.
This chapter attempts to design an interview investigation that goes
The next three chapters focus on the analysis of interviews. A
beyond the no-method or all-method dilemma by emphasizing the
discussion of “the 1,000-page question” in Chapter 10 highlights some
expertise and craftsmanship of the interview researcher. It starts by
key issues of interview analysis. Chapter 11 provides an overview of
describing a contrast between the formal reports of social science stud­
approaches to analysis, such as meaning condensation and categoriza­
ies and the openness of the semistructured interview. An emotional
tion, narrative structuring and interpretation, in Chapter 12, the
account of the hardships of an interview journey is given, showing
plurality of interpretations is related to the hermeneutic primacy of
how things can go wrong when the overall design of an interview
the question, and questions posed to interview statements about
investigation is not considered. Then a more structured, seven-stage
grading are discussed, drawing on different contexts of interpretation
route for investigating is discussed— thematizing, designing, inter­
and validation. Finally, a modern quest for meaning is contrasted with
viewing, transcribing, interpreting, verifying, and reporting. The
a postmodern deconstruction of reified meanings.
stages are illustrated by my study of the effects of grades on learning.
Verification o f the knowledge produced in interviews is treated in
The first two stages of an interview study, thematizing and designing,
Chapter 13, where gencralizability, reliability, and validity in qualita­
are then treated in some detail. Finally, going beyond method by
tive research are discussed. Validation as a social construction is
conceiving of research as craftsmanship is suggested.
treated in some detail, and philosophical conceptions of knowledge
as conversation and action are included and communicative and
pragmatic forms of validation outlined.
Openness and Em otions in Interview Studies
W ith the emphasis on validation as com m unication and action, the
reporting of interviews comes into the foreground. Purposes and
Articles in social scicnce journals give rather formalized pictures of
forms of interview reports are discussed in Chapter 14. W riting is
the research process. Fditorial requirements promote a distorted
discussed as a social construction, and in order to get beyond the often
technical picture of scientific research as a logical, linear process—
boring interview-quoting reports, modes for enriching the reports are
which is far from the continually changing actual research process with
suggested.
its surprises, design changes, and reformulations of concepts and
hypotheses. In a realistic presentation of designing qualitative re-

83
84 I nt erVi ews Designing an Interview Study 85

search, Marshall and Rossman (1995) discuss how the formalistic I The com m on term unstandardized may pertain to the interview
outlining of an interview investigation might also be required on i situation, but an entire interview investigation tends to be a rather stan-
applications for research funding, where the emphasis is on clear and ' dardized affair, often going through five characteristic emotional phases.
well-structured proposals .1 Box 5.1 describes the em otional dynamics of an interview investi­
One example of a more valid description of the vicissitudes of ac­ gation. The empirical basis for the descriptions involves observations
tual scientific research is “A Case History in Scientific M e thod ,” by from colleagues and students undertaking interview studies as well as
the radical behaviorist Skinner (1961). He dismisses the formalistic recollections from my own study of grading. The intensity of the
way of presenting research and describes the many chance happenings emotional phases varies. M om ents of enthusiasm, com m on at the
and surprises from his own experimental research on behavior that beginning, can also occur in the later phases, such as when discovering
led to significant discoveries of animal and human behavior. Thus, new meanings through interpretation. The five phases can also be
happenings such as the breakdown of feeding apparatuses and the encountered through the use of other research methods. It seldom
experimental rats having babies led to discoveries of new contingen­ happens, however, that the contrast between an initial enthusiasm and
cies of reinforcements for learning. Such realistic descriptions of the later hardships is as distinct as in interview studies.
scientific research behavior can be a solace to students mystified by
the neat formal presentations of research publications and textbooks
on methodology. Box 5.1
The very virtue of qualitative interviews is their openness. No
standard techniques or rules exist for an interview investigation based E m otional Dynamics of an Interview Study
on unstandardized qualitative interviews. There are, however, stand­
ard choices of methods at the different stages of an interview investi­
gation. They include questions such as: H ow many interviews will be Antipositivist Enthusiasm Phase. An interview project
needed? Should the interviews be taped, and should they be tran­ usually starts with enthusiasm and com mitm ent. The re­
scribed? H ow should the interviews be analyzed? Should the interpre­ searcher is strongly engaged in a problem and wants to
tations be given to the interviewee? carry out realistic natural life research. It is to be m eaning­
Rather than prescribe standardized procedures and techniques, the ful qualitative research of people’s lives, and not a positiv­
present approach calls attention to standard methodological choices ist, quantified data gathering based on abstract theories.
arising at the different stages of an interview investigation. The aim is The Interview-Quoting Phase. By now the researcher will
to make decisions about method on a reflective level, based on have recorded the initial interviews and is intensively en­
knowledge of the topic of the study and of the methodological options gaged in what the interviewees have said. Forming a con­
available, and their likely consequences for the interview project as a trast to the ideological enthusiasm in the antipositivist
whole. The very openness and flexibility of the interview, with its phase, there is now personal engagement and a solitary
many on-the-spot decisions— for example, whether to follow up new identification with the subjects, w ho have revealed so much
leads in an interview situation or to stick to the interview guide— put of their often oppressive life situation. At lunch the inter­
strong demands on advance preparation and interviewer competence. viewer entertains his colleagues with a wealth of new
The absence of prescribed sets of rules creates an open-ended field of quotations. Although exciting at first, it may after a while
opportunity for the interviewer’s skills, knowledge, and intuition. be difficult for the colleagues to remain fully involved in
Interviewing is a craft that is closer to art than to standardized social the interview stories.
science methods. (continued)
 ■

86 Interviews Designing an Interview Study 87

late Renata Tesch— who ran a consultation firm for qualitative re­
Box 5.1 C ontinued search in the United States— read the description of these emotional
hardships. She then wrote for permission to quote the descriptions in i
The Working Phase of Silence. After a time, silence falls an advertising folder for her firm, and added after the five hardship
upon the interview project. The researcher no longer brings phases: “There is one way to avoid this state of affairs, call Qualitative
up interview quotations at lunch. A colleague now asking Research M anagem ent!”
about the project receives a laconic answer: “The inter­ Perhaps the description of the emotional hardships of interview
views are being transcribed” or “The analysis has just research is becoming outdated; with many qualitative research milieus
started.” This working phase is characterized by sobriety and courses and with an abundance of me.thod literature, the novice I
and patience. researcher will have a good starting point for better getting through ■/
The Aggressive Phase of Silence. A long time has passed the stages of an interview investigation.
i
since the interviews were completed and still no results are
presented. A colleague w ho now inquires about the project I
w ould run the risk of being met with distinct annoyance: The Seven Stages of Interview Research
■
the researcher bristles and more or less clearly signals “it’s
none of your business.” As for the researcher, this m id pro­ In this section I outline ways of designing an interview investigation i
ject crisis is characterized by exceeded time limits, chaos, that may assist the interviewer through the hardships of the research
I
and stress. process and help to contribute to retaining the initial vision and
engagement throughout the investigation. As a first step toward I
The Final Phase of Exhaustion. By now the interview
invalidating the description of the emotional hardships, seven stages
project has become so overwhelming that there is hardly
of an interview investigation are outlined.
any time or energy left for reporting the originally inter­
Box 5.2 shows the course of an interview investigation through
esting findings. One version of this phase is that “nothing
seven stages, from the original ideas to the final report. In order to
is reported”— the many hundred pages of transcribed in­
provide some structure to an open and flexible interview study, I will
terviews remain in the files. In a “lecture version,” the
emphasize a linear progression through the seven method stages for
researcher conjures up some entertaining quotations in
an interview inquiry. In contrast, the interactive nature of qualitative g
lectures, but the final report remains postponed. In a
research comes through quite well in Strauss and C orbin’s (1990)
com mon “save what can possibly be saved” term ination,
presentation of the procedures and techniques of the grounded theory
the interviews appear as isolated quotations w ithout m eth­
approach, which is less formal than the present focus on seven stages ■
odological and conceptual analyses. In cases where a more
of an interview investigation. Strauss and Corbin depict a continual
systematic “ final report” does appear, the researcher may
interplay among conceptualization, field studies, analyses, and new
feel resigned because he has not succeeded in passing on to
contacts with the field, which is downplayed in the present simplified
the readers in a methodological justifiable way the original
linear presentation that attempts to structure the often chaotic field ji
richness of the interview stories.
of interview studies.
The emotional dynamics of an interview study can now be related *
to the seven stages outlined here. The antipositivist enthusiasm domi- |
The depicted emotional phases of an interview project need not be nates the usually quickly bypassed thematizing and designing stages. I
an exclusively Danish phenom enon, nor are they unavoidable. The The engaged interview quoting covers the interviewing stage. The '

>
88 Interviews Designing an Interview Study 89

w orking and the aggressive quiet phases accompany the transcription

Box 5.2 and, in particular, the analyzing stage. The verifying stage is often
skipped, and exhaustion comes to dominate the reporting stage. The
Seven Stages of an interview Investigation root of these ordeals is in the quick bypassing of the stages of thema­
tizing and designing, which are particularly im portant in a method as
open as an interview inquiry.
1. Thematizing. Formulate the purpose of an investiga­
The treatment of an interview investigation in a single book entails
tion and describe the concept of the topic to be investigated
rather brief treatments of each of the seven method stages. M y main
before the interviews start. The why and what o f the
purpose is to give an overview of an entire interview investigation, to
investigation should be clarified before the question of
outline the interactions among the stages, and to trace the intercon­
how — m ethod— is posed (Chapter 5).
nectedness of the practical issues of method and the philosophical
2. Designing. Plan the design of the study, taking into conceptions o f knowledge and truth.
consideration all seven stages of the investigation, before
Some books with more extensive treatments of the stages of quali­
the interviewing starts. Designing the study is undertaken
tative investigation arc depicted in Box 5.3. Them atizing is bound to
with regard to obtaining the intended knowledge (Chapter
specific subject areas and is not covered by any general book; several
5) and taking into account the moral implications o f the
of the chapters in Denzin and Lincoln’s (1994) handbook, however,
study (Chapter 6).
do treat general conceptions of the subject matter of interviews. For
3. Interviewing. Conduct the interviews based on an in­ designing qualitative research, interviewing, analyzing, and reporting
terview guide and with a reflective approach to the kno w l­ there now is a rich method literature. Little literature is available on
edge sought and the interpersonal relation of the interview verification, however, and the ethics and transcription of interview
situation (Chapters 7 & 8).
research are barely treated.
4. Transcribing. Prepare the interview material for
analysis, which commonly includes a transcription from
oral speech to written text (Chapter 9). Interviews A b o u t Grades
5. Analyzing. Decide, on the basis of the purpose and
topic of the investigation, and on the nature of the inter­ The slightly exaggerated emotional hardship phases are to some
view material, which methods of analysis are appropriate extent based on my own interview study o f grading in Danish high
for the interviews (Chapters 10, 11, 8c 12 ). schools; examples from this investigation are used throughout this
6. Verifying. Ascertain the generali/ability, reliability, book. The overview presented below illustrates the seven stages o f an
and validity of the interview findings. Reliability refers to interview investigation. [Lhereafter 1 will return to more general
how consistent the results are, and validity means whether outlines o f the thematizing and designing stages.
an interview study investigates what is intended to be
investigated (Chapter 13). I. Thematizing. Thematizing refers to a conceptual clarification
7. Reporting. Communicate the findings of the study and and a theoretical analysis of the theme investigated, and the form ula­
the methods applied in a form that lives up to scientific tion of research questions. The grade study, which took place in 1978,
criteria, takes the ethical aspects of the investigation into was instigated by a public debate about the effects of grading in
consideration, and that results in a readable product (C hap­ connection with a new policy of restricted admission to college based
ter 14). on grade point averages from high school (Kvale, 1980). A hypothesis
90 Interviews Designing an Interview Study 91

Box 5.3 Box 5.3 Continued

Literature on Q ualitativ e Research 4. Transcribing

M is h le r, E. G . (1 9 91 ). R epresenting discourse: The rhetoric o f transcrip­
tio n . ]oumal of Narrative and l ife History, I, 255-280.

1. Them atizing 5. Analyzing

D e n z in , N . K ., & L in c o ln , Y . S. (Eds.). (1 9 9 4 ). Handbook of qualitative M ile s , M . B., & H u b e rm a n , A . M . (1 9 94 ). Qualitative data analysis: An
research. T h o u s a n d O a k s, C A : Sage. expanded sourcebook. T housan d O aks, C A : Sage.
S ilv erm an , D . (19 93 ). Interpreting qualitative data. T h o usa n d O a k s, C A :
2. Designing Sage.

Research Design Tesch, R. (1 990). Qualitative research: Analysis types and software tools.
L o n d o n : Falmer.
G lesne, C , & Peshkin, A . (1 9 92 ). Becoming qualitative researchers. W h ite
W o lc o tt, H . F. (19 94 ). Transforming qualitative data. T h o usa n d O aks, C A :
P lains, N Y : L o n g m a n .
Sage.
M a rs h a ll, C ., & R ossm an, G . B. (1 9 9 5 ). Designing qualitative research.
T h o u s a n d O a k s, C A : Sage. 6 . Verifying
M a y k u t, P., & M o re h o use , R . (19 94 ). Beginning qualitative research.
Eisner, E. W ., & Peshkin, A. (Eds.). (19 90 ). Qualitative inquiry in educa­
L o n d o n : Falm er.
tion. N e w Y o rk : Teachers C ollege Press (see the chapters on gener­
M o rse , J. M . , & Field, P. A . (1 9 95 ). Qualitative research methods for
a lizatio n by D o n m o y e r and by Schofield).
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tion. N e w Y o rk : Teachers C ollege Press, (see the chapters by L in c o ln , Sweden: Studentliteratur.
by S m ith , & by Soltis)
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sity o f C a lifo rn ia Press. A m erican Psychological A ssociation. ( 19 89). Publication manual (3rd ed.).
K im m e l, A. |. ( 19 88). Ethics and values ill applied social si ience research. W a s h in g to n , D C : A uthor.
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M a th is o n , S., Ross, E. W „ & C o rn e tt, J. W . (1 9 9 3 ). A casebook for teach­ V a n M a a n e n , ]. (1 988). Tales of the field. C hicago: C hica go University
ing about ethical issues in qualitative research. U n p u b lish e d m a n u ­ Press.
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Q u a lita tiv e Research S IC , W a s h in g to n , D .C .) Sage.

3. Interviewing
R u b in , H . J., & R u b in , 1. S. (1 9 95 ). Qualitative interviewing. T h o u sa n d
O a k s, C A : Sage.
S eidm an , I. E. (1 9 91 ). Interviewing as qualitative research. N e w York:
hypothesis stated that the prevalence of the grading perspective would
Teachers C ollege Press.
S pradley, J. (1 9 79 ). The ethnographic interview. N e w Y o rk : H o lt, R in e h a rt
increase with a restricted admission to college based on grade point
& W in s to n . averages.
Y o w , V . R . (1 9 94 ). Recording oral history. T h o u s a n d O a k s, C A : Sage. T hough hardly new, the hypotheses— which were based on com ­
m on sense as well as on research literature on grading in other
countries— were contested in the public debate in Denmark. I had
of a grade perspective was formulated: G rading influences the process been involved in a newspaper debate with the Danish minister of
of learning and the social situation where learning occurs. A second education, who maintained that there would be hardly any educa­
92 Intervi ews Designing an Interview Study 93

tional or social impact from a restricted university admission based on The actual course of the investigation was less neat than that
grade point averages. The purpose of the interviews was to test the schematized here. The transcription and analysis of the 36 interviews,
two hypotheses, which also included an exploration of the main which were conducted in January, took far more time than planned.
dimensions of the effects of grading on the pupils. A third hypothesis The preliminary results were not ready to be reported back to the
postulated an instrumentalization of learning through grading: Learn­ pupils and teachers, as promised before the interviews, until June. By
ing for grades in school socializes pupils to work for wages in occu­ then most of the pupils were too busy with their final exams to be
pational life. interested in discussing research about the effects o f grades.

2. Design. Because the influence of grades was a controversial topic Interviews and Questionnaires. Two psychology students later used
when the interview study was begun, special care was therefore taken the interviews as a basis for constructing a questionnaire on grades
to have a methodologically well-controlled design. As one way of (H volbul & Kristensen, 1983). They included statements from the
investigating the influence of grades, 30 high school pupils were interviews in their questionnaire and asked new groups o f pupils for
interviewed about their experiences with grades. This number was a their degree o f agreement or disagreement with these statements. The
compromise between obtaining a representative sample and the re­ questionnaire consisted of more than 150 questions and was adm in­
sources available for the study. In order to counteract possible special istered to more than 200 pupils from six high schools across the
circumstances at a single high school, pupils from three schools were country. The purpose was to obtain representative and generalizable
interviewed. They came from one class at each school and were se­ findings. The results were analyzed by computer programs, which had
lected by their alphabetical name order. Six teachers were also inter­ been prepared in advance.
viewed, to gain an alternative perspective on the effects o f grading. The two students were so confident of how quickly the analysis
To counteract special interviewer bias, the 30 pupils were distributed would be done that they had submitted a presentation to a Nordic
among four interviewers, three student assistants and myself. educational conference to take place in Finland 2 weeks after the last
The remaining five stages of the grade study are treated in more questionnaire was scheduled to arrive. They actually managed to have
detail in the following chapters and only outlined briefly here. the major findings from the questionnaires ready for presentation at
the conference, with statistical computations of correlations and sig­
• Stage .3: Interviewing. A detailed guide was used for the individual nificances in neatly arranged tables and figures. A corresponding
interviews, each o f which lasted about 45 minutes and was taped. predictability and speed of analyzing and reporting for a qualitative
• Stage 4: Transcribing. All 36 interviews— w ith pupils and teachers— interview study w ould have been out of the question. W ith the
were transcribed verbatim, resulting in about 1,000 pages o f transcripts.
standardized structures and techniques for questionnaire construction
• Stage 5: Analyzing. The 30 pupil interviews were categorized with
and quantitative analysis, the likelihood of delays and of getting lost
respect to different forms o f grading behavior. The interviews w ith the
pupils and the teachers were also subjected to more extensive qualitative
is less than with the little structured interview studies.
interpretations. O ne of the statements included in the questionnaire was an asser­
• Stage 6: Verifying. Reliability and validity checks were attempted tion about a connection between talkativeness and grades from an
throughout the project, including interviewer and scorer reliability, and interview passage quoted earlier (Chapter 1, Conversation as Re­
validity o f interpretations. search). The statement, depicted in Table 5.1, was split into two items
• Stage 7: Reporting. The project resulted in a book, Spillet om karakterer in the questionnaire. The percentage of agreement am ong the 239
i gymnasiet (The G rading G am e in H igh School) (Kvale, 1980). The
pupils on the two items i$ indicated in Table 5.1. It turned out that a
thematic and m ethodic aspects o f the study were also treated in sub­
majority of the pupils agreed with the first part of the statement— that
sequent articles in professional journals.
grades are an expression of how much one talks, whereas a majority
94 Interviews Designing an Interview Study 95
»

• what: obtaining a preknowledge o f the subject matter to be investigated

T A B L E 5.1 From Interview Statements to Questionnaire Items
• why: clarifying the purpose o f the study
Interview Statement • how: acquiring a know ledge o f different techniques o f interview ing
and analyzing, and deciding which to apply to obtain the intended
P upil: G rades are often unjust, because very o fte n — very ofte n — they are o n ly a
knowledge
m easure o f h o w m uch you talk, and h o w m u c h you agree w ith the teacher’s o p in io n .

Percentage of 23 9 Pupils
Method originally meant the way to the goal. In order to find or to
show someone else the way to a goal, one needs to know what the
Strongly Strongly
goal is. W hen designing an interview project, it is necessary to know
Questionnaire Items Agree Agree Disagree Disagree
the content and the purpose of the study in order to make reflected
decisions on which methods to use at the different stages o f the study.
G rades are often an expression o f h o w

m u c h o n e talks in class 20 62 15 3
Consultations on interview projects sometimes take the form of an
G rad es are often an expression o f h o w explorative “counter”-interview. The counselor first needs to explore,
m u c h o n e follow s the teacher’s o p in io n 4 20 57 19 by carefully questioning the investigator, what the research topic and
basic questions of the interview study are before the specific questions
asked about methods can be addressed. There is a standard reply to
the questions of design of qualitative interviews— the answer depends
disagreed with the second part— that grades are often an expression
on the thematic content and the purpose of the investigation. The
of how much one goes along with the teacher’s opinion.
thematic questions of “what” and “why” have to be answered before
The example points out strengths and weaknesses in the two
the “ how ” questions of design can be posed meaningfully.
methods. The interview brought out interesting beliefs about which
behaviors lead to good grades, whereas the questionnaire made it
possible to test how prevalent these beliefs were among a large number CONTENT
of pupils. I he questionnaire did not follow up on the pupils’ state­
Interview studies today often start without a theory of the themes
ments, but an interviewer could closely question the strength o f a
investigated, and also w ithout a review of the research literature in
pupil’s belief and might also obtain concrete examples supporting the
the area. One definition of science is the systematic production of new
claims (see the context of this statement in Chapter 1, Conversation
knowledge (Chapter 4, The Scientific Status of the Interview). W ith ­
as Research).
out any presentation of the existing knowledge about the topic of an
In retrospect, the interview study o f grades w-ould probably have
investigation, it is difficult for both researcher and reader to ascertain
yielded more valuable knowledge with fewer but longer, more inten­
whether the knowledge obtained by the interviews is new, and thus
sive interviews. The questionnaire developed on the basis of the
what the scientific contribution of the study is. The theoretical naivete
interviews could be used to test the generality of the interview findings
com m on in the many applied interview projects is not necessarily
and the smaller number of qualitative interviews could have been
confined to qualitative research. The contributions of Freud and later
subjected to more penetrating interpretations.
psychotherapists testify to the potentials of theorizing on the basis of
qualitative interviews.
T heniatizing A significant part of any interview project should take place before
the tape recorder is turned on for the first actual interview. This
The key questions for planning an interview investigation concern involves developing a conceptual and theoretical understanding of the
the what, why, and how of the interview: phenom ena to be investigated, to establish the base to which new
96 Designing an Interview Study 97
Interviews

knowledge will be added and integrated. The thematic understanding pupils, and the questions w ould attempt to elaborate and differentiate
of the topic of the study— the “what”— will further influence the the meaning o f these experiences and help the pupil to express his
“how ” of the study: the many decisions on method that must be made. feelings about them. From a Freudian perspective, the questions
Knowledge o f a phenomenon is required to be able to pose significant w ould be directed toward the pu pil’s interpersonal emotional dynam ­
questions, whether they are on the essence of beauty, truth, and ics and family situation. Relevant questions m ight address whether the
goodness in a Socratic dialogue, the tactics o f a master chess player, teasing in school related to similar episodes in the family and to sibling
or trends in-rock music tn a teenage interview. rivalry. From a Skinnerian approach, the im portant inform ation
Familiarity with the content o f an investigation is not obtained only w ould concern the contingencies reinforcing the teasing behavior; that'
through literature and theoretical studies. Just hanging out in the is, what happens after the teasing occurs. The reactions of others to a
environment where the interviews are to be conducted w ill give an behavior are essential reinforcers of social learning, and the question­
introduction to the local language, the daily routines, and the power ing w ould focus on what responses the teaser gets from the other
structures, and so provide a sense of what the interviewees will be pupils and the teacher; in short, W hat are the immediate consequences
talking about. Particularly for anthropological studies, a familiarity of the teasing behavior?
with the foreign culture is required for posing questions: Different kinds of interview questions are required to obtain the
kinds of inform ation necessary to interpret the meaning of teasing
O ne o f the reasons for do ing field trips is that you are presented with with respect to the different theories. The three approaches, simplified
how abstract is the most concrete o f your concepts and questions when here, w ould focus on present experiences and feelings, on family his­
you are at hom e in the library. W h en 1 first went to Brazil I made my tory and em otional dynamics, and on future behavioral consequences,
way 2,0 00 miles into north central Brazil and 1 arrived in a small tow n.
respectively. These theoretical approaches highlight different aspects
I heard that there were Indians w ho actually were in tow n. A nd I can
of the meaning o f teasing. If they are not introduced until the analysis
remember an incredible sense o f excitement. I rushed out and walked
around tow n until I fo und this group o f Indians and walked straight up stage, after the interviews have been conducted, the relevant inform a­
to them— and then I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to ask: “ Have you tion for the theoretical interpretations may be lacking.
got moiety systems?” (a special kind of kinship relations). A nd it d id n ’t
make sense to do that. In fact it to ok four m onths to find a way to ask a
question with which I could discover from people whether they did have IHJRPOSF.
moiety systems. (Lave 6c Kvale, 1995, p. 221; slightly abbreviated)
T hcm atizing an interview study also involves clarifying the purpose
o f the study— the “why.” Some com m on purposes of interview studies
The influence that theoretical conceptions of the content have upon
w ill be discussed here. Im plications o f different purposes w ill be
method choices may be exemplified by an imagined interview w ith a
addressed by the concrete decisions of design.
pupil about the meaning of teasing. Different theories will lead to dif­
Interviews can be explorative and hypothesis testing: An explora­
ferent emphasis on such phenomena as feelings, experiences, behavior
tory interview is open and has little structure. The interviewer in this
-—-as well as on the temporal dimensions of past, present, and future.
case introduces an issue, an area to be charted, or a problem complex
Say a school psychologist is interviewing a pupil who— the teacher
to be uncovered, such as in the interview on the experience of learning
complains— is continually teasing the other pupils and thereby dis­
reported by G iorgi. The interviewer follows up on the subject’s
turbing the class. The interview might be conducted from a Rogerian
answers and seeks new inform ation about and new angles on the topic.
client-centered approach, a Freudian psychoanalytic approach, and a
Interviews that test hypotheses tend to be more structured. This can
Skinnerian behavior modification approach, respectively.
take the form of a comparison o f interviews from different groups,
From a Rogerian perspective, the important questions w ould con­
for example, by testing a hypothesis that boys w ill express more
cern what the pupil experiences and feels when he is teasing the other
98 Interviews Designing an interview Study 99

com petition about grades than will girls. W hen investigating group sequent stages of interviewing— transcribing, analyzing, verifying, and
differences, it is best to standardize the Wording and sequence of reporting— are treated in detail in later chapters. In this section, I call
questions in order to compare the groups. The testing o f hypotheses attention to the temporal dimension of an entire interview inquiry
may also occur within a single interview, with the interview questions from the first thematizing of the study topic to the final reporting. I
designed to test hypotheses about, for example, the structural simi­ also discuss some of the overall aspects of the design, such as interview
larities o f learning for grades and of working for money. types, number of interview subjects, and resources available for the
The main purpose of an interview can be either empirical or study, as well as projects for which interviews are not particularly
theoretical. An investigation can be designed to gather empirical
suitable.
inform ation about, say, the effects of grading. O r an investigation
m ight also be designed to test the implications o f a theory or, as in the
n I E TEMPORAL DIMENSION
grounded theory approach developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967),
to develop an empirically grounded theory through observations and The temporal dimension of an interview design should be kept in
interviews. m ind from the first thematizing to the final reporting, taking into
There are more specific uses. Interviews are often applied in case account the interdependence of the seven stages. The final report
studies. The purpose may be to develop knowledge about one specific should be envisaged from the start, and much of the analyzing and
person or institution or to use the case to illustrate more general verifying tasks should be pushed forward to earlier stages. The im pli­
phenomena. Interviews can also serve as an auxiliary method in cations of a researcher becoming wiser during the interviewing should
conjunction with other methods. In studies of participant observation also be considered.
and in ethnographic studies, less or more inform al interviews arc
im portant sources of inform ation. Through the construction of ques­ Overview. A key factor is to develop a view over the entire inves­
tionnaires, pilot interviews can be used to chart the main aspects of a tigation before the interviews start. W hen using the more standardized
topic and to test questions for the questionnaire. In postexperimcntal methods, such as experiments, questionnaires, and tests, the very
interviews, subjects are questioned on how they understood the ex­ structure o f the instruments requires advance decisions about the way
perimental design. Interviews may also be used as background material in which the study will be conducted. M ethodological alternatives are
for other studies. In order to write a theoretical analysis o f grading, in this case already built into the instruments, for instance by the
one might interview pupils and teachers about grades, listen to the response alternatives of questionnaires and by computer programs for
taped interviews, and then theorize. Here the interviews are not statistical analysis and presentation of the numerical findings. In open
subjected to methodical analysis, but serve instead as background and unstandardized interview studies, however, the choices of method
material for the theoretical work and to provide illustrations o f the can tend to make their first appearances throughout the investigation,
phenomena discussed. often when it is too late to make decisions appropriate to the content
and purpose of the study.

Designing Interdependence. There are strong interconnections among the choices

o f m ethod made at the different stages. A decision at one stage has
After the first stage of thematizing an interview investigation— consequences that both open and limit the alternatives available at the
clarifying its content and purpose— the second stage, designing, con­ next stage. For example, generalizing the findings of an interview
sists of overall planning and preparing the methodical procedures for study to larger groups will require that certain criteria— regarding size
obtaining the intended knowledge. Procedures o f design in the sub­ and representativity of the sample of subjects— already be met at the
100 1n t e r V i c w s
Designing an Interview Study 101

design stage. If o n e w ere t o m ake a lin guistic analysis o f interv iew s d u rin g th e study m ay well c re a te p r o b l e m s for th e interview er. N o vel
this w o u ld no t be p o ssible, o r w ou ld re q uire a tim e - c o n s u m i n g re t r a n ­ d im e n s io n s o f a p h e n o m e n o n m ay be d is co v e r e d in the m id dle o f a
sc r ip tio n if the in terview s had be en ed ited in t o n o rm a l Englis h by the ser ie s o f interv ie w s test in g, f o r e x a m p l e , d if f e r e n c e s a m o n g pu pils’
t r a n s fo r m a ti o n fro m o ral t o Written language. le a r n in g m o t iv a ti o n s in a p u blic vers us an e x p e r i m e n t a l s c h o o l . T h e
0 V "> d il e m m a will t h e n b e w h e t h e r t o i m p r o v e the in te rv ie w g uid e to
Keep the Endpoint in Sight. F r o m the start o f the investig atio n keep in c lu d e in the n e w d im e n s io n s , and n o t have c o m p a r a b l e g ro u p s , or
the e n d p o in t in view . W h a t is the study’s pu rpose and h o w is the final to refra in f ro m learn in g m o r e a b o u t the n e w d im e n s io n s u n c o v e re d
p r o d u c t en vis aged? W ill a pu blica tion result fro m the study? A sh or t d u rin g th e study. N o easy s o lu tio n t o the d il e m m a o f b e c o m i n g wiser
a rticle? A b o o k ? F o r a scien tific fo ru m o r for a g eneral a u d ie n c e ? T h e as a t h r e a t t o st an d ard ize d c o n d it i o n s is o f f e r e d , e x c e p t t o b e as clear
an s w ers t o su ch q u e stio n s can serve as g uid elin es t h r o u g h o u t the stages as p o ssible a b o u t the m a in p u rpose s o f a study f ro m its i n c e p tio n .
o f the res ea rch p r o je c t, assisting the in fo r m e d d ecis ion s m a de t h r o u g h ­
o u t the in vestig atio n and k eep in g it on track to w a rd the g oal. T h e
IN T E R V IE W F O R M S
n a tu re o f the final re p o r t is decisive for d ecis ions at earlier stages on
such issues as: In fo rm in g the in terview ees a b o u t late r use o f w h a t they T h e r e are m a n y d if f e r e n t f o rm s o f i n terv iew s and in te rv ie w s u b ­
sa y; o b t a in i n g w ritten p e rm issio n t o q u o te exten siv ely f r o m thei r jects, r e q u i r i n g d if f e re n t a p p r o a c h e s , and a few will be m e n t i o n e d
in terview s; and han d lin g any co n trov e rsia l and c o n flictu a l t h e m e s that b rie fly . In dividu al interv ie w s vary a c c o r d in g t o c o n t e n t , su ch as s e e k ­
m ig h t arise in the interv iew s. H o w p e rson al and critica l c a n the ing factu al i n f o r m a t i o n , o r o p in i o n s and a ttitu d es, o r nar ra tiv es and
i n te rp r e ta tio n s o f the interview ees be in a p u blic rep ort? life h is to rie s (see F lick et al., 1 9 9 1 ) . T h e i n t erv iew ees c a n also be
re g a r d e d as in f o r m a n t s for r e c o r d in g or a l histo ry (Y o w , 1 9 9 4 ) . G r o u p
Push Forward. A ttem p t to do m uch o f the w o r k o f the la te r stages i n t e rv ie w s to d a y are o f t e n r e f e rr e d t o as f o c u s g ro u p s and are f r e ­
at e arlier stages. A lth ou gh the p ro b le m s o f an interview p r o j e c t tend q u e n t l y used in m a r k e t res ea rch . T h e in t e r a c t i o n a m o n g th e in terv iew
t o su rface in the late r stages, m o re o ften than n o t they o r ig i n a te d in s u b je c t s o f t e n lea ds t o s p o n t a n e o u s and e m o t i o n a l st a t e m e n t s a b o u t
the ea rlier stages. T h e so lu tio n is to im prove the qu ality o f the orig inal t he t o p i c b e in g dis cussed. T h e g ro u p i n t e r a c t i o n , h o w e v e r , red uce s
interv iew s. T h u s , clarifyin g the m eaning s o f e x p r e ss io n s used during t h e in t e r v i e w e r ’s c o n t r o l o f the in te rv ie w s itu a tio n and the p rice may
an in terv iew will faci litate later analysis; asking c o n t r o l qu e stio n s b e a rela tively c h a o t ic d a ta c o ll e c t i o n , w ith d if fic u lties f o r s y s te m a tic
during the in terv iew will facilitate the validation. Im p ro v in g interview a naly sis o f th e i n t e rm in g lin g v o ice s (see M o r g a n , 1 9 8 8 ) . D i f f e r e n t
q u ality is n o t sim ply a qu estion o f better interview t e c h n i q u e s or g r o u p s o f su b je c t s re q u ire d if f e re n t in te rv iew a p p r o a c h e s . In ter v iew s
d esign; it also inv olv es a re flectiv e c o n c e p t i o n o f the to p i c an d pu rpose w i th elites thu s involv e p r o b l e m s o f a ccess t o the in t e rv ie w e e s, and
o f the inq uiry fro m the very be ginning. g e n e r a lly r e q u ire th a t the in t e rv ie w e r has a g o o d grasp o f the in terv iew
t o p i c in o r d e r t o e n te r ta i n an i n f o r m e d c o n v e r s a t io n (see H e r t z &
Getting Wiser. An in terview er may learn t h r o u g h o u t an investig a ­ Im ber, 1995).
tio n : T h e co n v e r s a t io n s w ith the su bjects may e x te n d and a lter the
r e s e a r c h e r ’s u n d er sta n d in g o f the p h e n o m e n a inves tigated . T h e in t e r ­
H O W M A N Y IN T E R V IE W S U B JE C T S D O 1 N E E D ?
v iew ees b r in g forth n e w and u n e x p e c te d aspects o f the p h e n o m e n a
s tu d ied ; a nd during analysis o f the t ranscribed interview s n e w d is tin c­ T o th e c o m m o n q u e s t i o n , “ H o w m an y in te rv ie w s u b je cts d o I
t io n s m ay be d is covered. O n e o f the m ain p u rp oses o f an e x p l o r a t o r y n e e d ? ” the a n s w e r is sim p ly, “ In ter v iew as m any s u b jects as ne cessary
study is the disco ver y o f n e w d im en s io n s o f the s u b ject m a tt e r. In t o find o u t w h a t you n e e d t o k n o w . ”
h y po th e sis -testin g studies, h o w ev er, real izing sig nifica nt n e w insights
102 Interviews Designing an Interview Study 103

T h e n u m b e r o f s u b jects n e cessa r y d e p en d s o n a stu d y ’s p u rp o s e . In re s e a r c h e r s w h o do no t w o r k hard en o u g h t o find the spe cific r e i n ­

qu alitativ e in te rv iew st udies, the n u m b e r o f s u b jects te n d s t o b e eith e r f o r c e m e n t sch ed ules co n t ro llin g the b e h a v io r inves tigated .
t o o small o r t o o large. If the n u m b e r o f su b je c t s is t o o sm all, it is n o t T a k i n g in t o a c c o u n t the d ifferen c es a m o n g the p io n e e rin g studies
possible to m a k e statistical g e n e r a liz a t io n s o r to test h y p o t h e s e s o f m e n t i o n e d a b o v e , tw o rea s on s for ob t a in in g sig nifica nt k n o w le d g e
d iffe ren c es a m o n g gro ups. If the n u m b e r o f su bjects is t o o larg e, then f r o m a few su bjects, w h ic h has later b e en fou n d ge n eraliza b le to larger
it is n o t po ssible to m a k e p e n e tr a ti n g in t e r p r e ta t i o n s o f the in terview s. g ro u p s , m ay b e suggested. Q u a n tita tiv ely , each case c o n t a in e d an
If the g o al is to p re d ict th e o u t c o m e o f a n a t io n a l e l e c t i o n , a r e p r e ­ i m m e n s e n u m b e r o f ob serv a tio n s o f single ind ividuals. Q u alitativ e ly ,
sen tative s am p le o f a b o u t 1,000 su bjects is n o rm a lly r e q u i r e d , so t h e focu s o n single cases m a de it possible to investigate in d etail the
qu alitativ e inte rv iew s w o u ld be o u t o f the q u e st io n . If the p u rp o s e is r e la t io n s h ip o f a specific b e h a v io r t o its c o n t e x t , to w o r k o u t th e logic
t o u n d e rsta n d the w o rld as e x p e r i e n c e d by o n e s p e cific p e r s o n , this o f th e re la t io n s h ip b e tw een the individual and the situ a tio n . T h e
o n e s u b ject is su fficient. s p e c if i c k ind o f re lationship varied fro m t ra n s fe r e n c e o f a p s y c h o a n a ­
If the p u rp o s e is t o test h y p o t h e se s a b o u t the d if f e r e n t a ttitu d e s o f ly tic th e r a p y t o the r e i n fo r c e m e n t sch e d ules o f le arn in g. W h a t they
boys and girls t o w a rd c o m p e t i t i o n for g ra d es, th e n e cessa r y sam ple ha v e in c o m m o n is the w o rk in g o u t o f c o n siste n t and re c u rr e n t
may be as sm all as thre e b o y s and th re e girls fo r c o n d u c t i n g a Fish er p a t te r n s th ro u g h intens ive case studies.
test o f sig n if ica n ce . D e p e n d in g o n the d is trib u tio n o f the fin din gs, a
test o f statis tically s ig n ifica n t d if f e re n c e s b e tw e e n the t w o g ro u p s can R E S O U R C E S A V A IL A B L E
be m a de at a p ro b a b ility level o f p < . 0 5 (Siegel, 1 9 5 6 ) . If , h o w e v e r ,
the p u rp ose o f th e stud y is to e x p l o r e and d escrib e in detail the Time and Money. T h e a m o u n t o f res ou rces ne cessary f o r an i n t e r ­
attitud es o f bo y s and girls t o w a r d gra des, n e w interv ie w s m ig h t be view stud y can be easily o v e r l o o k e d at the design sta g e ; th a t is w hen
c o n d u c t e d until a p o in t o f s a t u r a tio n , w h e r e fu rt h e r i n te rv iew s yield o n e sh ou ld ask such q u estion s as: H o w m uch tim e d o c s the res e a rch er
little n e w k n o w le d g e . In c u rre n t interview st udies, the n u m b e r o f have a vaila ble for the study? H o w m uch m o n e y is available for
interview s te n d t o be a r o u n d 15 + 1 0 . T h i s n u m b e r m a y be d ue t o a a ss is ta n ce — for e x a m p l e , for typing the interview tra n scrip ts? C o n ­
c o m b in a t io n o f the tim e and r es o u rces available for the investig atio n d u ctin g the interv iew s them selves is g enerally n o t t im e - c o n s u m i n g ;
and o f the law o f d im in ish in g re turns. t r a n s c r i b i n g th e m re quire s m uch m o re tim e and is th e r e fo r e exp e n siv e.
A c o m m o n critiq u e o f in te rv ie w stud ies is t h a t the fin din gs are no t T h e s u b s e q u e n t analysis o f th e transcripts is usually the m o s t tim e-
g enera liz ab le be ca u se t h e r e are t o o few su bjects. A p a r a d o x ic a l a n ­ c o n s u m i n g p a rt o f the interview study.
sw er, fro m the histo ry o f p s y ch o lo g y , is t h a t if the aim o f a study is to
o b ta in g eneral k n o w le d g e , t h e n fo cu s o n a few inten siv e case studies. Quality Versus Quantity. A g eneral im pressio n fro m c u r r e n t in t e r ­
T h e c o n t r i b u ti o n o f F r e u d ’s case stud ies to the g ene ra l k n o w le d g e o f view st udies is that m any o f them w o u ld have p ro fited f r o m hav ing
p a th o lo g y and p erson a lity is o n e in s tan ce. Less a t t e n t io n has b e en fe w e r interview s in the study, and from takin g m o r e tim e t o p re p a re
given to th e fact th at a p i o n e e r study o f a natu ral sc ie n c e psy ch o lo g y , th e interv iew s and to analyze them . P erhap s as a d efen sive o v e r r c a c -
E b b in g h a u s’s e x p e rim e n ta l- s t a tis t ic a l investig a tio n o f l e a rn in g and r e ­ t io n , s o m e q u a litativ e interv iew st udies ap p ea r to be d esig ned o n a
m e m b e rin g n o nsense sy llables, w as a case study with a single s u b je c t — q u a n t ita t iv e pre su p p o sitio n — the m o r e in terview s, th e m o r e scientific.
himself. P iag et’s inn ova tive studies o f c h i l d r e n ’s c o g n itiv e d e v e lo p ­ In c o n t r a s t , the p re sent a p p r o a ch e m phasiz es the qu ality ra th e r than
m ent o r ig in a te d w ith psy ch o an aly tically inspired interv iew s w ith his t he q u a n t ity o f the interviews.
ow n ch ild ren . T h e rad ical b e h a v io r is t S k i n n e r ( 1 9 6 1 ) a rg u ed in “A
C ase H is to ry in S c ie n tific M e t h o d ” against the f r e q u e n t use o f large Expertise. G o o d in terview s req u ire e x p e rtis e — in bo th su bject m a t ­
gro ups and statistics in p sy ch o lo g y : Statistic al avera g es are e x c u s e s for ter and h u m a n in teractio n . If assistants are to be hired t o c o n d u c t s o m e
 104 In terv iew s Dcsifitiin k an Interview Study 105

o f the interview s, inten siv e training o f these “ n e w " in t e rv ie w e rs m ay k ind s o f s t r o n g e m o t i o n a l d yn am ics m erely to serve res ea rch purp oses
be re q u ire d t o o b ta in in terview s o f g o o d quality. S p e c ific f o rm s o f w o u ld be u n eth ica l.
analysis, say, o f the lin guistic asp ects o f the interview s, also r e q u ire a O n e p u rp o s e o f the pre sen t b o o k is to lead s o m e read e rs away fro m
specia l c o m p e t e n c e . using r e s e a rc h in terv ie w s, by p o in tin g o u t th a t o t h e r m e th o d s m ay be
m o r e a p p r o p r i a t e for the s u b je c t m a tt e r a nd p u rp o s e o f th e ir research .
W H E N N O T T O I N T E R V IE W T h i s b e in g said, it sh o u ld n o t be f o r g o tt e n t h a t inte rv iew s are p a rt ic u ­
larly su ite d f o r stud y ing p e o p l e ’s u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f the m ea n in g s in
In re c e n t social research th e r e has be e n an i n f la tio n a ry use o f th e i r lived w o r l d , d escrib in g th e ir e x p e r i e n c e s a nd s e lf-u n d ers tan d in g ,
in terv iew s; a lso in are as b e tte r c o v ere d by o t h e r m e th o d s. In so m e a n d cla rify in g and e l a b o ra t in g th e ir o w n p er sp ectiv e o n th e ir lived
in sta n ces, the prim a ry m otiv e for using qu al itativ e interview s a ppea rs w orld.
! t o be a flight f r o m statistics. W h e n p lanning an in terv iew study, it may
be useful t o co n sid er w h e t h e r o t h e r m e th o d s might be m o r e a p p r o p r i ­
ate for the to p i c and the p u rp ose o f the investig atio n. M a r s h a ll and F r o m M e t h o d to C r a f t s m a n s h i p
R o s s m a n ( 1 9 9 5 ) o f f e r a clear discuss ion o f d ifferen t m e th o d s o f d oing
qu alitativ e re s earch for d iffe re n t pu rposes and topics. C h a p t e r 4 , o n q u alita tiv e re s e a rch , c o n c l u d e d w ith an o u t li n e o f
H e r e , it m ay be p e r tin e n t to m e n t io n so m e topics and p u rp o s e s to the d il e m m a o f th e r a p e u t i c re s e a rch as ca u g h t in a n a r r o w strait
w hich qu alitativ e in terview s are little suited. If a study seek s t o p redict b e t w e e n t h e . m o n s t e r s o f a n o - m e t h o d C h a r y b d i s and an a l l- m e th o d
the b e h a v io r o f larger gro ups, such as vo ting b e h a v io r , la rg er sa m ples Scylla. T h e p re se n t gu id eli n es f o r designing an in te rv ie w investig atio n
o f r e s p o n d e n ts are ne cessary th a n w ou ld be possible t o c o v e r with m ay a p p e a r t o ste e r an in terv iew in q u iry in t o the d a n g e ro u s vici nity
tim e - c o n s u m i n g qu alitativ e inte rview s; in su ch cases, su rvey q u e s t i o n ­ o f an a l l- m e th o d m o n s t e r . T h e s y s te m a tic p la n n in g m ay, in v o k in g the
nair es with p re c o d e d a nsw ers are the rele va n t m eth o d . A lso, w hen i n t r o d u c t o r y m e ta p h o r s , r e m in d o n e m o r e o f an in t e rv ie w e r as a
there is little tim e available fo r a p r o je c t, q u e st io n n a ire s will usually m in i n g e n g i n e e r th a n as a c o n v e r s i n g tr aveler.
b e faster t o ad m inister, analyze, and re p o r t than interview studies. In o r d e r t o d ev elo p the qu alit ativ e in te rv ie w as a fo rm o f res ea rch
If you w ant t o study p e o p l e ’s b e h a v io r and their i n t e r a c t i o n with it is ne cessa ry t o g o b e y o n d th e d ic h o t o m y o f all m e t h o d vers us n o
their e n v ir o n m e n t, the o b ser v a tio n s o f field studies will usually give m e t h o d . I will discuss a cr a f t s m a n l i k e a p p r o a c h t h a t by passes this
m o r e valid k n o w led g e than m ere ly asking su bjects a b o u t th e i r b e h a v ­ o p p o s i t i o n o f rigid f o rm a lis m o r naive s p o n t a n e it y . C r a ft s m a n s h i p
ior. If the research to p i c c o n c e r n s m o re im plicit m e an in g s and tacit h e r e in clu d es a shift f ro m m e t h o d t o the p e r s o n o f the re s e a rc h e r,
u n dersta nd ing s, like the tak e n - fo r- g ra n t e d a ssum ptio ns o f a g ro u p or re l a t i n g sc ie n c e t o art , a skill m o d e l o f tra n s itio n f ro m n o v ice to
a cu ltu r e , then particip an t ob serv a tio n and field st udies o f actual e x p e r t , and the lea rn in g o f r e s e a rc h t h ro u g h a p p r e n t ic e s h ip .
b e h a v i o r s u p p lem e n ted by in fo r m a l interviews m ay give m o r e valid In te r v ie w in g is a cra f t : It d o e s n o t f o llo w c o n t e n t - a nd c o n t e x t - f r e e
in f o rm a t io n . ru le s o f m e t h o d , bu t rests o n the ju d g m e n ts o f a qu a lif ie d res e a rch er.
If the p u rp ose o f a study is to ob tain d eeper k n o w le d g e a b o u t a 1o r the t h e r a p e u t i c as well as the resea rch in te rv ie w , the in terv iew er
p e r so n , f ocu sing o n person al em o t io n a l co n flicts, th en this m ay best is th e i n s tr u m e n t . T h e o u t c o m e o f an in te rv ie w d e p e n d s o n the
be o b t a in e d t h ro u g h the trust develo ped in the clo s e , pe r so n a l in t e r ­ k n o w le d g e , se nsitiv ity, a nd e m p a t h y o f the i n te rv iew er. Its re la tio n to
a c t i o n d ev elo p ed t hro u g h a lon g and e m o t io n a l th erap y p ro cess. T h e th e su rv ey q u e s t i o n n a i r e and th era p y ca n again b e m e n t i o n e d : B ecau se
c h a lle n g e s t o a p e r s o n ’s estab lished self-im age and the st ro n g feelings t h e r e are e x p l i c i t a nd s ta n d a rd ru le s f o r a d m in is t e rin g q u e s t io n n a ire s ,
p r o v o k e d are ne cessary parts o f thera py , as in the session r e p o r t e d by n e w in t e rv ie w e rs can be fully train ed in a m a tt e r o f h o u r s o r days. In
R o g e r s ( C h a p t e r 2 , A T h e r a p e u t i c In te rview on H a t e ) . C r e a t i n g these c o n t r a s t , th e qualificatio ns! for c o n d u c t i n g an o p e n p sy ch o a n a ly tic
•
106 Interviews Designing an Interview Study 107

in t e rv ie w r e q u ire years o f a c a d e m i c tra in in g a nd o n e ’s o w h p s y c h o ­ T h e n o v i c e - e x p e r t m od el o f the le arn in g o f skills as d evelo ping

a n a ly t ic t h e r a p y o v e r severa l years. fro m e x p l i c i t rule f ollow in g to intuitive m astery is not the o n ly m od e
W h e n the p e r so n o f the qu a lita tive r e s e a r c h e r ta k e s o n a m e t h o d o ­ o f a c q u i r i n g skillful b e ha vior. L e a rn in g by m ea n s o f an a p p renticesh ip
lo g ica l d im e n s io n , a b r o a d sp e c tr u m o f q u a l if i c a ti o n s is d esirab le. In is usually m o r e in f o r m a l and has little verbal r u le -g o v ern e d b e ha vior
a d iscussion o f va lidity in qu alitative re s e a rch , S a l n e r ( 1 9 8 9 ) p ro p o s e s at e i th e r the n o v ice o r the e x p e r t level. T h e n o v ice particip a tes in
re q u i r e m e n t s for the h u m a n sc i e n c e r e s e a r c h e r — su ch as an a c q u a i n ­ c o m m u n i t i e s o f p ra c tice ; learn s t hro u g h h a n d s -o n p ra c tic e , with
ta n c e w ith p h ilo so p h ic a l analysis, an u n d e r st a n d in g o f th e d e v e lo p ­ o b s e r v a t i o n and im itatio n o f e x p e r t p e r f o r m a n c e s ; and gradually
m e n t o f ra tion al th o u g h t in W e s t e r n cu ltu r e, a critical p e r sp ectiv e on a c q u i r e s a m a ste ry o f the craft (Lave & W e n g e r , 1 9 9 1 ) .
so c i e ty , tra in in g in the fo rm al an alysis o f everyday lan g u a g e , e x p e r ti s e R e la t i o n a l, ta cit, and p rag m a tic asp ects o f pro fession a l k n o w led g e,
in a va riety o f re s e a rch m e th o d s , an a w a ren ess o f the eth ica l d im e n s io n in c lu d in g r e s e a rc h , can hardly be p resented verbally in the fo rm o f
o f h u m a n sc i e n c e , and an a e s t h e ti c sensibility. e x p l i c i t rules. A lth eide and J o h n s o n ( 1 9 9 4 ) have addre sse d the im p l i ­
An e m p h a s is o n th e cru cia l ro le o f the person o f the r e s e a r c h e r d o cs c a t i o n s o f tacit k no w led g e w hen assessing in terp reta tiv e validity in
n o t im ply a n e g le ct o f t e c h n i q u e s a nd k n o w le d g e . F o r an artist, a q u a lita tiv e res ea rch . They point to a bias o f c o m m u n ic a t i o n w hen the
m a st e ry o f the d if f e re n t t e c h n i q u e s o f oil pain tin g , w a t e r c o l o r s , and t a c it k n o w le d g e is t ra n s fo rm e d into the logic o f a m o re sh a rea b le
p e n c il d ra w in g , as well as k n o w le d g e o f the laws o f pe r sp e c t iv e and o f t e x t u a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n fo rm . Im p o r ta n t asp ects o f the th e r a p e u tic
c o l o r c o n t r a s t , a rc p r e c o n d i ti o n s f o r a m a stery o f the art o f painting. k n o w le d g e is b e st c o m m u n ic a te d by exe m p la rs , a n e c d o te s , ca se s t o ­
A w o r k o f art c a n n o t , h o w e v e r , be p ro d u c e d by m e re ly f o llo w in g ries, n a r rativ es, and m e ta p h o r s and is tested by its im p lica tio n for
m e t h o d ic a l ru les; the prim a ry i n s tr u m e n t rem a in s the artist, w ith his p r a c ti c e (P o lk i n g h o r n e , 1 9 9 2 ) . Su ch form s o f tr ansm ission o f k n o w l ­
o r h e r sensitiv ity and cre a tivity . A rt is a g e n r e t h a t c a n ser v e as an e d g e c o m e c l o s e r to cra ftsm a n sh ip and art th a n t o form al b u re a u c ra t ic
in s p ir a tio n for in te rv ie w in q uiries. E is n e r ( 1 9 9 1 , 1 9 9 3 ) has l o o k e d at m o d e ls o f research design, and are be st tran s m itte d by p a rticip a tio n
ed u c a t i o n a l pra c tice and re s e a rch fro m the v ie w p o in t o f an art ist. H e in local f o r m s o f p ractice. T o d a y there is an in creasin g r e c o g n i t io n o f
p o in te d o u t t h a t the c o n n o i s s e u r ’s sensitivity t o qu alitative d is tin c tio n s i n d ir e c t a nd c o n t e x t - b o u n d fo rm s o f c o m m u n ic a t i n g k n o w led g e
and the c r i t i c ’s ability to c o m m u n i c a t e n e w p ersp ectives and t o ev a lu ­ t h r o u g h su ch pra c tices as ap p ren ticesh ip and m e n t o r in g , n o t o n ly in
ate the qu alit y o f a w o r k o f art are q u a lif ic a tio n s equ ally d esira b le for the c ra fts, bu t also for the higher p ro fession s, inclu ding scien tific
the ed u catio n al re s e a rc h e r. r e s e a rch ( K v ale , 199.3a ; M i s h l e r , 1 9 9 0 ) .
D rey fu s and D r e y fu s ( 1 9 8 6 ) have p re sen ted a m o d e l o f skill lea rn in g F o r m a l a p p r en ticesh ip in a trade, w h ere stud ents learn in terv iew in g (
w ith a t e m p o ra l s o lu tio n t o a d ic h o t o m y o f lea rn in g e i th e r by ex p l i c i t t h r o u g h the i n t e r a c t i o n o f resea rch co m m u n it ie s w ith m asters o f the
rules o r by intu itio n. T h e ro a d t o the m a stery o f a skill lea ds f r o m a c r a f t , are n o t c o m m o n ly available. W h e n the o p ti o n is to be self-
ru le -g uided “ k n o w in g t h a t ” to an e x p e r i e n c e - b a s e d “ k n o w in g h o w . ” ta u g h t , a m a nu a l may be b e tter than n o th in g . T h e present b o o k spells
D r a w in g on ex a m p l e s f ro m dri vin g, playing ch ess, m a k i n g m ed ical o u t gu id eli n es for the p ra c tice o f in terview re s e a rch , p ro vid es cases
d ia g n oses, and nu rs in g, they o u t li n e five q u a litativ ely d if f e r e n t st ag es and e x a m p l e s o f the m e th o d s discussed, and gives e x a m p l e s o f b r e a k ­
o f ad ults’ skill a c q u isitio n t h ro u g h in s tr u ctio n a nd e x p e r i e n c e : n o v ic e , ing th e rules— w h ich tend to be as n u m e r o u s as the e x c e p t i o n s in
a d va nced b e g i n n e r , c o m p e t e n c e , p ro f ic ie n c y , and e x p e r ti s e . W h a t G e r m a n g ra m m a r . K n o w led g e o f interview ing is less em b ed d ed in
stands ou t is a p ro g re ss io n f ro m the a na ly tic b e h a v i o r o f a d e ta c h e d d e te r m i n a t e rules o f m eth o d s than in ex a m p l e s o f the m e th o d in use.
su bject, o f a n o v ice lea rn in g th ro u g h i n s tr u ctio n o f “c o n t e x t - f r e e ” T h e aim is t o arrive at a tra n s p a ren cy o f the t echn ica l e q u i p m e n t ,
ele m e n ts and c o m b in i n g th e facts by “c o n t e x t - f r e e r u le s ,” t o e m o t i o n ­ w h e r e the p ro f ic ie n t cra ftsm a n does no t focu s o n the m e th o d s bu t on
ally invo lved intuitiv e skillful b e h a v io r . T h e e x p e r t “ s e e s ” o r “ f e e ls” the task — in H e id e g g e r ’s analysis o f c r a f t w o r k it is n o t the h a m m e r
so lu tio ns by relying o n an intuitiv e k n o w le d g e g e n e r a liz e d fro m t he c a r p e n t e r focu ses o n , but the nail and the table.
ex ten sive case e x p e rie n c e .
 108 Interviews

6
T h e p re se n t ou tlin e s o f m e th o d ic a l stages anti specific guid elines
are substitutes for le arn in g in prac tice, they are pre lim in ary t o o ls for
the grad ual m astering o f the cra f t o f interview ing . In o r d e r to nav igate
safely t h ro u g h diffic ult w ate rs it is, h o w e v e r, no t s u fficie n t sim ply to

M
s te e r o n e ’s vess el; an exten sive k n o w led g e o f the w a te r s and the
c o a s t lin e , t h ro u g h drafts o r person al e x p e r i e n c e , is also ne cessary . In
an in te rv ie w inquiry , a su bsta ntial familiarity w ith the t h e m e and
c o n t e x t o f the inquiry is a p r e c o n d i ti o n for the e x p e r t use o f the
in te rv iew m e th o d . In c o n c l u s io n , m e th o d as rule f o llo w in g is rep la ced
in qu alitative interview re searc h by the r e s e a r c h e r ’s ex p e r t k no w le d g e
o f the t h e m e to be investigat ed and by m astery o f the t e c h n i q u e s
re q u ire d t h r o u g h o u t a n interv iew inq uiry. Ethical Issues in
T h e issue o f research as restin g o n rule f o llo w in g versus on qualified Interview Inquiries
per so n a l ju d g m e n t perta ins n o t o n ly t o the k no w led g e d im e n s io n o f
t he in te rv ie w inquiry , but to its m oral d im e n s io n as w ell. T h i s will be
An i n t e rv ie w in q u iry is a m o ra l e n te r p ri s e : T h e per so n al i n t e r a c t i o n
addressed in C h a p t e r 6 on et hics in interview re searc h.
in the i n t e rv ie w a f fe c t s the in t e rv ie w e e , and the k n o w le d g e p ro d u c e d
by the i n t e rv ie w a f fe c t s o u r u n d e r st a n d in g o f the h u m a n s it u a t io n . In
C h a p t e r 5 , an in te rv ie w design w as tre a te d w ith reg a r d to a c q u irin g
k n o w le d g e o f the h u m a n situ a tio n . In this c h a p t e r , the m o r a l i m p l i c a ­
t io n s o f an in terv iew inq uiry will be ad dressed .
E x p l ic it rules o r cl e a r s o l u t io n s t o ethica l p r o b l e m s th a t m ay arise
d u rin g an in terv iew stud y ca n hardly be p ro v id e d , bu t c o n t e x t s will
b e su g gested f o r th e r e s e a r c h e r ’s r e f l e c t io n o n the n o r m a ti v e a n d value
t h e m e s invo lv ed. F irst, s o m e e thica l issues t h a t m ay arise at the
d if f e r e n t st ag es o f an in te rv ie w p r o j e c t are o u t lin e d and d iscussed in
r e l a t i o n to th e e th ical gu id eli n es o f in f o r m e d c o n s e n t , c o n f id e n t i a l it y ,
a n d c o n s e q u e n c e s . T h e r e a f t e r , the th r e e e t h ic a l t h e o r i e s o f duty,
utility, a nd virt ue are p re sen ted as b r o a d e r c o n t e x t s f o r r e f l e c t io n o n
m o ra l d il e m m a s e n c o u n t e r e d in i n t e rv ie w in q uiries.
A ce n tr a l aim o f so cial sc ie n c e is to co n t r i b u t e k n o w le d g e t o a m e l i o ­
ra te the h u m a n c o n d it i o n and e n h a n c e h u m a n dignity. T h e p re a m b le
to the A m e r i c a n P s y ch o lo g ica l A s s o c i a t io n ’s eth ical pri n cip le s states,

P sychologists resp ect th e dignity and w orth o f th e individual and strive

fo r th e preserv ation and p ro tectio n o f fu nd am ental hum an rights. T h ey
are co m m itted to increasing kn ow led ge o f h um an b eh av io r and o f
p e o p le ’s un derstand in g o f th em selv es and oth ers and to th e utilization
o f such know led ge fo r th e p ro m o tio n o f hum an w elfare. (A m erican
P sychological A sso ciation [APA], 1 9 8 1 , p. 6 3 3 )

► 10 9

I
 Interviews Ethical Issues 111

R e s e a r c h w ith h u m a n p a rticip a n ts m ust serve s cie n tif ic and h u m a n

in terests: “T h e d ecis ion t o u n d e r ta k e resea rch rests u p o n a c o n s i d e re d
Box 6. 1
ju d g m e n t by th e indiv id ual psy ch olo g is t a b o u t h o w best t o c o n t r i b u t e
to psy ch o lo g ical sc ie n c e and hu m a n w e l f a r e ” (p. 6 3 7 ) .
E thical Issues of
the Seven R e s e a rc h Stages

E t h i c a l Issues a t Seven R e s e a rc h Stages

Thematizing. T h e purp ose o f an interv iew study sh o u ld ,

Kthical d e c is io n s d o no t b e lo n g to a Se para te stag e o f in te rv ie w
b e y o n d the scien tific value o f the k no w le d g e so u g h t, also
in v e s tig atio n s , b u t arise t h r o u g h o u t the en tire re s e a rch pro cess . W h e n
be c o n s i d e r e d with regard to im p r o v e m e n t o f the hu m an
et h ic s is discussed he re as a part o f the d esig ning stag e, it is in o r d e r
situ ation investigated.
to em p h a s ize the i m p o r t a n c e o f tak in g ethical q u e s t i o n s in t o c o n s i d ­
e r a t i o n f ro m the very start o f an investig atio n t h ro u g h to the final Designing. Ethical issues o f design involve o b t a in i n g the

re p o r t . s u b je c t s ’ i n f o r m e d c o n se n t to pa rticip ate in the study,

B o x 6 .1 gives an o v e rv ie w o f s o m e o f the eth ica l issues t h a t ca n s e c u rin g co n fid en tiality , and c o n sid e rin g the possible c o n ­

ari se d u rin g th e seven stages o f an in te rv iew in v es tig a tio n . Issues r e ­ se q u e n c e s o f the study for the subje ct s.

late d t o the t h e m a tiz in g and des ig ning stages are discu ss ed in this c h a p ­ Interview Situation. H e re the c o n f id e n tia lity o f the su b ­
t e r ; th o se p e r ta in in g t o the later st ag es will be tak en up in f o llo w in g j e c t s ’ rep orts need s to be cl ari fie d and the c o n s e q u e n c e s o f
c h a p ter s. the interview i n tera ctio n for the su bjects to be t a k e n into
a c c o u n t , su ch as stress during the interview and ch an g es in
self-im age. Also the potential closeness o f the research inter­
E t h ic a l Guidelines view t o the t h er a p eu tic interv iew sh ou ld be co n sid ered .

Transcription. H e re again is the issue o f c o n fid en tia lity ,

E T H IC A L C O D E S as w ell as the q u estion o f w h a t is a loyal w ritten t ra n s c rip ­
tio n o f an in te rv ie w e e ’s oral st atem ents.
W i t h a fo r e k n o w l e d g e o f the m o ra l issues th at typic ally arise at the
Analysis. Eth ic al issues in analysis invo lve the q u estio n o f
va rious st ag es o f an in terv iew inves tig atio n , the r e s e a r c h e r c a n m ake
h o w d eeply and critica lly the interview s can be an alyzed
re fle cted c h o i c e s w hile des ig ning a study and w a tc h for c ritica l o r
and o f w h e t h e r the su bjects sh ould have a say in h o w their
sensitive issues th a t m ay tu rn up d u rin g the inq uiry . P ro f e s s io n a l
st a t e m e n t s are interprete d .
ethical c o d e s for h u m a n resea rch and p h ilo so p h ic a l e th ical th e o r i e s
serve as c o n t e x t s f o r r e f l e c t io n o n the spe cific eth ical d e c is i o n s t o be Verification. It is the et hical re spon sibility o f the r e ­
co nsid ere d . s e a r c h e r to re p o r t k n o w le d g e th at is as se cured and verified
E th ic a l c o d e s and t h e o rie s se ld o m provide d efin ite a n s w e rs to the as possible.
no rm a tive c h o i c e s t o be m a de d u rin g a re s e a rch p r o je c t. T h e y are m o r e Reporting. H e re again is the issue o f c o n f id e n tia lity w h en
like te x ts to be in te rp r e te d th a n rules t o b e f o l l o w e d : T h e y p ro vid e r e p o rt in g the interview s, as well as the q u estion o f c o n s e ­
guidelines th a t m u st be judged a c c o r d in g to their r e le v a n c e t o sp e cific q u e n c e s o f the published re p o r t for the interview ees as well
situations . E x a m p le s and case studies m ay serve as aids for the t ra n s i­ as f o r the g ro u p or institution they re p re sent.
tion fro m general prin ciple s t o sp e cific p ra c tices.
1 12 Interviews Ethical Issues

W h e n p re p arin g an o u t lin e o f the resea rch design, it can be useful o n e m p l o y e e s to p a rticip a te . W i t h s c h o o l c h ild re n , the q u e st io n arises
also t o d raft a parallel ethical protocol tre atin g ethica l issues t h a t can about w ho sh o u ld give the c o n s e n t — the c h ild re n t h em selv es, the
be a n ticip a ted in an investig a tio n. In so m e settin gs this may be an s c h o o l s u p e r i n te n d e n t, the s c h o o l b o a r d , the t e a c h e r , o r the parents?
in stitutio nal r e q u i r e m e n t ; thu s, in ad dition to the res ea rch p r o t o c o l I n f o r m e d c o n s e n t also involves the q u e st io n o f how much informa­
su b m itted t o a m e n t o r or s p o n s o r, a “hu m an su bjects p r o t o c o l ” for an tion should be given and when. Full i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t design and
et h ics c o m m i t t e e m ay be req u ire d b e fo re the p ro je c t ca n be a ccep ted p u rp o s e ru le s o u t any d e c e p t io n o f th e su bjects. P rov id in g i n f o r m a t i o n
(see Guidelines for the Protection o f Human Subjects \Guidelines], a b o u t a study in vo lv es a carefu l ba la n ce b e tw e e n d eta iled o v e r - i n f o r ­
1 9 9 2 ) . E ven w h e n n o t a fo rm al r e q u ire m e n t , the ad van ce p re p a ra t io n m a t i o n and leaving o u t a sp e cts o f the design t h a t m ay be sig nificant
o f an ethical p r o t o c o l will a llo w the investig a tor to c o n s id e r et hical t o the su bjects. In s o m e in terv iew in v e s tig atio n s , the s p e cific p u rp oses
and m o ra l issues, and to have th e m in m in d during the d esig ning o f o f a study are initially w ith h eld in o r d e r to o b t a in the in t e r v i e w e e s ’
the study and w h en m a kin g n o rm a tiv e d ecis ions later in the p r o je c t. na tu ral vi ew s o n a to p i c and to avoid leadin g t h e m t o s p e cific answ ers.
S o m e o f the qu estio n s to be c o n sid e re d in an ethica l p r o t o c o l for an In su ch ca se s any m is le ad in g i n f o r m a t i o n s h o u ld be c o r r e c t e d in a
in te rv ie w study w e re d ep ic ted in B o x 6 . 1 . d e b r i e f in g a f te r the study.
B esides having a p ro je c t acc e p t e d by an eth ics c o m m i t t e e , t h er e is In the grading study, th e high s c h o o l pupils w e r e in t e rv ie w e d at
a possibility o f co nd ucting an on going discussion o f its value issues with s c h o o l . T h e p rin cipa l was fully i n f o r m e d a b o u t the design a n d the
m o r e e x p e r i e n c e d m e m b e r s in the resea rch co m m u n it y . T h e e thica l p u rp o s e o f investig a tin g the e f fe c ts o f gra des. T h e pupils w e r e told in
skills e m b o d i e d in loca l p ro fession a l c o m m u n it i e s rep rese n t an i m p o r ­ a d v a n c e o n ly t h a t the interview s c o n c e r n e d the s c h o o l s itu a tio n and
tan t e x t e n s i o n o f the w ritten ethica l princi ple s, rules, and e x a m p l e s . th a t p a r t i c i p a t io n was v o lu ntary . C o n s e n t w as easily o b t a in e d be cau se
T h r e e ethical guid elines for h u m an resea rch are no w discu ss ed in the pupils w o u ld be free fro m a s c h o o l h o u r during the interview . T h e
so m e deta il: i n f o r m e d c o n s e n t , c o n fid e n tia lity , and c o n s e q u e n c e s (see, d e c is i o n t o w i th h o ld the i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t g rad in g as the m ain
e.g ., E is ner 8c P eshk in , 1 9 9 0 ; K im m e l, 1 9 8 8 ) . i n t e rv ie w to p i c w as m a de in o r d e r t o investigate h o w p r o m i n e n t a
place g ra d e s had in the pupils’ ev er yday s c h o o l life. T h u s the first 5
m in u t e s o f th e in te rv ie w co nsisted o f q u e s t i o n s a b o u t the g e nera l
IN F O R M E D C O N S E N T
s c h o o l s it u a t io n , and the earlier the pupils sp o n t a n e o u s l y m e n t i o n e d
In fo r m e d c o n s e n t en ta ils in f o r m in g the research su bjects a b o u t the g ra d es, the st r o n g e r th e in d ic atio n w as t h a t g ra d es w e r e ce n tr a l in their
overa ll p u rp ose o f the investigatio n and the m ain featu res o f the s c h o o l life. A fter an in terv iew , ea ch pupil w as d e b ri e f e d a b o u t the
design, as well as o f any po ssible risks and b enefits fro m p a rticip a tio n in te rv ie w t o p i c and p u rp o s e , w h ic h had a lrea d y b e c o m e eviden t
in the res ea rch p ro je ct. In fo r m e d c o n s e n t further involv es o b t a in i n g d u rin g th e in te rv ie w itself. W i t h h o l d i n g o f i n f o r m a t i o n w as h e re
the vo lu n ta ry p a rticip a tio n o f the su bject, w ith his o r he r right to c o n s i d e r e d as n o t g o in g ag ainst the pu p il ’s in te res ts and was d o n e w ith
w ith d ra w fro m the study at any tim e, thus c o u n t e r a c ti n g p o ten tia l th e in t e n t i o n o f o b t a in i n g k n o w le d g e as u n c o n t a m i n a t e d by the r e ­
un du e in flu e n ce and c o e r c i o n (see M o u s ta k a s [ 1 9 9 4 ] and Y o w [ 1 9 9 4 ] s e a r c h e r ’s h y p o t h e s e s as possible.
f o r e x a m p l e s o f le tters o f a g r e e m e n t with subje ct s). M e e t i n g the r e q u i r e m e n t o f full d is clo su re m ay be d if ficu lt to fulfil
O n a prin cipal level the re q u ire m e n ts o f i n f o r m a t i o n for and w h e n ch a n g e s in p u rp ose and design o c c u r d ue t o n e w k n o w le d g e and

c o n s e n t fro m the research su bjects are so und and re a s o n a b le . T h e insig h t g ain ed d u rin g a res ea rch p r o je c t. S o m e eth ics review b o a rd s

p rin cip le o f in fo r m e d c o n s e n t is, h o w ev e r, not w ith o u t p r o b l e m s in may w a n t t o a p p r o v e every in terv iew q u e st io n in a d v a n c e , w h e r e a s

p ra c tic e — su ch as the q u estio n o f who should give the consent. Issues th e se m i s t r u c tu r e d in te rv ie w tre a te d h e re relies o n th e po ssibility o f
a b o u t c o n s e n t m ay arise w ith interv iew s in institutio ns, w h e r e a f o l l o w in g up u n a n t ic ip a te d leads f r o m th e s u b jects and o f po sing

su p e r i o r ’s c o n s e n t to a study m ay imply a m o r e or less su btle pressure q u e s t i o n s n o t p re p a re d in ad v a n ce . In “C a n Q u a lit a tiv e Stu dies Be

1 14 Interviews Ethical Issues 115

I n f o r m e d ? ” E is ne r ( 1 9 9 1 ) has p o in te d o u t th a t the c o n c e p t o f in­ bu t w ith any i n f o r m a t i o n th at co uld jeop a rd iz e the a n o n y m ity o f the
fo rm e d c o n s e n t im plies th at the r e s e a r c h e r k n o w s before the e v e n t to pu pils re m o v e d . T h e r e was o n e e x c e p ti o n . T h e d ecis ion to publish a
be observed w h a t the even t will be and its po ssible effe cts . T h i s may b o o k a b o u t the interview s for the general m a rk et was first m a d e during
be possible in carefu lly p la n n ed e x p e r i m e n t a l studies, bu t is hardly the analysis h a lf a year after the interv iew ing. I then w a n ted t o r e p r o ­
feasible in field resea rch and e x p l o r a t iv e stud ies, w h e r e an i m p o r t a n t d uce a s p e cific interv iew in full, because it gave a p a rticu la rly vivid
ta ctic is t o f o llo w up u n a n t ic ip a te d leads: “T h u s w e all like the idea d e sc rip t io n o f the influ en ce o f gra des on the pupils’ life situ a tio n . In
o f in fo r m e d c o n s e n t , bu t w e a re less sure just w h o is t o p ro v id e th at this in s ta n ce , the inte rview ee w ou ld be recog niz ed by o t h e rs , a nd I
c o n s e n t , just h o w m u ch c o n s e n t is n e e d e d , and h o w w e can i n f o r m w r o t e for his perm issio n to r ep ro d u ce his interview. By th e n , h o w ev er,
o t h e rs so as to ob ta in c o n s e n t w h e n w e have such a hard tim e p r e d i c t ­ he ha d left s ch o o l to travel a ro u n d the w o r l d ; m a n y m o n th s a f te r my
ing w hat we need to g et c o n s e n t a b o u t ” (E isn er, 1 9 9 1 , p. 2 1 5 ) . re q u e s t I receiv ed a t ele g r a m from J e r u s a le m with his per m iss io n to
L in co ln ( 1 9 9 0 ) has p ro p o s e d r e p la c i n g the c o n c e p t o f i n f o r m e d publish the interview.
c o n s e n t w ith a d ia log u e th at runs t h r o u g h o u t an in v e s tig a tio n , w ith T h e p rin cip le o f the research su bjects’ right to privacy is n o t w i t h ­
“ the n e g o ti a t i o n o f research p ro ce ss e s and p ro d u cts w ith o n e ’s r e s p o n ­ o u t ethica l and scien tific dilem m as. T h u s the re is c o n c e r n a b o u t w h a t
den ts, so that there is a m utual sh a p in g o f the final research results” in f o r m a t i o n sh ould be available, and to w h o m . S h o u ld , for e x a m p l e ,
(p. 2 8 6 ) . S u ch a c o n tin u a l d ia log u e a p p r o a c h t o i n f o r m e d c o n s e n t interv iew s with ch ild ren be available to their pare nts and t e a ch e r s? In
pre su p p oses ideals o f eg a lit a ria n is m a nd a m u tu a lity o f in terests o f stud ies w h e r e several parties are involv ed , such as in terview s with
r e s e a r c h e r and r es ea rch ed th at m ay be hard to find in m a n y actual m a rrie d o r div o rced co u p le s and in or g a n iz atio n s, it sh ou ld be m ade
so cial settings. T h u s in s o m e institutio ns th e r e m ay be radically clea r b e f o r e the in terview ing w h o will late r have access t o the m ate ria l.
o p p o s in g c o n c e p t i o n s o f the p h e n o m e n a investig ate d , a nd with so m e P ro t e c t in g c o n fid en tia lity can involve serio us legal p ro b le m s, such
intere sts vested in u p h o ld in g sp e cific c o n c e p t i o n s o f the institu tio n al as in case s w hen a re s e a rc h e r— t hro u g h the p ro m ise o f c o n f id e n t ia lit y
reality. T h e d ia log u e a p p r o a c h also in vo lv es a r a tio n a lism th a t hardly and th e trust o f the rela tio n s h ip — has o b ta in e d k n o w led g e o f m is tr e a t ­
pe r ta in s to t h e r a p e u t ic situ a tio n s , w h e r e the p a t i e n t ’s re s is tan ce to the m e n t , m a lp r a ctice , ch ild abu se, the use o f drugs, or o t h e r c rim ina l b e ­
t h e r a p is t ’s i n t e rp r e ta t io n s is a m a in aspe ct o f the t h e r a p e u t i c p ro ce ss , h a v io r e ith er by the interview ee or oth e rs. T h e r e a rc instan ces w h e r e
and m ay req u ire years t o o v e r c o m e . r e s e a rch st udies have c o m e to co n t a in i n f o r m a t i o n th at w as s u b p o e ­
n aed in legal pro ceed in g s, and there exist s cases w h e r e res ea rch ers

C O N FIDEN TIA LITY have g o n e to jail rather than reveal in f o r m a t i o n dis clo se d by their su b ­
ject s. If there is any pre k n ow led g e that a research to p ic m ig h t b e c o m e
C o n f id e n tia lit y in re s earch im plies th a t private d a ta id e n tif y in g the invo lv ed in a legal c o n f li c t , it is possible in th e U nited Sta tes t o o b t a in
su bjects will n o t be re p o rte d . If a study in vo lv es pu blishin g i n f o r m a ­ a ce r ti f ic a t e o f c o n fid en tia lity fro m the federal g o v e r n m e n t , w h ich
tion poten tia lly re c o g n iz a b le t o o t h e r s , the s u b jects ne ed t o ag re e to p r o t e c ts re s ea rch ers against be in g co m p e lle d t o disclo se the identity
the release o f id en tifiable i n f o r m a t i o n . In su ch cases this sh o u ld be o f th e ir su bjects in any legal p ro ce e d in g (see Guidelines, 1 9 9 2 , p. 6).
st at ed ex p licitly in a w ritt e n a g r e e m e n t . T h e p r o t e c t i o n o f s u b je c t s ’ A c o n f l i c t exist s b e tw e e n the et hical d em an d for co n f id e n t ia lit y and
privacy by c h a n g in g their n am es and iden tify in g fe atu res is an i m p o r ­ the basic p rin ciple s o f scie n tific res ea rch , such as in tersubjective
t a n t issue in the re p o rtin g o f interview s. c o n t r o l a nd the po ssibility o f rep rod u cin g the findings by o t h e r
In the grading study, the pupils and t e a c h e r s i n terv iew ed w ere scien tists . As exp ress e d by Sm ith ( 1 9 9 0 ) : H o w ca n res ea rch results be
g u a ra n tee d th a t their interview s w o u ld be tre a te d co n f id e n t i a l ly . In c h e c k e d by o t h e r res earch e rs if n o o n e k no w s w h o pa rticipa ted in a
the b o o k a b o u t the stud y, m any q u o t e s fro m the interv iew s w ere given, st ud y , and w h e re and when it t o o k place?
 Interviews Ethical Issues

CO N SEQ U EN CES
I he b r o a d e r c o n s e q u e n c e s o f in terv iew re s e a rch involv e po litic al

T h e ethica l p rin cip le o f beneficence m e a n s th at the risk o f h a r m to ju d g m e n t s a b o u t th e d esira b le uses o f th e a c q u i re d k n o w le d g e . As

a s u b ject sh ou ld be the least po ssible. T h e sum o f p o ten tia l b e n e f its to m e n t i o n e d at the b e g in n in g o f this c h a p te r , the A m e rica n P s y c h o l o g i ­

a s u b je c t a n d the i m p o r t a n c e o f th e k n o w le d g e gained sh o u ld o u t ­ cal A s s o c i a t io n ’s e thica l g u id elin es st ate t h a t o n e aim o f p sy ch o lo g ica l

w eigh th e risk o f ha rm t o the su bject and thu s w arran t a d e cis io n to r e s e a rch is c o n t r i b u t i o n to h u m a n w e l fa re , w h ich lea ds t o politic al
c a r r y o u t th e study (Guidelines, 1 9 9 2 , p. 1 5 ). issu es o f w h a t are h u m a n w e l fa r e a n d a ju st s o c i e ty . M a r k e t stu d ie s o f

T h e c o n s e q u e n c e s o f an in terview study need to be ad dressed with c o n s u m e r e x p e r i e n c e are u n d e r ta k e n w ith the p u rp o s e o f p re d ictin g

re s p e ct to possible harm to the su bjects as well as the e x p e c te d benefits a n d m a n i p u l a t i n g c o n s u m e r b e h a v i o r in th e in te re s t o f in cr eased

o f p a rticip a tin g in the study. T h i s involves a r e s e a r c h e r ’s responsibility p r o f it s fo r p r o d u c e rs ( C h a p t e r 4 , Q u a lit a tiv e M a r k e t R e s e a r c h ) . O n e

t o re f le c t o n the possible co n s e q u e n c e s n o t on ly for the p erson s taking a im o f f e m in is t r e s e a r c h is t o o v e r c o m e th e o p p r e s s i o n o f w o m e n

p a rt in the study, bu t for the larg er g ro u p they rep resen t, as well. t h r o u g h giving prio rity t o the m oral and p o lit ic o v e r the s cie n tif ic

Id eally there sh ould be a rec ip r o city in w ha t the su bjects give and ( C h a p t e r 4 , F e m in is m a n d Q u a l i t a ti v e R e s e a r c h ) . T h e i m m e d ia t e

w h a t they rec eiv e fro m p a rticip a tio n in a study. In in te rv ie w rep orts aim o f p s y c h o t h e ra p y is t o o v e r c o m e the p a t i e n t s ’ su ffe rin g , and

there are so m e t im e s a c c o u n ts by aston ished re s e a rch e rs th at their H a b e r m a s , in his d is cussion o f the i n t e r l o c k i n g o f k n o w le d g e a nd

s u b je c t s have e x p e r i e n c e d the interview s as po sitive e x p e r i e n c e s . Just h u m a n in teres ts , posite d p sy ch o a n a ly tica l th e r a p y as a p arad ig m

liste ning t o w h a t peo p le have to say for an e x t e n d e d perio d o f time, o f a cri tica l e m a n c i p a t o r y so cial s c i e n c e ( C h a p t e r 3 , H e r m e n e u t i c a l
as well as the qu ality o f the liste ning, can m a k e an interv iew a unique I n te r p r e t a t io n ) .
e x p e r i e n c e . T h e inte rview r es ea rch er thus can o f f e r b e n e f its t o the
su bjects t h ro u g h their particip atio n in the investigat ion. T h e in te r­ TI IF. ROLE O F T H E RESEARCHER
viewer sh ou ld also be aw are that the op e n n e ss and intim a cy o f the
in te rv iew may be seductive and lead su bjects to disclose i n f o r m a t i o n M o r a l res e arch b e h a v i o r is m o r e than ethical k n o w le d g e a nd c o g ­

th e y m ay later regret. T h e pe r so n a l closeness o f the interview situa tion n itive c h o i c e s ; it i n vo lv es th e p e r so n o f th e r e s e a r c h e r , h is o r h e r

puts stro n g d em an d s o n the sensitivity o f the in terview e r reg arding sen sitiv ity a nd c o m m i t m e n t t o m o ra l issues and a c t i o n : “ C l e a rly ,

h o w far t o g o in his o r he r qu estion in g . r e s e a r c h e r s n e e d b o t h ca se s and prin cip le s f ro m w h ic h t o le arn m o r e

At the them atiz ing stage o f t h egrade study, the general p u rp o s e was a b o u t e thica l b e h a v i o r . M o r e th a n this, they n e e d t w o a t tr ib u t e s : the

f o rm u la t e d as the d o c u m e n ta t i o n o f the effe c ts o f gradin g o n le arn in g sen sitiv ity t o ide n tify an eth ica l issue a n d t h e r e s p o n sib ility t o feel

and so cial rela tio n s in s ch o o l. T h e s e e ffec ts w ere ass um ed to be in c o m m i t t e d to a c t i n g a p p r o p r i a t e l y in regard t o su ch issu es” (E isn er &c
c o n t r a s t t o the ce n tr a l values o f the o ffic ia l D an ish high sch oo l P e s h k i n , 1 9 9 0 , p. 2 4 4 ) .
c u rric u lu m , such as p ro m o t in g i n d e p e n d e n c e , c o o p e r a t i o n , a n d c r e a ­ T h e p e r so n o f the r e s e a r c h e r is critical for the qu ality o f the

tivity and an intrinsic intere st in lifelon g le arn in g. It w as h y po thesized s c i e n t i f i c k n o w le d g e a n d f o r the s o u n d n e s s o f e t h i c a l d e c is i o n s in any

t h a t a new ly i n tro d u ce d g rad e -b a sed re s tric tio n o n en ter in g a u n iv er­ r e s e a rc h p r o je c t. By in terv iew in g , the i m p o r t a n c e o f th e r e s e a r c h e r as

sity w ou ld p r o m o t e d e p e n d e n c e , c o m p e t i t i o n , c o n f o r m i t y , and n e g a ­ a p e r s o n is m a g n ifie d b e ca u se the in t e rv ie w e r h i m - o r h e r s e l f is the

tive attitu d e s to w a rd learn in g . At the tim e , 1 be lie ve d th at th e in vesti­ m ain i n s tr u m e n t f o r o b t a in i n g k n o w le d g e . B e in g fa m ilia r w ith value

gatio n w o u ld serve the interests o f the pupils by d o c u m e n ti n g the issues, e t h ic a l g u id e lin e s, an d eth ica l t h e o r i e s m a y h e lp in c h o i c e s t h a t

e f f e c t s o f g rad in g in c o n t r a s t w ith the o ffic ia l cu rricu lu m , a n d th a t this w eig h ethical vers us sc i e n ti f i c c o n c e r n s in a study. In the e n d , h o w e v e r ,

co u ld result in instigating in stitutio nal ch a n g es that w ould im prove th e in teg rity o f t h e r e s e a r c h e r — his o r h e r h o n e s ty a n d fa ir ness,
th e i r lea rn in g a n d so cial c o n d it i o n s at s ch o o l. k n o w le d g e , a nd e x p e r i e n c e — a r e the decisive facto rs.
118 In tc rV ie w s Ethical Issues 119
*

T h r e e et hica l aspects o f the r e s e a r c h e r ’s; ro le c o n c e r n s cie n tific

re sponsibility , rela tion to the s u b jects, a nd r e s e a r c h e r i n d e p e n d e n c e . Box 6.2
T h e re s ea rch er has a scientific responsibility to his p ro f e s s io n a n d his
su bjects th a t a resea rch p r o je c t yield k n o w le d g e w o r t h k n o w in g and E th ic al Q u e stio n s a t the
that it is as c o n t r o l l e d and verified as possible. R e s e a r c h e r s tak e o n S tart o f an In terview Study
d iffere n t roles in relation to their subjects. G l e s n c and P csh k in ( 1 9 9 2 )
have d c p i it e d s o m e ro le s (lint qu a lita tive re s e a rc h e rs easily a ss u m e:
e x p l o it e r , r e f o r m e r , a d v o c a t e , a nd Iriend. T h e y g o o n to discuss
• W h a t are the beneficial co n s e q u e n c e s o f the study?
ethica l issues in the d iffe re n t ro le s, su ch as w h e t h e r a r e s e a r c h e r in an
H o w ca n the study co n t r i b u te to e n h a n c in g the h u m a n
a d voca tive ro le sh o u ld publish in f o r m a t i o n th at m a y pu t his o r he r
c o n d it i o n ?
su bjects in a negative light.
The independence o f research c a n be c o - o p t e d f ro m “ a b o v e ” as well W i ll p o ten tial c o n t rib u tio n s be prim arily for the p artici­
as “b e l o w , ” by the fu n d ers o f a p r o j e c t as well as by its p a rticip a n ts, p ating su bjects? O r for their g ro up? O r will the c o n t r i ­
l ies to eith er g ro up m ay lead the r e s e a r c h e r t o i g n o re s o m e fin dings b u t io n be in the form o f g eneral k n o w le d g e o f the hum an
and em pha siz e o t h e r s t o th e d e tr im e n t o f as full a nd u n b ia sed an s ituation?
investig atio n o f the p h e n o m e n a as po ssible. In te r v ie w in g is i n te ra ctiv e • H o w ca n the informed consent o f the p a rticip atin g
r e s e a rc h ; t h ro u g h clos e i n t e r p e r s o n a l i n t e r a c t i o n s w ith t h e i r s u b jects, s u b jects be o b ta in e d ?
in terview ers may be p articularly p ro n e to c o - o p t a t i o n by th e m . I n t e r ­
S h o u ld in f o r m e d co n s e n t be agreed on orally o r sh ou ld
view ers m ay so closely iden tify w ith th e ir su bjects t h a t they d o n o t
th e r e be a w ritte n c o n tra ct?
m ain ta in a p ro fessio n a l d is tan ce, bu t inste ad r e p o r t a nd in te rp r e t
ev er y th in g f ro m their su b je c t s’ pe rspe ctives. T h e r e is a ri sk th at W h o sh ou ld give the c o n s e n t — the su bjects o r thei r
in terview ers c a n — in p sy c h o a n a ly t ic t e r m in o l o g y — b e c o m e victim s o f su p e riors?
u n reco g n iz ed “c o u n t e r t r a n s f e r e n c e , ” o r — to use an a n t h r o p o l o g i c a l H o w m uch i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t the study needs to be given
e x p r e s s io n — “ g o n a t i v e .” in a d v a n ce , and w hat i n f o r m a t i o n ca n w ait until a d e­
b r ie fin g a f te r the interviews?
E T H IC A L IS S U E S A T T H E S T A R T O F A S T U D Y H o w can in fo r m e d c o n s e n t be h a n dled in e x p l o r a t o r y
st udies w h e r e the investigators them selves will have little
B o x 6 . 2 d epic ts s o m e o f th e eth ica l q u e s t i o n s to c o n s i d e r w h en
a d v a n ce k n o w led g e o f h o w the in terview s will p ro c e e d ?
beg in n in g an in terv iew study. T h e s e q u e stio n s su m m a riz e th e a b o v e
discu ss ion o f the t h e m a tiz in g and d esig ning stages, a n d o u t li n e s o m e • H o w ca n the confidentiality o f th e interview su bjects be
o f the issues t o be raised in the f o llo w in g ch a p te r s a b o u t the late r p ro t e c te d ?
stages. T h e r e are n o easy a n s w e rs t o the se q u e s t i o n s ; the eth ica l H o w im p o r t a n t is it that the su bjects re m a in a n o n y m o u s?
guid elines give so m e p rin cipa l d ir e c tio n s , and p a rticip a tin g in re s e a rch
W h o will have access to the interview s?
c o m m u n it i e s will pro vide a d d itio n al c o n c r e t e b a c k g r o u n d k n o w le d g e
for m a k in g ethical d ecis ions. T h e o r i e s o f e thics p ro vid e b r o a d e r H o w ca n the iden tity o f the su bjects be disguised?

c o n t e x t s for r e flectin g o n the m o r a l issues o f r e s e a rc h , and s o m e key C a n legal p ro b le m s co n c e r n i n g p r o t e c ti o n o f the s u b je c t s ’

th eo ries are n o w discussed. a n o n y m i ty be e x p e c te d ?

(continued)
120 Interviews Lithical Issues 121

I he split between factual knowledge and ethical values is being

Box 6.2 Continued
questioned today; for example, by Habermas’s outline of the inter­
locking of hum an interests and scientific knowledge (Chapter 3,
• W hat are the consequences of the study for the partici­
Hermeneutical Interpretation) as well as within feminist research
pating subjects?
(Chapter 4, Feminism and Qualitative Research). W ith a loss of faith
W ill any potential harm to the subjects be outweighed by in the Enlightenment belief in emancipation through knowledge, and
potential benefits? hum an progress through the advance of scientific knowledge, the ends
W ill the interviews touch on therapeutic issues, and if so, and means o f scientific research are being closely questioned in the
what precautions can be taken? postmodern era, where the moral side of research becomes as im por­
tant as the scientific side.
W hen publishing the study, what consequences can be
Theories o f ethics provide frames of reference for thinking about
anticipated for the subjects and for the groups they
specific moral issues in research. They contain more comprehensive
represent?
contexts for considering ethical choices than the specific guidelines
• H ow will the researcher’s role affect the study? outlined above. There are three major philosophical ethical positions:
H ow can the researcher ensure the scientific quality of a duty ethics of principles, a utilitarian ethics o f consequences, and a
the study and protect the independence of the research? virtue ethics of skills (see, e.g., Eisner 8c l’eshkin, 1990; Kiinmel,
1988).
H ow can the researcher avoid or counteract being co­
The duty ethics of principles, also termed a deontological and an
opted from above by his sponsors?
intentional position, judges an action independently of its conse­
H ow can the researcher avoid or counteract overidenti­
quences. M oral actions are those that live up to principles, such as
fication with his subjects, thereby losing critical perspec­
honesty, justice, and respect for the person. An ethics of duty is
tive on the knowledge obtained?
expressed by Kant’s maxims: “Treat every man as an end in himself,
and never as a means only” and “Act as if the m axim of thy act were
to become by thy will a universal law of nature.” These general ethical
Ethical Theories principles may be specified as ethical rules for different types of
research. Carried to its extreme, the intentional position can become
From a historical perspective, scientific knowledge has been intrin­ a moral absolutism, with intentions of living up to absolute principles
sically related to human values and interests. The sciences that are o f right action, regardless o f the hum an consequences of an act.
today termed “social sciences,” in earlier centuries went under the The utilitarian position, also termed a teleological position, em pha­
name “moral sciences.” W ith the rise of modern social science, a split sizes the consequences of an action— an action is judged pragmatically
developed between facts and values, between the descriptive and the by its effects. In the final analysis it is the results o f an action that
normative, between what is and what should be. I bis dichotom y was determine its rightness. The end purpose might be the greatest good
prominent in positivist philosophy, with its sharp distinction between for the greatest number; what is good might be determined to be an
an objective scientific and a subjective human side of research. The increase in happiness, wealth, or knowledge. In an extreme version of
moral aspects of research, belonging to the value side of the dichot­ a utilitarian consequence position, the ends come to justify the means.

omy, became secondary and were left to the ethical codes o f the The contrasting practical implications of a duty and a utilitarian
profession and the integrity of the researcher. theory may be highlighted by an extreme example:
 t
122 Interviews Ethical Issues 123

Patient over telephone to therapist: I am going o ut now to juiyip into contextual-virtue position would be based on the researcher’s practi­
l ake Sortedamssoen and d ro w n myself.
Therapist replies: G o and ju m p in the lake then!
cal ethical skills and reasoning and, in cases of doubt, on a dialogue ►
with others in the relevant communities.
Patient, a few days later: Forwards a co m plaint against the therapist 19
A contextual-ethical position has been argued by Dreyfus and
to the Ethical C om m ittee o f the Danish Psychological Association for
encouraging h im to co m m it suicide and thus not respecting his dignity Dreyfus (1990) in a phenomenological account of the development of 1.1

as a h um an being. ethical expertise. The authors describe their five-step ladder of learn­
Is
ing, from novice to expert (Chapter 5, From M ethod to Craftsman­
The therapist appears here to have acted spontaneously from a u tili­ ship), and postulate that with increasing expertise, explicit rules and
tarian position o f survival, and used a paradoxical therapeutic tech­ reasoning disappear into the background of skill or habit. M oral
nique when answering the patient on the phone. The patient, who consciousness expresses itself in everyday life through unreflective
apparently has profited from the therapist’s pragmatic intervention, responses to interpersonal situations, and Dreyfus and Dreyfus suggest
adopts a duty position of the principle of absolute respect for his that we begin our investigation of ethical experience on the level of
person, which he complains that his therapist has violated. this spontaneous coping. The highest form of ethical comportment
Both a consequential ethics of utility and an intentional ethics of consists of being able to stay involved and to refine one’s intuitions.
duty raise questions of whether there are universal ethical principles, Ethical choices need not remain on the level of individual spontaneous
or whether they would depend on the values o f specific communities. choices; in cases of disagreement, the wise decision maker will enter
A third position, departing from Aristotle’s concepts of virtue and into a dialogue with those who have reached different conclusions.
practical reasoning, involves a contextual ethical position. Ethical W ith in a virtue conception of ethics, L0vlie (1993) has attempted
behavior is seen less as the application of general principles and rules, to overcome an opposition of explicit rules versus tacit skills by the
than as the researcher internalizing moral values. The personal integ­ introduction of examples. These may be in the form of parables, alle­
rity of the researcher, the interaction with the com m unity studied, and gories, myths, sagas, morality plays, case stories, and personal exam­
the relation to their ethical values is essential. The emphasis is on the ples. As riddles subject to contextual interpretation, the examples are
researcher’s ethical intuitions, feelings, and skills as well as on nego­ pieces of texts to be interpreted: “The application of moral knowledge
tiations between actors in a specific community. The learning of and wisdom then turns out to be governed as much by reflective
ethical research behavior is a matter of being initiated into the mores judgement as by rule-following and the practising of skills” (p. 76).
of the local professional culture. Through practice and interaction In the next two chapters I turn to knowledge production in the
with more experienced members of the profession, which may be in interview situation, and will return (Chapter 8, The Ethics of Inter­
the form of master-apprentice relationships, the newcomer gradually viewing) to some of the ethical issues raised here; in particular,
acquires the context sensibility and the wisdom of mature ethical consequences of the interview interaction for the interviewees and the
behavior. proxim ity of research interviews to therapeutic interviews.
The duty, the utilitarian, and the virtue philosophies emphasize
different aspects of ethical choices. O n some specific issues they may
lead to different decisions, such as deception o f research subjects. An
intentional duty ethic w ould emphasize honesty as an absolute prin­
ciple, and thus reject any deception of research subjects in the interest
of a greater good. A utilitarian-consequence position could justify
deception in view of the positive consequences of knowledge and the P
betterment of the human situation that the research could entail. A

i
 The Interview Situation 125

An o p e n p h e n o m e n o l o g i c a l a p p r o a c h t o lea rn in g fro m the i n t e r ­

view ee is well e x p r e ss ed in this i n t r o d u c ti o n fro m Sp ra d ley ( 1 9 7 9 ) :

1 w ain to u n derstand the w orld from you r poin t o f view . I w an t to know

w h at you kn ow in th e way you kn ow it. I w ant to u nderstand th e m eaning
o f y ou r ex p e rie n c e , to w alk in yo u r sh oes, to feel things as you feel th em ,
to exp lain th in gs as you exp lain th em . Will you b eco m e my te a ch er and
help m e Understand? (p . 14)

T h e re s e a rch in te rv ie w is an in t e r p e r s o n a l s it u a t io n , a c o n v e r s a t io n
b e t w e e n t w o p a rt n e rs a b o u t a t h e m e o f m utual interest. It is a spe cific
fo rm o f h u m a n in t e r a c t i o n in w h ic h k n o w le d g e evo lv es th r o u g h a
The Interview Situation d ia lo g u e . T h e in t e r a c t i o n is n e it h e r as a n o n y m o u s and n e u tra l as w h e n
a s u b ject re s p o n d s t o a su rv ey q u e s t i o n n a i r e , n o r as pe r so n a l and
In the interview , k n o w le d g e is c re ated inter the po in ts o f view o f the
e m o t i o n a l as a t h e r a p e u t i c interview . P atie n ts se ek th er a p is ts for help :
in t e rv ie w e r and the in tervie w ee. T h e interv iew s with the su b je c t s are
T h e y are m o t iv a te d t o be as o p e n as possible w ith the th e r a p is t, with
the m o st en gag ing stage o f an interv iew inquiry. T h e per so n al c o n t a c t
w h o m a tru s tin g r e la t io n s h ip is e sta b li sh ed o v er tim e . In a res ea rch
and th e c o n tin u a lly new insights in t o the su b je c t s’ lived w o rld m a k e
s e ttin g it is up t o th e in t e rv ie w e r t o c re a te in a s h o r t tim e a c o n t a c t
in te rview in g an e x c it in g and e n r i c h i n g e x p e r i e n c e . D if fe r e n t f o rm s o f
t h a t a llo w s the i n t e r a c t i o n t o g e t b e y o n d m erely a po lite c o n v e r s a t io n
in te rv iew co n v e r sa t io n s w ere discussed in C h a p t e r 2 and the m o d e o f
o r e x c h a n g e o f ideas. T h e in t e rv ie w e r m u st est ablish an a t m o s p h e r e
u n d e r st a n d in g in the qu alit ativ e res ea rch interview d escrib ed . In this
in w h ic h the s u b je c t feels safe e n o u g h t o ta lk freely a b o u t his o r he r
c h a p te r I o u t lin e in m o re detail s o m e guid elines and t e c h n i q u e s for
e x p e r i e n c e s a nd feelings. T h i s involv es a d elica te b a l a n c e b e tw e e n
ca rr y in g o u t interv iew s and give an illust ratio n with an in te rv ie w on
co g n i ti v e k n o w le d g e seek in g and the e t h ic a l a sp e cts o f e m o t io n a l
grading.
h u m a n i n t e ra c t io n . T h u s , at the sam e tim e th a t pe r so n a l e x p r e s s io n s
and e m o t i o n s a rc e n c o u r a g e d , the in terv iew er m ust avoid a llo w in g the

T h e In te rv iew C o n v e r s a t i o n in te rv iew to turn into a th e r a p e u t i c s it u a t io n , w h ich he o r sh e m a y no t

b e a b le to h an dle.
T h e p u rp o s e o f a qu alitativ e resea rch interv iew w as d escrib ed T h e in t e rv ie w e r has an e m p a th i c a cce ss t o the w o rld o f the i n t e r ­
e a rlie r as ob t a in in g qu alitativ e d escrip tion s o f the life w o r l d o f the v i e w e e ; th e i n t e r v i e w e e ’s lived m ea n in g s m ay be im m e d ia t e ly a c c e s s i ­
su b je c t w ith res p ect to in t e rp r e ta t io n o f their m ea n in g . T h e in terv iew ble in the s it u a t io n , c o m m li n ic a t e d n o t on ly by w o rd s, bu t by t o n e o f
f o r m tre a te d he re is a s em istru c tu red interview : It has a s e q u e n c e o f v o ic e , e x p r e s s io n s , and gestures in th e natu ral flow o f a c o n v e r s a t io n .
t h e m e s t o b e c o v e re d , as well as su gge sted questions. Yet at the sam e T h e r e s e a rc h i n t e rv i e w e r ubes him - o r h e rse lf as a re s e a rch i n s tr u m e n t ,
tim e t h e r e is an op e n n e ss t o ch a n g es o f s e q u e n c e and f o rm s o f d r a w in g u p o n an im p licit bo d ily and e m o t io n a l m o d e o f k n o w i n g that
q u e s t i o n s in o r d e r t o f o llo w up the an sw ers given and the s t o r ie s told a llo w s a p rivileg ed a cce ss t o the s u b je c t ’s lived w orld .
by th e su bjects. I will discuss the interview in t e r a c t i o n in line w ith the A r e s e a rc h in terv iew fo llo w s an u n w ritten scrip t, w ith d if f e r e n t
m o d e o f u n d er stan d in g d ep ic te d earlier w ith respect t o 12 a sp e cts of ro le s sp e cifie d for the tw o acto rs. T h e im plicit rules o f th e ir in t e r a c t i o n
t he in terv iew : life w o rld , m e a n in g , q u a litativ e, d escriptive, sp e cif icity , b e c o m e visible w h e n th e y are b r o k e n , such as in this in te rv ie w
d elib era te na ïv eté , focu s, am big uity , c h a n g e , sen sitivity, in te rp e r so n a l e x c h a n g e w ith an u n e m p lo y e d m a n a b o u t trav elin g , in w h i c h the
s it u a t io n , and a po sitive e x p e r i e n c e (see B o x 2.1 in C h a p t e r 2 ). i n t e rv i e w e r is c a u g h t o f f g uard w h e n the s u b ject reverses the ro le s:
126 I n t e r v ie w s The Interview Situation 127

S u b j e c t : W h e n y o u are o n v a c a t i o n t h er e is sjsme silly tim e f a c t o r , the s e q u e n c e o f stand a rd q u estion fo rm u la tio n s , to o p e n in terview s w h ere
o n ly th in g you have tim e for is to g o d b w n a nd t h r o w y o u rse lf s p e cific t h e m e s are in focu s but w ith o u t a p r e d e t e rm in e d se q u e n ce and
o n th e b e a ch . D o you su n b a th e ? f o r m u l a t i o n o f qu estion s. S o m e ti m e s o n ly a first, t o p ic - in t ro d u c in g
In te r v ie w e r : W h a t ? qu e s t io n is ask ed and the rem a in d e r o f the interview p ro c e e d s as a

S: D o y o u s u n b a th e ? f o llo w -u p and e x p a n s i o n on the in te rv ie w e e ’s answ er t o the first

q u e s t io n s , such as in the in terview on lea rn in g re p o rt e d by G i o r g i . T h e
I: W e l l , n o I d o not.
interv iew s also d iffer in thei r openness o f purpose; the i n terv iew er can
S: Y o u have a nice c o lo r .
e x p la in the pu rpose and pose direct q u e stio n s fro m the st art o r can
I: I d o n ’t spend o n e single su m m e r day o n t h at, bu t as a w h o l e I l o o k a d o p t a r o u n d a b o u t a p p r o a c h , w ith i n d ir ect q u estio n s, a nd reveal the
tanned. F u r t h e r m o r e I get very easily t a n n e d , I o n ly n e e d to
p u rp ose o n ly w h en the in terview is ov er.
p ut o n e fin g er o u t o f the w i n d o w to c a t c h the su n. T h e interview s ca n differ further in thei r e m pha sis o n exploration
S: A lot o f p e o p l e w o u ld envy you that. versus hypothesis testing, as m e n t i o n e d in the discuss ion o f design.
I: W e l l , w h e r e d o w e be gin . W h a t are you d o i n g w ith y o u r frien ds? In ter v iew s a lso vary co n c e r n i n g description versus interpretation. T h e
( B e r g S o r e n s e n , 1 9 8 8 , p. 1 2 4 ) . i n t e rv i e w e r m ig h t se ek m ainly t o o b t a in n u a n c e d d escrip tio n s o f the
p h e n o m e n a i n v e s ti g a t e d o r c a n , d u r i n g th e i n t e r v i e w , a l s o a t t e m p t
T h e c o n v e r s a t io n in a re s e a rch interview is n o t th e r e c ip r o c a l t o clarify and in terp r et the d escrip tion s to g e t h e r w ith the su bject.
i n t e r a c t i o n o f t w o eq u a l p a rtn ers. T h e r e is a d efin ite a s y m m e t r y o f In te r v ie w s also vary o n an intellectual-emotional dimension, f ro m a
p o w e r : T h e i n terv iew er d efines the s itu a tio n , i n t r o d u c e s th e to p ics o f ra tio n a l log ical d is cou rse b e tw e e n i n terv ie w er and s u b je c t a n a ly ti­
the c o n v e r s a t io n , and t h ro u g h fu rth e r qu estio n s st eers th e c o u r s e o f cally clarify in g c o n c e p t i o n s o f the p h e n o m e n a inves tigated , to the
the in terview . T his w as the ca se in the ra th e r o p e n in te rv ie w re p o rt e d in t e rv ie w e r a t te m p t in g to get s p o n t a n e o u s and e m o t io n a l d escrip tio n s
by G i o r g i ( C h a p te r 2 ) . S o c r a t e s ’ in te rv iew , despite th e co n v e r s a t io n a l o f , a n d r e a c ti o n s a b o u t , a to p ic. T w o e x t r e m e interv iew s o n the
partn ers b e in g f o rm a lly equ al and the po lite i n t r o d u c t i o n , t o o k the i n t e l le c tu a l- e m o t i o n a l d im en s io n w ere pre sented ea rlier— the d is cur­
fo rm o f harsh in t e r r o g a t io n , re len tlessly drivin g A g a th o n a r o u n d in sive a r g u m e n ta t i o n o f S o c ra t e s and the e m o t io n a l t h e r a p e u t ic in t e r ­
his c o n t r a d ic t o r y c o n c e p t i o n s o f love and b e a u ty , until A g a th o n c h a n g e r e p o r t e d by R og e rs.
t h ro w s in th e t o w e l a n d c o n c e d e s t h a t h e k n o w s n o t h i n g o f w h a t he
was t a lk ing a b o u t ( C h a p t e r 2 ).
Advance p r e p a ra t io n is ess ential to the in t e r a c t i o n and o u t c o m e o f F r a m i n g th e Interview
an interv iew . A su b s ta n tia l p a rt o f the in v es tig a tio n s h o u ld t a k e p la ce
b e fo r e the ta pe r e c o r d e r is t u rn ed o n in the actual in te rv ie w situ atio n . T h e in terv iew is a stage u p on w h ich k n o w le d g e is c o n stru cte d
T h e key issues o f the in terv ie w c o n c e r n w ha t, w h y , and h o w : what — t h r o u g h th e i n t e r a c t i o n o f in terview er and interview e e roles. S o m e
a cq u irin g a p re k n o w le d g e o f the su b je c t m a tt e r t o be in v es tig a ted ; d ir e c ti o n s a re suggested h e re for settin g the interv iew stag e so the
why — fo rm u la tin g a clea r p u rp o s e for the i n t e rv ie w ; and how — be in g in t e rv ie w e e s will be en co u rag ed to put w ord s to th e ir p o in ts o f view
fa milia r w ith d iffe ren t in terv ie w t e c h n i q u e s and d e cid in g w h i c h to o n th e ir lives a n d w orlds. T h e d ir e ctio n s pertain t o interview s w ith
apply in the investigatio n. Also, b e f o r e the first interv iew s in a study m id d le-cla ss p erson s in N o r t h e r n Kurope and N o r t h A m e rica . In o th e r
are u n d e r ta k e n , th o u g h t sh ou ld have b e e n given to h o w the interview s c u lt u r e s, d if f e r e n t n o rm s may ho ld for in t e ra c t io n s w ith st ra ngers
will be anal yzed and how the fin dings will b e verified and r e p o rt e d . c o n c e r n i n g initia tive, d ir ectn ess, o p en n ess, and th e like.
R e s e a rc h interviews vary o n a se rie s o f d im e n s io n s . T h e y d if fer in T h e in terv iew ees sh ou ld be pro vided with a c o n t e x t f o r the i n t e r ­
d eg ree o f structure, fro m w e ll-o r g a n iz e d interview s t h a t fo l l o w a view by a b r ie fin g b e fo re and a d ebrie fin g afterw a rd. T h e c o n t e x t is
 128 interviews The Interview Situation 129

in trodu ced with a briefing in w hich the in terview er defines th e situ ­ T h e lived in te rv ie w s itu a tio n , w ith the in te r v i e w e e ’s v o ice and
ation for the su b je ct; briefly tells a b o u t the purp ose o f the interview , facial and b o dily e x p r e s s io n s a c c o m p a n y i n g the sta te m e n ts, pro vides
the use o f a tape re c o r d e r , and so o n ; and asks if the su b je c t has any a r i c h e r a ccess t o the su b je c t s’ m ea n in g s than the tra n s crib ed t e x t s will
qu e stion s b e fo re start ing t h f interview . F u r th e r e x p l a n a ti o n s a b o u t la ter . It m ay be w o r t h w h i le f o r the i n terv iew er t o set aside 10 m in u tes
the interv iew inves tigat ion sh ould prefe rab ly w ait until the interview o f q u ie t tim e a f te r each in terv iew t o recall and reflect o n w h a t has
is over. b e e n le a rn e d fro m the p a rticu la r intervie w , i n clu d in g the i n t e r p e r ­
T h e first m in u tes o f an interv iew are decisive. T h e su bjects will w a nt so n al i n t e r a c t i o n . T h e s e i m m e d ia t e im p ress io n s , bas ed o n the in t e r ­
to have a grasp o f the in tervie w er b e fo re they a llo w them selv es t o talk v i e w e r ’s e m p a t h i c a ccess to the m ea n in g s c o m m u n i c a t e d , m a y — in the
freely, e x p o s i n g their e x p e r i e n c e s and feelings t o a stran ger. A g oo d f o r m o f n o t e s o r sim ply r e c o r d e d o n t o the interview ta p e — p ro vid e a
c o n t a c t is estab lish ed by a tte n tiv e liste ning, with the i n terv iew er valua b le c o n t e x t f o r the later analysis o f tra nscripts.
s h o w in g in terest, u n derstand ing , and respect for w h a t the s u b je c t says;
at the sam e tim e , the in tervie w er is at ease and clear a b o u t w h a t he o r
T h e In te rv ie w G u ide
sh e w a n ts t o kno w .
The initial b rie fing sh ou ld be f o llo w e d up by a debriefing a f te r the
An in te rv ie w guide in d ic a tes the to p ics and their s e q u e n c e in the
in terv iew . At the end o f the in terview th e r e may be s o m e t e n s io n or
in te rv ie w . T h e g uid e ca n c o n t a i n just s o m e ro u g h to p ic s t o b e c o v ered
a n x ie t y , be ca u se the su bject has be en o p e n a b o u t o f t e n p e r so n a l and
o r it can be a d etaile d s e q u e n c e o f ca re fu lly w o rd e d q u e stio n s. F o r the
e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i e n c e s a nd m ay be w o n d e r in g a b o u t the i n t e r v i e w ’s
se m i s t r u c tu r e d type o f in te rv ie w discu ss ed h e re, th e guid e will c o n t a in
p u rp o s e and h o w it will be used. T h e r e may perhaps also be feelings
an o u t li n e o f t o p i c s t o be c o v e r e d , w ith su gge sted q u e stio n s. It will
o f e m p ti n e s s ; the su bject has given m uch in f o r m a t i o n a b o u t his o r he r
d e p e n d o n th e p a rt ic u la r design c h o s e n w h e t h e r the q u e s t i o n s and
life and m ay n o t have re c e iv e d an y th in g in return. T h i s b e in g said, a
t h e i r s e q u e n c e are st rictly p r e d e t e r m in e d and b in d in g o n the i n t e r ­
c o m m o n e x p e r i e n c e a f te r res ea rch in terview s is th a t the s u b jects have
v ie w ers, o r w h e t h e r it is up t o an in t e r v i e w e r ’s ju d g m e n t a nd ta ct h o w
e x p e r i e n c e d the in te rv ie w as g enu inely e n rich in g , have e n jo y e d t a lk ­
c l o s e ly t o f o l l o w th e guide and h o w st ro ng ly t o p u rsu e an individual
ing freely w ith an a tten tiv e lis te n er, and have so m e t i m e s o b t a in e d n e w
s u b j e c t ’s answ ers.
in sig h ts i n t o i m p o r t a n t th e m e s o f their life w orld .
E a c h in te rv ie w q u e s t i o n ca n be eva lu ated w ith re s p e c t t o b o t h a
T h e i n t e r a c t i o n ca n b e ro u n d e d o f f by the i n terv iew e r m e n t i o n i n g
t h e m a t i c a nd a d y n a m i c d im e n s io n : t h e m a tic a lly w ith reg a rd t o its
s o m e o f the m ain po in ts le arn ed fro m the interview . T h e s u b je c t may
r e l e v a n c e f o r the re s e a rch t h e m e , and d y n am ica lly with reg a rd to the
t h e n w a n t to c o m m e n t on this feed b a ck . T h e in t e ra c t io n can t h e r e a ft e r
i n t e r p e r s o n a l re l a t i o n s h i p in the interview . A g o o d in te rv ie w q u e s t io n
b e c o n c l u d e d by the in t e rv ie w e r saying, for e x a m p l e , “1 h av e no
sh o u ld c o n t r i b u t e th e m a ti c a l l y t o k n o w le d g e p r o d u c t io n and d y n a m i ­
f u r t h e r q u estio n s. D o y o u have a n y t h in g m o r e you w a n t t o b r in g up,
ca lly t o p r o m o t i n g a g o o d in te rv iew i n t e r a c t i o n .
o r ask a b o u t , b e f o r e we finish the in t e r v i e w ? ” T h i s gives th e s u b ject
Them atically th e q u e s t i o n s rela te t o th e to p i c o f the i n t e rv ie w , to
a n a d d i ti o n a l o p p o r t u n i t y t o deal w ith issues he or sh e has b e e n
the t h e o r e t i c a l c o n c e p t i o n s a t th e r o o t o f an i n v e s tig a t io n , and t o the
t h i n k i n g o r w o rr y in g a b o u t during the interv iew .
s u b s e q u e n t an alysis. T h e q u e s t i o n s will be d if f e re n t w h e n in te rv ie w in g
T h e d e b r i e f in g is likely t o c o n t in u e a f te r the tape r e c o r d e r has be en
f o r s p o n t a n e o u s d e s c r i p t i o n s o f the lived w o r l d , o r i n t e r v i e w i n g fo r a
t u r n e d o f f . A fter a first gasp o f relief, the inte rview ee m ay b r in g up
c o n c e p t u a l a naly sis o f the p e r s o n ’s c o n c e p t s o f a to p i c . Sim p ly e x ­
t o p i c s h e o r sh e did n o t feel sa fe raising w ith the tape r e c o r d e r o n .
p re sse d , the m o r e s p o n t a n e o u s the in terv ie w p r o c e d u r e , the m o r e
A n d th e i n t e r v i e w e r c a n n o w , in s o far as the s u b je c t is i n t e re s te d , tell
l ik ely o n e is t o o b t a in s p o n t a n e o u s , lively, and u n e x p e c t e d answ ers
m o r e fully a b o u t the p u r p o s e and design o f the in terv iew study.
f r o m th e in t e rv ie w e e s. Arid vice vers a: T h e m o r e st ru c t u re d the
130 Interviews The Interview Situation 131

i n t e rv ie w s itu a tio n is, th e easier the later stru qu ir in g o f the in te rv ie w T A B L E 7 .1 R e s e a rc h Q u e s tio n s a n d In te rv ie w Q u e s tio n s
by analysis will be. i
Research Questions Interview Questions
In line w ith the prin cip le o f “ pu shin g fo r w a r d ” in an i n t e rv ie w p r o j ­
e c t , the la te r st ag es sh o u ld be tak en into a c c o u n t w h e n p r e p a rin g the
/ Do you find the subjects you learn
i n t e rv ie w qu estio n s. I f th e m e t h o d o f analysis will in vo lv e c a te g o riz in g
/ im portant?
the a n s w ers, t h e n cla rify co n t in u a lly d u rin g the in te rv ie w the m e a n ­
ings o f the a n s w e rs w ith re s p e ct t o the c a t e g o rie s t o be used late r. If W h ich form o f learning m otivation ^ — ------- D o you find learning
a narrative analysis is to be em ployed, then give the subjects am ple free­ dom inates in high school? \ interesting in itself?
d o m a nd tim e to u n f o l d th e ir o w n storie s, and f o l l o w up w ith q u e s­
t io n s t o clarify the m a in ep iso d es a nd c h a ra c t e rs in th e ir narra tiv es. W hat is your main purpose
Dynamically, th e qu estio n s sh ou ld p r o m o t e a positive in t e r a c t i o n ; / in going to high school?
k e e p the f lo w o f the c o n v e r s a t io n g o in g and m o t iv a te th e su b je c t s to
ta lk a b o u t th e i r e x p e r i e n c e s and feelings. T h e q u e s t io n s sh o u ld be easy D o the grades prom ote an external, / Have you experienced a co n flict

t o u n d e r s t a n d , s h o r t, and d evoid o f a c a d e m i c lang u age. instrum ental m otivation at the / between what you w anted to read
expense o f an intrinsic interest \ (study) and what you had to read to
A g o o d c o n c e p t u a l t h e m a ti c res ea rch q u e s t io n need n o t be a g o o d
m otivation for learning? —» \ obtain a good grade?
d y n a m i c in te rv ie w q u estio n . W h e n p re p a rin g an in terv iew it m a y be
useful t o d ev elo p tw o guides, o n e w ith the p r o j e c t ’s m ain t h e m a ti c
D oes learning for grades socialize ----- ------- Have you been rewarded with money
re s earch q u e stio n s and the o t h e r w ith the q u e s t i o n s t o be po sed during
to w orking for wages? for good grades?
the in terv iew , w h ich takes b o th the t h e m a ti c and the d y n a m i c d i m e n ­
s io n s i n t o a c c o u n t. Do you see any con nection between
T able 7 . 1 d epic ts the tra n s la tio n o f t h e m a ti c re s earch q u e stio n s in m oney and grades?
the g ra d in g study in t o in terv iew q u e s t io n s to p ro vid e t h e m a t i c k n o w l ­
edge and c o n t r i b u t e d yn a m ically to a natu ral co n v e r s a t io n a l flow. T h e
a bs tract w o r d i n g o f the re s e a rch q u e stio n s w o u ld hardly lead to
did you feel t h e n ? ” “W h a t did you e x p e r i e n c e ? ” and the like. T h e aim
o f f - t h e - c u f f a nsw ers f r o m high s c h o o l pupils. T h e a c a d e m i c res ea rch
is t o el icit sp o n t a n e o u s d escription s fro m the su bjects ra the r th a n to
q u estion s n e e d t o be tran s la te d in t o an ea sy -g o in g , c o ll o q u i a l f o rm to
g et th e ir o w n , m o r e o r less sp eculativ e e x p l a n a ti o n s o f w hy so m e t h in g
g en er a te s p o n t a n e o u s and rich d escrip tio n s. O n e re s e a rch q u e s t io n
t o o k p la ce . “ W h y ” q u e stion s a b o u t the s u b jects’ o w n rea s on s for thei r
ca n be investigated t h ro u g h several in te rv ie w q u e stio n s, thus o b t a i n ­
a c t i o n s m ay be im p o r t a n t in their o w n right. M a n y “w h y ” qu estio n s
ing ri ch and varied i n f o r m a t i o n by a p p r o a c h in g a t o p i c f ro m several
in an in te rv ie w m ay, h o w ev er, lead to an intellec tu a liz ed intervie w ,
angles. And o n e interview q u e stio n m ig h t pro vide a n s w e rs to several
p e r h a p s ev o kin g m e m o r i e s o f or al e x a m i n a t i o n s . F ig u rin g o u t the
resea rch qu estion s.
re a s o n s and e x p l a n a ti o n s for w hy so m e t h in g h a p p e n e d is prim arily
T h e ro le s o f the “ w h y ,” “ w h a t , ” and “ h o w ” q u e s t io n s are d if f e re n t
th e task o f the investigator.
in re searc h versus interview q u estio n s. It has b e e n r e p e a te d ly e m p h a ­
sized that w h en designing an in terv iew p r o je c t, the “w h y ” and “ w h a t ”
qu estion s sh ould be asked and an s w ered b e fo r e the q u e s t io n o f “ h o w ”
In terv iew Q u e stio n s
is posed. In the interv iew situ a tio n , the prio rity o f the q u e s t io n types
ch ang e. In the interview itself, the m ain q u e stio n s s h o u ld be in a
T h e re s e a rch interview p ro c e e d s ra the r like a n o rm al c o n v e r s a t io n
descriptive f o rm : “W h a t h a p p e n e d and h o w did it h a p p e n ? ” “ H o w
bu t has a spe cific pu rpose and stru ctu re : It is ch a ra cte riz e d by a
 In tcrV ie*» T k Interview Situation

sy ste m atic fo rm o f qu estio n in g . T h e i n te rv iew er’s questions should he

b r ie f and sim ple. In the life w orld interviews described here, i B o x 7.1
o p e n i n g q u estion may ask a b o u t a c o n c r e te situation. T h e different •'
d im e n s io n s in tro d u ced in the a n s w er can then be pursued. The deci­ T y p e s o f In te rv ie w Q u e s ti o n s
sive issue is the i n terv iew er’s ability to sense the immediate meaning
o f an answ er and the h o r i z o n o f po ssible m eanings that it opens up. '
T h i s , again, req uires a k n o w le d g e of, and interes t in, both the theme A. Introducing Questions-. “C a n you tell me a b o u t . . . ?” ;
and the h u m an in t e ra c t io n o f the in terview . Decis io ns abo ut which o f “D o you r e m e m b e r an o c c a s i o n w h e n . . . ?” ; “ W h a t h a p ­
the m a n y d im en s io n s to pursue that are intro duce d by a subject’* pened in the ep iso d e you m e n t i o n e d ? ” ; and “ C o u l d you
a n s w e r will d epend o n the pu rp ose and c o n t e n t o f the interview,) describe in as m u c h d eta il as p o ssible a situ ation in w h ich
well as on the social i n tera ctio n in the interview situation. learn ing o c c u r r e d for y o u ? ” S u ch o p e n i n g q u e s t i o n s may
B o x 7 .1 depic ts s o m e m ain types o f qu estion s that may be useful in yield s p o n t a n e o u s , ri ch , d e s c rip t io n s w h e r e the s u b jects
the sem istru c tu re d in terview fo rm tre ated he re. A more extended ' them selves p ro vid e w h a t they e x p e r i e n c e as the m ain di­
discu ss ion o f interv iew qu estio n s is given by Seidman ( 1 9 9 1 ) . In m ensio ns o f the p h e n o m e n a in vestig ated. T h e re m a in d e r
a d ditio n to paying a t te n t io n to the t h e m a tic and dynamic aspects of o f the in terv ie w c a n t h e n p r o c e e d as f o llo w in g up o f
the q u e stio n s, the in terview er sh ould also try to keep in mind the later dim ensio ns in t ro d u c e d in the story told in re s p o n se to the
analysis, v e rifica tio n , and re p o rtin g o f the interviews. Interviewetx initial q u estion .
w h o k n o w w h a t they are asking a b o u t , a nd why they are asking, will
B. Follow-Up Questions: T h e s u b je c t s ’ answ ers m ay be
a t te m p t to clarify the m ea n in g s re leva n t to the pro ject during the
exten ded th ro u g h a c u rio u s , p er sisten t, and critica l a ttitu d e
interview , o b ta in in g a d is a m b ig u atio n o f the st atem ents made, and
o f the in terv iew er. T h i s can be d o n e th ro u g h d ir e ct q u e s ­
th er eb y pro vide a m o re t ru s tw o rth y p o in t o f dep art ure for the later :
tio ning o f w h a t has just b e e n said. A lso a m e re n o d , o r
analysis. Su ch a pro cess o f m e a n in g cla rifica tio n during the interview
“m m , ” o r ju st a pause c a n in d ic a te t o the s u b je c t t o g o on
may a lso c o m m u n ic a te to the su bjects th a t the interview er actually is
with the d e scrip tio n . R e p e a t i n g sig n ifica n t w o r d s o f an
liste ning to and intereste d in w ha t they are saying. Ideally, the testing
ans wer can lead t o f u rth e r e l a b o r a t io n s . In te r v ie w e r s can
o f h y p o th ese s and i n te rp r e ta tio n s is finished by the end of the inter­
train th em selv es t o n o t ic e “ red lig h ts” in the an s w ers— su ch
vi ew , w ith the i n t e rv i e w e r’s h y p o th ese s having be en verified or falsi­
as unusual t e rm s, s t r o n g in t o n a t i o n s , and the like— w h ic h
fied during the interv iew .
may signal a w h o l e c o m p l e x o f to p ic s im p o r t a n t t o the s u b ­
If an interview is to be r e p o rt e d , perhaps qu oted at length, then
ject. T h e key issue h e re is the i n t e r v i e w e r ’s ability to listen
a t te m p t w h e n feasible to m ak e th e social c o n t e x t exp licit during the
t o w h a t is i m p o r t a n t t o the su b je c t s, and at the sam e tim e
in terview , and w h e n possible the e m o t io n a l ton e o f the interaction,
to keep in m in d the rejsearch q u e stio n s o f an inves tig a tio n .
so th at w h a t is said is u n d er sta n d a b le for the read ers, w h o have not
w itn essed the live interview situation. M u c h is to be learn ed from C. Probing Questions: “ C o u l d you say s o m e t h in g m o r e
jou rnalists and novelist s a b o u t co n v e y in g the setting and m ood of a a b o u t t h a t ? ” ; “ C a n y o u give a m o r e deta iled d e s c r i p t i o n o f

co n v e r sa tio n . w hat h a p p e n e d ? ” ; “ D o you have fu rt h e r e x a m p l e s o f t h i s ? ”

T h e fo cu s he re has been o n the in terv iew er’s questions. Active T h e i n te rv iew er here pursues th e answ ers, p ro b in g their

liste ning— the in t e rv ie w e r’s ability t o listen actively t o what the inter­ c o n t e n t bu t w i t h o u t st atin g w h a t d im e n s io n s are t o be

view ee says— ca n be m o r e im p o r t a n t than the specific mastery of tak en in t o a c c o u n t.

qu estion in g te chn iques: T h e r a p i s t s ’ ed u ca tion em phasizes their skills (continued)

134 Interviews The Interview Situation 135

B o x 7 .1 C o n t i n u e d B o x 7 .1 C o n t in u e d

D. Specifying Questions-. T h e i n terv iew er may also f o llo w c o n v e r s a t io n the su bjects have a m p le tim e t o associate and
ü
up with m o r e o p e r a t io n a l i z in g q u e stio n s, f o r in s ta n ce : re f le c t and then brea k the silen ce them selves w ith signifi­
“W h a t did you think t h e n ? ” ; “W h a t did you a ctu ally do c a n t in f o r m a t i o n . a
w h en you felt a m o u n t in g a n x i e t y ? ” ; “ H o w did y o u r bo d y
I. Interpreting Questions: T h e d egree o f in t e r p r e ta t i o n may *
r e a c t ? ” In an in terv iew w ith m a n y g en era l s t a t e m e n t s , the
involv e mere ly rep hrasin g an answ er, for in s tan ce: “Y o u
i n terv iew er can a t te m p t to get m o r e p recis e d e scrip tio n s by » I
th en m ean th at . . . ?” o r a ttem p ts at cla rif ic a t io n : “ Is it
a sk ing “ H a v e you also e x p e r i e n c e d this y o u r s e l f ? ”
c o r r e c t that you feel that . . . ?” ; “ D o e s the e x p r e s ­ *-
E. Direct Questions-. T h e in t e rv ie w e r h e re d ir ectly i n t r o ­ sio n . . . co v e r w h a t you have just e x p r e s s e d ? ” T h e r e may
*
d u ces t o p i c s an d d im e n s io n s , f o r e x a m p l e : “ H a v e you ev er also be m o r e d ir e ct i n terp r eta tio n s o f w h a t the pupil has
receiv ed m o n e y for g o o d g r a d e s ? ” ; “W h e n you m e n t i o n said : “ Is it c o r r e c t th a t y ou r m a in a n x ie ty a b o u t th e gra des »
c o m p e t i t i o n , d o you t h e n th in k o f a s p o r t s m a n l i k e o r a c o n c e r n s the re a c tio n fro m y ou r p a r e n t s ? ” M o r e speculativ e
d estructive c o m p e t i t i o n ? ” S u ch d ir e c t q u e stio n s may p r e f ­ q u e s t io n s can take the fo rm of: “ D o yon see an y c o n n e c t i o n s
erab ly b e p o s t p o n e d until the later parts o f the in terv ie w , b e tw e e n the t w o situ a tio n s o f c o m p e t i n g with the o th e r
a fter the su bjects have given their o w n s p o n t a n e o u s d e ­ pupils for gra des and the re lation to y ou r siblings at h o m e ? ”
!>
scr ip tio n s and th er eb y i n d ic ated w hat asp e cts o f the p h e ­
n o m e n a are ce n tr a l t o th e m . ►
F. Indirect Questions-. H e r e the in t e rv ie w e r m a y apply as lis te ners, furthe ring an e m p a th i c active lis te ning t o th e m any ►
p ro je ctiv e q u e stio n s su ch as “ H o w d o you be lieve o t h e r n u a n c e s a nd layers o f m eaning s o f w h a t th eir pa tients tell them . Fre u d
pupils regard the c o m p e t i t i o n for g r a d e s ? ” T h e an s w e r may ( 1 9 6 3 ) r e c o m m e n d e d that therapis ts listen to their pa tients w ith an
re fer d irectly t o the a ttitu d e s o f o t h e r s ; it may also be an “ even ly h o v e r i n g a t t e n t i o n ” t o a tten d to the m e a n in g o f th e ir ac c o u n ts
in d ir ect s t a t e m e n t o f the p u p il’s o w n a ttitu d e , w h ic h he o r (C h a p t e r 4 , P sy cho analy tic a l K n o w le d g e P ro d u ctio n ).
she does n o t state d ir ectly . C a r e fu l fu rt h e r q u e s t i o n in g will T h e i m p o r t a n c e o f lis te ning also appears in p h e n o m e n o l o g i c a l and
b e ne cessary he re to i n t e r p r e t the answ er. h e r m e n e u t i c a l a p p r o a c h e s to in terview ing ( C h a p te r s ec tio n s titled
G. Structuring Questions: T h e in t e rv ie w e r is re s p on sible H e r m e n e u t i c a l In te r p r e t a t io n ; and P h e n o m e n o lo g ic a l D e s c r i p t io n ) .
for the c o u rs e o f the in te rv ie w and sh ou ld ind ic ate w h e n a T h e r e is the p h e n o m e n o l o g i c a l ideal o f lis te ning w i th o u t p re ju d ice,
th e m e has b e e n e x h a u s te d . T h e in t e rv ie w e r m ay d ir ectly a llo w in g the i n t erv iew e es’ d escription s o f their e x p e r i e n c e s u n fold
and po litel y b r e a k o f f lo n g a n s w e rs t h a t are irrelev a n t to w i t h o u t in t e r r u p t i o n s fro m interview er qu estio n s and the p r e s u p p o ­
the to p ic o f the in v es tig a tio n , for e x a m p l e by saying, “ I sitio n s these invo lve. A h e rm e n e u tica l a p p r o a c h involves an i n t e r p r e ­
w ou ld n o w like to in t r o d u c e a n o t h e r to p i c : . . . ” tative liste ning to the m ultiple h o riz o n s o f m e a n in g involv ed in the
in t e r v i e w e e s ’ sta te m e n ts, with an a t te n t io n to the possibilities o f
H. Silence: R a t h e r th a n m a k i n g the in te rv ie w a c ro ss e x ­
c o n t in u a l re in te r p re t a tio n s w ith in the h e rm e n e u tica l ci rcle o f the
a m in a tio n by co n t in u a lly firing o f f q u e stio n s, the re s e a rch
in te rv ie w . A tte n tio n will also b e paid to the influ en ce o f the pre su p ­
in te rv iew er can tak e a lead f ro m thera p is ts in e m p lo y in g
p o sitio n s o f th e s u b jects’ an sw ers as well as the p re su p p o sitio n s o f the
silence to furthe r the interview . By a llo w in g pauses in the
i n t e r v i e w e r ’ s qu estion s.
136 Interviews The Interview Situation 137

An Interview About Grades my p a re n ts— t h e m m a k in g a fuss. A nd s o m e o f th e o t h e r kids no t

r e s p o n d in g s o well w h o d id n ’ t d o so w ell. It was m ix e d e m o t io n s ,
An in terv ie w will be rep ro d u ced here to illu strate the m o d e o f bu t g en e r a lly 1re m e m b e r the c e l e b r a t i o n asp ect.
q u e s t i o n in g in a q u a lita tiv e research interv iew . An in terv iew g uid e that S K 4 : Y o u said m ix e d e m o t io n s . Are you a b le t o d escrib e th em ?
c o m b i n e d ex p l o r a t iv e and hy po th esis -testin g a p p r o a c h e s was p r e ­ Student 4 : W e ll, at th at tim e 1 w as the t e a c h e r ’s p et a nd s o m e peo p le
p are d in ad v a n ce. T h e interview was c o n d u c t e d b e fo r e a class at a w o u ld say, “ A ha , m a yb e sh e d id n ’ t ea rn it, m ayb e it’ s just be cau se
resea rch w o r k s h o p at S a y b r o o k In stitute, San F r a n c i s c o , in 1 9 8 7 . the t e a c h e r likes h e r so w e l l .” A n d s o m e kind o f s t ra tifica tio n
A lth ou g h the interview situation is artificial, it gives in a c o n d e n s e d o c c u r r i n g be ca u se I was n o t o n ly the t e a c h e r ’s pet bu t I was
f o rm a fair picture o f the se m istru c tu red interv iew form u n d er d is cus­ m a y b e g ettin g b e tt e r g rad es and it c r e a te d s o m e kind o f d is so­
sio n . T h e interview is re p ro d u ce d virtually v e rb atim , w ith o n ly a few n a n c e w ith in m y c la ss m a t e s’ e x p e r i e n c e o f m e so cially.
m in o r ch a n g e s in linguist ic style. S K 5 : C o u l d you d escrib e th a t d is so n a n ce ?
S t u d e n t 5 : W e l l , I th in k t h e r e ’s alw ays s o m e kind o f d e m a r c a ti o n
S K : I will n o w a tte m p t to d em o n strate the m o d e o f u n d e r st a n d in g in
b e tw e e n stu d en ts w h o d o well and stu d en ts w h o d o n ’ t d o as w ell,
a qu a lit ativ e research in terview , and I need a v o lu n t e e r. It will
a nd t h a t ’s d e te r m i n e d , e sp ecia lly in the p rim a ry g rad es, by the
be a ra the r neutral to p ic, it’s n o t a psy ch o an aly tic d epth i n t e r ­
n u m b e r th a t you g e t on to p o f y o u r pap er .
view. T h e interv iew will take a b o u t ten m in utes a nd a f te r w a r d s
SK 6: W a s this early in s c h o o l ? W a s it first g rad e?
w e will discuss it he re.
Student 6: T h i r d grade.
A woman in her thirties volunteers. SK 7: 1 hird g rad e. W e ll, t h a t ’s a lo n g tim e ag o. A re you able to
r e m e m b e r w h a t they said? O r —
S K 1 : T h a n k you for your w illingness to particip a te and be in t e r ­
S t u d e n t 7 : N o ; it was m o r e f eelin g —
view ed h e re. I have b e e n studying the effe cts o f g rad es in E u r o p e
SK 8: T h e fee lin g —
for s o m e years , and n o w I’m intere ste d in the m e a n i n g o f grad es
Student 8: Y e a h , it w as the f eelin g o f , I ’ d put s o m e sp ac e b e tw e e n me
fo r A m e ric a n stu d ents and pupils.
and the peer g ro u p —-
I w a n t to first ask you a m ay be difficult q u estio n . If y o u ’ ll try
SK 9 : B eca u se o f y ou r g o o d gra des.
t o r e m e m b e r b a c k w h en you w en t to prim ary s c h o o l , are you
a ble t o r e m e m b e r th e first tim e you ever had any g ra d es? Student 9 : Yeah.

S t u d en t 1: I r e m e m b e r a tim e ; bu t it might no t have b e e n the first SK 10: Did you try to d o an y t h in g a b o u t that?

tim e. S t u d e n t 1 0 : I d id n ’ t d o so well a f te r that. It really a f fe c t e d m e in a

S K 2 : L e t ’s take th a t tim e. C a n you tell me w ha t h a p p e n e d ? large way. I wanted to be with th e m m o re than I wan ted to be with
th e t e a c h e r , o r o n the t e a c h e r ’s g o o d list. S o it was sig nificant.
St u d e n t 2 : I did very w ell. I r e m e m b e r g etting a red st ar o n the to p
SK 11: It w as a sig n ifica n t e x p e r i e n c e — (Yes) — t o y o u , a nd you g ot
o f my paper w ith 100 ; and that stands o u t in m y m e m o r y as
in a c o n f l i c t b e tw e e n t e a c h e r and y o u r peers, o r you e x p e r i e n c e d
e x c it in g and interes ting.
it as a c o n f li c t . (Yes) Did y ou r p a re n ts e n te r in t o the situ atio n ?
S K 3 : Yes. Is it on ly the red star that st an ds o u t, or w h a t h a p p e n e d
S t u d e n t 1 1 : N o t th a t I recall, be ca u se it w as— t o me it w as a sig nifica nt
a ro u n d it?
a l te r a ti o n in h o w I e x p e r i e n c e d g ra d es. T o th e m it w as m ayb e
S t u d en t 3 : [laughter] I r e m e m b e r the c o lo r very very w ell. It was
just a little bit less. B u t it w as still sa t is f a c t o ry , still a c c e p t a b le ,
shining. I r e m e m b e r g etting rew a rd ed all the w ay a r o u n d . I
and I w as still rew a rd ed in g e n e r a l t e rm s f o r d o in g w ell and n o t
re m e m b e r b e in g h o n o r e d by my classm ates and the t e a c h e r and
failing. S o th at d ic h o t o m y w as r es p ecte d .
138 Interviews The Interview Situation 139

S K 1 2 : T h a t kind o f d is s o n a n c c b e t w e e n say jloy a lty t o youq t e a c h e r Student 2 1 : I re m e m b e r failing English in co lleg e! T h a t w as pre tty
a nd the a f fe c t i o n o f the cla ss m a te s, is th at a s itu a tio n you have t r a u m a t ic . It m ean t I c o u l d n ’t g rad uate w ith my class. C o m ­
b e en into o t h e r t im es? D o e s it re m in d you o f — o t h e r — •? plet ely u n e x p e c te d . It m ade m e feel bad. But I w o u n d up by

Stu d en t 1 2 : It keeps re p e a tin g itself in my life, yes. W h e n e v e r I start ta k in g the test ov er the p h o n e w ith the t e a c h e r and finally

tak in g my friend s o r m y p eer g ro u p fo r g ra n te d , I g et s o m e kind g ra d u a tin g with my class, in un derg ra du a te s c h o o l . T h a t was

o f m essage saying, H u h - u h , w h a t ’ s m o r e i m p o r t a n t t o m e? And very sw eet o f them .

w h a t ’s m o r e i m p o r t a n t t o me is my frien dsh ip s. S K 2 2 : T h e r e you w ere at the o t h e r en d o f the co n t in u u m .

S K 1 3 : U m - h m m . T h a t is the bas ic issue. Student 2 2 : I had a lot o f friends say so ! [laughter]

Y o u m e n t i o n e d several tim es b e f o r e “ r e w a r d e d ”— w h a t d o S K 2 3 : S o there seem s to be an a lm o st o n g o i n g c o n f li c t in b o th
you m e an by “ r e w a r d e d ” ? r e l a t i o n to the t e a c h e r and the re la tion t o the classm ates. And
S t u d en t 1 3 : O h , g e t tin g t o stay up t o w a tc h T V w h e n I w as in third w h e r e is y ou r ow n self? Is th a t pulling apart ?
g ra d e, m a y b e ; o r g e t tin g to g o s o m e place o r stay o u t late r or Student 2 3 : I’ m glad I d o n ’t have to deal with that any m ore .
m a y b e just g etting ice c r e a m , so m e f o o d — SK 2 4 : Yes. 1 ca n see th a t—
SK 1 4 : So you g ot ta n g ible rew a rd s (Yes) for the g rad es? D id th at A nd asking m o r e sp ecifica lly a b o u t th e le a rn in g p ro cess , did
m ak e you learn m o r e o r was it m o r e in cid en tal? the fact th a t you w ere getting grad ed, did th at have any in fluen ce
S t u d en t 1 4 : It m ade m e w a n t t o d o w ell, so it w as— d o b e tt e r. o n the way you learn ed ?

S K 1 5 : I’ve h e a rd s o m e place a b o u t the t e r m “ g rad e m o n e y ”— S t u d e n t 2 4 : Yes; I w as very w o rr ie d a b o u t pick in g the right th e m e

Stu den t 1 5 : G r a d e ? s u b je c t t o w rite a b o u t and getting the right res ea rch , a n d right
m e a n in g n o t necessarily the best. So n o w [at S a y b r o o k , a n o n -
S K 1 6 : M o n e y . T h a t s o m e p e o p le get “ grade m o n e y . ”
resid ential P h.D . pro g ram w ith o n ly pass/fail eva luation ] I’m
Stu d en t 1 6 : O h , if they d o well?
ta k in g m o re c h a n c e s w ith w riting essays, personal o p in i o n e s­
S K 1 7 : Y es , did you ev er get that ? says. I t h in k “ G e e , let me try this, it m ig h t n o t be a c c e p t e d , bu t
Stu d en t 1 7 : N o . O n ly f o o d ! [laughter] Ice c re a m . I w o n ’t fail .” T h i s is a much m o r e creative e x p e r i e n c e f o r m e,
SK 1 8 : T h e r e ’s a term ca lled “w h e e d l in g ” o r “ a pple p o li s h i n g . ” O r and the risk -takin g f a c to r has exp a n d e d . T h e r e w a s n ’t a lot o f
play ing up t o the te a c h e r . W e r e you ever accu sed o f that? risk -ta k in g w h en I k new I was goin g t o get grad ed , ’cau se I

Stu d en t 1 8 : Yes. n e e d e d t o get the c o n f ir m a t i o n o f my p eer g ro u p , talk a b o u t it,

and m ak e sure that it was in line with e v er y b o d y else’s. T h i s
S K 1 9 : Y o u w ere. H o w did you ta k e that ?
e x p e r i e n c e is so individual and so n o n t h r e a t e n i n g that I ’m m o re
Stu d en t 1 9 : — N o ; it w as up settin g, yes.
w illing to take creative risks.
S K 2 0 : T h e D a n ish pupils I ’ve in te rv ie w e d , t h e y ’ ve also m e n t i o n e d
SK 2 5 : D o I un derst and you co r r e c t l y w h en I ’ m saying th a t y our
that co n f lic t . T h e y get g o o d re la tio n s w ith the t e a c h e r a nd a l m o s t
e x p e r i e n c e w ith the gradin g you had to play it safe, n o t to be t o o
a u to m a tica lly o t h e r pupils m a y st a rt say ing it’s w h e e d l in g — —
cre a tive or take any risks? (Yes) W h e r e a s w ith Pass/Fail, you are
a llo w ed to think cre atively and take risks?
L e t ’s see. If we ju m p ah e ad t o — If you try to r e m e m b e r the
S t u d e n t 2 5 : Yeah . And in this situation [at Saybrook| in pa rticula r it’s
last tim e you ever g ot a g rade.
very difficult to co m p a r e and c o n tra st w ith cla ssm a tes w h o a r e n ’t
Stu de n t 2 0 : O t h e r than a Pass/Fail?
very clo s e , so i t ’s a b e tter situation.
SK 2 1 : Yes.
140 I nt e r v i e ws The Interview Situation 141

SK 2 6 : O k a y . — Are th e r e any m o re things yon w ou ld w a n t t o say R o g e r i a n , a F r e u d ia n , and a S k in n e ria n a p p r o a c h ( C h a p te r 5 , D e s ig n ­

b e fo r e we en d the interview ? ing). I hese w ere used as g e n era l a p p r o a c h e s in this in terv iew to
Stu de n t 2 6 : N o ; I d o n ’t th in k so. investigate d if f e r e n t a sp e cts o f the m ea n in g s o f gra des. T h u s w hen the

S K 2 7 : O k a y ; th a n k you very m uch for your c o o p e r a ti o n . s t u d e n t d e scrib ed “m i x e d e m o t i o n s ” (3) and “ it w a s m o r e th e feelin g ”

( 7 ), I s o u g h t, in line w ith a R o g e r i a n a p p r o a c h , to e n c o u r a g e furthe r

T h e in terv iew was then discussed in class, inclu ding the f o llo w in g e l a b o r a t io n o f the fe eling and the m ix e d e m o t i o n s by re p e a tin g these

exchange: very w o rd s ( S K 4 6c 8 ). A F reu d ian a p p r o a c h in a b ro a d sense was tried

by ask in g , “ D id y ou r p a re n ts e n te r i n t o the s i t u a t i o n ? ” (SK 1 1 ) and,

S K 2 8 : H o w did you e x p e r i e n c e bein g interview ed a b o u t it [the la ter, w h e t h e r the loyalty c o n f li c t b e tw e e n t e a c h e r and pupils r e ­

grades] up in fro n t here? m in d e d he r o f o t h e r s itu a tio n s (S K 1 2 ) . T h e s t u d e n t ’s an s w e r c o n f ir m s

t h a t this k eep s r e p e a tin g itself in he r life, bu t sh e d oes n o t b r in g up
Student 2 7 : I t h o u g h t it was a really g o o d o p p o rt u n ity for me to
fa mily rela tio n s . I h e re had in m in d he r g ra d e-lo y a lty c o n f l i c t as
e x p l o r e that. I h a v e n ’t even th o u g h t a b o u t it in a lon g tim e , but
p ossibly r e a c tiv a tin g c h il d h o o d c o n f li c t s o f jealousy a n d sib ling rivalry
I k n e w fro m therapy th a t I’ve had re cently that th a t was a big
fo r the a f f e c t i o n o f pare nts.
tim e in my life w h en I was closer t o my t e a c h e r than 1 w as t o my
A S k in n e ria n r e i n f o r c e m e n t a p p r o a c h was pursu ed (SK 1 3 ) by
friends and I ’ve had t o face that a lot. It was fun for me to talk
p r o b i n g th e m e a n i n g o f the s t u d e n t ’s term “r e w a r d e d ” (3 & \1). T h e
a b o u t it ’cause I ’ m pretty clear a b o u t w hat ha p p ened .
s t u d e n t th e n tells a b o u t b e in g re w a rd e d for g o o d g ra d es as a ch il d by
g e t tin g t o stay up late t o w a tc h T V o r by b e in g given ice c r e a m . E a r l ie r
T h e m o d e s o f q u estio n in g and the topics co v e re d in this artifici al
in th e in te rv ie w the stu d e n t (3) had m e n t i o n e d r e i n f o r c e m e n t s for
d e m o n s t r a t i o n interv iew a b o u t grades are rep resen ta tive o f the 3 0
g o o d g rad es, su ch as be in g h o n o r e d by he r cla ss m ates, t e a c h e r , and
interv iew s o n grades in D an ish high s ch o o ls discussed t h r o u g h o u t this
p a re n ts. If this had n o t b e e n a d e m o n s t r a t i o n in te rv ie w in f r o n t o f a
b o o k . F e w o f the pupils, h o w e v e r, gave su ch rich and e l o q u e n t
class, a n d ha d last ed l o n g e r, o n e or m o r e o f the th re e t h e o r e t ic a l
d e scrip tio n s o f thei r e x p e r i e n c e s with grades.
a p p r o a c h e s w o u ld have be en m o r e e x ten siv ely f o llo w e d up.

Know ledge Produced in the Interview. S e v era l i m p o r t a n t a s p e c ts

The Interview Situationi In spite o f the in te rv ie w ta k in g p la ce in
o f the so cial effects o f grad in g are evident in this sh ort in te rv ie w —-
f r o n t o f a class , the a t m o s p h e r e w as ra t h e r r e la x e d . O n e re a s o n is the
p rim arily a pervasive loyalty co n f lic t b e tw e e n t e a c h e r and p e e r s ; be in g
s t u d e n t ’s o p e n n e s s : S h e had v o lu n t e e r e d , in d ic a tin g t h e r e b y t h a t she
a t e a c h e r ’s pet g etting high grades c re a te d a d is so n an ce in h e r cla ss­
w as n o t a fra id o f b e in g in terv iew e d in f r o n t o f an a u d i e n c e ; sh e had
m a te s’ e x p e r i e n c e s o f h e r, it put a sp ace be tw e e n he r and th e peer
a lso b e e n in th e r a p y and w^s thus c o m f o r t a b l e w ith ta lk in g a b o u t he r
gro up. T h i s d isson a nce k ep t rep ea tin g itself in he r life, w ith her
p e r so n a l e x p e r i e n c e s . And;, as it tu rn e d o u t , the t o p i c o f th e i n t e r ­
friendsh ip s be in g the m o st im p o r t a n t (Stud ent 3 tk. 5 ) . In the third
v iew — g rad es— had had qu ite so m e person al i m p a c t o n he r s c h o o l life.
grade this even led the stu d en t d elib erately to seek lo w e r g rad es in
M y e x p e r i e n c e fro m pre v io u s interv iew s a b o u t g ra d es m a d e it
or d e r n o t t o be sep a ra ted fro m her peers (Stud ent 1 0 ) . In a pass/fail
relativ ely easy t o lis ten t o and fo l l o w up o n sig n ifica n t t h e m e s a b o u t
ev aluation system in the present P h .D . p ro g ra m , she was reliev ed th a t
g ra d es f ro m the p er sp ectiv e o f the stu d e n t. I did, h o w e v e r , a p p e a r
this m ad e it difficult to c o m p a r e and co n t ra s t e va lua tion s w ith class­
m o r e i n f l u e n c e d by the a u d ie n c e th a n the s u b je c t w a s, s o m e t i m e s n o t
mates. L earn in g th er eb y b e c a m e a m o r e creative e x p e r i e n c e f o r the
f o l l o w in g up i m p o r t a n t lea ds in the an s w ers a nd n o t t o l e r a t i n g pauses
st udent, w ith m o re risk t a k in g (Stud ent 2 4 ) .
( S K 2 0 & 2 4 ) . I felt the to p ic s he re m ig h t be t o o se nsitiv e t o e x p l o r e
In the interview guide, the m ean in g s o f gradin g w e r e t o b e a d ­
in f r o n t o f the o t h e r students.
dressed fro m the thre e th e o re t ic a l perspectives m e n t i o n e d ea r l i e r — a
14 2 Interviews The Interview Situation 143

T h e in terv iew was in t r o d u c e d by a b rie fing a b o u t th e p u rp o s e and up o n the an sw ers (Studen t 2 0 - 2 2 ) w ith an i n te rp r e ta tio n in the
c o n t e x t o f the in terv iew b e f o r e , and also at th e start, o f the in terv iew d ir e c ti o n o f the loyalty c o n f li c t (SK 23/1), bu t this tim e w as po litel y
( S K 1). It w as ro u n d e d o f f by a d eb riefin g — b e f o r e e n d i n g the i n t e r ­ put o f f by a “ d oub le e n te n d r e ” rem a rk by the stud ent ( 2 3 ) : “ I am glad
view by asking if the st u d en t had an y th in g m o r e t o say (SK 2 6 ) , and I d o n ’t have to deal with that a n y m o r e . ” A sec o n d to p ic from the
afte r the intervie w by asking he r a b o u t he r e x p e r i e n c e o f the in terv iew i n t e rv ie w guide a b o u t le arn in g and grad in g (SK 24/E) w as then
(SK 2 8 ) . i n t r o d u c e d , and this o p en ed to a lon g stud ent ( 2 4 ) answ er a b o u t
g ra d e s as su ppre ssing cre ativity and risk takin g, w hich again led into
Question Types. T h e ap p lica tio n o f sorrje o f the q u e s t i o n types the loy alty c o n f li c t d escrib ed exten sively earlier in the interv iew .
o u tline d in T a b l e 7 .1 from (A) th ro u g h (I) will n o w be p o in te d ou t. The m a jo rity o f qu estion s in this interview w ere p ro bin g ( C ) — o ften
The i n t r o d u c to r y q u e s t i o n , a sk ing a b o u t a s p e cific e p iso d e o f grad in g by r e p e a tin g significant w ord s from the s t u d e n t ’s answ ers to a few
(S K 1/A), hit h o m e , a nd th e first t w o third s o f the in te rv ie w w ere d ir e ct q u e stio n s a b o u t e piso des and effec ts o f grading. T h e r e w e r e a
m ain ly a f o llo w in g up (B) o f th e s t u d e n t ’s a n s w er (2) a b o u t th e “ red few i n terp r etin g q u estion s, su ch as the m ean in g -clarify in g q u e stio n ,
s t a r . ” T h e term w as a “ red lig h t” sig naling th a t I stop and p r o b e ; the “ D o I un d e rstand you c o rre ctly w hen I’ m say ing that you e x p e r i e n c e
very w o r d , and p ro b a b ly also her t o n e o f the vo ice and facial e x p r e s ­ w ith the grad in g you had to play it safe, . . .” (SK 25/1), w h ich is
sio n , had ind ic a ted th at this was a sy m b o l o f s o m e s ig n if ic a n t e x p e r i ­ f o llo w e d by a c o n f ir m a t i o n and further e la b o ra t io n ( Stu d en t 2 5 ) .
en ce. T h e f o llo w -u p q u e s t i o n , re p e a tin g the t e r m “ red s t a r ” (SK 3/B), E a r l ie r in the in terview , a direct in t e r p r e ta t i o n o f the stu d e n t’s st a t e ­
led to an e m o t io n a l re s p on se ri ch in i n f o r m a t i o n ( Stu d en t 3 ) . m e n t ( 8 ) as “ B ecause o f y ou r g o o d g rad e s” (SK 9/1) was im m ed ia tely
C o n t i n u e d p ro b in g , r e p e a tin g a n o t h e r sig n if ic a n t e x p r e s s io n — c o n f i r m e d , “Y e a h ” (Stud ent 9).
“ m ix e d e m o t i o n s ”— and p ro b in g for fu rth e r d e s c r i p t i o n (S K 4/B &c C ) E x te n s iv e in terp r eta tio n s and follow -u p s ch e c k in g the reliability o f
o p e n e d up a basic c o n f li c t f o r the s u b je c t b e tw e e n loyalty t o the the a n s w e rs and testing o f h y po theses w e re n o t u n d e r ta k e n in this
te a c h e r o r to he r peers. T h i s t o p i c was pu rsu ed in the f o llo w in g i n terv ie w . T h i s was due to the sh o r t tim e, to the social situation in
s e q u e n c e un til the c o n c l u d i n g st u d en t ( 1 2 ) re m a rk , “A nd w h a t ’s m o re f r o n t o f the class, and to the sensitivity o f the s u b ject t o s o m e o f the
i m p o r t a n t t o me is my f rie n d sh ip s .” In s o m e o f the an s w e rs in this t o p i c s raised . T h i s interv iew t h e r e fo re d oes n o t live up t o the ideal
se q u e n ce I o v e r h e a r d p o ten tia lly sig n ifica n t e x p r e s s io n s lik e “ d e m a r ­ r e q u i r e m e n t s po sed ea rlier o f be in g i n terp r eted , va lidated, and c o m ­
c a t i o n ” and “s p a c e ” ( S tu d en t 5 & 8), and inste ad o f f o l l o w in g th e m m u n ic a t e d by the tim e the ta p e re c o r d e r is sh ut o ff. In C h a p t e r 8 I will
up po sed sp e cify in g (S K 6/D) and i n t e rp r e tin g ( S K 9/1) q u e stion s. a d dress s o m e o f the fa cto rs co n trib u tin g to the qu ality o f an interview .
I t h e n “w e n t b a c k ” in th e in terv iew a nd re p e a te d a t e r m in t ro d u c e d
by the stu d en t t h a t w a s o f th e o r e t ic a l in te re s t t o m e — “ r e w a r d e d ”—
and asked for its m e a n in g (S K 1 3/B & C ). T h i s led to a c o n c r e t e a n s w er
a b o u t ice c r e a m and T V as rew ard s, w h e r e a s a d ir ect f o l l o w -u p q u e s ­
tio n a b o u t rec eiv in g m o n e y for grad es (S K 15/E) gave n o co n f ir m a t i o n .
T h e n f o r the first tim e sin ce the o p e n i n g q u e s t io n I tu r n e d t o the
interview guide and posed a d ir e ct q u estio n a b o u t w h e t h e r the stud ent
had been a ccu sed o f w h e e d lin g (S K 18/E). T h i s was c o n f i r m e d by the
stud ent ( 1 8 8c 1 9 ) but in su ch a tense way t h a t I c h o s e n o t to f ollow
up and a ttem p te d a co n s o l in g r e m a rk (SK 2 0 ) . T h e s u b ject did no t
exp an d o n the situa tion, and th e r e was a pause w h e r e u p o n 1 ch a n g e d
the to p i c by asking a b o u t a re c e n t g ra d in g e p iso d e. I s o u g h t t o fo llo w
 8
Quality o f the Interview 145

B o x 8.1

Q u a li ty C r ite r ia for an Interview

• T h e e x t e n t o f s p o n t a n e o u s , rich , s p e cific, and relevan t

a n s w e rs fro m the in terv iew ee.

• T h e s h o r t e r the in t e r v i e w e r ’s q u e s t io n s and the lon g er

t he s u b je c t s ’ a nsw e rs, the be tter.

T h e Quality of the Interview • The d egree to w hich the in t e rv ie w e r fo llo w s up and c l a r ­

ifies the m e a n in g s o f the relev a n t asp e cts o f the an sw ers.
In the first part s o f this c h a p tc r I will ad dress issues o f qu ality in • T h e ideal in te rv iew is t o a large e x t e n t in te rp r e te d
in te rv ie w res ea rch . C r it e r i a f o r evaluating the qu ality o f a res e arch t h r o u g h o u t the interv iew .
in te rv iew are sugge sted and related to ch a ra cteristics o f the in t e r v i e w ­
• The in t e rv ie w e r a t te m p t s to verify his o r he r i n t e r p r e t a ­
ees and the interview ers. An interview by H a m l e t is th en p re s e n t e d as
tio ns o f the su bject ’s answ ers in the course o f the interview.
an illust ra tio n o f pro b le m s th at m ay arise w hen using fix ed c r it e ria for
a pprais in g the qu ality o f an interview . T h e r e a f t e r , the m o ra l qu al ity • The in terv iew is “s e l f - c o m m u n i c a t in g ”— it is a story

o f an interview is discussed in relation to et hica l research guidelines, c o n t a in e d in its elf that hardly re q uire s m u ch e x t r a d e ­

a nd finally, a c o m m o n o b je c ti o n t o the sc ien tific qu ality o f an i n t e r ­ s c r ip tio n s a nd e x p l a n a ti o n s .

view is addressed— the question o f leading questions.

T h e th re e interview s in C h a p t e r 2 live up to the qu alit y criteria

Interview Q u ality su g ge sted h e re in d if f e r e n t ways. T h u s the in terv iew r e p o r t e d by
G i o r g i has b r ie f q u e stio n s and lo n g a n s w e rs; it p ro vid es ri ch and
T h e in terv iew is the raw m ate ria l for the la ter pro cess o f m e a n i n g s p o n t a n e o u s relev a n t a nsw ers a b o u t le arn in g in everyd ay life, and the
analysis. T h e qu al ity o f th e original interview is decisive f o r the qu al ity a n s w e rs are f o l l o w e d up and clarifie d . In the se ssion re p o rt e d by
o f the late r analysis, v e rifica tio n , and r e p o rt in g o f the interview s. R o g e r s the c o u n s e l o r fo llo w s up and cla rifies the m e a n in g s o f the
O f the six qu ality crite ria for an interv iew d ep ic ted in B o x 8 . 1 , the c l i e n t ’s a n s w ers, and at the end the c l i e n t h e rse lf sp o n t a n e o u s l y in­
last th re e in particular re fer to an ideal interview — r eq u irin g th at the te r p r e ts the m e a n i n g o f the i n t e r a c t i o n . In the third e x a m p l e , S o c r a t e s
m e a n in g o f w h a t is said is in te rp r e te d , ve rified, and c o m m u n i c a t e d by critica lly i n t e rp r e ts the m e a n in g s and c o n t r a d ic t i o n s o f A g a t h o n ’s
the tim e the tape re c o r d e r is tu rn ed off. T h i s d em an d s c ra ftsm a n sh ip s t a t e m e n t s a b o u t love and b e a u ty , and c o n c l u d e s by c o n s t r u c t in g a
and e x p e rtis e and presupp oses that the in terv iew e r k n o w s w h a t he o r log ical c h a in o f a rg u m e n ts , the validity o f w h ich A g a th o n en ds up a c ­
she is in terview in g a b o u t , as well as why and ho w . A lth o u g h su ch ce p t in g . All t h r e e interview s are in o n e re s p e ct s e l f - c o m m u n i c a t in g —
qu ality criteria m ig h t see m to be u n rea ch a b le ideals, they can serve as
th e y co n v e y i m p o r t a n t k n o w le d g e as th e y stand , and they a lso o p en
guid elin es. t o fu rt h e r i n t e rp r e ta t io n s .

144
146 Interviews Quality o f the Interview 147

T h e s e qu ality cr iteria are n o t w i t h o u t e x c e p t i o n s . A t a w o r k s h o p , e x p e r i e n c e s and e m o t io n a l states, versus telling cap tu r in g storie s. T h e

o n e p a rticip a n t told a b o u t an un su ccessfu l in terv iew sh e had c o n ­ s u b je c t s o f the thre e interv iew s in C h a p t e r 2 w e re thus all g o o d
d uct ed w ith a y o u n g a u t h o r at a “ w ritin g s c h o o l . ” T h e t o p i c w as the s u b je c t s w ith re spect to d ifferen t pu rposes— A g ath on p ro viding logical
a u t h o r ’s o w n w ritin g p ro ce ss ; the c o n t a c t dulling the in terv iew had, c o n t r a d ic t i o n s for S o c ra t e s to cla rify ; the t h er a p eu tic c lie n t living ou t,
h o w ev er, b e e n p o o r , a n d the a u t h o r ’s sta t e m e n t s w e re fra g m e n te d and a nd le a rn in g fro m , the e m o t io n a l n a t u re o f the t h e r a p e u t ic r e l a t i o n ­
su perficial. T h e r e w ere n o c o h e r e n t s t o r ie s a nd d e s c rip t io n s , the s h ip ; and the w o m a n learn in g in terio r d eco ra tin g giv ing ri ch , s p o n t a ­
in te rv iew er co u ld n o t find any unity o r d e e p e r m e a n in g in the answ ers. n e o u s d escrip tio n s o f le arn in g in everyday life.
T h e resulting interview a p p e a r e d w o rt h le s s to her. I he n sh e ven tu red R e c o g n i z i n g that s o m e people may be h a rd er t o in terv iew than
the in f o r m a t i o n that the a u t h o r had told he r that lie was trying t o be o t h e r s , it re m ain s the task o f the in terview er to m o tiv a te and faci litate
a p o s t m o d e rn a u th o r. F r o m this p e r sp e ctiv e , th e f r a g m e n t a t i o n , the th e su b je c t s’ a c c o u n ts and t o ob ta in interv iew s rich in k n o w le d g e fro m
in c o h e r e n c e , and the su rfa ce st a t e m e n t s that a bsta in f r o m d eep er virt ual ly every subje ct .
i n t e rp r e ta t io n s o f m e a n in g need n o t be due t o a p o o r in terv ie w
t e c h n i q u e , but stem fro m the very t o p i c — w ritin g l it e r a tu re — w ith the
i n terv ie w ee pl ayin g the ro le o f a p o s t m o d e r n a u th o r. Interview er Q u alificatio n s

T h e in terv iew e r is him - o r he rself the resea rch instrum ent. A g o o d I

T h e I n te rv ie w Subject in t e rv ie w e r is an ex p e r t in the t o p ic o f the interview as well as in
h u m a n in t e r a c t i o n . T h e in terv ie w er must c o n tin u a lly m ak e quick
S o m e in terv ie w s u b jects a p p e a r to be b e tter th a n o t h e r s . G o o d c h o i c e s ab o u t w hat to ask and h o w ; w h ich as pects o f a s u b je c t ’s answ er
i n t erv iew ees are c o o p e r a ti v e and well m o t iv a te d , they are e l o q u e n t t o f o l l o w up— and w hich n o t ; w hich an sw ers to in terp r et— and w h ich
and k n o w le d g e a b le . T h e y are truth fu l and c o n s i s t e n t, they give c o n c i s e n o t . In ter v iew er s sh ould be k n o w le d g e a b le in th e to p ics investigated,
and pre cise an s w ers t o the in t e r v i e w e r ’s q u e stio n s, they p ro vid e m a s t e r co n v e r sa t io n a l skills, and be pro ficien t in language w ith an ear
c o h e r e n t a c c o u n t s and d o n o t co n t in u a l l y c o n t r a d ic t th e m se lv e s, they f o r th e ir s u b je c t s ’ linguistic style. T h e in terview er sh ould have a sense
stick to the in terv iew to p i c and d o n o t rep ea ted ly w a n d e r o ff. G o o d f o r g o o d sto rie s and be able to assist the su bjects in the u n f o l d i n g o f
su bjects can give lon g and lively d e scrip tio n s o f th e ir life s itu a tio n , t h e i r narra tiv es.
they tell ca p tu r in g st orie s well su ited f o r re p o rtin g . T h e s u b jects o f the L e a rn in g t o b e c o m e an in te rview er takes place t h ro u g h in te rv ie w ­
lea rn in g in terv iew re p o rt e d by G io rg i and o f the in te rv ie w o n grad es ing. R e a d in g b o o k s may give s o m e guid elin es, bu t p ractice rem a in s the
w ere b o t h g o o d in terv iew su bjects a c c o r d in g t o these criteria . m ain ro a d to m a sterin g the cra f t o f interv iew ing. T h i s involv es reading
As p leasan t as such in terv iew su bjects m ay a p p ea r t o the i n t e r ­ in terv iew s, lis te ning to interview tapes, a nd w a tc h in g m o r e e x p e r i ­
view er, it is by n o m ea n s a given t h a t the y p ro vid e the m o s t valu a b le e n c e d in tervie w ers, bu t le a rn in g is p rim arily t h ro u g h o n e ’s ow n
k n o w le d g e a b o u t the research to p ic s in q u e s t i o n . T h e a b o v e idealized e x p e r i e n c e w ith interviewing. An in t e rv ie w e r’s s e l f -c o n f i d e n c e is a c ­
su bject ap p ear s ra th e r sim ilar t o an u p p e r- m id d le - c la s s intelle ctu a l q u ired t h r o u g h p ra c tic e ; co n d u c t i n g several pilot interv iew s b e fo r e
w h o se views are n o t n e cessaril y re p re se n ta tiv e o f the g e n era l p o p u l a ­ the act ual p ro je c t interviews will increase his o r he r ability to c re a te
tio n. W e l l -p o li s h e d e l o q u e n c e and c o h e r e n c y m ay in s o m e ins ta n ce s safe and st im u lating in teraction s.
gloss o v er m o r e c o n t r a d ic t o r y re la tio n s to the res ea rch th e m e s . R o l e pl ayin g ca n be in clu ded in pilot interview s for the p u rp o s e o f
T h e ideal interview su bject d oes n o t e x ist— d if f e r e n t p e r s o n s arc tra in in g , with su bjects playing such ro le s as the T a c i t O y s t e r , the
su ita ble for d iffere n t types o f interview s, su ch as p ro v id in g a c c u r a t e N o n s t o p T a l k e r , the In tcllectualizin g A c a d e m ic ia n , and the P o w er
w itn ess o b ser v a tio n s, versus giv ing se nsitiv e a c c o u n t s o f pe r so n a l P la y er w h o tries t o take c o n t ro l o f the interview .
148 Interviews Quality o f the Interview 149

B o x 8 . 2 ou tlines s o m e criteria for in te rview er q u a l if i c a ti o n s that in the d ir e c ti o n o f w h a t sh e w a n ts t o k n o w a b o u t the le arn in g

m ay lead to g o o d interview s in th e sense o f p ro d u cing rich k n o w le d g e e x p e r i e n c e . T h e th e r a p e u t i c in tervie w er is g e ntle and safe, a llo w s the
and d oing justice t o the ethical d em an d o f cre atin g a b e n e fic ia l
situation f o r the su bjects. '
R ecall o n c e m o r e the th re e interv iew s in C h a p t e r 2 . The i n terv iew e r B o x 8 .2 C ontinued
inq uiring a b o u t in t e rio r d e c o r a t i n g po ses clear qu estion s, is g e n tle and
o p en t o w h a t is said, fo llo w s up sensitively, and st eers th e intervie w
5. Sensitive: Lis te ns actively to the c o n t e n t o f w h a t is
said, h e ars the m a n y n u a n c es o f m e a n in g in an a n s w e r, and
seek s t o g et the n u a n c e s o f m e a n i n g d escrib ed m o r e fully.
T h e in t e rv ie w e r is e m p a th i c , listens t o the e m o t io n a l m e s ­
Box 8.2
sage in w h a t is said , n o t o n l y h e a rin g w h a t is said bu t also
h o w it is said, and n o tice s as well w h a t is n o t said. T h e
Q u a lific a tio n C rite ria for the Interview er
in t e rv ie w e r fe els w h en a to p i c is t o o e m o t io n a l t o pu rsue
in the inte rview .

1. Knowledgeable: H as an exten sive k no w led g e o f the 6. Open: H e a r s w h ich aspects o f the in terv iew t o p i c are
interview t h e m e , c a n c o n d u c t an in fo r m e d c o n v e r s a t io n i m p o r t a n t for the in te rv ie w e e . L iste n s w ith an ev enly h o v ­
a b o u t the to p i c ; be in g fa milia r w ith its m ain a sp e cts the erin g a t t e n t i o n , is o p e n t o n e w a sp e cts th at can be i n t r o ­
in terview er will k n o w w h a t issues are im p o rt a n t to pu rsu e, d u ce d by th e in te rv ie w e e , and fo llo w s th e m up.
w ith o u t a tte m p tin g to shine with his o r he r exten siv e 7. Steering: K n o w s w h a t h e o r sh e w a n t s t o fin d o u t : is
k no w le d g e . fa m ilia r w ith the pu rp ose o f the in terv iew , w h a t it is
2. Structuring: In tr o d u c e s a p u rp ose f o r the in terv iew , im p o r t a n t t o a c q u i r e k n o w le d g e a b o u t. T h e i n t e rv i e w e r
ou tlin e s the p ro ced u re in passing, and ro un ds o f f the c o n t r o l s th e c o u rs e o f th e i n t e rv ie w a n d is n o t a fra id o f
in terv iew by, for e x a m p l e , briefly te lling w h a t w as lea rn ed in t e rr u p t in g dig re ssion s fro m the in te rv ie w e e .
in the co u rs e o f the co n v e r s a t io n and asking w h e t h e r th e 8. Critical: D o e s n o t take e v e r y th in g t h a t is said at face
i nterview ee has any q u e s t i o n s c o n c e r n i n g the situa tion. value, b u t q u e s t io n s critically t o test th e re liability and
3. Clear: I’os es cle ar, si m p le, easy, and sh o r t q u e s t i o n s ; validity o f w h a t the i n t erv iew e es tell. T h i s cri tica l c h e c k in g
spe aks distinctly and u n d ersta nd a bly , d oes no t use a c a ­ ca n p e r ta i n t o th e o b s e r v a ti o n a l e v id e n c e o f th e in t e r ­
d e m ic language o r p ro fession a l ja rg o n . The e x c e p t i o n is in v i e w e e ’s st a t e m e n t s as well as t o th e i r log ica l c o n siste n cy .
a stress interview : T h e n the q u e stio n s can be c o m p l e x and 9. Remembering: R e ta i n s w h a t a s u b ject has said during
a m b ig u o u s, w ith the s u b jects’ an sw ers re ve aling their r e a c ­ the i n t e rv ie w , c a n recall earlier st a t e m e n t s and ask t o have
t io n s t o stress. th e m e la b o r a t e d , a n d ca n relate w h a t has be en said d uring
4. G entle: Allo ws su bjects t o finish w hat they are saying, d if f e r e n t parts o f th e in te rv ie w t o each o t h e r .
lets th e m p ro c e e d at their o w n rate o f thin k in g and s p e a k ­ 10. Interpreting: M a n a g e s t h r o u g h o u t the i n t e rv ie w to
ing. Is easy -g oing , t o lera tes pauses, in d ic ate s that it is a c ­ cla rify a nd e x t e n d the m e a n in g s o f the i n t e r v i e w e e ’s s t a t e ­
ce p ta b le to put f orw a rd u n c o n v e n ti o n a l and p r o v o c a tiv e m e n t s ; p r o v i d e s i n t e r p r e ta t i o n s o f w h a t is said , w h i c h m ay
o p in io n s and to trea t e m o t io n a l issues. t h e n b e d is co n firm ^ d o r c o n f ir m e d by th e in te rv ie w e e .
150 Interviews Quality o f the Interview 1 51

c lie n t t o sta te he r e m o t i o n a l c rit iq u e o f h im self, is se nsitiv e t o w h a t a sk in g a b o u t the m ean in g o f au th ority , he had played the ro le o f an
the c lie n t says, and re f le c t s it b a c k to he r w ith ^ mild d e g r e e o f i n t e r ­ a u t h o r i t a r i a n interview e r, th er eb y o b tain in g a rich sp e ctru m o f s p o n ­
p r e ta t i o n . S o c r a t e s str u c t u r e s his in terv iew by sta rtin g w ith A g a t h o n ’s ta n e o u s in terv iew ee re a c tio n s to the p h e n o m e n o n o f auth ority .
s p e e c h a nd statin g the p u rp o s e o f his q u e s t i o n ih g a b o u t the n a t u re o f
l ove; he t h e n st eers his o p p o n e n t t h ro u g h relen tless q u e s t i o n in g ,
r e m e m b e r s well A g a t h o n ’s earlier a n s w ers, in terp r ets c o n t r a d i c t i o n s H a m l e t ’s Interview
in a n d a m o n g th e a n s w ers, and critically q u e s t i o n s th e ir log ic o n the
basis o f his o w n t h o r o u g h c o n c e p t u a l k n o w le d g e o f love and be a uty. T h e r e a rc n o d efinite crite ria for evaluating the qu ality o f an
T h e b r ie f in te rv ie w passage o n talk ativity and grad es ( C h a p t e r 1, in terv iew . An e x a m p le from literatu re may sh o w h o w the app raisal o f
C o n v e r s a t io n as R e s e a r c h ) c a n also be m e n t i o n e d . By b r in g in g up an an in te rv ie w t e c h n iq u e depend s o n the pu rpose and th e c o n t e n t o f the
a n s w e r f r o m earlier in the in terv iew a nd asking in an o p e n w ay , the in terview .
in t e rv ie w e r o b t a in s t w o interestin g pupil h y p o t h e s e s a b o u t a c o n ­
n e c t i o n b e t w e e n h o w m u c h a pu pil t a lk s and his g r a d e s as w e ll as H am let: D o you see y o n d er cl oud t h a t ’s a lm o st in shape o f a ca m el?
b e tw e e n a g r e e m e n t w ith a t e a c h e r ’s o p in i o n s and g ra d es. T h e i n t e r ­ P o l o n iu s : By t h ’ mass, and ’tis like a c a m el indeed.
v iew er d o es n o t ta k e th e st a t e m e n t s at face va lue, bu t f o llo w s up first
H a m l e t : M c t h i n k s it is like a wea sel.
by q u e s t i o n in g th e p o stu la te d c o n n e c t i o n in an o p e n , ra t h e r naive w a y ,
P o l o n i u s : It is b a c k ’ d like a weasel.
and th en in a s e c o n d q u e s t io n o p e n ly disputes the c o n n e c t i o n , w ith
the pupil w h o still ho ld s to his o w n o f f e r i n g to p ro vid e e x a m p l e s o f H a m l e t : O r like a w hal e?

his p o stula te . P o l o n iu s : V ery like a w hal e.

In spite o f su ch criteria as th o se given in B o x 8 . 2 , t h e r e are n o a b s o ­ H a m l e t : . . . (Aside) They fool me to the to p of my be nt.
lute stan d ard s f o r i n terv iew er qu a lifica tio n s. In interv iew s in w h ic h ( H am let , act III, sce n e 2)
the to p i c really m atters , the a b o v e tech n ical rules and c r it e ria m a y lose
re lev an ce in face o f the ex iste n tia l i m p o r t a n c e o f the in te rv ie w to p ic. A first c o m m e n t on the qu ality o f this interview c o n c e r n s its length.
W i t h e x te n siv e p ra c tice in d if f e re n t in t e rv ie w f o r m s and w ith d if f e re n t H a m l e t ’s interview is brief. T h e seve n lin es are, h o w e v e r , d en se and
su bjects, an e x p e r i e n c e d in terv iew er m ig h t g o b e y o n d t e c h n i c a l r e c ­ ri ch e n o u g h t o be the su bjcct o f m o re leng thy c o m m e n t s . In c o n t ra s t ,
o m m e n d a t i o n s and c r it e ria , a n d — s o m e t i m e s —-d elibera tely dis reg ard c u r r e n t res earch interv iew s are o fte n t o o lo n g and filled w ith idle
or b r e a k the rules. c h a tt e r . If o n e k n o w s w hat to ask fo r, why o n e is ask ing , and h o w to
O n e e x a m p l e o f br e a k in g rules in th e in teres t o f g o o d in te rv ie w in g ask, o n e c a n c o n d u c t s h o r t interv iew s rich in m ea ning .
t o o k place at an in terv iew w o r k s h o p . T h e p a rticip a n ts w e r e divided T h e qu ality o f H a m l e t ’s in terview t e c h n iq u e d epend s o n h o w the
into g ro ups in w h ich o n e o f th e g ro u p m e m b e r s in t e rv ie w e d a n o t h e r . in te rv ie w is in terp reted . T h i s sh o r t passage gives rise to several in t e r ­
T h e in stru ctio n to the inte rv iew ers w as t o e x p l o r e th e m e a n i n g o f pre ta t io n s . At first g la nce the interv iew is an e x a m p l e o f an u n reliable
auth ority f o r the su bjects. All bu t o n e g ro u p re t u r n e d t o th e plenary t e c h n i q u e — by using thre e leading qu estio n s H a m l e t lea ds P o lo n iu s to
session w ith lively po sitive re p o rts. T h e negative e x p e r i e n c e ca m e give t h r e e en tirely d ifferen t answers. T h e interview thus d o e s n o t yield
f ro m a gro up w h ere the i n terv iew er had be en d e m a n d i n g , h o s t ile , and any re p r o d u c i b le , reliable k n o w le d g e a b o u t the shape o f the cloud in
a l o o f and had c o n tin u a lly in te rr u p te d the in t e r v i e w e e ’s a n s w ers, q u e st io n .
brea k in g m ost o f the ab o v e crite ria for g o o d in te rv ie w in g , w ith the At a s e c o n d g la n ce, the to p ic o f the in terv iew m ig h t c h a n g e : T h e
result that his gro up r etu r n ed d is in te grated and angry. T h e i n t e r ­ figure in q u estio n is n o lon g er the clo u d , bu t the personality o f
vi ew er’s ex p l a n a ti o n o f his bad b e h a v i o r w as sim p le — inste a d o f Polonius, his t rustw o rthine ss. T h e interview th en pro vides reliable,
 Quality o f the bitervieiu 153

t h ric e - c h e c k e d k no w le d g e a b o u t P olo n iu s as an un relia ble p e r s o n — to A ce n tr a l t h e m e o f the play , w h i c h w as w ritten at the transition

all thre e q u estion s his answ ers are led by H a m l e t ’s q u e stion s. W i t h the f r o m the m ed ieval to th e m o d e r n a g e , is a q u e s t i o n in g o f reality; no t
c h a n g e in the pu rpose and the to p ic o f the in terv iew the le ading ju st a su sp icio n o f the m otiv e s o f o t h e rs , bu t a lso a p r e o c c u p a ti o n with
qu e stio n s d o no t p ro d u ce un reliable k n o w led g e, bu t b e c o m e a s o p h i s ­ th e frail n a t u re o f reality. H a m l e t ’s in te rv ie w m ay in th a t case be seen
tica ted , ind ir ect, interv iew te ch n iq u e . as an illu stra tio n o f a pervasive doubt about the appearance o f the
H a m l e t ’s interview then a p p r o x i m a te s the th re e fo ld ideal o f be in g world, i n clu d in g the sh a p e o f a c l o u d and the p e r so n a litie s o f fe llow
in te rp r e te d , va lidated, and co m m u n ic a te d by the end o f the interview . play ers.
By rep ea tin g the q u estion in d ifferen t versions and each tim e g etting F r o m an ethical pe rsp ectiv e, the e v alu a tio n o f H a m l e t ’s in terv iew
the ' ‘s a m e ” in d ir ect a nsw er a b o u t P o l o n iu s ’s person a lity , th e in t e r ­ ag ain d e p e n d s o n the in t e r p r e ta t i o n o f its p u rp o s e a nd c o n t e n t . In the
view is “s e l f -i n te r p r e t e d ” b e fo re H a m l e t cl oses o f f w ith his aside in t e r ­ first re a d in g , the leadin g q u e stio n s m e re ly lead t o un relia b le k n o w l ­
p r e ta t i o n : “T h e y fool me to the to p o f my b e n t . ” As to th e s e c o n d ed ge o f the sh ap e o f the clou d . In the s e c o n d rea d in g , the in terv ie w
r e q u i r e m e n t — v e r i f i c a t i o n — few in t e r v i e w r e s e a r c h e r s t o d a y r e p e a t en ta ils the d e lib e ra t e d e c e p t io n o f P o l o n iu s ; th e r e is n o q u e s t i o n o f
so c o n siste n tly as H a m l e t a q u estio n in d ifferen t v e rs io n s t o test i n f o r m e d c o n s e n t , a nd the c o n s e q u e n c e s m ay be a m a tt e r o f life and
the reliab ility o f the answ ers. R eg a r d in g the third r e q u i r e m e n t — d ea th f o r the p ro ta g o n ists. An e th ics o f pri n cip le s is h e re o v e rru le d by
c o m m u n i c a t i o n — the s h o r t interv iew has b e e n ca rrie d o u t so w ell th at a u tilita ria n in te re s t in survival.
it spe a ks f o r itself. I w ou ld think that, w h en w a tc h in g the pl ay, the In c o n c l u s i o n , the qu a lit y o f the k n o w le d g e o b t a in e d by H a m l e t ’s
a u d i e n c e w o u ld g en er a lly e x p e r i e n c e a G e st a lt sw itch f ro m clo u d in t e r v i e w , as w ell as the eth ical e v alu a tio n o f the in te rv iew , d e p en d s
sh a p e t o person a l cre dibilit y as the interview to p ic even b e fo r e H a m l e t o n th e i n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f the p u rp o s e and th e t o p i c o f the interview .
gives his aside co n c l u s io n . S o m e fu r t h e r issues o f et h ic s and o f leadin g q u e stio n s will n o w be
S o far, I have discussed 1 l a m l e l ’s interview iso lated fro m its c o n ­ ad dre sse d m o r e sp e cifically . N e i t h e r are m e re tech n ical p ro b l e m s :
t e x t , its po sition in the b r o a d e r d ram a. At a third glance th e in te rv ie w T h e y raise basic q u e s t io n s as t o the n a tu re o f the h u m a n i n t e r a c t i o n
a p p e a r s as a display o f the pow er relations at a royal co u rt . T h e p rin ce in the i n t e rv ie w and the rea lity the in te rv ie w is abo u t.
d e m o n s t r a t e s his p o w e r t o m a k e a c o u r t i e r say a ny thin g he w an ts. O r ,
th e c o u r t i e r d e m o n s t r a t e s his m od e o f m a na g ing the p o w e r r e la t io n s
at the co u rt . In an ea rlie r scene in the play, P olo n iu s h i m s e l f gave a T h e E t h i c s o f In te rv ie w in g
le sso n in w h a t in c u r r e n t t e x t b o o k s o f m e th o d is ca lled an in d ir e c t ,
fu n n e l -s h a p e d , in te rv iew te ch n iq u e . P olo n iu s req u e s ts a m e s s e n g e r T h e m o r a l qu alities o f an in te rv ie w are h e re first a d dressed w ith
g o i n g t o Paris t o inq uire into the b e h a v io r o f his so n stu d y in g m u sic re g a r d t o th e eth ica l gu id eli n es o f i n f o r m e d c o n s e n t , c o n f id e n t i a l it y ,
in th e city. T h e m e sse n g e r is instr ucted to start with a b r o a d a p p r o a c h : a n d c o n s e q u e n c e s . T h e r e a f t e r , c o m p a r is o n s with t h e r a p e u t i c i n t e r ­
“ E n q u i r e m e first w h a t D an sk ers are in P aris” and th en g ra d u a lly to view s will se rve to em p h a s iz e s o m e o f the eth ical issues i nvo lv ed in
a d v a n c e th e su b je ct, t o end up with sugge sting such vice s as d rin k in g , r e s e a r c h intervie w s.
q u a r r e l i n g , a n d visitin g b r o th e ls, w h e r e “Y o u r bait o f f a ls e h o o d ta k e
this c a rp o f t r u t h , ” c o n c l u d i n g the lesso n , “ By i n d ir e c t io n s find Inform ed Consent. T h r o u g h b r ie fi n g a nd d e b rie f in g , the su bje cts
d ir e c t i o n s o u t ” ( H am let, act II, scene 1). W h e n P o lo n iu s is t h a t well s h o u ld b e i n f o r m e d a b o u t the p u rp o s e a nd th e p r o c e d u r e o f the
v e rs e d in in d ir e c t q u e st io n in g t e c h n i q u e s , is he actually c a u g h t by i n t e rv ie w . W h e n it c o m e s t o later use o f the in te rv ie w it m ay be
H a m l e t ’s q u e s t i o n in g te c h n i q u e ? O r d o es he see t h ro u g h the s c h e m e p r e f e r a b l e t o have a w r i tt e n a g r e e m e n t , signed by b o th in terv iew er
and play up t o H a m l e t as a co urtier? a n d s u b je c t , th e r e b y o b t a in i n g the i n f o r m e d c o n s e n t o f the in terv iew ee
154 Interviews Quality o f the Interview 155

t o participate in the stud y and a llo w future u s e jo f the interview s. T h i s Research and Therapeutic interviews. S o m e c o n s e q u e n c e s o f a
may inclu de i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t c o n f id e n t i a l it y a n d w h o will have re s e a rch interview can. be highlighted by a c o m p a r is o n w ith t h e r a ­
a cccs s t o the in terv iew ; the r e s e a r c h e r ’s right t o publish the w h o le pe u tic interv iew s. A lth ou gh the res earch in terview er can learn m uch
interview o r part s o f it; and the i n t e r v i e w e e ’s po ssible right t o see the fro m t h e r a p e u t ic in terview s, it is im p o rta nt t o dis tinguish b e tw e e n the
tra n s crip tion and the in t e rp r e ta t io n s. In m o st ca se s su ch issues m ay t w o types. I he m ain goal in therapy is c h a n g e in the p a t i e n t ; in
n o t m a tter m u ch t o the s u b jects in te rv ie w e d , bu t if the investig a tio n r e s e a rch it is the a cq u isitio n o f k no w led g e. A resea rch i n t e r v i e w e r ’s
sh ou ld treat o r instigate issues o f c o n f li c t , p articu larly w ith in i n s titu ­ ability t o listen a tte n tiv ely m ay, h o w ev er, in s o m e cases lead t o quasi-
tio n al se ttin gs, a w ritten a g r e e m e n t m ay serve as a p r o t e c t i o n fo r b o th th e r a p e u t i c re lation s h ip s, for w h ich m ost re searc h in terview ers have
the in terv iew ees and the res e a rch e r. n e it h e r the t ra ining no r the tim e. A resea rch interview c a n c o m e to
a p p r o x i m a t e a th e r a p e u tic interv iew , d ep en d in g o n the e x t e n t , the
Confidentiality. T h e qu a lita tive res earch in terv iew in vo lv es d if f e r ­ to p i c , and the su bjects of the interview . A q u a s i- th e ra p c u tic r e l a t i o n ­
e n t e thica l issues than t h o s e o f a standardiz.ed q u e s t i o n n a i r e o r a ship m ay be p r o m o t e d t h ro u g h lon g and re p ea ted in terview s w ith the
t h e r a p e u t ic co n v e r s a t io n . C o n f i d e n ti a l it y in these ca se s is assure d by sam e s u b je c t , w h e r e a close personal ra p p o rt m ay d evelo p. If the
the c o m p u t e d avera g es in su rvey r es p o n ses and by the clos e d d o o r s o f i n t e rv ie w to p ics invo lve st ro ng ly personal and e m o t io n a l issues, they
the t h e r a p is t ’s o f f ic e . It is m o r e p r o b l e m a t i c in a re s e a rch intervie w . m ay in s o m e cases brin g forth d eeper personal p ro b le m s req uiring
C o n f i d e n ti a l it y issues invo lv ed in t r a n s crib in g a nd re p o r t i n g i n t e r ­ th e r a p e u t i c ass istance. E m o tio n a lly un stable su bjects, m o r e o r less
view s will be ad dres sed in late r ch a p te r s ( C h a p t e r 9 , T r a n s c r i b in g c o n sc io u sly seek in g the advice o f a p ro fessio n a l, may a t te m p t to turn
In terview s; C h a p t e r 14 , E th ic s o f R e p o r t i n g ) . a res e arch in terv ie w into person al ther ap y.
A ny po ssibility th at an interview situation m ig h t c o m e clo s e t o a
Consequences. T h e c o n s e q u e n c e s for the in t e rv ie w e e s c o n c e r n the t h e r a p e u t i c rela tionship sh ou ld be tak en into a c c o u n t w h en des ig ning
situation itself as well as late r e f fe c ts o f p a rt ic ip a t in g in the in terview s. the study. T h i s can be d o n e by se eing to it th at the interview s d o n o t
In the grading study the g e n era l b e n e f its o f the investig a tio n a p p e a r e d p r o m o t e a th e r a p e u tic relatio n . If sensitive issues and s u b jects are
u n p r o b l e m a ti c , n o h a rm s w e r e fo r e s e e n f o r th e pupils in te rv ie w e d , involv ed in an interview study, a rr a n g e m e n t s m ig h t be m a d e w ith a
and m o r e k n o w le d g e a b o u t the e f fe c ts o f g ra d es w as c o n s i d e r e d to be t h e r a p is t t o serve as a “ b a c k u p ” for dealing with p erson al p ro b le m s
in their o w n intere sts . T h e r e w e r e , h o w e v e r , s o m e p r o b l e m a t i c c o n ­ t h a t m ig h t be br o u g h t up by the interviews.
s e q u e n c e s f o r the su bjects. T h e D a n ish pupils a p p e a r e d ra th e r e m b a r ­ In s o m e cases it may be possible t o give in terv iew s u b je cts a fair
rassed w h en d escrib in g th e ir o w n rela tion t o ce r ta in f o rm s o f g rad in g re turn for their ser vices. O n e su ch study c o n c e r n e d the tran s itio n o f
b e h a v io r , su ch as c o m p e t i t i o n a b o u t , and w h e e d l in g for, g o o d grad es m e n ta l patients from living in a sta te ho spital to living u n d er n o rm a l
(see also the interview o n g rad es, C h a p t e r 7 , An In te r v ie w A b o u t c i r c u m s ta n c e s in the city o f Aarhus. F o r their c o m b in e d m a s t e r ’s
G ra d e s). At su ch po in ts their a c c o u n t s o f t e n b e c a m e g en eral and thesis, th re e psy ch olo gy stud ents c o n d u c t e d intens ive person a l in t e r ­
vag ue; for re s earch p u rp o s e s it w ou ld have be en d esirable to p ro b e vi ew s with the patients during the tra n s itio n p erio d, and in return
m o r e inten sively and critically in o r d e r t o o b t a in re lia b le k n o w le d g e o r g a n iz e d a co n su lta t io n g ro up to faci litate the p a tien ts’ t ra n s itio n to
a b o u t such g ra d e-a ffe cte d be h a v io r s. T h i s w as n o t d o n e o u t o f c o n c e r n n o rm a l living situations. In s o m e cases, su ch as in t h e r a p e u t ic res ea rch ,
for the pupils’ w e ll-b e in g ; w h en c o n s e n t in g t o be i n t e rv ie w e d , they it m ay thus b e possible t o e x c h a n g e therapy for i n f o r m a t i o n , t o o f f e r
had n o t b e e n told th a t they m ig h t be q u e s t io n e d a b o u t to p ic s th a t b e n e f it s th at may alleviate trou bles the interview ee s may have had.
co uld be p en ib le to t h em selv e s o r m ig h t involv e c h a n g e s in the ir A su sp ici ous attitud e tow ard the su b je c t s’ sta te m e n ts, as in H a m l e t ’s
se lf -c o n c e p t. in te rv iew , has also be en c o m m o n in s o m e form s o f psy ch o lo g ical
156 Interviews Quality o f the Interview 157

interview res ea rch and may be based in a t h er ap eu tic fra m e o f r e f e r ­ t io n s a w o m a n w h o re p ea ted ly a nd e n e rg e tica lly tells the in terv iew e r
e n ce. In th erap y it is ethical t o be skeptical o f what patients say: T h e y h o w hap p y sh e is in he r m arria g e . T h e w o m a n also gives m an y verb al
arc at a loss a b o u t the m e a n in g and pu rpose o f their life and g o t o a and n o n v e rb a l sig nals d eny ing the h a p piness and r e p o rt s situations
therap is t for help in le arn in g w h a t they really m ean and w a n t . In w h e r e sh e is angry a b o u t the m arria g e. T h e i n f o r m a t i o n o b t a in e d in
c o n t r a s t t o the t h er ap eu tic in terview , w h e re a su sp icious a ttitud e the in te rv ie w is thus a m b ig u o u s a nd puts the in t e rv ie w e r in a difficult
to w a rd the p a t ie n t s’ st a t e m e n t s may be part o f an im p licit t h e r a p e u ­ situ a tio n b e tw e e n s cie n tif ic and eth ical co n s i d e r a t io n s . S h o u l d she
tic c o n t r a c t , us ing c o n c e a l e d te c h n iq u e s and i n terp r e tin g m e a n in g s leave the w o m a n ’s version u n c o m m e n t e d , o r sh ou ld sh e fo l l o w he r
im plying a distrust o f the s u b jects’ m otiv es in a research in te rv ie w o w n h u n c h t h a t the w o m a n is d eny ing the re a lities o f th e m a rriag e
w o u ld raise et hical p ro ble m s. and p r o b e fu rt h e r and p o in t o u t to the w o m a n the m a n y i n c o n s is te n ­
W h e n a re s e a rc h e r m a k e s i n terp r eta tio n s goin g b e y o n d the se lf- cies and c o n t r a d ic t i o n s in w h a t sh e tells a b o u t her m a rria g e ? A
u n d er sta n d in g o f the in terview ees, a serie s o f issues are ra ise d: S h o u ld c o n s e q u e n c e o f the latter co u ld be a radical ch a lle n g e o f the w o m a n ’s
su bjects be c o n f r o n t e d w ith in t e rp r e ta t io n s o f the m selves, w h ich they u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f h e rse lf and h e r m a rria g e. T h i s w o u ld have be en part
m ay n o t have asked for? D u rin g the interv iew ? In the co u rs e o f the o f an im p lic it c o n t r a c t in a t h e r a p e u t ic in terv iew , bu t it is d efinitely
analysis o f the interv iew s? W h e n r e p o rtin g the interv iew s? A nd w hat b e y o n d the c o n t r a c t o f a n o rm a l re s e a rch in te rv ie w and w as no t
sh ou ld be d o n e a b o u t d is ag r eem e n ts b e tw een the su b je c t ’s a nd the a t te m p t e d in this case.
r e s e a r c h e r ’s i n t e rp r e ta t io n s o f a th e m e ? In therapy the a n s w e r t o such
q u e stio n s is relatively si m p le: P a tien ts have so ug h t therapy and they
are paying the therapis t to help th e m ch a n g e, involv in g o fte n painful L e a d in g Q u e s ti o n s
ch an g es in self-u n d ers ta n d in g and th a t m ay take place in a d ia log u e
th a t c o n t in u e s ov er m any years. In psy choanalysis, the w o r k i n g T h e m o s t f r e q u e n t l y ask ed q u e s t io n a b o u t in te rv ie w stud ies tod ay
t h ro u g h o f the p a tien t’s resis ta nce to the th er a p is t’s in te r p r e ta t i o n s is p ro b a b ly c o n c e r n s th e ef fe c ts o f leadin g q u e stio n s. T h e issue is s o m e ­
an ess ential pa rt o f the th e r a p e u tic process. In res ea rch , h o w e v e r , it is tim es raised in the fo rm o f a q u e s t io n su ch as: “ C a n the in terv iew
th e in terv iew er w h o has so ug h t o u t the in terv iew ees; they have n o t results n o t be d ue to leadin g q u e s t i o n s ? ” T h e very f o r m o f th e q u e s t i o n
ask ed for i n te rp r eta tio n s le ading to f u n d a m en tal ch an g es in the way i n vo lv es a lia r’s p a r a d o x — an an s w e r o f “Y es , this is a se r io u s d a n g e r ”
they un derstand them selves and their worl d. T o em phasiz e the p o in t: may be due t o the sugge stive fo r m u l a t i o n o f th e q u e s t i o n le a d in g to
In therapy it may be u n ethical if the th e r a p e u tic co n v e r s a t io n s the this a n s w er. A nd a “ N o , this is n o t th e c a s e ” m ay d e m o n s t r a t e th at
p atien t has ask ed f o r, and o fte n paid highly for, do n o t lead t o n e w le a d in g q u e s t i o n s are n o t th a t p o w e r fu l.
ins ights o r em o t io n a l ch ang es. B ut in a resea rch inte rview , w h i c h the It is a w e l l- d o c u m e n t e d finding t h a t even a slig ht r e w o r d i n g o f a
inte rview ee has n o t ask ed for, it may be un ethical t o ins tigate new q u e s t i o n in a q u e s t i o n n a i r e o r in the i n t e r r o g a t io n o f ey e w itn esses
se lf -in te r p re t a tio n s o r e m o t io n a l ch anges. m ay in f lu e n c e th e a n s w er. W h e n the results o f p u blic o p in i o n polls
An i n h e r e n t c o n t r a d ic t i o n b e tw een pursuing scien tific k n o w le d g e are pu b lish ed , the p r o p o n e n t s o f a p o litic al part y re c e iv in g low
a n d ethically resp ectin g th e integ rity o f the in terview ee is illu stra ted su p p o r t are usually q u ick t o find biases in the w o r d i n g o f the p o ll ’s
in the f o llo w in g e x a m p l e (see F o g , 1 9 9 2 ) . As a therapis t c o n d u c t i n g q u e stio n s. In a p sy c h o lo g ic a l e x p e r i m e n t o n w itn ess re liab ility , d if f e r ­
re s earch in terview s, F o g a ddresses the d ile m m a o f the r e s e a r c h e r e n t su b je c t s w e r e s h o w n the sam e film o f t w o ca rs co ll i d i n g and w ere
w a n tin g th e in terv iew t o be as d eep and pro b in g as po ssible, w ith the t h e n ask ed a b o u t the c a r s ’ sp e e d . T h e a verag e sp e ed e stim a te in reply
risk o f tresp assing o n the p e rso n , bu t o n the o th e r han d to be as t o th e q u e s t io n “A b o u t h o w fast w ere the ca rs g o in g w h e n they
re spectfu l o f the interview e d per so n as possible and th e r e b y risk sm a sh ed i n t o e a c h o t h e r ? ” was 4 1 m ph. O t h e r su b je c t s— seein g the
g e t tin g em p irical m ate ria l th a t o n ly scra tc h e s the su rface . Sh e m e n ­ sa m e film , bu t w ith sm ashed rep la ce d by contacted in the q u estion
158 Interviews Q uality o f the Interview 159

a b o v e — gave an avera ge speed estim ate o f 3 2 m p h (L o ft u s 8c P a lm e r, S k in n e ria n a p p r o a c h in the im ag inary interview o n teasing (C h a p te r
1 9 7 4 ) . P oliticians are well e x p e r i e n c e d in w a rd in g o f f lea d in g q u e s ­ 5 , T h e m a t iz i n g ) . A p r o j e c t ’s orie n tin g re searc h q u estion s d eter m in e
tio ns fro m r e p o rt e rs ; bu t if lea d in g q u e stio n s 4re p o sed t o su bje cts w h a t kind o f an sw ers may be o b tain ed . T h e task is, again, n o t to avoid
w h o a rc easily su ggestible, such as sm all c h ild re n , re s e a rch findin gs le a d in g resea rch qu estion s, but to rec o g n izc the prim acy o f the qu es­
may be invalidated, a k ey issue in the c u rre n t f qcu s o n ch il d abu se. tio n and a t te m p t to m a k e the o r ie n t in g q u estion s e x p licit, thereby
A lth ou gh the w o rd in g o f a q u e s t i o n c a n i n a d v erten tly sh a p e the p ro v id in g the reader w ith the possibility o f evaluating thei r in fluen ce
c o n t e n t o f an a n s w er, it is o f t e n o v e r l o o k e d th a t leadin g q u e s t io n s are o n the research findings and o f assessing the validity o f the findings.
a lso ne cessary part s o f m a n y q u e s t i o n in g p r o c e d u r e s ; th e i r use d e ­ T h e fact th at the issue o f le ading q u e stion s has receiv ed so m uch
pends on the to p i c and p u rp o s e o f the investig atio n. L e a d in g qu e stio n s a t te n t io n in interview re searc h may be due to a naive e m p iricis m .
may be d elib era tely pose d by i n t e r r o g a t o r s t o o b t a in i n f o r m a t i o n they T h e r e m ay be a be lief in a neutral ob ser v atio n a l access to an o b je ctiv e
su spect is be in g w ith h eld . T h e bu rd e n o f denial is th en pu t o n the so cia l re ality in d ep e n d en t o f the inve stig a tor, im plying th at an in t e r ­
su bject, as w ith the q u e s t i o n , “W h e n did you sto p b e a tin g y o u r w i f e ? ” v ie w e r co ll e c t s verbal respon ses like a bo ta n ist co lle cts plants in n atu re
Polic e o f f ic e r s and lawyers also sy ste m atic a lly a pply lead in g q u e s t io n s o r a m in e r u n e arth s p re cio us bu ried m eta ls. In an a lte rnative view ,
t o test the co n s is t e n c y and reliability o f a p e r s o n ’s st a t e m e n t s . In the w h ic h fo llo w s fro m a p o s t m o d e rn perspective o n k no w led g e c o n s t r u c ­
R o r s c h a c h p erson alit y test, leadin g q u e s t io n s are e m p l o y e d by the t io n , th e interv iew is a co n v e r sa t io n in w h ich the data arise in an
p sy ch olo gist t o “ test the lim its ” fo r sp e cific f o rm s o f p e r ce iv in g the in t e r p e r s o n a l re lationship, c o a u t h o r e d and c o p ro d u c e d by i n t e r ­
a m b ig u o u s ink blots. In P ia g et’s inte rv iew s w ith c h ild re n a b o u t their v ie w er and in terview ee. T h e decisive issue is t h e n n o t w h e t h e r t o lead
u n d er stan d in g o f physical c o n c e p t s , q u e stio n s lea d in g in w r o n g d i r e c ­ o r n o t t o le ad , but w here the interview q u estion s sh ould le ad, and
tio ns w ere us ed t o test th e stren g th o f the c h i l d ’s c o n c e p t o f , for w h e t h e r they will lead in im p o rt a n t d ire ctio n s, pro d u cin g new , trust­
e x a m p l e , w eigh t. In S o c r a t c s ’ d ia log u e o n love, he rep e a te d ly e m ­ w o r t h y , and intere sting know le d g e.
ployed such leadin g qu estio n s as “ Sure ly you w ou ld say . . . w o u ld you
n o t ? ” w ith the i n t e n t i o n o f e x p o s i n g the c o n t r a d ic t i o n s o f A g a t h o n ’s
u n d ersta n d in g o f love and beau ty.
T h e qu alitative res earch in terv iew is p a rticu larly well su ite d for
e m p lo y in g leadin g qu estio n s to c h e c k rep eated ly the reliability o f the
i n t erv iew ees’ answ ers, as well as t o verify the i n t e r v i e w e r ’s i n t e r p r e ­
tations. T h u s , c o n t r a r y to p o p u lar o p in i o n , leadin g q u e stio n s d o no t
always red uce th e reliability o f in terview s, bu t m ay e n h a n c e it; ra the r
than be in g used t o o m u c h , d elib era tely leadin g q u e s t i o n s a rc tod ay
p ro ba b ly a pplied t o o little in qu alitativ e res ea rch in terview s.
It sh ou ld be n o ted th a t n o t on ly m a y the q u e s t io n s p r e c e d in g an
a n s w er be le adin g, bu t th e i n t e rv i e w e r’s o w n verb al a n d b o d ily r e ­
sp o nses f o llo w in g an a n s w er ca n a ct as po sitive o r negative r e i n f o r c c r s
for the a n s w er given and th e r e b y i n flu en ce the s u b j e c t ’s an s w ers to
furt her q u e stio n s. T h e t e ch n ica l issue o f using leadin g q u e s t i o n s in an
i nterview has b e e n ra th e r ov e re m p h a s iz e d , bu t the lead in g ef fe c ts o f
p ro je c t- b a se d res ea rch qu estio n s have r ec eiv ed less a t t e n t io n . R eca ll
the d iffere n t kinds o f answ ers o b t a in e d by a R o g c r i a n , F r e u d i a n , and
 J--~\------

/•row Sf>cecl) to Text 16 1

elud e the visual a sp e cts o f the s itu a tio n , n e it h e r the settin g n o r the
facial and b o dily e x p r e s s io n s o f the pa rticipa nts.
A videotape recorder will e n c o m p a s s the visual asp e cts o f the
in terv iew . W i th the inclu sio n o f facial e x p r e s s io n s and bodily po sture,
a v i d e o t a p e p ro vid e s rich er c o n t e x t s fo r in te r p r e ta t i o n s th a n does
a u d io t a p e . V i d e o re c o rd in g s o f f e r a u n iq u e o p p o r t u n i t y for analyzing
the i n t e rp e r so n a l i n t e r a c t i o n in an in terv iew , an a sp e ct th at has led to
e x t e n s i v e use o f v ideo s in res ea rch o n , a nd t ra in in g for, th er ap y .
The w ea lth o f inform ation m a k e s vid e o ta p e analysis a tim e-
c o n s u m i n g p ro cess. F o r m o s t in terv iew p r o je c ts , p a rticu la rly th o se
w ith m an y interv iew s and w h e r e th e m ain in te re s t is the c o n t e n t o f
From Speech to T e x t w h a t is said , v id e o re c o rd in g s may be t o o c u m b e r s o m e fo r analysis. A
v id e o is useful for the t ra ining o f in te rv iew ers , m a k i n g th e m a w a re o f
B e f o r e t urn ing t o the analysis o f the k n o w le d g e c o n s t r u c t e d in the
th e ir facial and b o dily e x p r e s s io n s during an in terv iew t h a t co uld
interview in t e ra c t io n , I will ad dress the tra n s crip tion o f in terview s.
c i t h e r inh ib it o r p r o m o t e c o m m u n i c a t i o n . T h e sam e is true o f subtle
R a th e r than be in g a sim ple clerical task, tra n s crip tio n is itself an
w ay s o f r e i n f o r c i n g s p e cific types o f a nsw ers by n o d s , sm ile s, and
in te rp reta tiv e pro cess . W h e r e a s the in t e ra c t io n o f the in terv iew situ ­
b o d ily p o stu re s th at the i n terv iew e r m ay n o t be a w a re o f and th at are
a tio n has been exten sively treated in the literatu re on m e t h o d , the
n o t r e c o r d e d o n the a u d io ta p e .
t ra n s la tio n f ro m or al c o n v e r s a t io n s to w ritten te x ts has r ec eiv ed less
It sh o u ld be n o t e d th a t the inclu sion o f the visual settin g d o e s no t
at te n t io n . T h i s c h a p te r a ddresses th e p ro ce d u re s for m a k in g in terv iew
so lve the issue o f an o b je c ti v e r e p r e s e n ta t i o n o f th e in te rv ie w s it u ­
co n v e r s a t io n s accessible to analysis— taping the o ra l in te rv ie w i n t e r ­
a t io n . R e s e a r c h e r s w h o use vid e o ta p e r e c o rd in g s are to d a y ra th e r
a c t i o n , tra n s crib in g the tapes into w ritte n te x ts, and the use o f c o m ­
sen sitiv e t o the co n st ru c t iv e n a tu res o f th e i r d o c u m e n t a t i o n , w h ich
pu te r p ro g ra m s to assist the analysis o f the interviews. T h e p ractical
a rc p ro d u c t s o f the r e s e a r c h e r ’s m any c h o i c e s o f an g les a nd fra m in g ,
p r o b l e m s o f tra n s crip tio n raise t h eo retic a l issues a b o u t the d if f e r e n c e s
as well as the s e q u e n c e o f sh ots (see, e.g ., H a r d & I’ap e r t, 1 9 9 1 ) .
b e tw e e n or al a nd w ritten langu age, w h ich leads to the ra th e r ne g lected
An in te rv ie w may alsb be re c o r d e d t h ro u g h a r e f l e c t e d use o f the
po sition o f language in in terview re searc h.
r e s e a r c h e r ’s su bje ctivit y and remembering, relying on his o r he r e m ­
pa thy a nd m e m o r y and th en w ritin g d o w n the m a in a sp e cts o f the
in te rv ie w a f te r the se ssion , s o m e t i m e s assisted by n o te s t a k e n during
R e c o rd in g In terv iew s
the in terv iew . T h e r e are o b v i o u s lim ita t io n s to a re lia n c e o n m e m o r y
for i n t e rv ie w analysis, su ch as the rapid f o rg e ttin g o f details a nd the
M e t h o d s o f r e c o rd in g in terview s for d o c u m e n ta t i o n and later
i n f lu e n c e o f a se le ctive m e m o r y . T h e i n t e r v i e w e r ’s i m m e d ia t e m e m o r y
analysis inclu de a u d io ta p e re c o rd in g , v id eo tap e r e c o rd in g , n o t e t a k ­
w ill, h o w e v e r , i n clu d e the visual i n f o r m a t i o n o f the s it u a t io n as well
ing, and re m e m b e rin g . T h e usual way o f re c o rd in g interview s tod ay
as the so cia l a t m o s p h e r e and per so n a l i n t e r a c t i o n , w h ich t o a large
is w ith a tape recorder. T h e in terview e r ca n th en c o n c e n t r a t e o n the
e x t e n t is lost in the a u d io ta p e r e c o rd in g . T h e in t e r v i e w e r ’s active
to p ic and the d yn a m ics o f the interv iew . T h e w ord s and th e i r to n e ,
lis te n in g and r e m e m b e r i n g m ay ideally also w o r k as a selective filter,
pauses, and the like, are rec o rd ed in a p e r m a n e n t fo rm th at c a n be
re t a in in g th o se very m ea n in g s th at are ess ential f o r the t o p i c and
re t u r n e d to again and again for relistenin g. T h e a u d io ta p e gives a
p u rp o s e o f th e study.
d e c o n te x tu a li z e d vers ion o f the in terview , h o w ev er: It d o es n o t in-
 '62 Interviews From Speech to Text 163

Wliil e r e m e m b e r i n g is tod a y o f t e n d ecried as a su bjective m e th o d T r a n s c r ip t io n R eliab ility and V alid ity

re p lete w ith biases, it sh ou ld n o t be o v e r l o o k e d th at th e m ain em p irica l
basis o f p sy c h o a n a ly t ic th e o ry ca m e fro m the th e r a p is t ’s c m p a t h i c In terview s are tod ay seld om analyzed directly fro m tape record in g s.
lis te ning t o and r e m e m b e r i n g o f t h e r a p e u t i c in terv iew s. Freu d d e v e l ­ T h e usual p ro ced u re for analyzing is t o have the taped interviews
op ed his p sy c h o a n a ly t ic a l th e o r y at a tim e w h e n ta pe r e c o r d e r s did not tra n s c r i b e d into w ritten texts. A lth o u g h this se em s like an apparently
ex ist. H e re f ra in e d f ro m ta k in g n o te s during the t h e r a p e u t i c h o u r s and sim p le and rea s o n a b le p r o c e d u r e , tran s crip tio n s involve a serie s o f
liste ned w ith an e v e n -h o v e r in g a t t e n t io n , a t te n d e d t o the m e a n i n g o f m e t h o d ic a l and th e o retic a l pro b le m s. F o r e x a m p l e , on c e the interview
w h a t was said , and first m a de no tes a f te r the t h e r a p e u t i c session t r a n s c r i p t i o n s arc m ade, they te n d to be re garded as the solid em pirical
( F r e u d , 1 9 6 3 ) . T h i s fo rm o f re c o l le c ti o n is based o n active lis te ning d a ta in the in terview p ro je ct. T h e transcripts are, h o w ev er, n o t the
d u rin g the s i t u a t i o n ; it re q u ires sensitivity and t ra in in g , w h ic h in t e r ­ r o c k - b o t t o m data o f interv iew res ea rch , they are artificial c o n s t r u c ­
view r e s e a rc h e rs to d a y may f o r g o , tre a t in g the tap es and t ra n s crip ts as t io n s f ro m an or al to a w ritten m o d e o f c o m m u n ic a t i o n . F.very t r a n ­
t h e ir real d ata . O n e m ig h t sp e cu la te th at if ta p e r e c o r d e r s had existed sc r ip tio n fro m o n e c o n t e x t to a n o t h e r involves a series o f ju d g m en ts
in F r e u d ’s tim e , p sy ch oan a lytica l t h e o ry m ig h t n o t have d ev elo p ed a nd d ecis ions. I will in tro d u ce the co n stru ctiv e natu re o f transcripts
b e y o n d in fin ite scries o f v e rb a tim q u o t e s f ro m the p a tien ts, and by t a k in g a elos er loo k at their reliability and validity.
p sy ch oan a lysis m ig h t tod ay have r e m a in e d c o n f i n e d to a sm all V i e n ­
nese se ct o f p sy ch oa n a lysts lost in a c h a o s o f tapes and tra n s c ri p t i o n s Reliability. Q u e s t io n s o f in terv iew er reliability in in terv iew r e ­
f ro m th e ir thera pie s. s e a r c h a rc frequ ently raised. Y e t in co n t ra s t to so cioling u istic re s earch ,
t ra n s c rib e r reliability is rarely m e n t io n e d for social scien ce interv iew s.
Taping. In the p re sent c o n t e x t , the m o st c o m m o n m e th o d o f r e c o r d ­ T e chn ically reg a rded , it is an easy ch e c k to have tw o p erson s in d e­
ing interview s to d a y — a u d i o t a p e r e c o r d in g and s u b s e q u e n t t r a n s c r i p ­ p e n d en tly type the sam e passage o f a taped interv iew , and t h e n have
t io n — will be trea ted m o r e e x ten siv ely . T h e first r e q u i r e m e n t for a c o m p u t e r p ro g ram list and c o u n t the n u m b e r o f w o rd s th a t differ
tra n s crib in g a r e c o rd e d interview is th a t it was in fact r e c o r d e d . S o m e b e tw e e n the t w o t ra nscrip tions, thus p ro viding a q u antified reliability
intervie w ers have painful m e m o r i e s ol an e x c e p t i o n a l interview w h e re check.
n o t h i n g g o t o n the tape due t o te ch n ica l faults o r , m o s t o f t e n , h u m an T h e in te rp r e ta tio n a l ch a r a c t e r o f tra n s crip tio n is eviden t fro m the
er r o r. T h e i n terv iew e r may have be en so c a u g h t by the ne w n e ss and t w o transcripts o f the same tape rec ording in T a b le 9 .1 . 1 he w ord s that
c o m p l e x i t i e s o f the interview situa tion that he o r sh e sim ply f o r g o t to are d if f e re n t in the t w o tra n s crip tio n s arc italicized. 1 he t ra n s c rip t io n s
turn the re c o r d e r o n , o r a sp ecial interview may have b e e n so e n gag in g w ere m a de by t w o psych ologists w h o w ere instr uct ed t o t ra n s crib e as
that any t h o u g h t o f t e c h n ic a lit ie s w as lost. a c c u r a t e ly as po ssible. Still, the tra n s crib ers ad op te d d ifferen t styles:
A se c o n d r e q u i r e m e n t f o r t ra n s c rip t io n is th at the co n v e r s a t io n on T r a n s c r i b e r A appears to write m o re ve rb a tim , inclu des m o r e w ord s,
the tape is audible. A g oo d ta pe r e c o r d e r and m i c r o p h o n e are basic and seem s to guess m o re than tra n s crib er B, w h o rec ord s on ly w h a t is
req u irem en ts. S o is finding a r o o m w i th o u t b a c k g r o u n d n o ise su ch as cl e a r and distinct, and w h o also pro d u ces a m o re c o h e r e n t w ritten
voic es in n e ig h b o r i n g r o o m s and heavy ou tsid e traffic. T o sec u re g oo d sty le. T h e m ost m arked d is crepan cy b e tw e e n the t w o is ren d e r in g the
re c o rd in g qu al ity it is n ecessary th at the m i c r o p h o n e is clos e en o u g h i n t e r v i e w e r ’s q u e stion as “b e ca u se you d o n ’ t get g ra d e s?” versus “o f
to b o th pa rticip a n ts; that th e in t e rv ie w e r is n o t afraid t o ask a m u m ­ c o u r s e you d o n ’ t like g ra d es?” It th er eb y b e c o m e s a m b ig u o u s w ha t
bli ng intervie w ee t o sp eak u p ; and th at the t r a n s c r i b e r ’s c o m i n g w ork the s u b je c t 's a n s w er— “Y es, 1 t h in k t h a t ’s true . . . ’’— refers to.
is kept in m in d , for e x a m p l e by a v o id in g c o f f e e cu p s and the like hittin g T h e qu ality o f tra nscrip tions can be im proved by clear in stru ctio ns
the table, sen d in g bo lts o f t h u n d er into the t r a n s c r i b e r ’s ears (see Y o w a b o u t the p ro ced u re s and purp oses o f the tra n s crip tio n s , prefe rab ly
11 9 9 4 j ar>d P oland [ 1 9 9 5 ] for m o r e e x t e n s iv e t r e a t m e n ts o f the r e c o r d ­ a c c o m p a n i e d by a reliability ch e c k . Y et even with deta iled typing
ing qu ality o f interviews).
164 I nt e r vi e ws Prom Speech to Text

T A IH l- 9 .1 T w o T r a n s c r ip tio n s o f th e S a m e In te rv ie w P assag e T A B L E 9 .2 T w o T r a n s c r ip t io n s o f L e o n a ’s S to ry o f H e r Puppy

T ran scrip tio n A: T ra n scrip tio n A:

I: And are you also saying because you d on ’t get grades? Is that true( . . . and then my puppy cam e / he was asleep / and he was— he was /

S: Yes, I think that’s true because if I got grades 1 would w'ork toward the grade as he tried to get up / and he ripped my pants / and he dropped the o a t m e a l -
opposed to w orking toward . . . itmm, expanding what I know, or, pushing a limit all over him / and / my father cam e / and he said
back in m yself or, something . . . contributing new id e a s . . .

T ran scrip tio n IS: Transcription 11:

I: And are you also saying that of course you d o n ’t like grades? an’ then my puppy cam e
S: Yes, I think that’s true, because if I got grades 1 would work toward the grade as he was asleep
opposed to w orking toward expanding what I know or pushing those limits back . . . he tried to get up
(tape unclear) contributing new ideas.
an’ he ripped my pants
an’ he dropped the oatm eal all over him
an’ my fath er cam e

i n s tr u ctio n s it may he difficult for tw o transcribers to r e a c h full an ’ he said

a g r e e m e n t o n w hat was said, l istening again to the tape might sh o w

t h a t so m e o f the d ifferen c es are due to p o o r rec o rd in g qu a lit y and
S O llR C I i: F ro m M ish le r ( 1 9 9 1 ).
m is hearin g . O t h e r d ifferen c es, w h ich are o f intere st fro m an inter-
relatio n a l perspective, may no t be un eq u iv oca lly so lved, as f o r e x a m ­
ple: W h e r e d o es a se n te n ce en d? W h e r e is there a pause? I l o w lon g H e r e the story a p p e a r s as a literary to u r de fo rce , yield ing a re m a r k a b le

is a silence b e fo re it b e c o m e s a pause in a co n v e r s a t io n ? D o e s a s p e ­ na r ra tiv e. N e i t h e r tra n s c r i p t i o n is m o r e o b je c tiv e th a n the o t h e r ; they

cific pause b e lo n g t o the s u b ject o r to the interview er? And if the a r c , r a t h e r , d if f e r e n t w ritt e n co n s t r u c t io n s fr o m the sam e ora l passage:

e m o t io n a l a sp e cts o f the co n v e r s a t io n are incl uded, for insta n ce “ tense “ D i f f e r e n t t ra n s crip ts are c o n s t r u c t io n s o f d if f e re n t w o rld s, each

v o i c e ,” “g igg lin g ,” “ nerv ou s l a u g h te r ,” and so o n , the intersu bjective d esig n ed t o fit o u r p a rticu la r t h e o r e t ic a l a ss u m p t io n s and t o a llo w us

reliability o f the tra n s crip tio n co uld d evelo p into a resea rch p r o je c t o f t o e x p l o r e th e ir i m p l i c a t i o n s ” ( M i s h le r , 1 9 9 1 , p. 2 7 1 ) .
its ow n. T r a n s c r i b i n g involv es tran s latin g f ro m an or al la n g u a g e, w ith its
o w n set o f ru le s, t o a w ritten language w ith a n o t h e r set o f rules.

Validity. A scerta in in g the validity o f the interview tra n s crip ts is T r a n s c r i p t s are n o t c o p ie s o r re p re s e n ta t i o n s o f s o m e o r ig in a l reality,

m o r e c o m p l e x than ass uring their reliability. T h e issue o f w h a t a valid they a re in te r p r e ta t i v e c o n s t r u c t io n s t h a t are useful t o o ls f o r given

t r a n s crip tio n is may be ex e m p lifie d by tw o d ifferen t tra n s c ri p t i o n s o f pu rp os es. T r a n s c r i p t s are d e c o n te x tu a li z c d c o n v e r s a t io n s , they are

a stor y told by a 7 - y e a r-o ld A fro -A m e r ic a n pupil (see Table 9 . 2 ) . T h e a b s tr a c t io n s , as t o p o g r a p h i c a l m aps are a b s tr a c t io n s f ro m th e orig in al

t w o t ra n s c rip t io n s are fro m a seg m en t o f a lo n g er story fro m a la n d sca p e fro m w h ic h they are derived. M a p s e m p h a s iz e s o m e as pects

c l a s s r o o m e x e r c is e , tra n s crib ed by tw o d iffere n t re s e a rc h e rs and d is­ o f the co u n t r y s id e and o m i t o t h e r s , the s e le c t io n o f fe atu res dep en d in g

cussed by M i s h l e r ( 1 9 9 1 ) . T ra nscript A is a verb atim re n d e r in g o f the o n the i n t e n d e d use. M a p s o f the sam e t o p o g r a p h i c a l a r e a fo r pu rposes

o ra l f o rm o f the sto r y ; the s ch o o l t ea ch er foun d the w h o le story o f drivin g , a v ia tio n , ag ricu ltu re , and m in in g will ten d t o be rather

d is c o n n e c t e d and ra m b lin g , n o t living up to a cce p ta b le c r it e ria o f d if f e re n t . An o b j e c t i v e m a p re p re se n tin g , for e x a m p l e , the island o f

c o h e r e n c e and language use. T r a n s c r i p t B is an idealized r ea liz a tio n G r e e n l a n d d o e s n o t e i i s t : T h e shape d ep en d s o n the se le cte d m od e

o f the sam e story passage, re tran scrib ed into a p o etic f o r m by a o f p r o j e c t i o n f r o m a cjirv ed t o a flat plane, w h ic h again d epend s on

r e s e a r c h e r fam ilia r w ith the lin guistic p ractices o f b la ck o ra l style. t h e i n t e n d e d use o f tht| m ap.
166 i'rotn Speech In lext If,7
I liter Vi e ws

C o r r e s p o n d i n g l y , the q u estio n “W h a t is the c o r r e c t t r a n s c r i p t i o n ? ” c u lt u r e is ch a ra cteriz ed by a na ly tic , a b s tract, and ob jectively distanced

c a n n o t he a n s w e re d — th e r e is n o tr ue, o b je c ti v e t r a n s f o r m a t i o n fro m f o r m s o f t h o u g h t and exp ress io n .

the oral t o the w ritte n m o d e . A m o r e c o n s t r u c t iv e q u e s t io n is: “W h a t In ter v iew t ra n s crip tio n s are o f t e n b o rin g to read, en nui en sues in

is a useful t ra n s c rip t io n for my research p u r p o s e s ? " T h u s verb atim face o f the rep etitio ns, the i n co m p lete s e n ten ces , and the m a n y d ig re s­

d e s c r i p t i o n s are n ecessary for linguistic an a ly ses ; the inclu sio n o f sions. The a ppa rently i n c o h e r e n t s tatem en ts may be co h e r e n t with in

pa use s, re p e ti t io n s , and to n e o f vo ice are re le v a n t f o r psy ch o lo g ical the c o n t e x t o f a living c o n v e r s a t io n , w ith vocal i n t o n a ti o n , facial

i n t e r p r e ta t i o n s o f , for e x a m p l e , level o f a n x ie ty o r the m e a n i n g o f e x p r e s s io n s , and body language s u p p o r tin g , givin g nu an c es to , o r even

denials. T r a n s f o r m i n g the c o n v e r s a t io n in t o a lit era ry style facilitates c o n t r a d i c t i n g w hat is said. Su ch d is crep a n cies b e tw e e n w h a t is said

c o m m u n i c a t i o n o f th e m e a n in g o f th e s u b j e c t ’s sto r ie s t o re aders . a nd the a c c o m p a n y i n g bodily ex p r ess io n s arc d eli b era tely used in
s o m e f o rm s o f co m ica l and iron ica l statem en ts.
T h e p r o b l e m s w ith interv iew tra nscripts arc due less to the t e c h n i ­
O r a l an d W r i t t e n L a n g u a g e ca lities o f tran s crip tio n than to the in h e re n t d ifferen c es b e tw e e n an
oral and a w ritten m od e o f d isco urse. T r a n s c r i p t s are d e c o n te x tu a liz e d
By n e g le c t in g issues o f t ra n s c rip t io n , the in te rv ie w r e s e a r c h e r ’s
c o n v e r s a t io n s . If o n e accep ts as a m ain pre mise o f i n te rp r e ta tio n that
ro a d t o hell b e c o m e s paved w ith tra n s crip ts. T h e i n t e rv ie w is an
m e a n i n g d e p en d s o n c o n t e x t , th en transcripts in iso la tion m a k e an
e v o lv in g c o n v e r s a t io n b e tw e e n tw o p e o p le . T h e t r a n s c r i p t i o n s are
i m p o v e ris h e d basis for in te rp r e ta tio n . An interview takes place in a
frozen in tim e a nd a b s tr a cted f ro m th e ir base in a so cial i n t e ra c t io n .
c o n t e x t , o f w hich the spatial, t e m p o ra l, and social d im e n s io n s are
T h e lived f a c e - t o - f a c e c o n v e r s a t io n b e c o m e s fix a te d i n t o transcripts.
im m e d ia t e ly given to the p a rticipa nts in the fa c e -t o -f a c e c o n v e r s a t io n ,
A tra n s c rip t is a tra n s g re ss io n , a t r a n s f o r m a t i o n o f o n e n ar ra tiv e
bu t n o t to the o u t - o f - c o n t e x t read er o f the tra nscript. In c o n t r a s t to a
m o d e — or al d is co u rse — in t o a n o t h e r na rrativ e m o d e — w ritt e n dis­
ta p ed intervie w , a novel will re p o r t the im m ed ia te c o n t e x t o f a
co u rs e . T o /rawsscribe m e a n s to transform, to c h a n g e fro m o n e form c o n v e r s a t io n , including n o nve rba l c o m m u n ic a t i o n to the e x t e n t the
to a n o t h e r . A t te m p ts at ve rb atim in terv iew tr a n s c r i p t i o n s p ro d u c e
a u t h o r fin ds it relevan t for the story he o r she w ants to tell. Sim ila r
hy brids, artificial co n st ru c t s th at are a d e q u a t e to n e it h e r the lived oral
c o n s i d e r a t io n s hold for jo u rna listic interviews.
c o n v e r s a t io n n o r the form a l style o f w ritten texts. T ra n scrip tio n s are
T h e t ra n s crip tio n s are d c tc m p o r a l iz e d ; a living, o n g o i n g c o n v e r s a ­
tra n s latio n s fro m o n e lang u age t o a n o t h e r ; w h a t is said in the h e r m e ­
tio n is fro z en in t o a w ritten te x t . T h e w o rd s o f the c o n v e r s a t io n ,
ne utical t ra d it io n o f tra n s la to rs also p e r ta in s to t ra n s c rib e r s: traduire
f le e tin g as the steps o f an im provise d d a n ce , are fix ated in t o static
traittori — tra n s lato rs are traito rs.
w r i tt e n w o rd s, o p e n to r ep ea ted public in spectio ns. T h e w o r d s o f the
The d ifferen t rh eto rica l form s o f oral and w ritt e n lang u a ge are
t ra n s crip ts take on a solidity that was no t in tend ed in the im m e d ia t e
f requ ently o v e r l o o k e d during the tr a n s c r i p t i o n o f so cial sc ie n c e i n t e r ­
c o n v e r s a t io n a l c o n t e x t . T h e flo w o f co n v e r sa t io n , w ith its o p e n h o r i ­
views; o n e e x c e p t i o n is P oland ( 1 9 9 5 ) . R e c o g n i z i n g th e so cially
z o n o f d ir e ctio n s and m eaning s to be follow ed up, is rep la ce d by the
c o n stru cte d natu re o f the tra n s crip t, he discuss es in detail p r o c e d u r e s
f ix a te d , stable w ri tten tex t.
for increasing the t ru s tw o rth in e s s o f tra n s crip ts and thus e n h a n c in g
In a co n v e r s a t io n we n o rm a lly have im m e d iate acc ess to the m e a n ­
rigor in qu alitativ e resea rch . S o c io lin g u is tic s and e t h n o m c t h o d o l o g y
ing o f w h a t the o th e r says. W h e n analyzing the interv iew s, the tape
have b r o u g h t the d iffere n c e s b e tw e e n oral and w ritten la n g u a g e in t o
r e c o r d in g , and in part icular the en suin g tra n s crip t, tends t o b e c o m e
focu s (O n g , 1 9 X 2 ; T a n n e n , 1 9 9 0 ; T e d l o c k , 19 X 5). In a histo rical
an o p a q u e screen b e tw een the res earcjie r and the orig inal situation.
linguistic study, in part icular o f H o m e r ’s w o r k , O n g o u t lin e s the
A t te n ti o n is drawn to the form al r e c o rd e d lan guage and the em p a th i-
tho ug ht and e x p r ess io n o f a p ri m ari ly oral cu lt u r e as b e in g clos e to
cally e x p e r i e n c e d , lived m ea n in g s o f the orig inal co n v e r sa t io n fade
the hum an life w orld, situ ationa l, e m p a th i c and p a rt i c i p a t o ry , a d d i ­
a w a y ; the dried pale flo w ers in the h e rb ar iu m rep la ce the fresh
tive, ag gregativ e, ag on istic, and r ed u n d a n t. In c o n t r a s t , a w ritten
 Interviews /•Vow Sftccch to Text
168

c o lo rf u l flo w ers o f the field. T h e tra nscri pts b e c o m e a kind of f u n d a ­ is in itself a b e g i n n i n g analysis. The a m o u n t a nd f o rm o f tra n s cribin g

m en tal verbal data for in terview re s earch , ra the r than a m eans to evo ke d e p e n d s o n su ch f a cto rs as the na tu re o f the m a teria l and the pu rpose

and revive the perso nal in t e ra c t io n o f the interview situation. o f the in v es tig a tio n , the tim e and m o n e y available, a n d — n o t to be

T h e ra the r in terpreta tive basis o f the transcripts is o fte n fo rg o tt e n f o r g o t t e n — the availability o f a reliable and patie nt typist. T ra n scrip ­

in the analysis, w h e r e the transcripts ten d t o b e c o m e a r o c k - b o t t o m t io n fro m tape to te x t in vo lv es a se rie s o f t e ch n ica l and in t e rp r e ta t io n a l

basis for th e en su ing in te rp r e ta tio n s. Ig n o ra n ce o f the m any t e c h n ic a l issues f o r w h i c h , a g ain, there are few stand ard ru le s, bu t ra th e r a serie s

and t h e o r e t ic a l issues o f t ra n s fo rm in g co n v e r sa t io n s in t o te x ts m a y be o f c h o i c e s t o be m ade.

due to a n e g le ct in social scien ce o f the linguistic m edium o f i n t e rv ie w It is a useful e x e r c i s e for i n terv iew ers t o type o n e o r m o r e pilot

res earch . So cial sc ientists are tod ay naive users o f the language that i n terv iew s th e m selv es. T h i s will sensitize th e m to the i m p o r t a n c e o f

th e ir p ro fession a l pra c tice and resea rch rests o n . A lth ou gh m o st so ci al the a c o u s t i c qu alit y o f the r e c o rd in g , to paying a t te n t io n to asking

scien ce p ro g ra m s tod ay re q uire co u rs es in statistical analysis o f q u a n ­ cl e a r au d ible q u e s t i o n s and g ettin g equ ally cle a r an s w ers in the

titative data , even a ru d im entary in t ro d u c tio n t o linguistic analysis o f i n t e rv ie w s itu a tio n . T h e t r a n s crib in g e x p e r i e n c e will also m a k e i n t e r ­

lin guistic, qu al itativ e data is a rarity. view ers a w a re o f s o m e o f the m a ny d ecis ion s involv ed in tr a n s fo r m in g

“N o t b e in g able to rely o n a c o n c e p t io n o f a stable, u n iversal, o ra l s p e e c h to w ritt e n t e x t s , and it will give an im p r ess io n o f the tim e

n o n c o n t e x t u a l , and t ra n s p a re n t relation b e tw een re p r e s e n ta t i o n and a nd e f f o r t th e t ra n s c rip t io n o f an in te rv iew req uires.

reality, and be tw e e n language and m ean in g , c o n f r o n t s r e s e a rc h e rs

'Typing. T h e tim e n e e d e d to t ra n s crib e an in te rv iew will d e p en d on
w ith se rio us and difficult th eo retic a l and m eth o d o l o g i c a l p r o b l e m s ”
the qu ality o f the re c o rd in g , the typin g e x p e r i e n c e o f the t ra n s c rib e r ,
( M i s h lc r , 1 9 9 1 , p. 2 7 8 ) . N e g le ctin g lin guistic c o m p l e x i t i e s during
and the d e m a n d s for detail a n d ex a c t i t u d e . T r a n s c r i b i n g large a m o u n t s
tra n s c rip t io n f ro m an oral to a w ritten lan guage may be related t o a
o f in terv iew m a te r ia l is o f t e n a t ir e s o m e a nd stressing j o b ; the stress
p h ilo so p h y o f naive realism , w ith an im plicit co n s t a n c y h y p o th e sis o f
c a n be re d u ce d by s ec u rin g re c o rd in g s o f high a c o u s t i c qu ality.
so m e real m e a n i n g nuggets re m a in in g co n s t a n t by their tra n s fe r fro m
F o r the interview s in the g ra d in g study, an e x p e r i e n c e d se creta ry
o n e c o n t e x t t o a n o t h e r . In co n t ra s t , p o s t m o d e rn c o n c e p t i o n s o f
t o o k a b o u t 5 h o u r s t o type v e rb a tim an in terv iew o f 1 h o u r. A 1 - h o u r
k n o w le d g e em pha siz e the co n t e x t u a l i ty o f m e a n in g with an i n trin s ic
in te rv ie w results in 2 0 to 2 5 sin gle-spa ce d pages, d e p e n d in g o n the
re lation o f m e a n in g and f o rm , and focu s on the very ru p tu re s o f
a m o u n t o f s p e ech and h o w it is set up in typing.
c o m m u n i c a t i o n , the breaks o f m eaning . T he nu a n c es and the d if f e r ­
en ces, the t r a n s fo r m a ti o n s and d is con tin uities o f m ean in g b e c o m e the
Who Should Transcribe? In m ost st udies the tapes are tran s crib ed
very p o res o f k n o w led g e. P o s t m o d e r n a p p r o a c h e s t o k n o w le d g e d o
by a s e c r e t a r y , w h o is likely t o be m o r e e f fi c i e n t at t y pin g tha n the
no t so lve the m any t e ch n ica l and th e o re t ic a l issues o f t r a n s c r i p t i o n .
r e s e a r c h e r . In v estig ato rs w h o em p h a s iz e the m o d e s o f c o m m u n i c a t i o n
T h e e m pha sis o n the lin guistic co n s t itu t io n o f reality, on the c o n t e x ­
and lin g uistic style m ay c h o o s e to d o th e ir o w n t r a n s crib in g in or d e r
tuality o f m ean in g , and o n k no w le d g e as arising from the tra n s itio n s
to se c u re the m a n y d eta ils Relevant t o th e ir s p e cific analysis. S o m e have
and breaks, h o w e v er, involv es a sensitivity to and a focu s o n the o f t e n
a typist d o a first t ra n s c rip t io n o f all the inte rv iew s in a st ud y; then
o v e rlo o k e d t r a n s crip tio n stage o f interview re searc h.
a f te r re a d in g th e m t h r o u g h , the r e s e a r c h e r g o e s b a c k and rety p e s th o se
i n terv iew s, o r th o se part s o f the in terv iew s, th a t will be su b je c t e d to
T r a n s c r i b i n g Interv iew s in tensive analysis.

Transcribing the interview s fro m an oral to a w ritten m o d e s t r u c ­ Style. There is o n e ha$ic rule in t r a n s c r i p t i o n — state e x p lic itly in
tures the interview c o n v er sa tio n s in a form a m e n a b le tor clo s e r th e r e p o r t h o w the tra n s c ri p t i o n s w e r e m a d e . This sh o u ld p re ferab ly
analysis. S tru cturin g the m aterial in t o te x ts faci litates an o v e r v i e w and be based o n w ritten in s tr u c t io n s to the tra n s crib er s. If t h er e are several
170 Interviews irotn Speech to Text 171

tra n s crib er s for the interview s o f a single study, ca re sh ou ld b e tak en ed it ing o f the tra nscription may be desirable. If, h o w ever, the t ra n ­
t h a t they use the sam e p r o c e d u r e s f o r typing. It this is n o t d o n e , c r o s s ­ scr i p ti o n s are to serve as m aterial for so cio lin g u istic o r psy ch olo gica l
co m p a r is o n s a m o n g th e interv iew s will be d iffic u lt to m ak e . analysis, they ne ed to be in a detailed, verb a tim fo rm . F,ven the m an y
A lth o u g h there is n o stand ard form or c o d e for t r a n s c r i p t i o n o f “ h m ”s o f an o rd inary c o n v e r sa tio n , distu rb ing w h en rea d in g a t ra n ­
re s e a rch in terv iew s, there arc s o m e s tan d a rd c h o i c e s to be m a d e. T h e y scr ip t, can be re levan t for later analysis: for e x a m p l e , w h e t h e r the
invo lv e su ch issues as: S h o u ld the st a t e m e n t s be t ra n s crib e d v e rb a tim “ h m ”s o f the in terview er selectively follow , and thus r e i n fo r c e , special
an d w o rd by w o r d , inclu ding the o f t e n f r e q u e n t r e p e tit io n s , o r sh o u ld types o f a nsw ers by the subject . And, if psy ch olo gical i n te rp r eta tio n s
t he in terv iew be t r a n s fo r m e d in t o a m o r e f o rm a l, w ritten style? S h o u ld a rc to be m ade, the e m o tio n a l tone o f the c o n v e r s a t io n sh ou ld also be
the e n tire in terv ie w be r e p ro d u c e d v e rb a t im , o f sh ou ld the tra n s c r i b e r inclu d e d . H e r e the very pauses, rep etitio n s , and so fort h m ay yield
c o n d e n s e and su m m ariz e s o m e o f the part s that have little relevan t im p o r t a n t m ate ria l for in terp retation .
i n f o r m a t i o n ? S h o u ld pauses, em p h a s e s in i n t o n a t i o n , and e m o t io n a l In J a c o b s e n ’s ( 1 9 8 I) study o f the un iversity so cia liz ation o f stud ents
e x p r e s s io n s like laug h te r a nd sig hin g be inclu d ed ? A nd if pauses are o f D an ish and o f m edicine to thei r respectiv e pro fessio n a l cu ltures,
to b e in clu d e d , h o w m uch detail sh ou ld be in d ic ate d ? the interview s w e re transcribed v erb a tim , including the m a n y “ h m ”s,
I he re are n o c o r r e c t , s tan d a rd a nsw ers to su ch q u e s t i o n s ; the “ a i n ’t it t r u e ,” and die like. J a c o b s e n co u n ted (lie use o f su ch fillers
an s w e rs will d e p en d o n the i n ten d ed use o f the tra n s crip t. O n e by the stu d en ts o f Danish and o f m ed icin e, re spectiv ely , and fou n d a
po ssible g u id elin e for e d it ing , d o in g justice to the in te rv ie w e e s, is to m ark e d ly m o re freq u e n t use o f “ a in ’t it t ru e ” by the stud ents o f
im ag in e h o w they them se lv es w ou ld have w a n ted to f o r m u l a t e their D a n ish . H e i n terp r eted this, t o g e t h e r with o t h e r ind ic atio n s, as be in g
st a t e m e n t s in w riting. T h e t ra n s c rib e r then on b e h a l f o f the su bjects in line with the cu lture o f the h u m a nities, in w h ich there is an e m pha sis
tra nsla te s th e ir oral style in t o a w ritten fo rm in h a r m o n y w ith the o n d ia lo g u e with attem p ts to ob ta in co nsen su al validation o f in t e rp r e ­
s p e cific s u b je c t s ’ gen er al m o d e s o f e x p r e s s io n . T h e e x t e n t o f detail in t a tio n s, involv in g appea ls to the o th ers, such as “a i n ’t it t r u e .” In
a tra n s c rip t io n will d e p en d on its use; reg ard ing pauses, for e x a m p l e , c o n t r a s t , the m ed ical p ro fession is m o r e ch a ra cte riz e d by lectu re s as
it m ay be su fficien t for s o m e p u rp o s es sim ply to n o t e “ a sh o r t p a u se ” m o n o l o g u e s a uth orita tively stating n o n d e b a ta b le truths.
o r “ a lon g p a u s e ,” w h er ea s for d etailed so c io lin g u ist ic analyses the The issue o f h o w detailed a tra nscription sh ou ld be is also illus­
length o f a pause will be i n d ic a ted in m illiseco nd s. tra ted by an interv iew se q u e n ce o n c o m p e t i ti o n for grades, w h ich in
D e c is io n s c o n c e r n i n g style o f tr a n s c r i p t i o n d e p end o n the au d ie n ce D e n m a r k is a negative b e h a v io r that m an y pupils hesitate to a d m it to:
for w hich a t e x t is inte nd ed . F o r the in v e s tig ator, as an aid in r e m e m ­
bering the interv iew s? F o r the in terv iew su bjects, to c o n f ir m th at their I n te r v ie w e r : D o es it influence the relationship b e tw een the pupils
views are a d e q u a tely re n d e r e d in the interview; and po ssibly a lso as an that the grades are th ere?
inv itation to e x p a n d u p on w hat they have said? F o r a res ea rch gro up Pupil: N o , n o — n o , o n e does no t loo k d ow n o n a n y o n e w h o gets bad
(hat will m ake e xte n siv e analyses o f the interview s, o r for critica l gra des, that is not d one. I d o not believe that: w ell, it m ay be
c o llea g ues w h o w a nt t o c h e c k the basis on w h ich the r e s e a r c h e r d raw s th a t th e r e are so m e w h o do it, blit I d o n ’t.
his or he r co nclu s io n s ? O r for gen eral rea d ers w h o w a n t so m e c o n c r e t e In te r v ie w e r : D o e s th a t m ean the re is n o c o m p e t i ti o n in the class?
illustratio ns from the interv iew s?
P u p il: T h a t ’s right. T h e r e is no ne.
T h e d ecis ions a b o u t style o f t ra n s crib in g d epend o n the use o f the
transcriptions. If they are to give s o m e gen er al im p ress io n s o f the
At face value, this pupil says that on e d oes no t lo o k d ow n on pupils
su bje cts’ views, rephra sin g and c o n d e n s i n g o f st a t e m e n t s m ay b e in
w'ith lo w grad es and c o n f ir m s the in terv ie w er’s i n te rp r e ta tio n that
o rder. Also, if the analysis is to be in a form that ca te g o riz e s or
t h e r e is n o c o m p e t i ti o n for grades in the class. A critica l read ing may
co n d en se s the general m e a n in g o f w'hat is said, a ce r ta in a m o u n t o f
lead to the o p p o site c o n c l u s io n — the boy him self i n tro d u ces the
 172 Interviews From Speech to Text 173

p h e n o m e n o n o f loo k in g d o w n o n pupils with bad grades, first d enies in te rv ie w tra n s crip ts may in vo lv e an u n eth ical stig m a tiz ation o f spe­
th a t it o c c u rs , then re p eats the denials with th re e “ n o ”s and f o u r “ n o t ”s cif ic p e r so n s o r g r o u p s o f p eo p le.
in the few lin es o f his s t a tem en t. T h i s m any denials o f l o o k i n g d ow n T h o s e t e a c h e r s in the g ra d in g study w h o had exp ress ed in terest
on o t h e r pupils m ig h t, w ith the qu a ntita tive increases, su d d en ly lead re ceiv ed a d ra ft o f the b o o k c h a p t e r in w h ich their s ta te m e n ts w ere
t o a qu a lit ativ e c h an g e for the re a d er, and the st a t e m e n t c o m e t o m ean discu ss ed . A t e a c h e r o f D a n ish , w h o had b e en q u o t e d exten sively ,
the o p p o s i t e o f w h a t was m a nife stly said. If the ab o v e interview ca lled and ask ed m e t o o m i t o r rep h ra s e his st a t e m e n t s in the b o o k .
st a t e m e n t had n o t been t ranscribed v erb a tim , but re p hrased i n t o a I h e ra t h e r o f f - t h e - c u f f v e rb a tim q u o t e s f ro m his in terv ie w sh o w e d a
b r ie fe r fo rm such as “ O n e d oes no t loo k d ow n 011 o t h e rs with low very p o o r D a n ish used by a t e a c h e r o f D a n ish , w h ic h he fou n d pe nib le
-grad es n o r c o m p e t e f o r grad es ^1t h e re in tc r p rc t a rio n o f the m a n ife st in his p ro f e s s io n . At th at tim e I was little a w a re o f the d if f e r e n t rules
m e a n in g o f the s ta te m e n t into its o p p o site co uld no t have tak en place. for oral and w ritten language and be lieved th a t a ve rb atim t r a n s c r i p ­
T h e ef fe c t o f m ultiple ne ga tion s c a n ce lin g each o t h e r o u t is used in t io n o f the interview s was the m o s t loyal and o b je c ti v e t ra n s c rip t io n .
lit e r a tu re , in Hamlet, for e x a m p le : 1 did, h o w e v e r , res p ect his re q u e s t and ch a n g e d his q u o t e s in t o a
c o r r e c t w ritt e n f o r m , w h ic h also m a d e th e m m o r e read a ble.
H a m l e t : M a d a m , h o w like you this play?
Q u e e n : T h e lady d oth p ro test t o o m u ch , m eth ink s. (Hamlet, a c t III,
sce n e 2) C o m p u t e r Too ls for In terv iew A nalysis

Ethics. T r a n s c r i p t i o n involv es ethical issues. The interv iew s m ay D u ri n g the past d e c a d e , c o m p u t e r p r o g r a m s have be e n d ev elo p ed
confiden­
tre a t sensitive to p ics in w h ich it is im p o rt a n t to p ro te ct the to facilita te the analysis o f in te rv ie w transcrip ts. T h e y re p la ce the
tiality o f the su bject and o f person s and institutio ns m e n t i o n e d in the t im e - d e m a n d i n g cu t- a n d -p a st e a p p r o a c h t o analysis o f o f t e n hu n d red s
in terview . A lo n g with the necessar y and sim p ler but s o m e t i m e s f o r ­ o f pages o f paper with “ e l e c t r o n i c sc i s s o r s .” T h e p ro g ra m s are aids for
g o t t e n tasks goes the ne ed for secure storag e o f tapes and transcrip ts, st ru c t u rin g the interview m ateria l for f u rth e r an al ysis; the ta sk and
and o f era sin g the tapes w hen they are n o lo n g er of use. In sensitive re s p on sibility o f i n t e r p r e ta t i o n still rest w ith the re s e a rc h e r.
case s, it may be a d van tag eou s as early as the tran s crip tio n stage to T h e c o m p u t e r p ro g ra m s serve as t e x t b a s e m a n a g e rs , s to r in g the
mask tile identities o f the interv iew ed su bjects, as well as eve n ts and o l t c n e x te n siv e in terv ie w tran s crip ts, and allo w for a m ultitu d e o f
pe rson s in the interv iew s that m ig h t be easily rec o g n ize d . T h i s is a n a ly t ic o p e r a t i o n s (fo r ov erv iew s, se e T e s c h , 1 9 9 0 ; W e i t z m a n &
p articularly im p o r t a n t if a larger research g ro u p is involv ed and sev­ M iles, 1 9 9 5 ; M iles & H u b e r m a n ’s, 1 9 9 4 , a p p e n d i x gives a s h o r t
eral person s will t h e r e fo re have acc ess t o the tra nscripts. in t r o d u c t i o n t o c h o o s i n g a m o n g c o m p u t e r p r o g r a m s for qu alitative
S o m e su bjects may e x p e r i e n c e a s h o ck as a consequence o f read ing analysis). T h e p r o g r a m s a llo w for su ch o p e r a t io n s as w ritin g m e m o s ,
their o w n interview s. T h e verb a tim transcribed oral lang u age may w ritin g r e f l e c t io n s o n the interview s for late r analyses, c o d i n g , s e a r c h ­
a p p e a r as in c o h e r e n t and co n fu sed sp e e ch , ev en as ind ic atin g a low er ing for key w o rd s, d o in g w o r d c o u n t s , and m a k in g g rap h ic displays.
level o f intelle ctu al fu n ctio ning . T h e su bjects may b e c o m e o f f e n d e d S o m e o f the p r o g r a m s allo w for o n - s c r e e n c o d i n g a nd n o t e ta k in g
and refuse any f u rth e r c o o p e r a t i o n and any use o f w h a t th ey have said. w h ile re a d in g th e transcripts.
If the tra n s crip ts a rc to be sent ba c k to the in terv iew e es, re n d e r in g T h e m o s t c o m m o n f o r m o f c o m p u t e r analysis to d a y is c o d i n g , or
th e m in a m o r e fluent w ritte n style m ig h t be co n sid ered fro m the start. c a t e g o r i z a t i o n , o f the in te rv ie w st a t e m e n t s . T h e r e s e a r c h e r reads
And il n o t , co n sid e r a c c o m p a n y i n g the tra nscri pts with i n f o r m a t i o n th r o u g h th e tran s crip ts a n d c a t e g o riz e s the re levan t pass ages; then
a b o u t the natu ral d ifferen c es be tw e en oral and w ritten language styles. w ith c o d e - a n d -r e tr ie v e p r o g r a m s the c o d e d passag es ca n be re trieved
Be m in dful th at the publication o f in c o h e r e n t and rep etitiv e Verbatim and in s p e cte d ag a in, w ith o p t i o n s o f r e c o d i n g and o f c o m b in i n g co des.
 174 Interviews Vrom Speech to Text 175

T h e p o te n ti a l o f s o m e p ro g ra m s t o m a k e c o n n e c t i o n s a m o n g the pa ss ages for later rep o rtin g can be transcribed . T h e co d e d passages

c a t e g o r i e s t o d e v e lo p h i g h e r - o r d e r co n c e p t u a l stru ctu res is s o m e t i m e s ca n easily be re trieved for relistenin g, or r ec o d in g and o t h e r fun ctio ns

r e f e rr e d to as th e o r y build ing. o f the analysis p ro g ram ca n be c o n d u c t e d — in this case , by w o r k i n g

C o m p u t e r p ro g ra m s for a naly zing interview te x ts m ay save the directly with the rec o rd ed interview ins tead o f with tra n scrip tion s.

qu a lita tive r e s e a r c h e r m uch o f the dru d g ery o f analysis and th e r e b y K IT’s advantages include n o t only the saving o f tim e and m o n ey
e n a b le c o n c e n t r a t i o n o n m ea n in g fu l and cre a tiv e i n t e r p r e ta t i o n s o f sp e n t o n tra n s crib in g al! o f the interv iew s, bu t the speed o f retriev al ,

w hat was said in the in terview s. A f u rth e r a d vanta g e is th a t the p r o ­ w h e r e the analyst can shift b e tw e e n d iffe re n t passag es in, o r be tw e e n ,

g ra m s f o r c e the r e s e a r c h e r t o m a k e e x p l i c i t c o m m a n d s t o the c o m ­ the interview s in less than o n e se c o n d . T h e m any m e th o d ic a l and

pu ter, w h ich w h e n r e p o rt e d ca n give the re aders insig ht i n t o w hat t h e o r e t ic a l p ro b lem s o f t ra n s fo rm in g oral spe ech into w ritten t e x t s are

o f t e n se e m s like a b l a c k - b o x m e th o d o f in terview analysis. T h e use o f sim ply bypassed w hen the analyst w ork s directly on re c o rd in g s o f the

c o m p u t e r s in qu alitative analysis co u ld , h o w e v e r , r e i n f o r c e e x istin g live co n v e r sa t io n s. In a d ditio n to the c u rre n t t h e o r e t ic a l r e c o v e ry o f

t re n d s t o w a rd reifyin g the tra nscrip ts and d is reg ard in g th e ir basis in oral lang u age f ro m the a lie n atio n o f w ritten te x ts, su ch tech n ica l

a lived so cial situ atio n . T h e c u r r e n t e m pha sis on c o d i n g m ay lead to d e v e lo p m e n t s in analysis may recla im the lived interv iew co n v e r s a t io n

analyses o f iso lated variables abstra cted fro m their c o n t e x t in live in­ f ro m the h e g e m o n y o f tra nscripts in interview res earch.

t e r p e r s o n a l in t e ra c t io n s . W ith the tech n ica l case o f c o d i n g and o f a n a ­

lyzing iso la ted variables, c o m p u t e r s o ftw a re co u l d further a n e g le ct o f In the n e x t thre e c h a p te r s I ad dress the pre sen t state o f analysis o f

t he c o n t e x t u a l base o f interview st a t e m e n t s in the nar ra tiv es o f lived i n te rv ie w t e x t s ; first by discussing so m e c o m m o n qu estio n s in in te r­

c o n v e r s a t io n s . v iew analysis today ( C h a p te r 1 0 ), then by o u tlinin g m ain a p p r o a c h e s

There a re tech n ical d e v e lo p m e n t s on the way that m ay c o u n t e r a c t to an alysis ( C h a p te r 1 1 ), and finally by providing s o m e e x a m p l e s o f

the c o m m o n i n fa tu a tio n w ith reifie d interview tra nscripts. T o d a y , i n t e rp r e tin g interv iew state m en ts ( C h a p te r 12 ).

m ost a na ly ses o f in terv iew co n v e r s a t io n s are d o n e on the basis o f

tra n s crip ts, and the o rig in a l tapes are sto r ed s o m e w h e r e bu t seld o m
used d u rin g the analysis. In the past few years , h o w e v e r , a new
g e n e r a tio n o f c o m p u t e r p ro g ra m s is be in g d ev e lo p e d th a t ca n be used
d irectly o n a u d io - and v id e o ta p es, saving the d e to u r o f t ra nscribin g .
T h e d ir e ct lis te ning t o a nd s tru ctu rin g o f the o rig in a l oral sp eech
a llo w s an e m p a th i c lis te ning to w hat was said in the in te rv iew in t e r ­
action.
KIT is a Windows-b ased pro g ra m that fo llo w s and e x t e n d s the
Texthase AlVIIA (see T c s c h ,
s tru ctures fro m the t e x t analysis p ro g ra m
1 9 9 0 ) . T h e new pro gram KIT m ak es transcrip tion red undant by re c o rd ­
ing and storin g the s o u r c e — interview s an d natu ral s p e ech in t e r a c t i o n s
— o n the c o m p u te r its elf in th e ir oral fo rm ( Qualitative
Interview and
Therapy Analysis, d evelo pe d by C a rl V e r n e r S k o u at the C e n t e r o f
Q ua lita tive R e s e a rc h at the U niversity o f A arh us) . T h e tap e r e c o rd in g
is tran s ferre d to a c o m p a c t disk, c o n v e r te d into digital f o r m , and
stored in the co m p u te r . D u rin g replay the spe ech can be c o d e d o n the
m o n it o r , c o m m e n t s on the passages can b e w ritt e n d o w n , and cen tra l

wi
 The 1,()()()-l}u^c Quest mu 177

p ro d u c t iv e . In in terv iew r e s e a rc h , t o o m u c h e m pha sis has be en placed

10
o n the in flu e n ce o f leadin g q u e s t io n s in the interview situa tion,
w h e r e a s the le ading in flu e n ce o f q u e stio n s pur to the interview texts
t h r o u g h th e ir an alysis has b e e n ra th e r ne g le cte d . T h e 1,000-p age
q u e s t i o n as it is f o rm u la t e d a b o v e lea ds in the w r o n g d ir e c ti o n — it is
c lo s in g and u n p ro d u c t iv e .
A lead f o r the analysis o f the q u e s t io n is ta k en f r o m A n t o n i o n i ’s
m o v ie The Reporter. In o n e sc e n e , in w h ich an A frica n s h a m a n is i n t e r ­
view ed by the w h ite re p o r t e r , the s h a m a n re p lies s o m e t h in g like this
to o n e o f the r e p o r t e r ’s q u e stio n s: “ I will n o t a n s w er y o u r q u estio n .
M y an s w e r w o u ld tell less a b o u t me than y ou r q u e s t io n tells a b o u t
The 1,000-P age Question y o u r s e l f .”

O n e may so m e t im e s receive a q u e stio n like this w hen t e a ch in g at

w o r k s h o p s on qu alitat iv e re searc h: W h a t D oes the 1 , 0 0 0 - P a g e Q u e s t i o n M e a n ?

H o w shall 1 fi n d a m e t h o d t o a n a l y z e t h e 1 , 0 0 0 p ag es o f i n t e r v i e w The m a teria l for the pre sen t analysis is the 1 7 w o r d s o f the
tr a n s c r i p t s 1 ha v e c o l l e c t e d ?
1 . 0 0 0 - p a g e q u e s t i o n as f o r m u l a t e d a b o v e . T h e p u rp ose o f the analysis
is t o u n c o v e r the m e a n in g o f the q u e s t i o n , t o m a k e e x p l i c i t its
1 his c h a p te r is a reply lo this 1 , 0 0 0 - p a g e qu estion . It incl udes s o m e p re s u p p o s it io n s and th e r e b y th e im plicit c o n c e p t i o n s o f qu a lita tive
s u m m a rie s o f the stages o f an interview investig atio n that have alread y re s e a rch it implies. T he ge n e r a l in terest is p r o p h y l a c t i c ; it is an a t te m p t
b e en co vered and pre p a res the g ro u n d for the analysis stage treated t o o u t li n e m o d e s o f c o n d u c t i n g in te rv ie w re s e a rch so th a t a r e s e a r c h e r
in m o r e detail in the n e x t tw o ch a p ters. n e v er get s in t o a s itu a tio n w h e r e he o r she feels c o m p e l l e d t o ask the
1 . 0 0 0 - p a g e q u e stio n . T h e m e t h o d o f an aly z in g the q u e s t i o n will be
d iscu ss ed in the c o n c l u d i n g s e c tio n . T h e g en era l f o rm o f the analysis
D ism iss o r I n t e rp re t the 1 , 0 0 0 - P a g e Q u e s t io n ? is t o s e le ct 7 key w o rd s f ro m the 1 , 0 0 0 - p a g e q u e s t i o n a nd analyze
th e m sep a ra tely :
A first impu lsive rea ction to the 1 , 0 0 0 - p a g e q u estion is to dismiss
it— “ N e v e r po se that q u e s t i o n ! ” W h e n an interview p ro je c t has be en H o w ( 3 ) shall 1 fi n d a m e t h o d ( 4 ) t o a n a l y z e ( 7 ) t h e 1 , 0 0 0 p a g e s ( 2 ) o f
c o n d u c t e d in su ch a way that the 1, 000 -page q u e stion is a sk ed , the in terview transcripts (5) I have (1) co llecte d (6) ?
q u estio n ca n n o longer be answ ered . A m o re a d e q u a t e reply w ou ld
th en be: “ N e v e r c o n d u c t interview resea rch in such a way that you
“ 1 IA V K ”— T O O I .ATI-.!
find y o u r s e l f in a situation w h e re you ask su ch a q u e s t i o n .”
T h e p re s e n t a p p r o a c h goes f u rth e r than m erely dismiss ing the T h e a n s w e r is si m p l e — the q u e s t i o n is p o sed t o o late.
q u e s t i o n ; the c o n c e p t i o n o f qu alitativ e resea rch im plied by the 1, 000 - N e v e r po se the q u e s t io n o f h o w to analyze t ra n s c rip t s after the
page q u e s t io n will be interp reted by ta k in g a clo s e r loo k at its w ord in g . in terv iew s have b e e n c o n d u c t e d — it is t o o late t o st a rt t h in k in g a fter
T h e q u e s t i o n is n o t on ly pose d t o o late, it is leading. Yet all q u e stio n s the in te rv ie w in g is d o n e . T h e an s w er h e re p arallels t h a t o f a st atisti­
are le adin g: T h e y may be o p e n i n g or closin g, pro d u ctiv e or c o u n t e r ­ c i a n : C o n s u l t m e about! th e ^ ata analysis b e fo r e you c o ll e c t y o u r data.

176
178 Int ervi ews The 1,00()-I}a}>e Question 179

T h i n k a b o u t ho w the interview s are to be a na ly z ed b e f o r e they arc W h e n posed in a m ore assertive vo ice the sam e q u estio n may have
c o n d u c t e d . T h e m e t h o d o f analysis d e cid ed o n — o r at least c o n s i d e re d a n o t h e r m ea n in g . A diligen t you ng sc h o lar has d o n e his em pirica l duty
— will th e n d ir e ct the p r e p a ra t io n o f the in terv iew guid e, the in terv iew and d o c u m e n te d his scien tific attitud e by g ath e rin g large a m o u n t s o f
p ro ce ss , a nd the tr a n s c r i p t i o n o f the interview s. F.vcry stage in an d a ta . H e n o w aw aits the e x p e r t ’s praise and advice a b o u t h o w t o tre at
i n t e rv ie w p r o j e c t in volv es d e cis io n s that o f f e r b o th p o ssibilities and the d ata . The qu estion may he re involve a “ reversed po sitivism ”— a
c o n s t r a i n ts in later stages o f th e p ro je ct. q u e st for scien tific respectability by m ir ro r in g the positivist e m pha sis
T h e m e t h o d o f analysis sh ou ld n o t only be pla n n ed in a d v a n c e o f on large q u a n tities o f q u a ntita tive data with large qu a n tities o f qu ali­
the in terv iew in g . The analysis m a y also , t o vary ing d eg r e e s, be built ta tive data.
in t o the in terv iew situ a tion itself. A c l a r i f ic a t i o n o f the m e a n i n g o f W h e t h e r pose d in a desp airing or in an assertive vo ice , the f o r m u ­
w h a t is said m ay th en take the sim p le fo rm o f “ I u n d e r sta n d t h a t the la tio n o f the q u estion leads in the w r o n g d ir ectio n . T h e e m phasis is
m e a n i n g o f w h a t you just said is . . . ” F u r th e r , the r e s e a r c h e r may o n the q u a n tity — 1,000 pages— ra the r than o n the c o n t e n t a nd the
a t t e m p t to c o n f ir m o r re je c t his or he r h y p o th e sis d u rin g th e inte rview , q u a lita tiv e m eaning s o f w h a t was said.
sim ilar t o a jo b interview w h e r e the i n terv ie w er is co n t in u a l l y te stin g O n e t ho usa n d pages o f tra nscripts is g enerally t o o m u ch to han dle.
the h y p o th e sis a b o u t w h e t h e r the interview ed a p p l i c a n t is qu alified The m ate ria l is t o o exten siv e to ov erview and to w ork o u t the depth
for the job . o f the m e a n in g o f w hat w as said. The analysis is t o o tim e - c o n s u m i n g
In su ch f o rm s o f analysis— in t e r p r e ti n g “as you g o ”— c o n s i d e r a b l e and is likely to lead to a su perf ici al p ro d u ct, unfin is hed due t o ex te rn a l
part s o f the analysis are “ pu shed f o r w a r d ” in t o the in terv iew situ a tion tim e co n stra in ts . Sh ou ld there be d efinite re ason s for ne ed in g su ch a
itself. T h e final analysis then b e c o m e s n o t o n ly easier a nd m o r e large a m o u n t o f interv iew m a terial— 1,000 pages c o r r e s p o n d t o b e ­
a m e n a b le , bu t will also rest o n m o r e sec u re g r o u n d . Put stro n g ly , the tw e e n 3 0 and 4 0 h o u rs o f interv iew s— the reason s for the large q u a n ­
ideal i n t e rv ie w is alrea d y analyzed by the tim e the ta pe r e c o r d e r is tity sh o u ld be explicitly f o rm u la ted b e fo re the in terview s a rc c o n ­
tu rn e d off. H iere are so cial and ethica l re stra in ts o n h o w far the d u cted . It may then turn o u t th at few er interviews are su fficien t, or
an alysis o f m e a n i n g can be u n d e r ta k e n d u rin g the in te rv ie w itself, bu t that the p u rp ose o f the investigatio n is b e tter served by q u estio n n a ires.
this m ay serve as a m e t h o d ic ideal f o r in te rv ie w research . A rep h ras in g o f the 1 , 0 0 0 - p a g e q u e st io n , involv in g a c h a n g e in
An a lter n ativ e r e f o r m u la t i o n o f the 1 , 0 0 0 - p a g e q u e s t i o n en ta ils H ow do I go about
e m p h a s is fro m qu antity t o m ea ning , co uld be:
H ow shall 1 conduct my interviews so
c h a n g in g the t e m p o ra l f o rm : finding the meaning o f the many interesting and com plex stories my
that their meaning can be analyzed in a coherent and creative way ? interviewees told me?

“ 1 ,0 0 0 P A C T 'S "— T O O M U C H ! “ H O W ”— A S K “ W 11 A T ” A N D “ W H Y ” F I R S T

T h e a nsw er to this q u a n tita tiv e part o f the q u estio n is also si m p l e — D o no t pose the qu estion o f ho w to analyze in terview s b e fo r e the
1,000 pages o f t ranscrip ts is t o o m u c h t o h a n dle in a m e a n in g f u l way. a n s w e rs to the w hat and the why o f an investigatio n have be en given.
T h e pre cise m e a n in g o f th e q u e s t io n m ay d ep end o n its i n t o n a ti o n . C o n t e n t and p u rp ose p re ce d e m eth od .
W h e n pose d in a despairing v o ic e , it may ind ic a te a s itu a tio n o f b e in g In a naly zing an in terview , w hat is n o t said may be just as i m p o r t a n t
o v erw h e lm ed by an e n o r m o u s a m o u n t o f qu alitative data , o f b e in g as w h a t is said. In the q u estion anal yzed h e re, the q u estio n o f “ h o w ”
c o m p letely lost in a jungle o f t ra n s crip tio n s . T h e m e a n i n g o f the is p o sed w i th o u t including the “w h a t ” and the “ w h y ” o f the inves ti­
qu estion may then be: R escu e me fro m my 1 , 0 0 0 pages, I c a n n o t find g a tio n . T h e term m ethod orig inally m e a n t the way to the goal. W i th
my way ou t o f the labyrin th. no g oal stated, it is difficult t o sh o w the way to it.
180 Interviews The 1,()()U-Vage Question 181

T h e m o d e o f analysis dep end s o n “w h a t ” is ana lyzed, on the s u b je c t T h e r e a rc n o sta nd ard m e th o d s o f t e x t analysis th a t c o rre s p o n d to
m a tter o f the interview , and o n the “w h y ,” the pu rpose o f the the m u ltitu d e o f t e c h n i q u e s available for statis tical analysis. T h i s may
interv iew . T h u s the i n te rp r e ta tio n o f H a m l e t ’s interview rested o n a be due in part t o the relativ e no v e lty and the small e x t e n t o f cross -
cla rif ic a t io n o f the to p ic and p u rp ose o f the interview — an e x p l o r a t i o n d iscip lin ary c o m m u n i c a t i o n a b o u t qu a lita tive analy sis in the social
o f the sh a pes o f clou ds o r the te stin g o f a hypothesis about I’o l o n i u s ’s scie n ce s. T h e la ck o f st and ard t e c h n i q u e s o f qu a lit a tiv e analysis may,
t ru s tw o rt h in e s s ( C h a p te r 8 , H a m l e t ’s In te rview ). In g en era l, the t h e o ­ h o w e v e r , also be due t o the rich n es s and the c o m p l e x i t y o f the su b ­
retical c o n c e p t i o n s o f w h a t is investigated sh ould pro vide the basis for j e c t m a tte r. S o m e g en e ra l a p p r o a c h e s t o the analysis o f qu alitativ e
m a k in g d ecis ion s o f h o w — the m e th o d t o be used for an a ly zin g the m a te r ia l — in vo lv in g d if f e re n t t e c h n ic a l p r o c e d u r e s — d o exist . Five-
c o n t e n t . Thus a psy ch oa n a lytic c o n c e p t i o n o f an interv iew s t a t e m e n t a p p r o a c h e s t o an aly z in g th e m e a n i n g o f interview s, t o be ou tlin e d in
as an ex p r ess io n o f u n c o n s c io u s force s will invo lve a d if f e r e n t f o rm th e n e x t c h a p t e r , a re : c a t e g o r i z a t i o n , c o n d e n s a t i o n , n ar ra tiv e s t r u c ­
o f analysis than a b e ha vioris tic c o n c e p t i o n o f the s t a t e m e n t as an tu rin g , d e e p e r i n t e r p r e ta t i o n s , and ad h o c tactics for the g e n e r a tio n
el e m e n t in a ch a in o f stimuli and responses. F u r th e r, if a res ea rch study o f m e a n in g .
pu rp o r ts to test a hy po thesis a b o u t d ifferen c es a m o n g g ro u p s o f M ethod m ay also be used in th e sense o f o b t a in i n g in tersu bjectively
s u b jects, then the analysis sh ou ld be syste m atic and c o n d u c t e d in the reliable results. T h e q u e s t io n th en c o n c e r n s h o w d if f e r e n t re ad ers can
s a m e way for each o f the g ro u p s in o r d e r t o test possible d if f e r e n c e s a rriv e a t the sa m e m e a n in g s w h en analy zing an interview . T h i s may
a m o n g th e m . F o r e x p lo ra t iv e pu rposes it will, on the c o n t r a r y , be re f le c t the c o m m o n c o n c e r n that qu alit a tiv e re s e a rch lea ds t o as m any
m o r e a p p r o p r i a t e to pu rsue the d if feren t intere sting a sp e cts o f the i n t e r p r e ta t i o n s as th e r e are res ea rch ers. W h e n using a s p e cific m e th o d
individual interv iew s and to in terp r et th e m in g re a te r d epth. w ith a s p e cific p u r p o s e — for in s ta n ce , c a t e g o r i z a t i o n o f the s u b je c t s ’
T h e s p e cifica tio n o f the su bject m atter and the pu rp ose o f an s t a t e m e n t s in o r d e r to c o m p a r e the attitud es o f d if f e r e n t g r o u p s of
interview study co uld be c o n t in u e d , ela b o ra te d furt her, or m a de in s u b jects t o w a r d an issue— th en a high i n tcrs u b je ctiv e re p ro d u c ib ility
o t h e r ways than su gge sted here. W h a t is im p o rt a n t is that the w h a t o f the c a t e g o r i z a t i o n is d esira b le ; th a t is, the results o f the c o m p a r is o n
and the why o f the investig atio n are cl arifie d b e fo re a m e th o d o f sh o u ld n o t be in f lu e n c e d by w h o c a t e g o riz e d the a n s w e rs o f the
analysis is c h o se n . g ro u p s . A strict r e q u i r e m e n t o f in te rs u b je ctiv e reliability for all form s
T h e tech n ical “ h o w t o ” e m phasis o f the 1,0 0 0 - p a g e q u e s t i o n can o f in te rv ie w analysis m ay, h o w e v e r, lead t o a ty ran n y by the low est
H ow do I go about finding out what the interviews
be r e f o r m u la t e d to: po ssible d e n o m i n a t o r : th at an in t e r p r e ta t i o n is o n ly re liable w h e n it
tell m e about what I want to kn ow ? c a n be f o llo w e d by e v e r y o n e , a c r i t e r i o n that c o u ld lead to a triviali-
z atio n o f the in te r p r e ta t i o n s . T h i s m ay again involv e a co n se n su a lis t

“M E T H O D ” V ER SU S K N O W L E D G E c o n c e p t i o n o f tru th : th at an o b s e r v a ti o n o r an i n t e r p r e ta t i o n is on ly
c o n s i d e r e d valid if it can be r ep ea ted by e v e r y o n e , irre s p e ctiv e o f the
T h e m eth o d o l o g i c a l a spe ct o f the 1 ,0 0 0 - p a g e qu estion c a n n o t be qu ality o f the o b s e r v a ti o n and the a r g u m e n ta t i o n .
answ ered due to the way the q u estion is form u la ted . T h e r e are n o T h e e m p h a s is o n m e t h o d — in the m e a n in g o f sta n d a rd iz e d t e c h ­
sta ndard m e th o d s, n o via regia, to arrive at essential m e a n in g s and n i q u e s o r o f in te rs u b je ctiv e reliability — may also in vo lv e a dis reg ard
d eeper im p lication s o f w hat is said in an interview . o f k n o w le d g e and e x p e r ti s e d u rin g the analysis o f the in terv ie w s. T h e
T h e d em an d for a m e th o d may involve an e m phasis on t e c h n i q u e s q u e s t i o n m ay in vo lv e an “ e x t e r n a l i z a t i o n ” o f the i n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f
and reliability, and a d e-em p h a s is on k no w led g e and validity. T h e m e a n i n g to fix ed rules and crite ria , ra th e r th a n g o in g b e y o n d m e th o d
search for t e ch n iq u es o f analysis may be a qu est for a “ t e c h n o l o g i c a l and d ra w in g u p o n the c ra f t sm a n sh ip o f the r e s e a r c h e r , o n his o r her
f i x ” to the re s e a rc h e r’s task o f analyzing and co n st ru c t in g m e a n in g . k n o w le d g e and in t e rp r e ta t iv e skills. P s y ch o lo g ica l re s e a rch has o f t e n
 182 Interviews

placed a n e m p iristic e m p h a s is o n naive o b s e r v e r s a n d u n p re ju d ic e d and e x p a n d w hat is ex pressed in the text. T h e m ea n in g s m ay be

i n terp r eter s as a c o n d it i o n for o b t a in i n g o b je c ti v e results. In c o n t r a s t a p p r o a c h e d as m anife stly exp r ess ed , or, in line w ith a “ depth h e r m e ­
t h e r e t o , th e p re se n t p o s itio n e m p h a s iz e s a k n o w le d g e o f th e s u b je c t n e u t ic s ,” see k in g t o u n c o v e r m eaning s h id den in the te xts.
m a tte r, an e x p e r ti s e in the field stud ied, as a p re su p p o sit io n for a r r iv ­ T h e alternative to the tra n scrip tion em phasis in the 1 , 0 0 0 - p a g e
ing at valid in t e rp r e ta t io n s. T h e i m p o r t a n c e o f b a c k g r o u n d k n o w le d g e H ow do I analyze what my interviewees told me in order
q u e s t i o n is:
lo r o b se r v a tio n s is ev id e n t in a variety o f areas. W h e n a naly zing to enrich anil deepen the meaning o f what they said?
in terview s with c h e ss players, the r e s e a r c h e r ’s k n o w le d g e o f ch e ss at
a h ig h er level than th at o f the in t e rv ie w e e s is a p r e c o n d i ti o n for seein g
“C O I.I.E CT E D " VERSUS COAUTHORED
the so lu t io n s they did no t see. In the psy ch oa n a lytica l t r a d i t i o n , th e r e
has lon g been an e m p h a s is o n the tra in in g a n d the c o m p e t e n c e o f the The i n t e rv ie w e e ’s st a t e m e n t s are n o t c o ll e c t e d — the y a re c o ­
analyst for m ak in g p sy ch o a n a ly tical o b s e r v a ti o n s and i n t e rp r e ta t io n s .
a u t h o r e d by the interview er.
T h e a lte r n a tiv e t o the m e th o d ic a l e m p h a s is o f the 1 ,0 0 0 - p a g e q u e s ­ T h e in te r- v ie w is a n in ter-su b jectiv e en ter p rise o f t w o p e r so n s
H ow can the interviews assist me in extending my knowledge
tio n is: t a lk in g a b o u t c o m m o n t h em es o f interes t. T h e in terview er d oes no t
oI the phenom ena I am investigating ? m e r e l y c o ll e c t st a t e m e n t s like g a th e rin g small s t o n e s o n a b e a c h . H is
o r he r q u e stio n s lead up to w hat as pe cts o f a to p i c th e su b je c t will
“TRA N SCRIP TS”— BEWARE! a d d re s s, a n d the in t e rv ie w e r’s active lis te ning and f o llo w in g up o n the
a n s w ers c o - d e te r m i n e s the co urse o f the c o n v e r sa tio n .
D o no t c o n c e iv e o f the interv iew s as tran s crip ts: The interview s are T h e r e is a te n d e n cy to take the results o f a social i n t e ra c t io n , w hen
living c o n v e r s a t io n s — b e w ar e o f tra nscripts.
first arr iv ed at, as a given, forg ettin g the orig inal d is cou rse and the
T h e tra n s crip ts sh o u ld n o t be the s u b ject m a tt e r o f an interview s o c ia l c o - c o n s t r u c t i o n o f the final o u t c o m e s . Su ch a re i f ic a ti o n may
st udy, as im plied by the 1, 000 -pag e q u e s t i o n , bu t ra t h e r b e m ea n s, b e st re n g th e n e d by the tra n s crip tio n o f the interview s; the fix ate d
t o o ls , for the in t e r p r e ta t i o n o f w h a t was said d u rin g the interv iew s. w ritten fo rm ta k es o v e r and the orig inal face -t o -f a c e in t e r a c t i o n o f the
A lth ou gh p r o d u c e d as an o r a l d is co u rse , the in te rv ie w a p p e a r s in the
in te rv ie w situa tion fades away.
fo rm o f a w ritten te x t . T h e tr a n s c rip t is a bas ta r d , it is a hybri d b e tw e e n A re if ic a tio n o f the joi ntly pro d u ced interview into a t r a n s crip tio n
a n o ral d is co u rse u n f o l d i n g o v e r t im e , face t o face, in a lived situ ation o f c o ll e c t e d s ta te m e n ts has co n s e q u e n c e s in b o t h a so cial and a
— w h e r e w h a t is said is ad dressed t o a s p e cific lis te n er p re se n t— and a t e m p o ra l d im en s io n . So cially , the forg ettin g o f the jo in t social cre a tio n
w ritten t e x t cr e a te d f o r a g e n e r a l, d is ta n t, public. o f the in terv iew st a t e m e n t s and the ne glect o f th e in t e r v i e w e r ’s c o n ­
An e m phasis o n the t ra n s c rip t io n may p r o m o t e a reifyin g analysis stru ctiv e c o n t r i b u ti o n s to the answ ers pro d u ced m ay lead t o a biased
that red uce s the te x t to a m e re c o ll e c t i o n o f w o rd s o r single m e a n in g s v iew o f th e interview as m erely re f le c t in g the i n t e rv ie w e e , w ith the
co n c e iv e d as verb al data. T he or ig in ally lived f a c e -t o -f a c e c o n v e r s a ­ po ssible e x c e p t i o n o f the in fluen ce o f directly le ading qu estion s. T h e
t io ns dis appear in endless transcrip ts, on ly t o re a p p e a r b u t c h e r e d in t o a l te r n a t iv e a p p r o a c h o f d elib era tely us ing the ro le o f th e i n te rv iew er
f rag m en ted qu o tes. T h e inte rview s b e c o m e clo s e d , they n o lon g er as a c o p r o d u c e r and a c o a u t h o r o f the interview , and o f r e flectin g on
o p e n up t o a h o riz o n o f po ssible m e a n i n g s , t o be e x p l o r e d and
t h e so cia l co n s t itu t io n o f the interview , is then o v e rlo o k e d .
d evelo ped .
T e m p o r a l l y , fo cu sing o n the transcripts as a c o ll e c t i o n o f sta te m e n ts
An alte rn a tive a p p r o a c h t o w a rd the tran s crip ts in vo lv es en te r in g m ay freeze th e inte rview into finished entitie s rathe r than t r e a t its pas­
into a dialogue w ith the t e x t , go in g i n t o an im a g in e d co n v e r s a t io n w ith sages as steppin g s to n es to w a rd a c o n t in u o u s u n f o ld in g o f the m e a n in g
the “a u t h o r ” a b o u t the m e a n in g o f the t e x t . T h e rea d er h e re asks ab o u t o f w h a t w as said. In the latter case , the analysis o f the transcribed
the t h e m e o f the te x t , g o e s in t o the t e x t se e k i n g t o d e v e lo p , clarify, inte rv iew s is a c o n t in u a t i o n o f the c o n v e r sa tio n that started in the
1 84 Interviews The 1,0 0 0 -Page Question 185

interview situation. I he in t e rv ie w e e ’s an sw ers o p e n Lip to a h o r i z o n A n ar ra tiv e a lte r n a tiv e to the analysis vers ion o f the 1 , 0 0 0 - p a g e
o f possible m ean in g s to be pursued during the late r co n v e r s a t io n a l H ow can I reconstruct the original story told
q u estio n t h e n b e c o m e s :
analysis w ith the interview te x t . The focus o f the analysis m o v es fro m to me by the interviewee into a story I want to tell my audience?
w h a t has already b e en said, goes b e y o n d the im m e d ia tely given, to
w h a t co u ld have be en said.
M e t h o d o f A n alysis
T h e c o n t in u e d d ia log u e with the t e x t may lead to a ren e w e d
co n v e r s a t io n with the interview ee , sh aring and d evelo ping the zon e
A q u e s t i o n a b o u t in terv iew re s e a rch was pose d in the in t r o d u c ti o n
o f po ssible m e an in g s in the orig inal interv iew . M o r e o f t e n , the analysis
o f this c h a p te r : H o w c a n I find a m e th o d t o analyze the 1 , 0 0 0 pages
will be in the fo rm o f an im ag ined dia logue with the te x t , u n f o ld in g
o f in terv iew tran s crip ts I have c o ll e c t e d ?
its h o r i z o n o f possible m eanings.
T h e a n s w e r given w as th a t th e q u e st io n w as posed t o o late to ob ta in
T h e alte rnative to the s t a m p -c o lle c tin g vers ion o f the 1,0 0 0 - p a g e a sa t is f a c t o ry an s w er and th a t its fo r m u l a t i o n m a d e it d if fic u lt to
q u e s t io n is: How do I carry on the dialogue with the text I have a n s w er. T h e w o r d i n g o f the q u e s t io n was th en analyzed in d etail with
coauthored with the intervieweef the p u rp o s e o f b r in g in g its im p licit p re su p p o sitio n s o f in terv iew
re s e a rch into the o p e n , and w ith the g eneral interest o f m a k i n g the
“A N A L Y Z E” V ER SU S N A R R A TE q u estio n su p erflu o u s.
N o s t an d a rd ized m e th o d o f analysis was applied to th e q u e s t i o n ;
D o no t let the analysis stage inflate so that it co n s u m e s the m a jo r r a t h e r, a variety o f a p p r o a c h e s w ere tried in o r d e r t o brin g o u t the
p o rt io n o f tim e available for an in terview p ro ject. m e a n i n g o f the q u e st io n . T h e g eneral st ru ctu re was t o se le c t 7 key
T h e analysis o f an interview is interspersed b e tw e e n the initial stor y w o r d s fro m the 1 7 - w o r d s e n t e n c e and analyze th e m in d iv id ually. Y e t
told by the interview ee to the r e s ea rch er and the final st or y told by the analysis w as n o t en tirely d e c o n t e x t u a li z e d ; the re w e re c o n t in u o u s
the re s e a rc h e r to an au d ien ce. T o analyze m ea n s to sep a ra te s o m e t h in g ov e rla p p in g s a m o n g the m ea n in g s d ev e lo p e d f ro m the key w o r d s th a t
into part s o r elem e n ts. T h e tran s crip tio n o f the co n v e r sa t io n and the p o in te d to c o m m o n th re a d s o f m e a n in g un d erly in g the q u e s t i o n . By
c o n c e p t i o n o f the interview as a c o ll e c t i o n o f sta te m e n ts m ig h t p r o ­ a n a ly z ing the s e p a ra t e w o rd s, an a t t e m p t was m a d e to b r in g in the
m o t e a f ra g m e n t a tio n o f the story told by the interview ee into sep a ra te c o n t e x t o f the q u e s t i o n . G u es ses w e r e m a de to find th e im plied
parts, be they single para graphs, sen ten ce s , or words, ll is then easy m ea n in g s of, for e x a m p l e , vocal i n t o n a t i o n — su ch as w h e t h e r the
to forget that in o p e n , no n d irectiv e interview s the interview ee tells a e m p h a s is o n the “ 1,000 p a g e s” was in a d espairing o r an ass ertiv e
story , o r several storie s, to the re s e a rc h e r, and th a t the tra n s c rip t itself vo ice. S o m e b r i e f a t te m p t s at an e t y m o lo g ic a l analysis w e r e m a d e,
may t h e n a p p r o x i m a te the form o f a narrativ e text.
c o n c e r n i n g t e r m s as m ethod and analyze.
T h e stru ctu res and fu n ctio ns o f the narra tiv es o f folk ta les and T h e orig inal s e n t e n c e Was rep h ra s ed in vario us f o rm s, lea d in g to
literatu re , as w o rk e d o u t in the hu m a n ities , can be used to reflect and d if f e r e n t d ir e c ti o n s o f mejanings. T h e alterna tive rep h ra s in g s o f the
analyze the narrativ e stru ctures e m p lo y ed by the in terview e e. A n a r ­ 1. 000 -pag e q u e s t i o n sh iftbd the fo cu s fro m w h a t w as said to w h a t
rative a p p r o a c h to the interview analysis, g o in g back to the orig in al c o u ld have b e e n said , o p e n i n g up s o m e o f the po ssibilities o f m e a n in g s
stor y told by the in terview ee and an ticip a tin g the final stor y to be t h a t the or ig in a l f o r m u l a t i o n o f the q u e st io n c lo s e d o ff. It p re su p p o se s
re p orted to an au d ie n ce , may pre vent b e c o m in g lost in a ju n gle o f a c e r ta in b a c k g r o u n d k n o w le d g e o f in terv iew res e arch t o see s o m e o f
transcripts. A fo cu s on the interv iew as a narrativ e may even m a k e the the p o ssibilities the q u e st io n leads away fro m . T he analysis t o o k the
interview transcripts better re ad ing, in that the orig in al in terv iew is f o r m o f an im a g in e d d ia lo g u e , an a t te m p t to a n s w er the o rig in a l
delibera tely c re ated in a story fo rm . A narrativ e c o n c e p t i o n o f i n t e r ­ 1 . 0 0 0 - p a g e q u e s t io n by asking a b o u t its po ssible m e a n in g s . T h e
view research su pports a unity o f form a m o n g the orig inal in te rv iew analysis res e m b le d th e q u e s t i o n -a n s w e r s e q u e n c e o f an im a g in ed
situation, the analysis, and the final re p ort.
186 In terview s

conversation, resulting in a coauthored story about interview research.

The original w ording of the 1,000-page question led in unproductive
directions. The various rephrasings of the original question attempted
to lead the analysis in directions yielding constructive contributions
to knowledge.
11
The deconstruction of the 1,000-page question involved a destruc­
tion of the presuppositions of the question and a construction of
alternative formulations for enriching interview analysis. The inter­
pretation focused on the tension between what was said and what was
not said in the question. This interplay of the said and the not-said did
not lead to one, true, objective meaning of the question, but served to
keep the conversation going about the meanings the question opens Methods of Analysis
up.
It may be objected that the analysis of the 1,000-page question was M ethods exist that can make the interview analysis more amenable
too brief and superficial, that it was not comprehensive enough to than as pictured in the reply to the 1,000-page question. They can be
really develop and go into the complex meanings and presuppositions used to organize the interview texts, to condense the meanings into
of the question. 1 grant that the above analysis could have been forms that can be presented in a relatively short space, and to work
extended to include further differentiations of the many issues raised out im plicit meanings of what was said. Five main approaches to inter­
by the question. view analysis will be outlined: categorization of meaning, condensa­
The topic o f the original question concerned 1,000 pages o f inter­ tion of meaning, structuring of meaning through narratives, interpre­
view transcripts o f questions and answers, and it was postulated that tation of meaning, and ad hoc methods for generating meaning.
this was too much material for undertaking a comprehensive analysis. In a chapter oil methods of analysis some readers may, however,
The above interpretation of the 17 words of the 1,000-page question expect to find the magical tool for finally uncovering the treasures of
has required around 3,600 words, which makes the quantitative meaning hidden in the many pages of opaque interview transcripts.
relation of original text to interpretative text 1:212. A corresponding The follow ing overview of methods will disappoint them— no main
interpretation of the meaning of 1,000 pages would then require roads to the meanings of the interviews are given here. The techniques
212,000 pages, which amounts to about 1,000 books. of analysis are tools, useful for some purposes, relevant for some types
of interviews, and suited for some researchers. The central task of
interview analysis rests, however, with the researcher, with the the­
matic questions he or she has asked from the start of the investigation
and followed up through designing, interviewing, and transcribing.

Steps o f Analysis
I
The purpose of the qualitative research interview has been depicted
as the description and interpretation of themes in the subjects’ lived
world. A continuum exists between description and interpretation.

187
188 Interviews Methods of Analysis 189

Box 11.1 shows six possible steps of analysis. T hey do not neces­
sarily presuppose each other chronologically or logically (see Ciorgi Box 11.1
[1992] and W olcott [1994] for further treatment of the relation of de­
scription and interpretation). The first three steps of description, dis­ Six Steps o f Analysis
cover, and interpretation during the interview were discussed earlier
(Chapter 8, Interview Quality). In this chapter I treat the fourth step
of analyzing the transcribed interview, then return to re-interviewing A first step is when subjects describe their lived world
and action in relation to the discussion of validation as com munication during the interview. They spontaneously tell what they
and action (Chapter 13, Communicative Validity, and Pragmatic experience, feel, and do in relation to a topic. T here is little
Validity). interpretation or explanation from either the interviewees
or the interviewer.
A second step w ould be that the subjects themselves dis­
Approaches to Interview Analysis
cover new relationships during the interview, see new
meanings in what they experience and do. For example, a
Until recently, interview researchers had to rely on the individual
pupil, describing the effects of grading, comes to think of
techniques they could come up with: developing their own hunches
how the grades further a destructive competition among
or by chance finding some suggestions in the scattered qualitative
pupils. The interviewees themselves start to see new con­
literature. Analysis took place through listening to repeated replaying
nections in their life worlds on the basis of their spontane­
of the tapes, or by cutting and pasting selections from the transcribed
ous descriptions, free of interpretation by the interviewer.
pages. The analyses more often terminated because of time limits or
In a third step, the interviewer, during the interview, con­
exhaustion, rather than with a feeling of having analyzed the material
sufficiently to have worked out its main structures and meanings;
denses and interprets the meaning of what the interviewee
describes, and “sends” the meaning back. The interviewee
recall the final phases of the emotional hardships of interview inquiries
depicted earlier (see Box 5.1 in Chapter 5). then has the opportunity to reply, for example, “I did not
mean that” or “That was precisely what 1 was trying to say”
During the past decade this state of affairs has changed. There arc
or “ No, that was not quite what I tell. It was more like . .
now several books giving overviews of the different methods of
This dialogue ideally continues till there is only one possi­
qualitative analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Silverman, 1993;
ble interpretation left, or it is established that the subject
Tesch, 1990; W olcott, 1994). I will differentiate five main approaches
has multiple, and possibly contradictory, understandings of
to qualitative analysis and use the term analysis for these five ap­
a theme. This form of interviewing implies an ongoing
proaches in general, and reserve the term interpretation for the one
“ on-the-line interpretation” with the possibility of an “on-
mode o f analysis involving a more in-depth interpretation.
the-spot” confirmation or disconfirmation of the inter­
Figure 11.1 provides a graphic overview of the size and form of the
outcome of five main approaches to the analysis of the meanings of viewer’s interpretations. T he result can then be a “self-

interviews. As is evident from the dashes indicating the am ount of text, correcting” interview.

in all approaches except interpretation the outcome of the analysis In a fourth step, the transcribed interview is interpreted by
requires far less space than the original interview text. In contrast to the interviewer, either alone or with other researchers.
the text reduction of the other approaches, interpretation will often
(continued)
involve a text expansion, with the outcome formulated in far more
190 I n t e r v ie w s Methods o f Analysis 191

Approaches to
Box 11.1 Continued
Analysis of Meaning Interview Text Outcome of Analysis

Three parts o f this analysis may be discerned; first, struc­ Condensation:

turing the often large and complex interview material for

analysis. This is usually done today by transcription and by
programs for computer analysis of qualitative material. The
next part consists of a clarification o f the material, m aking
it amenable to analysis; for example, by eliminating super­
fluous material such as digressions and repetitions, distin­
Categorization:
guishing between the essential and the non-essential. W hat
is essential or non-essential again depends on the purpose
+/-
o f the study and its theoretical presuppositions. The analy­ 1- 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7
sis proper involves developing the meanings of the inter­
views, bringing the subjects’ own understanding into the
light as well as providing new perspectives from the re­
searcher on the phenomena. Five main approaches to the Narrative:

analysis of meaning are condensation, categorization, nar­

rative structuring, interpretation, and ad hoc methods. Start —» Goal
Enemies > Hero < Helpers
A fifth step would be a re-interview. W hen the researcher
has analyzed and interpreted the completed interviews, he
or she may give the interpretations back to the subjects. In
a continuation of a “self-correcting” interview, the subjects Interpretation:
get an opportunity to comment on the interviewer’s inter­
pretations as well as to elaborate on their own original
statements.

A possible sixth step w ould be to extend the continuum of

description and interpretation to include action, in that
subjects begin to act from new insights they have gained Ad hoc: + /- 1- 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7
during their interview. The research interview may in such
cases approximate a therapeutic interview. T he changes □ -> □
can also be brought about by actions in a larger social
setting such as action research, where the researcher and
the subjects together act on the basis of the knowledge
produced in the interviews. ______________________________ *_______
Figure 11.1. l ive A p p ro ach es to In terview Analysis
192 Interviews Methods o f Analysis 193

words than the interpreted statements; for example, the interpretation will generally stay within the vernacular. Structuring through narra­
of a poem by a literary critic. tives will usually reduce the interview text; it may, however, also
The form of the results will mainly be in words in meaning conden­ expand it by developing the potentialities of meaning in a simple
sation, interpretation, and narrative analyses, possibly with some interview story into more elaborate narratives.
figures for narrative structuring. The outcome of categorization is in Meaning interpretation goes beyond a structuring of the manifest
numbers, which can be subjected to statistical analysis. The eclectic meanings o f a text to deeper and more or less speculative interpreta­
ad hoc analysis may involve words and figures as well as numbers. An tions of the text. Examples of meaning interpretation are found in the
overview of the five approaches will be given before outlining them humanities, such as in a critic’s interpretations of a film or a play, and
each in more detail. in psychoanalytical interpretations of patients’ dreams. In contrast to
Meaning condensation entails an abridgement of the meanings the decontextualization of statements by categorization, interpreta­
expressed by the interviewees into shorter formulations. Long state­ tion recontextualizes the statements w ithin broader frames o f refer­
ments are compressed into briefer statements in which the m ain sense ence. The context for interpretation of a statement may, for example,
of what is said is rephrased in a few words. M eaning condensation be provided by the entire interview or by a theory. In contrast to the
thus involves a reduction of large interview texts into briefer, more text reduction techniques of categorization and condensation, inter­
succinct formulations. pretations likely lead to a text expansion, such as in the preceding
Meaning categorization implies that the interview is coded into interpretations o f H am let’s interview (Chapter 8, H am let’s Interview)
categories. Long statements are reduced to simple categories such as and of the 1,000-page question (Chapter 10).
“ +” or indicating occurrence and non-occurrence of a phenom e­ Generating meaning through ad hoc methods is an eclectic ap­
non; or to a single number on a scale of 1 to 5, for example, to indicate proach. A variety of commonsense approaches to the interview text,
the strength o f a phenomenon. Categorization can thus reduce and as well as sophisticated textual or quantitative methods, can be used
structure a large text into a few tables and figures. The categories can to bring out the meanings of different parts of the material. The
be developed in advance or they can arise ad hoc during the analysis; outcome of this meaning generation can be in words, in numbers, in
they may be taken from theory or from the vernacular, as well as from figures and flow charts, and in their combinations.
the interviewees’ own idioms. These five approaches to interview analysis w ill now be exempli­
The present outline of five main methodical approaches to qualita­ fied, while more extensive treatment of the many techniques are found
tive analysis is in itself a rough categorization of a qualitative diversity in the literature mentioned above. M eaning condensation will be
of methods of analysis. The perspective here is on how the different illustrated by a phenomenological analysis of the interview reported
methods generate meaning; other perspectives w ould lead to other by Giorgi and meaning categorizing by the analysis of the interviews
categorizations. Thus a focus on whether the analysis leads to quali­ from the grade study. Narrative analysis and ad hoc analysis will be
tative or quantitative data, or whether the analysis is linguistic or depicted briefly and literature for more extensive treatments referred
psychological, w ould lead to other categorizations of methodical to. Interpretation of meaning is also described only briefly here: It will
approaches to interview analysis. be the m ain topic of Chapter 12.
Narrative structuring entails the temporal and social organization
of a text to bring out its meaning. It focuses on the stories told during
an interview and works out their structures and their plots. If there M eaning C ondensation
are no stories told spontaneously, a narrative analysis may attempt to
create a coherent story out of the many happenings reported through­ G iorgi applied a phqnomenologically based meaning condensation
out an interview. As with meaning condensation, narrative analysis to the interview on learning reported earlier (Chapter 2, A Research
«
194 Interviews ‘ Methods o f Analysis 195
i

Interview on Learning). The thematic purpose (was “to try to discover ' T A B L E 11.1 T he N a tu r a l M e a n in g U nits a n d T h e ir C e n tra l T hem es
i
exactly w hat constitutes learning for ordinary people going about their
■ Natural Unit Central Theme
everyday activities and how the learning is accomplished” (Giorgi,
l
1975, p. 84). The methodological aim of the study was to use phe­ 1. Role o f vertical and
1. The first thing that comes to m ind is what I
nom enology in the service of qualitative research: “ We are interested learned about interior decorating from Myrtis. horizontal lines in
in demonstrating how rigor and discipline can be applied w ithout » She was telling me about the way you see things. interior-decorating.
necessarily transforming data into quantitative expressions, although H er view of looking at different rooms has been
the latter has its place. The main point of the study is to demonstrate altered. She told me that when you come into a
how one deals systematically with data that remain expressed in terms ' room you d o n’t usually notice how many vertical

of ordinary language” (pp. 95-96). and horizontal lines there are, at least consciously,

Table 11.1 presents the condensation o f the meanings of the first you don’t notice. And yet, if you were to take
i someone who knows what’s going on in the field
passages from the interview on learning. The “natural meaning units”
of interior decorating, they w ould intuitively feel
of the subject’s answers are given in the left-hand column and their
there were the right number of vertical and
central themes are presented in the right-hand column. Five steps are
horizontal lines.
involved in this empirical phenomenological analysis: First, the whole
interview is read through to get a sense o f the whole. Then, the natural 2. So, I went home, and I started looking at the lines 2. S looks for vertical and

, in our living room, and I counted the number horizontal lines in her
“meaning units” as expressed by the subjects are determined by the
of horizontal and vertical lines, many of which I home.
researcher. Third, the theme that dominates a natural meaning unit is
had never realized were lines before. A beam . . .
stated as simply as possible. The researcher here attempts to read the
I had never really thought of that as vertical before,
subject’s answers w ithout prejudice and to thematize the statements
just as a protrusion from the wall. (Laughs).
from her viewpoint as understood by the researcher.
The fourth step consists of interrogating the meaning units in terms 3. I found out what was wrong with our living room 3. S found too many

design: many, too many, horizontal lines and not horizontal lines in living
of the specific purpose of the study. The m ain questions o f the study
enough vertical. So I started trying to move things room and succeeded
were “W hat is learning?” and “ H ow was learning accomplished?” The
around and change the way it looked. I did this by in changing its
themes of the meaning units were addressed with respect to such
moving several pieces of furniture and taking out appearance.
questions as, “W hat does this statement tell me about learning?” In
* several knick-knacks, de-emphasizing certain lines,
the fifth step, the essential, nonredundant themes of the entire inter­
and . . . it really looked differently to me.
view were tied together into a descriptive statement. The method thus
4. It’s interesting because my husband came home 4. Husband confirms
involves a condensation of the expressed meanings into more and
several hours later and I said “Look at the living difference not knowing
more essential meanings of the structure and style of learning.
* room; it’s all different.” N ot knowing this, that I why.
Table 11.2 depicts the essential description of the style of learning,
had picked up, he didn’t look at it in the same way
obtained by answering the researcher’s question of “ H ow did learning
I did. He saw things were moved, but he wasn’t
take place?” The essential description shows structures of learning in
able to verbalize that there was a de-emphasis on
everyday situations. These structures were further discussed by Giorgi
« the horizontal lines and more of an emphasis on
in relation to the standard psychological theories of learning of the the vertical. So 1 felt I learned something.
time, which had long neglected the interpersonal context of learning—
that learning is a radically inter-human phenomenon. S O U R C F : From (iin rp i (1975).

• •
196 Interviews Methods o f Analysis 197

T A B L E 11 .2 Essential D es cr ip ti o n o f Style o f Le ar nin g Main dimensions Subcategories

Learning for S happened when she obtained from a significant other knowledge and
concrete demonstrations of this knowledge that related to a problem that bothered
her for a long time. When S found she could apply this knowledge to her own Relationship with teachers Feeling of injustice
situation in her own way, taking into account all the contingencies that the new Confidence
situation offered, she felt that learning had been achieved. Thus S learned by being Relationship to fellow pupils Dependency
attentive to another, then applying for herself that knowledge which she received,
W ithholding criticism
w ith approval from a different significant other.
Self-concept M eaning adjustment

S O U R C E : From G iorgi (1975). Search for cues

Relations to time Bluffing

W heedling
Giorgi also outlines how his empirical phenomenological m ethod Em otional relations
relates to phenomenological philosophy, in particular as this was
developed by Merleau-Ponty (Chapter 3, Phenomenological Descrip­ Learning motivation
tion). This concerns fidelity to the phenomena, the primacy of the life
w orld, the descriptive approach, expressing the situation from the Learning form

viewpoint of the subject, treating the situation as the unit of research,

engaged researchers, and the search for meaning. There is here a unity Figure 11.2. Dim ensions and Categories o f the G rading Perspective

of content and method, both the interview method and the conception
of learning were based on a phenomenological understanding of the learning was specified to seven main dimensions, which were them ­
phenomenon investigated as an intentional meaningful activity in the selves differentiated into subcategories.
daily life of the subject. In Figure 11.2 the seven dimensions of the grade perspective on
In conclusion, this empirical phenomenological method may serve learning are shown in the left-hand column, and the eight subcate­
to analyze extensive and often complex interview texts by looking for gories of one of these dimensions— Relationship W ith the Teacher—
natural meaning units and explicating their main themes. (For further in the right-hand colum n. For the other six dimensions, corresponding
developments and applications of the method see Fischer & W ertz, subcategories with content appropriate to each dimension were also
1979; Giorgi, 1985.) It should be noted that meaning condensation is made (not included in Fig. 11.2); in all, this came to 42 categories.
not limited to a phenomenological approach and has been applied in The categories were taken from previous studies of grading and from
other qualitative studies (see Mayring, 1983; Tesch, 1990). pilot interviews in this project. F.ach category was defined: for exam­
ple, Bluffing— the pupil attempts to give the impression that he knows
more than he knows, and with the purpose of obtaining better grades,
M eaning Categorization for example by raising his hand eagerly (cognitive, related to subject
matter, acceptable). Wheedling— the pupil attempts to win the sympa­
The analysis of the interviews on grades will be used to illustrate thy o f the teacher with the purpose of obtaining better grades (emo­
the procedure of categorization. The 30 pupil interviews were cate­ tional, often unrelated to the subject matter, unacceptable).
gorized in order to test the hypothesis that using grades to measure Every interview was coded as a whole for each of the 42 categories
learning affects both learning and social relations in school. The tran­ of attitudes and behaviors in relation to school grades. The categori­
scriptions of the 30 interviews came to 762 pages. Based on educa­ zations Were done as cjose to the pupil’s self-understanding as possi­
tional literature and pilot interviews, a grade perspective on school ble, so that in principle the pupils themselves w ould accept the
e
198 In te rvie w s Methods of Analysis 199

The categorization of the meanings of the pupils’ statements served

several purposes: (a) The categorizations structured the extensive and
Feeling o f injustice
complex interviews and gave an overview of the occurrence of grading
Bluffing behaviors among the 30 pupils interviewed. Thus in seven tables, as
shown in Figure 11.3, the main results of 762 pages of interview
D ependency
transcription regarding the extent of grading attitudes and behaviors
Confidence could be reported, (b) The categorization made it possible to test the
Search for cues
hypothesis that grades influence learning, (c) The quantification of
grading behaviors, such as those shown in Figure 11.3, gives readers
M eaning adjustm ent
a background for judging how typical the quotes used in the accom­
W heedling panying qualitative analyses were for the interview material as a
whole, (d) The categorization made it possible to investigate differ­
W ithholding o f critique
ences in grading behavior for different groups among the 30 pupils,
such as boys versus girls and pupils with high versus low grades. In
this study no significant differences were found, (e) Quantification
Figure 1 1 .3 . Influence o f Grades on P upil’s Relationship to Teacher
N O T E : N um bers to the right show ho w m any o f the 30 pupils confirm ed occurrences o f a grading
also made comparisons to other investigations on the effects of grades
attitude and behavior; negative numbers to the left show how m any disconfirm ed a grading attitude possible, (f) The categorization could itself be checked for coder
and behavior. As several pupils had no, or vnguc, statements regarding a subcatcgory, the sum of
direct confirm ations and disconfirinations is less than 30. reliability and made some checks for interviewer reliability possible;
this w ill be discussed later (see Control of Analysis, below).
categorizations of their statements. The interviews were categorized The categorization of meanings has long been used for analyzing
independently by two coders and their codings were combined. By qualitative material. Categorization is in line with, but not limited to,
divergences, a dialogue solution was attempted. In cases where the a positivist emphasis on quantification of facts in the social sciences.
two coders did not reach a consensus, a third coder was summoned. Several techniques were developed in the content analysis tradition
Figure 11.3 depicts how many of the 30 pupils confirmed or during W orld W ar II to analyze enemy propaganda. The different
disconfirmed the eight categories of the dim ension— Relationship techniques will not be reviewed here (see, e.g., Miles & Huberman,
W ith the Teacher. The results in general confirmed the hypothesis that 1994; Tesch, 1990).
grades influence pupils’ relationships w ith their teachers. This varied
from 23 of the 30 pupils confirming, and none disconfirming, a feeling
of injustice about their grades; to 5 confirm ing and 7 disconfirm ing a M eaning Structuring T hrough Narratives
w ithholding of critique of their teachers for fear of repercussions on
their grades. Similar degrees of support for the grade hypothesis were An interview analysis can be treated as a form of narration, as a
found for the six other dimensions of the grade perspective. The continuation of the story told by the interviewee. A narrative analysis
interviews showed only a weak support for the hypothesis o f an of what was said leads to a new story to be told, a story developing
increased grade perspective after the introduction of a grade-based, the themes of the original interview. The analysis may also be a
restricted admission to college introduced the year before. In addition condensation or a reconstruction of the many tales told by the
to this form of categorization, the grade interviews were also subjected different subjects into a richer, more condensed and coherent story
to deeper qualitative interpretations, some examples of which will be than the scattered stories of the separate interviewees.
discussed in Chapter 12.
200 Interviews Methods o f Analysis 201

The interview used to demonstrate meaning condensation (see an intelligible story with a sequence understandable to others about
Meaning Condensation, above, & Chapter 2, A Research Interview what happened. Furthermore, the interviewer can work toward nar­
on Learning) started out with a subject’s spontaneous story about how rative forms during the interview, for example by directly asking for
she learned the difference between horizontal and vertical lines when stories and trying together with the interviewee to structure the
decorating a room. Ciiorgi used the content of the story to develop different happenings recounted into coherent stories.
essential meanings of learning, and he did not analyze the story as An author starting on a novel may have a main plot in m ind that
narrative. will be developed on the way. An interview inquiry, too, may be seen
Mishler’s book Research Interviewing— Context and Narrative as leading to a story the researcher wants to tell, where the key points
(1986) is a pioneering study of the use of narratives in interview he or she want to relate to the readers are kept in m ind from the start.
research. He outlines the many interpretative possibilities o f treating In both cases the characters may take on their own life during the
interviews as narratives, emphasizing the temporal, the social, and the writing, developing along lines other than those intended by the
meaning structures of narratives. A narrative contains a temporal author, follow ing a structural logic of their own. The result may be a
sequence, a patterning of happenings. It has a social dimension, good story, providing new convincing insights and opening new vistas
someone is telling something to someone. And it has a meaning, a plot for understanding the phenomena investigated.
giving the story a point and a unity. One of the main social functions During the analysis the researcher may alternate between being a
of narratives is to maintain social ties: The narratives of a group “narrative-finder”— looking for narratives contained in the inter­
contribute to constituting the group’s identity and to holding the views, and being a “narrative-creator”— m olding the many different
group together (see also Polkinghorne, 1988). happenings into coherent stories. In both cases the researcher can
The narrative dimension of interviews is often overlooked. Mishler employ the concepts and the tools worked out in the humanities for
recounts how, in his study of doctor-patient interaction, there was a the analysis o f narratives, such as the actant model developed by Propp
long story from a patient about his financial situation. Mishler had on the basis of Russian fairy tales and Labov’s narrative model (see
initially perceived it as a long digression and disregarded it in the first Cortazzi, 1993; Jensen, 1989).
analysis of the interview. Then, through a closer look from a narrative
perspective, the story came to yield essential insight into the nature of
doctor-patient interactions. The verbatim and the narrative transcrip­ M eaning Interpretation
tions of Leonora’s story about her puppy (Chapter 9, Transcription
Reliability and Validity, and Table 9.2) were taken from an article by Although analysis and interpretation have been used interchange­
Mishler (1991) in which he discusses the narrative structure of the ably throughout this book, I here reserve the latter term for more
story and calls attention to the need for linguistic competence to extensive and deeper interpretations of meaning, inspired by herme­
discover and develop narrative structures. neutical philosophy (Chapter 3, Hermeneutical Interpretation). The
The interview researcher may pay attention to narratives during researcher has a perspective on what is investigated and interprets the
both interviewing and analyzing, as well as at the reporting stage. interviews from this perspective. The interpreter goes beyond what is
W hen spontaneous stories appear during interviews, the interviewer directly said to work out structures and relations o f meaning not
can encourage the subjects to let their stories unfold. The interviewer immediately apparent in a text. This requires a certain distance from
may also help the subjects to produce a coherent story, which can be what is said, which is achieved by a methodical or theoretical stance,
illustrated with an analogy: A small child comes running to his parent, recontextualizing what is said in a specific conceptual context.
trying to tell about some dramatic event it has experienced, but is too The jinfluence o f different conceptual frameworks during interpre­
excited by the event itself and needs assistance from someone to create tation is illustrated injScheflen’s article “Susan Smiled: O n Explana­
202 In terv iew s Methods o f Analysis 203

tions in Family Therapy” (1978). It is cast in a story form with a group W hen discussing the six therapists’ interpretations of Susan’s smile,
of therapists watching and com menting on! a therapy session. At one Scheflen (1978) does not side with any one model: “These are usually
point the daughter, Susan, had smiled in an enigmatic way. The presented as opposing truths in different doctrinal schools, but they
discussion among the observers about the meaning o f this nonverbal are all valid from one point of view or another. And, accordingly, they
statement, leading to six different interpretations, can also highlight are all tactically useful at some point or another” (p. 59). The various
issues of interview interpretation. modes of explanation can be used deliberately as tactics throughout a
O ne therapist suggested that the smile was sarcastic, thus invoking therapy, can be tactically employed to alter habitual tendencies to
an expressional paradigm, where a person’s actions are attributed to deny, ignore, project, and blame: “In the course of family therapy our
something within the person. Then one member of the group offered clients can learn multiple approaches from us and end up with a more
a second interpretation by pointing out that Susan had smiled just after flexible and comprehensive strategy for viewing and making sense of
her father had turned to her, held out his hands, and said “I think their experiences” (Scheflen, 1978, p. 68). The issues of multiple
Susan loves us. W e certainly love her.” The smile is now seen as a interpretations raised by this case will be addressed again in Chapter
response to her father’s statement. A further observation led to a third 12 and the pragmatic approach to validating interpretations according
interpretation: After Susan had smiled, her mother turned to her and to their usefulness in Chapter 13.
said: “You never appreciate what we try to do for you.” The smile was Interpretations of meaning are sometimes steeped in a mistrust
now interpreted as a provocation, as a stimulus for the m other’s toward the meanings directly expressed. A critical distance in inter­
reprimand. pretation is found in the form of a “hermeneutics of suspicion” to
In these three explanations Susan’s smile was interpreted as an what a person directly says and a text manifestly expresses, interpret­
expression, as a response, and as a stimulus. The first focused on Susan ing the meaning to be something else than is directly said, being
in isolation, the second brought up the preceding context and the suspicious of some hidden intention or plot. Thus H am let’s interview
father-daughter relationship, and the third included the succeeding was interpreted earlier as an expression of a pervasive distrust of the
context and the mother-daughter relationship. A fourth interpretation words and the acts of others, leading to conversations of “per indirec­
followed from a closer focus on the interpersonal interaction, noticing tions find directions out” (Chapter 8, H am let’s Interview). In the
that the three members of the family often acted and reacted to each social sciences a hermeneutics of suspicion is pronounced in psycho­
other by withdrawal: W hen Susan smiled her father turned his face analysis and Marxism, where the interpreter looks for meanings
away and fell silent, and when the mother began her reprimand Susan behind or beneath what is directly expressed— in psychoanalysis as
reacted in a similar way. A fifth interpretation followed when the tape manifestations of unconscious forces, and in Marxism as manifesta­
was played back and the therapists looked for incidents similar to the tions of an ideology concealing the basic contradictions of the social
sequence in which Susan smiled. There had been two previous ex­ and economical forces at work.
changes where the father approached, Susan smiled, and the mother
reprimanded. This indicated a programmed interaction in this fam­
A d H o c M e a n in g G e n e ra tio n
ily, the actors follow ing an unwritten script and interacting according
to a preexisting scenario. In this interpretation, moving from an
The most frequent form of interview analysis is probably an ad hoc
individual-centered to a cultural interpretation, Susan smiled because
use of different approaches and techniques for meaning generation.
this was the part she was expected to play in the family drama. A sixth
In contrast to the above condensation and categorization of meanings,
interpretation argued that although Susan’s smile was a response to
in this case no standard method is used for analyzing the whole of the
her father’s approach, it was not a response in kind. In Bateson’s
interview material. There is instead a free interplay of techniques
language, the smile was meta to the father’s statement, her metacom-
during the analysis. Thus the researcher may read the interviews
munication derailed her father’s offer of involvement.
204 In te r v ie w s Methods o f Analysis 205

through and get an overall impression, then go back to specific The Pervasiveness of Interpretation. Analysis is not an isolated stage,
passages, perhaps make some quantifications like counting statements but permeates an entire interview inquiry. For the six steps of analysis
indicating different attitudes to a phenomenon, make deeper interpre­ in Box 11.1, a continuity of description and interpretation was out­
tations of specific statements, cast parts of the interview into a lined for an entire investigation. The extensiveness of the interpreta­
narrative, work out metaphors to capture the material, attempt a tion was also emphasized for the seven stages of an interview design
visualization of the findings in flow diagrams, and so on. Such tactics (Chapter 5) as well as in answering the 1,000-page question (Chapter
of meaning generation may, for interviews lacking an overall sense at 10). M eaning clarification and interpretation were suggested through­
the first reading, bring out connections and structures significant to out the interview situation, and it was postulated that the ideal
the research project. interview would be interpreted by the end of the interaction (Chapter
Thirteen such tactics for generating meaning in qualitative texts are 8). The transformation from oral speech to written text was depicted
discussed and exemplified by Miles and Huberman (1994). They are as a translation and an interpretation, illustrated by the different
arranged roughly from the descriptive to the explanatory, and from transcriptions of the story of I.eona’s puppy (Chapter 9, Transcrip­
the concrete to the more conceptual and abstract: tion Reliability and Validity, and Table 9.2). The role of interpretation
will continue during verification and reporting of the interviews
N oting patterns, themes (1), seeing plausibility (2), a n d clustering (3) h e lp (Chapters 13 8c 14). A recognition of the pervasiveness of interpreta­
the analyst see “ w h a t goes w ith w h a t.” M aking metaphors (4 ), like the tion throughout an entire interview inquiry may counteract a common
p re ce d in g three tactics, is a way to achieve m ore in te g ra tio n a m o n g overemphasis on methods of analysis as the one way to find the
diverse pieces o f data. C o un tin g (5) is also a fa m ilia r w ay to see “ w h a t’s
meaning of interviews.
th e re .”
M aking contrasts/comparisons (6) is a pervasive tactic th a t sharpens
u n d e rs ta n d in g . D iffe re n tia tio n som etim es is needed, to o , as in p artitio n ­ Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis. An ideological dichotomi-
ing variables (7). zation of quantitative and qualitative methods in the social sciences
W e also need tactics fo r seeing things a n d th eir re la tio n s h ip s m o re was discussed earlier (Chapter 4, Qualitative and Quantitative Re­
abstractly. These in c lu d e subsum ing particulars under the general (8);
search). During the concrete analyses of the grading interviews, m u l­
factoring (9 ), an an a lo gu e to a fa m ilia r q u a n tita tiv e te c h n iq u e ; noting
tiple interactions of quantitative and qualitative approaches took
relations between variables (1 0); a n d finding intervening variables ( I I ) .
f in a lly , h o w can we system atically assemble a co h e re n t u n d e rs ta n d ­
place. Three instances will be m entioned: qualitative development of
able o f data? T h e tactics discussed are building a logical chain o f evidence categories for quantification, qualitative differentiation of categories
(1 2) a n d m aking conceptual/theoretical coherence (1 3 ). (p p . 24 5- 2 46 ) through quantification, and the problem of quantification of a com ­
plex phenom enon as denials.
During the analysis of the grade interviews, several ad hoc techniques It was a presupposition for the quantification of the grading behav­
were tried out, and one example concerning grades and talkativity will iors that the categories had been developed qualitatively on the basis
be taken up in Chapter 12. of previous literature and pilot interviews. The requirement that the
interview statements be coded in an “either/or” manner required
precise definitions of the categories. W hen testing the categories in
Issues o f A nalysis pilot interviews, this led to further qualitative differentiations of
grading behaviors, such as dividing “com petition” into refined cate­
Some principal issues of analysis will now be raised: the pervasive­ gories with clearly different meanings for the pupils, such as “com ­
ness of interpretation, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and theo­ parison oriented,” “grade jealousy,” “sportsmanlike com petition,”
retical presuppositions. and “destructive com petition.” This quantitative scoring procedure

I
206 I nt e rV ie w s Methods of Analysis 207

presupposed a qualitative development of the categories, and it con­ 1990). The field studies here involve observations as well as informal
tributed to a qualitative differentiation of these categories. The very or formal interviews. There is a continual coding and recoding of the
development and differentiation of categories is m ainly a qualitative observations, as the researcher’s insight grows during an investigation,
endeavor, and the creation o f appropriate categories may be just as working toward an empirically grounded theory.
significant a contribution of knowledge as the number of observations In the present discussion of design the example of teasing was used
made for the different categories. to illustrate how different theoretical conceptions would lead to
From a purely quantitative viewpoint, one might expect that the different forms of questioning (Chapter 5, Designing), a issue taken
more frequently a form o f grading behavior was confirmed or discon- up again with the demonstration interview about grades (Chapter 7,
firmed the more certain the categorization w ould be. In some cases, An Interview About Grades). Freudian, Rogerian, and Skinnerian
however, problems with such a quantitative approach to coding could approaches to the understanding of such phenomena as teasing and
arise, such as with the interpretation of many denials o f com petition grades will likewise lead to different forms of analysis of the interview
as possibly meaning a confirm ation (Chapter 9, Transcribing Inter­ texts, emphasizing different aspects and contexts of the phenomena.
views). Following the categorization procedure based on the level of O n a metatheoretical level there are contrasting conceptions of the
the pu p il’s self-understanding, this statement was coded as indicating meanings to be reported through analysis, such as with the postmod­
non-occurrcnce of competition. W ith a deeper interpretation, leading ern, hermeneutical, phenomenological, and dialectical perspectives to
to a confirm ation of com petition, this example points to a principal interview research discussed in Chapter 3. This includes meaning
lim itation of the quantification of qualitative interview material. It finding versus meaning construction, as indicated by the miner and
w ould be foolhardy to give an exact quantitative measure of how many the traveler metaphors of interview research. In the miner approach,
“nos” are needed before they can come to mean “yes.” Deciding when the analyst uncovers and purifies the meanings more or less buried in
a quantitative increase in negation turns around and becomes a the interviews. In the traveler approach, the analyst co-creates with
confirmation requires a critical qualitative interpretation o f the lin ­ the subjects the meanings he or she reports, and through interpretation
guistic style, the pauses, and the intonation of the statement. For such constructs elaborate stories.
complex, ambiguous, and contradictory interview statements an exact
quantitative scoring is in principle impossible; it is not feasible to give
an exact quantitative criterion of how many denials are required C o n tr o l o f A nalysis
before the denials become an involuntary confirmation.
Control is a key issue for the analysis of large amounts o f complex
Theoretical Presuppositions. The theoretical basis of an investiga­ interview material. In contrast to the readers of a critic’s analysis of a
tion provides the context for making decisions about how interviews poem, the readers of an interview report will not have access to the
will be analyzed. Different techniques of analysis arc means for tape recordings and the often many hundreds of pages of interviews
answering different thematic questions. The analyst’s theoretical con­ that the researcher’s interpretations are based on. Nor do the inter­
ceptions of the subject matter influence how he or she analyzes the view texts pose the same am ount of resistance to the interpreter as a
interviews. The analysis of the interviews may be part of generating a patient w ould do in a therapy situation. The reader of an interview
theory, as well as an application or a testing of theories. study has to depend on the researcher’s selection and contextualiza-
In the grounded theory approach developed by Glaser and Strauss, tion of interview statements. Two approaches to control the interview
there is an attempt through the analysis of the data to develop a analysis will be mentioned here: the use of multiple interpreters and
theoretical interpretation of what is seen and heard (Strauss & Corbin, the explication of procedures.
 209
208 In terview s Methods of Analysis

analysis by including m ultiple perspectives. The discussions about the

Multiple Interpreters. The analysis of interviews is often undertaken
different interpretations can lead to a conceptual clarification and
by the researcher alone, and the reader is left with little material for
refinement of the issues in question, such as in the interpretation of
evaluating the influence of the researcher’s perspective on the o u t­
come of the analysis. By using several interpreters for the same Susan’s smile (see M eaning Interpretation, above).
interviews, a certain control of haphazard or biased subjectivity in
analysis is possible. Several coders are frequently used for categoriza­
Explication of Procedures. An alternative or a supplement to a
m ultiple interpreter control of analysis is that the researcher present
tion and could be used more often for interpretations o f the deeper
examples of the material used for the interpretations and explicitly
meanings of the interviews.
outline the different steps o f the analysis process. In G iorgi’s phenom ­
W hen categorizing the interviews in the grade study, both a dia-
enological analysis, the researcher’s “cards” were put on the table for
logical and an arithmetical approach to intersubjective agreement
inspection. The readers could then retrace and check the steps of the
were included (Chapter 4, Objectivity in Qualitative Research). Coder
analysis. Giorgi (1975) acknowledges that another investigator, look­
reliability was checked on a sample of the interviews; here the two
ing at the data differently, could write a different general description,
coders independently had the same scorings for 39% of the instances
and different scorings for 61%. For the latter, the two coders reached though hardly wholly different:
agreement through discussion for 60% , and for the remaining 1% a
C o n s e q u e n tly , the c o n tro l co nies fr o m the researcher’s c o n te x t o r p e r­
third coder was called in to have the final word. The intersubjective
spective o n the d a ta . O n c e the c o n te x t a n d in te n tio n beco m es k n o w n ,
agreement obtained by the categorizations indicates that other coders,
the div erg en ce is u su a lly in te llig ib le to all even if n o t u n iv ersa lly agree­
using the same coding procedure, would be likely to arrive at the same able. T h u s the c h ie f p o in t to be re m e m b e re d w ith this ty pe o f research
categorizations of the interviews. A further check was made to sec if is n o t so m u c h w h e th e r a n o th e r p o s itio n w ith respect to the d a ta c o u ld
I, the project leader, would more often get my own categorizations he a d o p te d (th is p o in t is g ra n te d b e fo r e h a n d ), b u t w h e th e r a reader,
a d o p tin g th e sam e v ie w p o in t as a rtic u la te d by th e researcher, c a n also
accepted instead of those o f the paid student assistants. This was found
see w h a t th e researcher saw , w h e th e r o r n o t he agrees w ith it. T h a t is
not to be the case.
th e key c r ite rio n fo r q u a lita tiv e research, (p . 96)
Furthermore, the categorization made some checks on interviewer
reliability possible— whether the pupils’ descriptions of the effects of
In the next chapter I will attempt to “lay my cards on the table”
grading were influenced differently by the four interviewers in the
through the interpretation of interview statements on grades, in order
study. A significant difference was found between two interviewers on
to make it possible for the reader to follow the steps of the interpre­
am ount o f grading behaviors reported. A check revealed that one had
tative process.
followed the interview guide very conscientiously and taken care to
have the pupils cover the many themes in the interview guide, whereas
the other had more often pursued the many interesting leads that came
up during the interviews.
W hen different meanings are found by different analysts, they may
be worked together into a dialogue leading to an intersubjective
agreement. O r the different meanings found can be reported side by
side, accompanied by the reasons for the divergent interpretations,
such as by the majority and minority votums in official committees.
The use of several analysts may not only serve as a control of a random
or prejudiced subjectivity, it may also lead to an enrichment of the
 The Plurality nf Interpretations 211

There are multiple questions that can be posed to a text, with different

12 questions leading to different meanings of a text. A hermeneutic

question-answer dialectic is not only a matter of the questions the
reader poses to a text, but also of an openness to the questions with
which the text confronts the reader.
An interpreter’s presuppositions enter into the questions he or she
poses to a text. These questions codetermine what meanings can be
found in the text. Some hermeneutic distinctions of types of questions
to texts now follow. A first question concerns the relation of the
author’s and the reader’s meaning. Is the purpose of a text interpre­
tation to get at the author’s intended meaning of the text— what Ibsen
The Plurality of Interpretations really meant to say with his play Peer Gynt— or does it concern the
meaning the text has for us today? The interpretation of an interview
O ne approach to interview analysis will now be treated in some detail
involves a related distinction— is the purpose to analyze, for example,
— extensive and critical interpretations o f tKe meanings o f interview
interviews about grades in order to arrive at the individual pupils’
statements— and supplemented by some ad hoc techniques. First a
understanding of their grades? O r is the aim for the researcher to
plurality o f interpretations and the hermeneutic primacy o f the ques­
develop, through the pupils’ descriptions, a broader interpretation of
tion w ill be discussed. Then interview reports about grades are inter­
the meaning of grades in the educational system?
preted w ith respect to different questions and contexts, and validation
Another issue in interpretation concerns whether it is the letter of
o f the m ultiple interpretations will be related to the questions raised
the text or its “spirit” that is to be interpreted in, for example, a legal
and to the communities o f validation. In conclusion, a modern quest
text. Is what matters to get at the expressed meaning or at the intended
for meaning is contrasted with a postmodern deconstruction o f sub­
meaning? In interview studies, this becomes a question of the level on
stantialized meanings.
which the interpretations should take place: Should the interviews be
analyzed on a manifest level? O r is the purpose to get at latent mean­
ings that are not explicitly conscious for the subject, as in the “depth
T h e P rim acy o f the Q u e s tio n
hermeneutics” of psychoanalysis?
A third issue implies the principal question of whether there exists
A com m on objection to interview interpretations goes like this:
one correct interpretation of a literary text or of a Bible story; or
“ Different interpreters find different meanings in the same interview,
whether there is a legitimate plurality of interpretations. Can the gos­
the interview is thus not a scientific m ethod.”
pels of the New Testament thus be said to have one correct interpre­
Dissimilar interpretations of the same interview passages do occur,
tation, or are they essentially ambiguous, open to different interpre­
though probably less than is com monly assumed. The above objection
tations? If the principle of a legitimate plurality of interpretations
involves a demand for objectivity in the sense that a statement has only
through interview analyses is accepted, it becomes meaningless to pose
one correct and objective meaning, and the task of interpretation is to
strict requirements of interpreter consensus. W hat then matters is to
find this one and only true meaning. Contrary to such a requirement
formulate explicitly the evidence and arguments that enter into an in ­
of unequivocality, hermeneutical and postmodern modes of under­
terpretation, so that the interpretation can be tested by other readers.
standing allow for a legitimate plurality of interpretations (see Chapter
A fourth issue involves the question of what aspects of a theme
3, Hermeneutical Interpretation; and Postmodern Construction).
should be interpreted, and in what larger context. Hermeneutical text

210
212 Interviews 213
7 he Plurality o f hiterfiretations

interpretations, psychoanalytical studies, and also psychological inter­ codetermining the range of answers, is in the final analysis an issue of
view investigations, have often involved an individualistic and ideal­ power. In law it is the politically appointed Supreme Court that has
istic focus on the experiences and intentions of individuals. There has the final decision about the legitimate context for the interpretation
been a neglect o f the social and material context the persons live in; o f a legal text.
see Sartre s (1963) critique of the “psychoanalyzing” of Robespierre’s
reasons for his political behavior (Chapter 3, Dialectical Situating).
The interview method as such does not, however, need to be idealistic Q u e s tio n s Posed to an Inte rv iew T ext
or individualistic. It is mainly the contexts in which it has been used
that have given the interview method this characteristic. The relationship between questions posed to, and answers from, a
In current interview research the variety of interpretations is not text w ill be illustrated w ith interpretations of interview statements
the main problem, but rather the lack of explicit formulation of the about grades. One question concerns the context of interpretation.
research questions to a text. We may distinguish between a biased and Another question is whether the interviewee is considered an inform ­
a perspectivai subjectivity by differences of interpretation (see also ant or a representative. A third question concerns interview statements
Chapter 4, Objectivity in Qualitative Research). A biased subjectivity in which the inform ation is empirically invalid, but that may provide
simply means sloppy and unreliable work; researchers noticing only valuable knowledge about production and consequences of the invalid
evidence that supports their own opinions, selectively interpreting and knowledge.
reporting statements justifying their own conclusions, overlooking any
counterevidence. A persj>ectival subjectivity appears when researchers
T H R E E C O N T E X T S O F IN T E R P R E T A T IO N
who adopt different perspectives and pose different questions to the
same text come up with different interpretations of the meaning. A
I k n o w th a t so m e b o d y w ill say th a t it is w h e e d lin g (“ ap p le p o lis h in g ” ) if
subjectivity in this sense of multiple perspectivai interpretations is a o n e seems to be m o re interested in a subject m a tte r th a n is u su al an d
specific strength of interview research. W hen the readers’ different says:' “ T h is is really in te re s tin g ,” asks a lo t o f q u e stio n s, w a n tin g expla-
perspectives on a text are made explicit, the different interpretations . n a tio n s . I d o n ’t th in k it is . . .
should also become comprehensible (see C iorgi’s criterion o f qualita­ In re lig io u s in s tru c tio n , w h e re w e get grades (fro m th e teac h er), b u t
d o n o t have an e x a m in a tio n at th e e n d o f the sc h o o l year, there is p le n ty
tive research in Chapter 11, Control of Analysis). W ith an explication
o f tim e to ta lk a b o u t a n y th in g else. W e ll, p e o p le d o th e ir h o m e w o r k
o f the perspectives adopted toward an interview text and a specifica­
d u r in g these lessons, a n d th e n w e so m e tim e s , p erh ap s tw o o r th ree o f
tion of the researchers’ questions posed to an interview passage, us, discuss so m e th in g in te re s tin g w ith the teacher. A n d th e n , afterw ards,
several interpretations of the same text will not be a weakness, but a it s o m e tim e s h a p p e n s th a t s o m e o n e rem arks: “ W e ll, w e ll, s o m e b o d y
richness and a strength o f interview research. seems to be w h e e d lin g .”
(Later on in the interview, ab o ut other pupils): S o m e tim e s we d o n ’t
W hen different interpretations appear arbitrary, this may in part
k n o w w h e th e r th ey d o it in o rd e r to w h e e d le o r n o t, b u t at o th e r tim es
be because the questions asked of a text are not explicitly stated. The
it seems very o p p o r t u n is tic . (In a tense voice) I t ’s ra th e r u n p le a s a n t . . .
issue is here not only that of making the researcher’s questions to a It isn ’t easy to figure o u t w h e th e r p e o p le w h e e d le o r w h e th e r th e y ’ re just
text explicit, but also of what questions can legitimately be put to a interested.
text. In interpretations of legal texts this may be of vital interest, such
as whether it is justifiable in the interpretation of a law to ask about This high school girl’s statement is rich in inform ation about
the intentions of the original lawmakers, or whether it is only the letter grading’s influence on the relationships between teachers and pupils.
of the law as it stands today that can be taken into account when It is, However, not quite clear what her remarks mean. In order to
deciding a case. Decisions about what questions to a text are allowable, explicate their meaning, several types of questions will be asked of the
*
Z l 'l In terv iew s 215
The Plurality of Interpretations

TABLE 12.1 Contexts of Interpretation and Communities of Validation subjects themselves, be critical of what is said, and may focus on either

Contexts o f Interpretation Communities o f Validation

the content of the statement or on the person making it. The interpre­
tation of the statement with the denials of competition mentioned
Self-understanding The interviewed si .bjcct earlier (Chapter 9, Transcribing Interviews; Chapter 11, Issues of
Critical commonsense understanding The general public Analysis) thus went beyond the pupil’s self-understanding to include
Theoretical understanding The research com m unity a critical commonsense reading o f the many denials as possibly mean­
ing a confirmation.
By including general knowledge about the content of the statement
statement. A first line o f inquiry addresses the meaning o f the text in it is possible to amplify and enrich the interpretation of a statement.
three different intcrprctationa! contexts: self-understanding, a critical For the question “W hat docs the statement express about the phe­
commonsense understanding, and a theoretical understanding. nom enon of wheedling?” the girl’s statement may be interpreted as a
Contexts of interpretation arc presented in the left-hand colum n in manifestation of a basic ambiguity in the tcacher-pupil relationship
Tabic 12.1, and the corresponding communities for validation in the created by grading. W ithin a dom inating grade perspective, the subject
right-hand colum n. I will first interpret the statement about wheedling matter and the human relationships in school are “instrumentalized” :
in the three contexts of self-understanding, a critical commonsense They become mere means toward the goal o f the highest possible grade
understanding, and theoretical understanding and thereafter bring up point average. In the classroom it may appear ambiguous whether an
the corresponding communities of validation. expressed interest in a topic is genuine, or whether it is just a means
to “twist” the teacher in the interest of improving one’s grades.
Self-Understanding. The interpreter here attempts to formulate in The questions put to the text may also center on the person, asking
a condensed form what the subjects themselves understand to be the what a statement expresses about the interviewed subject. Thus in the
meanings of their statements. The interpretation is more or less con­ earlier interpretation of Ham let’s interview the question to the inter­
fined to the subjects’ self-understanding: a rephrased condensation of action was changed from the manifest content, that is, the shape o f a
the meaning of the interviewees’ statement from their own viewpoints cloud, to the person of Polonius and his trustworthiness (Chapter 8,
as these are understood by the researcher. The meaning condensation H am let’s Interview). In the pupil’s statement above, the question
used by Giorgi, and also the categorization o f the grade interviews, “W hat does it express about the pupil’s own relation to wheedling?”
took place within the context of the subject’s self-understanding may lead to an interpretation that this girl employs two standards:
(Chapter 1 I, M eaning Condensation; and M eaning Categorization). The same activity of talking interestedly with the teacher is evaluated
This pupil is interested in religion and enjoys discussing it with the more positively when conducted by herself than when carried out by
teacher, but she experiences that other pupils may regard this as others. The topic involves a conflict for her; her voice is tense, and a
wheedling. In other situations, she has difficulty determ ining whether speculative interpretation might be that she belongs to that group of
the other pupils wheedle or whether they are actually interested in the pupils w hom the others accuse of wheedling.
subject matter. She experiences this ambiguity as rather unpleasant.
Theoretical Understanding. In a third context, a theoretical frame
Critical Commonsense Understanding. The interpretation here goes for interpreting the meaning of a statement is applied. The interpre­
beyond reformulating the subjects’ self-understanding— what they tations arc then likely to go beyond the subject’s self-understanding
themselves experience and mean about a topic— while remaining and also to exceed a commonsense understanding, such as when
within the context of a commonsense understanding. The interpreta­ incorporating a psychoanalytic theory of the individual or a Marxist
tions may includc a wider frame o f understanding than that o f the theory of society.
216 Interviews The Plurality o f Interpretations' 217

In a somewhat speculative interpretation, the psychoanalytical the text. N ot only the questions to the interviewees, but also the
concept of “projection” may be used: At an unconscious level the pupil questions to the interview texts co-constitute the answers obtained.
projects her own nonacceptable wheedling behavior onto other pupils,
while denying it for herself.
I IIK 1 T , C O M M U N I T I E S ()|- V A L ID A T IO N
In a Marxist theory about the school as socializing to wage labor,
with grades as the currency of the school system (Bowles & Gintis, Different communities of validation correspond to the three inter­
1976; Kvale, 1972), the statement about apple polishing may be pretational contexts outlined above— the interviewed subject, the
interpreted as an expression of learning at school having a “com­ general public, and the research community.
m odity character.” The pupils learn— through the grading of their
learning— how to distinguish between the use value and the exchange The Interviewee. W hen the interviewee’s own understanding of a
value of their work. Their questions to the teacher may be led by a statement is asked for, the validity of the researcher’s interpretations
utility interest in obtaining a better understanding of the knowledge is, in principle, decided by the subject. The pu p il’s “yes” or “n o ” to
presented. The questions may also be part of an instrumental exchange the interpretation that she herself does not wheedle but believes that
relation; the knowledge about which they ask interested questions has other pupils maybe do, is here the criterion for validity. W ith in the
no intrinsic use value for the pupils, the questions only serve the pur­ context of self-understanding applied by the categorization of the
pose o f making a positive impression on the teacher— an impression grade interviews, the girl’s statement was cautiously classified as not
that can be exchanged for a higher grade. At school the pupils thus confirm ing an occurrence of wheedling. It is seldom possible in the
learn to subordinate the use value of their work to its exchange value. actual analysis of many interviews to present every single interpreta­
tion to the interviewees for confirmation or disconfirmation. The
Interrelatedness of lnterpretational Contexts. The three interpreta- researcher then tries to keep his or her interpretations within the
tional contexts derive from different explications of the researcher’s interviewee’s context of understanding as seen by the researcher.
perspective and lead to different interpretations. The contexts may be
further differentiated, and they may also merge into each other. The The General Public. The interpretation is made within the under­
instrumental attitude toward learning— knowledge as a mere means standing of a general public. The deliberations of a jury in court is one
to high grades— which was discussed above in a conunonsense con­ example of a critical com m on sense of understanding. The criterion
text, also follows from sociological and Marxist theories about edu­ for validity is then whether a consensus may be obtained that an
cation. At the same time, this means-ends thinking may be part of the interpretation is reasonably documented and logically coherent. I he
everyday consciousness of school. For some of the Danish pupils, such statement on wheedling was interpreted above as an expression of a
an instrumental attitude was an open part of their self-understanding: basic ambiguity in the teacher-pupil relationship due to grading. It is
here up to lay readers to judge whether the interpretation is reasonably
M y interests have tak en m e very far fro m th a t w h ic h takes place at h ig h documented and argued. The validity of interpretation does not, in
s c h o o l. I go here w ith the e x p licit p u rp ose o f g etting as g o o d an this case, depend on the acceptance of the subject interpreted, but
e x a m in a tio n as possible, w ith the least possible effort. upon the fact of whether the documentation and the argumentation
arc convincing to members of the general public.
The contexts of interpretation suggested above serve to make-
explicit the questions posed to a statement. One pupil’s description of The Theoretical Conimunity. W hen a statement is interpreted
wheedling has given rise to a number of interpretations. The various within a theoretical context, the validity of the interpretation will
interpretations are, according to the present perspective, not hap­ depend oh whether the theory is valid for the area studied, and
hazard or subjective, but follow as answers to different questions to whether the specific interpretations follow logically from the theory.
218 In terview s The Plurality of Interpretations 219

An evaluation of the validity of a theoretical interpretation presup­ The pupils participating in the grade interviews were, from one
poses a specific theoretical competence. Thus, in contrast to a lay jury viewpoint, informants: They provided information about the influ­
testing the validity o f critical coinmonsensC interpretations, theoreti­ ence of grades on the learning and work situations at high school. The
cal interpretations arc validated by a com munity of researchers. pupils were witnesses— “observer substitutes”— o f the classroom in­
The validity of the interpretation of wheedling— as an expression teraction. Their task was to report as reliably as possible what they
of th e com m odity character of schoolwork— will thus depend on a had experienced about the grades’ influence on their own and other
judgment of whether M arx ’s economic com modity theory is still valid pupils’ behavior. In this first perspective, which involves a veridical
today, whether it can be generalized from the economics dom ain to reading of the statements, the focus is on the content of the subjects’
the field of education, and whether the specific interpretation involves observations and experiences. In a second perspective involving a
a reasonable use o f the commodity categories. The validity o f the symptomatical reading, the subjects’ own relations to the phenomena
interpretation w ill, in this case, depend on a dialogue am ong theoreti­ they describe are the topic of interest. The pupils interviewed are
cally competent persons with a knowledge of the current position of representatives of pupils in general, they are objects subjected to the
Marxist theory. effects of grading, their statements represent the effects that grades
have on pupils. In this approach the pupils’ own relationships to the
IN T E R P R E T A T IO N O F C O N T E N T O R O F P ER SO N phenomena are of interest, such as resistance toward talking about
specific aspects of grading, hesitance when describing wheedling,
Until now I have focused on the validity of the researcher’s inter­ denial of grades’ influence on the school situation, or a distinct
pretation of the interviewee’s statement. Validity also pertains to the exaggeration of the grades’ influence.
content of the subjects’ statements. W hat the subjects tell may be true The different questions of validity raised by a veridical or a symp­
or false, they can be a reliable or unreliable witness about their own tomatical reading can be illustrated in relation to the following
behavior and that of others. statement:
As one approach to the validity of a subject’s statement, a distinc­
tion between two perspectives toward the interviewee w ill be made: Grades are often unjust, because very often— very often— they are only
as an informant, a subject, a witness; or as a representative, as an object a measure for liovv much you talk and for how m uch you agree w ith the
of analysis. H am let’s interview of Polonius may again be used (C hap­ teacher’s opinion.
ter 8, H am let’s Interview). From an inform ant’s perspective on what
the cloud looks like, the content of Polonius’s answers is, due to The interview context for this statement was presented earlier (Chap­
H am let’s leading questions, worthless. From a representative perspec­ ter 1, Conversation as Research). In a veridical reading of the state­
tive, the indirect message about Polonius’s credibility is for Ham let a ment above, the pupil gives a rather precise form ulation of two beliefs:
matter of life or death. Grades arc very often only a measure for (a) how much you talk, and
In the interview by Socrates and the one reported by Giorgi, the (b) how much you agree with the teacher’s opinion.
subjects were regarded as informants, providing conceptual kno w l­ Both assertions can, in principle, be empirically verified or falsified.
edge on love and beauty and empirical knowledge of the nature of A “triangulation” may be used here. This means that the same phe­
learning, respectively (Chapter 2). In the therapeutic interview re­ nom enon is investigated from different angles to determine its exact
ported by Rogers, the content of the client’s accusations of the location, in the present context by including different informants and
therapist hating her were likely distorted (Chapter 2). The probably methods to determine its precise meaning and validity. Concerning
false accusations represented, however, something im portant about “ informant-triangulation,” several other pupils when interviewed also
the client making the accusations, which she, assisted by the therapist’s pointed to a connection between am ount of speech and grades ob­
reflections of her statements, eventually realized herself. tained, as well as that an adaptation to the teacher’s opinions led to
220 InterV icw s The Plurality of Interpretations 221

P R O D U C T IO N O F A N IN V A L ID U N D E R S T A N D IN G
higher grades. W hen the two assertions were presented in a question­
naire to a larger sample of pupils, a majority confirmed the first In the grade interviews there were several statements that— in a
assertion and rejected the latter (see Box 5.4 in Chapter 5). Both beliefs
veridical reading— had to be incorrect in content. In the passage on
were rejected by the teachers interviewed. The assertions are not new;
wheedling quoted above, the other pupils, but not the interviewee,
for example, one or both have been put forward earlier by another
wheedled. O f the 30 pupils interviewed, no one said that they them ­
“inform ant”— the rector at the University of Copenhagen, Ludvig
selves wheedled, but 8 reported directly, included in Figure 11.3, and
Llolberg, who in a speech in 1736 criticized the university’s examina­
8 others indicated that other pupils wheedled. From an informant
tions for primarily rewarding the students’ verbal fluency.
viewpoint, the pupils’ reliability as witnesses on the presence of
By applying an ad hoc “method-triangulation,” an indirect support
wheedling must thus be questioned, because a large number of the
for the veridicality o f the first talkativity statement was found. W hen statements were obviously invalid, either in their reports about others
reading through the interviews from the 30 pupils it was striking how
or about themselves.
the interviews varied in number of pages, even though one school hour Yet in a symptomatic reading the empirically incorrect statements
had been set aside for each interview. Following a hunch, 1 ranked the on wheedling may provide im portant knowledge about the psycho­
interviews according to number of pages, then correlated that to the logical situation in which the pupils are placed by the grading system—
pupils’ grade point averages. The resulting correlation was 0.65, with why they were led to produce a distorted understanding. W heedling
a chance probability of p < .0 0 1. There is thus a significant connection appears to Danish high school pupils to be an unacceptable behavior
between how much the pupils talked during the interviews and their that they w ould rather not recognize in themselves, but that some
grade point averages. The connection, however, is open to several believe is necessary to achieve high grades. It refers to a basic am bi­
interpretations: D o the pupils get high grades because they generally
guity in the teacher-pupil relationship; the pupils may experience the
talk a great deal? O r are pupils who get high grades more reflected on same activities in themselves as a genuine interest in the subject matter
the issues of grading, and more at ease with talking with an interviewer and in the others as a deliberately calculating exchange attitude in
about grades? order to maximize grades. In this situational analysis, grade behavior
In the present method context it may be noted that an ad hoc is deindividualized and interpreted as the pupils’ subjective attempts
approach to meaning generation led to a significant quantitative to solve the contradictory demands of a school situation where their
relationship, which raises questions for further qualitative interpreta­ learning is graded.
tions. To conclude from an informant perspective, an inform ant and The symptomatic reading concerns the origin of an invalid under­
a method triangulation provide some, but not conclusive, support for standing in the conditions of the subject’s life w orld that produce and
the empirical validity of the pupil’s assertion of a connection between sustain an inadequate conception of social reality. In his development
talkativity and grades. of psychoanalysis, Freud was shocked to discover that a number of the
Even if the statement in a veridical reading had been strongly patients’ stories about being exposed to sexual seduction in childhood,
falsified on an empirical level, it could, in a symptomatic reading, which he had regarded as valid, turned out to be imaginary according
represent im portant knowledge about the effects of grading on the to new in form atio n. The false stories about sexual seductions had
pupils. Two questions for a symptomatic reading, going in different been an im portant basis of a sexual theory on the origin of neuroses.
temporal directions, arc: (a) H ow does a partly invalid understanding The discovery that maily of the patients’ stories were empirically false
of the basis for grading arise, how is it produced? (b) W hat are the led to a crisis of psychoanalytic theory, until Freud performed a
consequences of a partly invalid understanding of the basis for grading “Coperpican reversal” : the decisive point for the development of a
for everyday life at school? neurosis was not the seixual events themselves, but the fantasies about
the sexual events.
 The Plurality of Interpretations 223
Ill ' In te rvie w s

A related reversal from a veridical to a symptomatic reading of of a class average of 8. The pupils’ belief is invalid according to the
distorted stories is found in an English study by Hagan (1986). official Danish rules on grading, and also according to the teachers
M others who lived in slum areas were interviewed about their expe­ interviewed.
riences with the social welfare system. They had many stories of Although the pupils’ belief— that there has to be a given grade
hum iliating encounters with social workers. 15y including other evi­ average in a class—-in all likelihood is empirically false, it is part of
dence, Hagan found that some of the episodes told about harsh and their social reality and may have consequences for their actions at
degrading treatment by the staff had to be exaggerated and distorted. school. Several pupils reported that the belief that the class was graded
H er first reaction was to reject the interview method, as it provided on the curve led to a destructive competition ranging from passive
unreliable inform ation about the staff’s behavior. She adopted another omission of helping others to active attempts at obstructing other
perspective, however, and read the biased accounts as expressions, pupils, for fear o f others improving their grades with the consequence
symptoms, of the mothers’ degrading life situations. Their self-respect of one’s own position on the grade scale deteriorating.
was strongly threatened by having to live on welfare. The distortion Although the content of the statement about a fixed grade average
of their interaction with the welfare personnel could be seen as one is in a veridical reading likely to be invalid, it provides in a consequen­
means of sustaining the welfare clients’ self-respect vis-a-vis the inter­ tial reading important knowledge about the background for such pupil
viewer and possibly also for themselves. behaviors as a destructive competition for grades. In sociology, the
None of the above interpretations are definitive. Thus Freud’s phenom enon that empirically false beliefs may have real social conse­
retraction o f the childhood seduction theory o f neurosis has later been quences is termed the Thomas theorem— if people believe ideas are
criticized by feminist scholars. They see his reinterpretation as a flight real, they arc real in their consequences.
from his earlier provocative discoveries o f sexual abuse in a Victorian
society and toward a more innocuous theory of fantasies more accept­ Q U E S T IO N S PUT T O TEXTS
able to a bourgeois society.
I have shown above how different questions put to interview texts
TI IK C O N S E Q U E N C E S O F A N IN V A L ID U N D E R S T A N D IN G lead to different answers. Thus one type of question led to an
experiential reading of the pupils’ statements, clarifying the under­
F^mpirically false interview statements can have real consequences standing the pupils themselves had of grading. Another type of ques­
for the subjects’ behavior. In the following statement, the number 8 tion led to a veridical reading, investigating the validity of the pupils’
stands for the average grade on the Danish grading scale: inform ation about the effects of grades, here regarding the pupils as
witnesses or informants. The questioning also involved a symptomatic
You m ight take 8 as the average grade in a class. A nd then, if you w ant reading, focusing on the pupils themselves and their reasons for
more than 8, you have to make yourself more noticed by the teacher making a ccrtain statement. There was finally a consequential reading,
than the other pupils. So, in order to deserve a higher grade, it almost
addressing the consequences of the pupils’ beliefs about grading for
unavoidably has to be done at the expense o f others.
the school situation. The questions drew on different contexts of
interpretation in which the validation o f the answers involved differ­
This pupil and several others were convinced that there had to be
ent communities, such as the interviewed pupils themselves, the
a certain grade average in a class and that the teacher then had only a
general public, and the research community.
limited number of high grades to distribute among all the pupils. If
A first point to be made here is the length of the analysis; the inter­
one pupil got a higher grade, then another pupil iu the class must
pretations fill more than 10 times as many pages as the pupil’s original
automatically get a lower grade in order to m aintain the assumption
224 Interviews The Plurality of Interpretations 225

statements; see also the earlier interpretations of H am let’s interview T he Q u e s t for “ T h e R eal M e a n in g ”
and of the 1,000-page question. These analyses entail an expansion of
the original interview text, which is hardly feasible for every one of A com mon question asked of interview researchers goes something
several hundred pages of interview texts. In the present case, the many like “H o w do you know you get to know what the person really
hundred remaining pages served as a background context for the means?” A tem pting reply: “W hat do you really mean by ‘really
above interpretations of selected statements on wheedling, instrumen­ means’ ?” w ill probably not lead anywhere.
tal m otivation, talkativity and grades, and competition. Guessing at the meaning of “the ‘real m eaning’ question” suggests
A second point is that the interview quotes selected here are not a belief in the existence o f some basic meaning nuggets stored some­
typical of the interviews as a whole, but contain particularly poignant where, to be discovered and uncovered, uncontam inated, by the
and complex descriptions of phenomena reported less vividly by other objective techniques o f an interviewer understood as a miner digging
pupils. They were selected from a theoretical perspective in that they up precious buried metals. The “ real m eaning” question is a leading
point to key issues for the understanding of the impact of grading for question, in this case leading to endless pursuits of an undefined and
the pupils. fictitious entity. The quest for real, true meanings came to an end in
A third point is that several of these theoretically interesting state­ philosophy some years ago. Interview researchers might still go on
ments were very difficult to categorize unequivocally with respect to w ild goose chases, hunting the real meanings of their subjects’ expe­
their meaning. The vagueness, ambiguities, and contradictions of such riences. Psychotherapists might still be digging for real meanings in
statements were sources of error in the attempt to obtain categoriza­ the deep interior o f their patients’ unconscious psyches. Both conceive
tions with a high intcrsubjective reliability, yet from an interpreta- of truth as found, not as made.
tional perspective they point to essential aspects of the phenomena A meaning storage conception involved in the question of real
studied. meanings raises issues of where the meanings are stored and also of
A fourth point is that different interpretations of the same interview w ho owns the meanings o f a statement. An imagined dialogue can
passage need not be the result of haphazard or biased subjectivity, but illustrate the issue of ownership of meanings:
result from different research questions. W hat then becomes im por­
tant is to formulate explicitly the questions put to a text, and in some A: Did you really mean that?
cases also to argue the relevance and legitimacy ol these questions. In 15: N o , th a t is n o t w h a t I said.
the above interpretation this concerns, for example, the legitimacy of
A: O h yes, you said it and you did mean it!
applying an economic commodity perspective to school learning.
B: I know what I wanted to say, and I know that I did not mean what
A fifth point is that the questions posed to the pupils’ statements,
you say I meant!
and the distinctions made, do not belong to some fixed interpreta-
tional scheme. They were developed during the analysis o f the grade A: i know you, and 1 know what you really mean!
interviews and are content and context specific. They arose from the
nature of the interview topic— the social context of grading— as well In this interchange, two things are disputed: the true meaning of a

as from a hermeneutical approach to meaning interpretation and from statement is explicitly disputed, and, somewhat more im plicitly, who
has the right and the power to determine the real meaning of the
the specific theoretical perspectives adopted. The questions posed
statement— the speaker of the original statement or the interpreting
here to the grading interviews may be relevant for interpretations of
partner. An interrelational approach would regard the meanings of
other types of interviews, but likely in other forms that are adapted
the conversation as belonging to neither, but existing between the
to their specific research topic and research questions.
subjects, in their inter-action. An interrelational interpretation of the

*
226 111
Interviews The Plurality o f Interpretations

conversation sees the interchange as a powqr game, a contest for who view.” A critical reading demystifies via a hermeneutics of suspicion;
in the relationship possesses the right to attribute the definite meaning it seeks deeper truth underlying the hegemonic discourse of the texts.
to a statement. The reader assumes the role of the emancipator o f self and/or other,
A miner metaphor o f interview research entails a belief in the world seeking a truth beyond ideologies and false consciousness. The reader
as objectively given in meanings or numbers to be uncovered by calls attention to larger social, political, and economical issues, assum­
scientific research. The search for real-meaning nuggets leads to a ing an advocatory role, with the danger of attempting to speak for
reification of the subjective rather than to an unfolding, a differentia­ others, of saying what they want and need. A deconstructive reading
tion, and an enrichment o f the subjective. In an intcrrelational con­ proliferates, destabilizes, and denaturalizes. The text is read as docu­
ception, the interviewer is a traveling reporter who reports stories in mentation for its unconscious silences and unspoken assumptions. A
which meanings are created through conversational interactions. deconstructive reading makes use of drawing, artistry, literary prac­
A postmodern approach forgoes the search o f true fixed meanings tices, and blurs the fact/fiction distinction. These different readings
and emphasizes descriptive nuances, differences, and paradoxes. suggested by Lather (1995) involve different questions posed to the
There is a change from a substantial to a relational concept o f meaning, text and lead to different answers about the meaning of the text.
with a move from the modern search lor (he one true and real meaning W ith a transition from an individual storage conception of meaning
to a relational unfolding of meanings. Different interpreters construct­ to an intcrrelational constitution o f meaning in the original interview
ing different meanings o f an interview story is then not a weakness, conversation— and in the readers’ conversations with the interview
but a strength of the interview method. Meanings and numbers are text— the social and power relationships of subject and researcher
constructions o f a social reality. The interview gives no direct access become more obvious. Does the interviewer ow n the meanings con­
to unadulterated provinces of pure meanings, but is a social produc­ structed in and on an interview, interpreting it within his or her
tion of meanings through linguistic interaction: The interviewer is a selected contexts? O r should the original “authors” of the interview
co-producer and coauthor of the resulting interview text. In this statements have their say in the interpretation and communication of
intcrrelational conception the interviewer docs not uncover some their stories? This is not only an issue of validity of interpretation, but
preexisting meanings, but supports the interviewees in developing of ethics and power, of the right and the power to attribute meaning
their meanings throughout the course of the interview. to the statements of others.
From a postmodern perspective, Lather (1995) has discussed the In the imagined meaning dialogue above, the partners appeared to
intcrrelational construction of meaning during the reading of texts. be on an equal social level, while contesting who was in power. If the
We read within a range of conventions, and she addresses the question m eaning interpreter had the status o f a professional expert, the
o f how we can learn to read our ow n ways o f reading. Rejecting any original speaker might more humbly have accepted the “ real” mean­
simple analytical frame, her goal is to proliferate, juxtapose, and create ings attributed to him or her. The expert might, as “ the great inter­
disjunctions am ong different ways of reading, working toward a preter,” appropriate the meaning from the subject’s world and recon-
multilayered data analysis. Inspired by van M aanen’s (1988) accounts tcxtualize the original intcrrelational meanings in his or her
of different ethnographic genres in Tales of the Meld (see Chapter 14, theoretical schemes. These can be meaningful and legitimate as new
W riting as Social Construction), Lather outlines different readings of stories told by the interpreter, but if reified as the real meaning of the
the same text. Although her portrayal of reading styles pertains to a interview subject, or as the real unconscious meaning of the patient,
textbook, the styles may well be transposed to the reading of interview they become more problematic. Interview research involves the dan­
texts. In a realist reading there is a search for the “native’s” point of ger of an “expertification” of meanings where the expert expropriates
view and of finding the text’s essence and truth. The reader assumes the meanings from the subjects’ lived world and reifies them into his
an observational and descriptive role, adopting a “god’s eye point of or her categories to express some more basic reality. It should here
228 interviews

not be overlooked that the implicit, or unconscious, meanings attrib­

13
uted to interviewees and patients may often simply be the explicit and
conscious theories of the expert interpreter.
Eco (1990, 1992) has addressed the vicissitudes of interpretation
in academic texts and in his novels. The Name of the Rose (1984) can
be read as a parody of the modern meaning hunters; as a critique of
the modern quest for true and objective meanings, o f “an insane
passion for truth” expressed in the intellectual dogmatism of the
scholastic disputes at the university of Paris; as well as o f the empiricist
protagonist “detective” searching for the objective truth while at­
tempting to solve a mystery that turns out to be very much o f his own
making. The Social Construction
In his later novel Foucault’s Pendulum (1989), the caricatures are
turned toward the relativism of the New Age, with its unlim ited inter­
of Validity
pretations where everything can mean everything, as in the following
I now turn to the issue of how to get beyond the extremes of a
passage on the interpretation of quantitative measurements:
subjective relativism where everything can mean everything, and an
absolutist quest for the one and only true, objective meaning.
“T ruths?” Aglie laughed . . . “Still, am id all the nonsense there are
some unim peachable truths. Gentlem en, w ould you follow me to the Verification of knowledge is com monly discussed in the social
w in d o w ?” sciences in relation to the concepts of reliability, validity, and gener-
H e threw open the shutters dramatically and pointed. A t the corner alizability. The main emphasis in this chapter will be on validation,
o f the narrow street and the broad avenue, stood a little w ooden kiosk, treating the interdependence of philosophical understandings of truth,
where, presumably, lottery tickets were sold.
social science concepts of validity, and the practical issues of verifying
“G entlem en,” he said, “ I invite you to go and measure that kiosk. You
interview knowledge. Classical conceptions of truth will be included
will see that the length o f the counter is one hundred and forty-nine
centimeters— in other words, one hundred-billionth o f the distance as well as a postmodern approach leading to validity as social con­
between the earth and the sun. The height at the rear, one hundred and struction. The ensuing practical consequences for interview research
seventy-six centimeters, divided by the w idth o f the w indow , fifty-six involve an emphasis on the quality of the craftsmanship of research
centimeters, is 3.14. The height at the front is nineteen decimeters, equal,
and on communicative and pragmatic forms of validation.
in other words, to the num ber o f years o f the Greek lunar cycle. The
sum o f the heights o f the tw o front corners and the tw o rear corners is
one hundred and ninety times two plus one hundred and seventy-six
times tw o, which equals seven hundred and thirty-two, the date o f the The T rinity o f G eneralizability,
victory at Poitiers. The thickness o f the counter is 3.10 centimeters, and Reliability, and V alidity
the w id th of the cornice o f the w in d o w is 8.8 centimeters. Replacing the
numbers before the decimals by the corresponding letters o f the
In modern social science the concepts of generalizability, reliability,
alphabet, we obtain C for ten and H for eight, or C io H s, w hich is the
form ula for naphthalene.”
and validity have reached the status o f a scientific holy trinity. They
“ Fantastic,” I said. “You did all these measurements?” (Kco, p. 288). appear to belong to some abstract realm in a sanctuary of science far
removed from the interactions of the everyday world, and to be
worshipped with respect by all true believers in science.

229
230 I n te r V i e w s The Social Construction of Validity 231

As an introduction to the multiple contexts and discourses of Some qualitative researchers have a different attitude toward ques­
verification and the social construction of kriowledge, I will: start with tions of validity, reliability, and generalizability. These are simply
a history of my own encounters with the poncept of validity. As a ignored or dismissed as some oppressive positivist concepts that
student of psychology in Norway in the 1960s, I read heavy texts on hamper a creative and emancipatory qualitative research. Other quali­
the importance of validity, reliability, and generalizability in scientific tative researchers— Lincoln and Cuba (1985), for instance— have
research. I tried to memorize the definitions o f predictive validity, gone beyond the relativism of a rampant antipositivism and have
concurrent validity, content validity, and face validity, and struggled reclaimed ordinary language terms to discuss the truth value of their
to understand the concept o f construct validity. The very terms findings, using concepts such as trustworthiness, credibility, depend­
validity and reliability did not belong to the Norwegian vernacular, ability, and confirmability.
but were foreign English-Latin terms. The psychometric discussions From a postmodern perspective issues of reliability, validity, and
o f validity appeared abstract and esoteric, as if belonging to some generalizability are sometimes discarded as leftovers from a modernist
distant philosophical universe together with Kant’s transcendental a correspondence theory of truth. There are multiple ways of knowing

prioris and the like. and m ultiple truths, and the concept of validity indicates a firm

As a student I dared to ask some natural scientists on campus about boundary line between truth and nontruth. In contrast hereto, Lather

these fundam ental scientific concepts, and was somewhat bewildered (1995), from a feminist post-structural frame valorizing practice,
to find that the very terms of the methodological holy trinity of addresses validity as an incitement to discourse, a fertile obsession,
psychological science were often unfam iliar to natural scientists. The and attempts to reinscribe validity in ways that use the postmodern

concepts were, however, very real to us students of psychology; problematic to loosen the master code of positivism.

generalizability, validity, and reliability were frequently used as ex­ I will return to external critiques of the trustworthiness o f interview
am ination topics to differentiate between students w ho had, and those findings in the book’s conclusion, Chapter 15. In the present chapter
w ho had not, pledged allegiance to the scientific trinity of psychology. I w ill attempt to conceptualize generalizability, reliability, and validity
W hen later traveling in the United States I learned other meanings in ways appropriate to qualitative research. The discussion represents
for the terms validity and reliability; for example, when told while a rather moderate postmodernism; although rejecting the notion of
cashing a check in the supermarket that my European driver’s license an objective universal truth, it accepts the possibility of specific local,
was not valid as identification, or in an academic discussion that my personal, and community forms of truth, with a focus on daily life and
argument was not valid. O r that the inform ation about the used car I local narrative (Kvale, 1992; Rosenau, 1992). The present approach
was looking at was not reliable, the car dealer was known to be an is not to reject the concepts of reliability, generalizability, and validity,
unreliable person. Here the terms valid and reliable belong to the but to reconceptualize them in forms relevant to interview research.
vernacular, im portant to the ongoing interactions of everyday life. The understanding of verification starts in the lived world and daily
W hen I became engaged in qualitative research, the positivist trinity language where issues of reliable observations, of generalization from

emerged again, now employed by mainstream researchers to disqualify one case to another, of valid arguments, arc part of everyday social
qualitative research. The stimulus “qualitative research interview” interaction.
appeared automatically to trigger conditioned responses like: “The
results are not reliable, they are produced by leading interview ques­
tions” ; “The interview findings cannot be generalized, there are too Generalizability
few interview subjects” ; and “The results are not valid, they are only
based on subjective interpretations.” A persistent question posed to interview studies is whether the
results are generalizable. In everyday life we generalize more or less
232 I ii t e r V i e w s The Social Construction of Validity 23 3

spontaneously. From our experience with one situation or person we M ore often, interview subjects are not selected at random but by
anticipate new instances, we form expectations of what will happen other criteria, such as typicality or extremeness, or simply by accessi­
in other similar situations or with similar persons. Scientific knowledge bility. For example, an interview sample of wom en who have turned
also lays claim to generalizability; in positivist versions, the aim of to a help center for victims of violence are a self-selected and not a
social science was to produce laws of human behavior that could be random sample from the population. Their strong motivation for help
generalized universally. A contrasting humanistic view implies that may lead to valuable knowledge on the nature of being subjected to
every situation is unique, each phenomenon has its own intrinsic violence. The findings of the self-selected sample cannot, however, be
structure and logic. W ithin psychology, universal laws o f behavior statistically generalized to the population at large.
have been sought by natural science-oriented schools such as behav­ Analytical generalization involves a reasoned judgment about the
iorism, whereas the uniqueness of the individual person has dominated extent to which the findings from one study can be used as a guide to
in humanistic psychology. In a postmodern approach the quest for what might occur in another situation. It is based on an analysis of the
universal knowledge, as well as the cult of the individually unique, is similarities and differences of the two situations. In contrast to spon­
replaced by an emphasis on the heterogeneity and contextuality of taneous naturalistic generalization, the researcher here bases the gen­
knowledge, with a shift from generalization to contextualization. eralization claims on an assertation.il logic. There are several forms of
assertational logic, such as the legal form of argumentation in court
Forms of (icneralizability. The issue of qualitative generalization and arguments for generalization based on theory. By specifying the
has been treated particularly in relation to case studies. Stake (1994) supporting evidence and making the arguments explicit, the re­
provides this definition: “Qualitative case study is characterized by the searcher can allow readers to judge the soundness of the generalization
main researcher spending substantial time, on site, personally in claim (sec also Yin, 1994, on inductive generalization).
contact with activities and operations of the case, reflecting, revising In her article, “Generalizing From Single Case Studies” in system
meanings of what is going o n ” (p. 242). Three forms of generalizabil­ evaluation, Kennedy (1979) argues for establishing rules for drawing
ity will be outlined based on Stake’s discussion of generalization from inferences about the generality of qualitative findings from a case
case studies— naturalistic, statistical, and analytic. study, rules o f inference that reasonable people can agree on. Whereas
Naturalistic generalization rests on personal experience: It develops the scientist tends to study specific cases in order to draw inferences
for the person as a function of experience; it derives from tacit about the general case, the practitioner draws on knowledge o f the
knowledge of how things are and leads to expectations rather than general case to form interpretations o f and actions in the specific case.
formal predictions; it may become verbalized, thus passing from tacit As one point of departure, Kennedy turns to practical situations in the
knowledge to explicit propositional knowledge. legal and the clinical fields.
Statistical generalization is formal and explicit: It is based on sub­ In case law it is the most analogous preceding case, the one with
jects selected at random from a population. W ith the use of inferential the most attributes similar to the actual case, that is selected as the
statistics the confidence level of generalizing from the selected sample most relevant precedent. The validity o f the generalization hinges on
to the population at large can be stated in probability coefficients. the extent to which the attributes compared are relevant, which again
W hen the interviewees arc selected at random and the interview rests upon rich, dense, thick descriptions of the case. Kennedy outlines
findings quantified, the findings may be subjected to statistical gener­ criteria for relevant attributes of comparison in legal and clinical cases,
alization. Thus for the correlation found between talkativity and grade the latter instance encompassing precision of description, longitudinal
point average it was possible to state that there was only 1/ 1,000 inform ation, and multidisciplinary assessment.
probability that this was a chance finding limited to the 30 randomly In case law, the court decides whether a previous case offers a
chosen pupils of the grade study (Chapter 12, Questions Posed to an precedent that can be generalized to the case being tried:
Interview Text).
234 Interviews The Social Construction of Validity 235

Thus it is the receiver o f the info rm atio n wh(> determines the applicabil­ whereby M arx ’s analysis of wage labor became increasingly gcner-
ity o f a finding to a new s itu a tio n .. . . Like generalizations in law , clinical alizable to the situation of workers at large.
generalizations are the responsibility o f the receiver o f info rm atio n
A third target of generalization is what could be— locating situ­
rather than the original generator o f info rm atio n, and the evaluator must
ations that we believe are ideal and exceptional and studying them to
be careful to provide sufficient inform ation to make such generalizations
possible. (Kennedy, 1979, p. 672) see what goes on there. As examples, Schofield mentions school classes
w ith unusual intellectual gains and also well-functioning racially
Researcher and Reader Generalization. There is an issue here of who desegregated schools. In constructivist and postmodern approaches
should conduct the analytical generalization from the qualitative the emphasis on the “could be” is extended from preconceived ideals
research case— the researcher or the reader and the user? H o w much to more open forms. Donmoyer (1990) thus advocates the use of case
should the researcher formalize and argue generalizations or leave the studies to teach readers to envisage possibilities, to expand and enrich
generalizing to the reader? In science, it has com m only been the the repertoire of social constructions available to practitioners and
researcher who builds up and argues for the generality of his or her others. We may here add the interest in ethnographic studies as cases
findings— through statistical procedures or by an assertational logic. demonstrating the rich varieties of human behavior, also indicating
For the legal and the clinical cases discussed by Kennedy, it is the judge possible ranges for our own society. Gcrgen (1992) depicts the con­
or the clinician w ho makes the judgment o f whether a previous case struction of new worlds as one potential of a postmodern psychology.
was sufficiently analogous to be used as a precedent for the present Rather than “telling it like it is,” the challenge is “to tell it as it may
case. In both instances it is paramount that sufficient evidence is become.” A “generative” theory is designed to unseat conventional
provided by the researcher for the analytic generalizations to be made. thought and thereby open new and desirable alternatives for thought
An example of a reader generalization that can be mentioned is Freud’s and action. Rather than mapping only what is, or predicting future
therapeutic case stories, where his descriptions and analyses have been cultural trends, research becomes one means of transforming culture.
so vivid and convincing that readers today still generalize many of the
findings to current cases.
Reliability and V alidity of Interviews
Targets of Generalization. Schofield (1990) has suggested three
targets for generalization. The first is studying ivhat is— attempting to T hroughout this book I have emphasized that issues of verification
establish the typical, the com m on, the ordinary. One seeks to m axi­ do not belong to some separate stage of an investigation, but should
mize the fit between the research case and what takes place more be addressed throughout the entire research process. As an introduc­
broadly in a society. A second target is what may be— here the aim of tion to conceptual issues of validity and truth, some concrete issues of
generalizing is not what is, but what may be. Schofield mentions a the reliability and validity of interview inquiries from previous chap­
study of the use of computers in school that did not select average- ters will be briefly recapitulated.
representative schools, but schools at the leading edge of integrating
computers in teaching. This was done on the assumption that the most Reliability. Reliability pertains to the consistency of the research
advanced cases might provide findings generalizable to the future role findings. Issues of reliability during interviewing, transcribing, and
of computers in schools. A historical example may be added here— at analyzing have been treated in the previous chapters. Interviewer
the time when M arx analyzed the situation of the wage laborers and reliability was in particular discussed in relation to leading questions,
the contradictions of the use versus the exchange value of labor, wage which— when they arc not a deliberate part of an interviewing tech­
laborers made up only a small percentage of the working population. nique— may inadvertently influence the answers, such as in the exam­
Decades later, wage labor became the dom inating form o f labor, ple of different wordings of a question about car speeds leading to
236 Interviews The Social Construction of Validity 237

different answers (Chapter K, Leading Questions). Interviewer reli­

ability in the grade study was discussed on the basis of the categoriza­
Box 13.1
tions o f the subjects’ answers (Chapter 11, Control of Analysis). Under
transcription of interviews, *n example was given of the intersubjec-
V a lid a tio n at Seven Stages
tive reliability of the transcripts when the same passage was typed by
two different persons (Chapter 9, Transcription Reliability and V alid­
ity). D uring categorization of the grading interviews, percentages were
1. Thematizing. The validity o f an investigation rests on
reported for the intersubjective agreement between two coders for the
the soundness of the theoretical presuppositions of a study
same interviews (Chapter 11, Control of Analysis). Though increasing
and on the logic of the derivations from theory to the
the reliability of the interview findings is desirable in order to coun­
research questions o f the study.
teract haphazard subjectivity, a strong emphasis on reliability may
2. Designing. The validity of the knowledge produced
counteract creative innovations and variability.
depends on the adequacy of the design and the methods
used for the subject matter and purpose of the study. From
Validity. Although validation is treated in this chapter as a separate
an ethical perspective, a valid research design involves
stage, it concerns all seven stages of an interview investigation. In the
beneficence— producing knowledge beneficial to the h u ­
present approach, the emphasis on validation is moved from inspec­
man situation while m inim izing harmful consequences.
tion at the end of the production line to quality control throughout
the stages of knowledge production. 3. Interviewing. Validity here pertains to the trustworthi­
Box 13.1 gives an overview of validity issues throughout an inter­ ness o f the subject’s reports and the quality of the inter­
view investigation. Before turning to conceptual issues o f validity, viewing itself, which should include a careful questioning
as to the meaning o f what is said and a continual checking
including validation as social construction, a brief outline of generali­
of the inform ation obtained as a validation in situ.
zation by qualitative studies will be given.
4. Transcribing. The question of what constitutes a valid
translation from oral to written language is involved in the
V alid ity in M o d e r n an d P ostm odern C o nte x ts choice o f linguistic style for the transcript.
5. Analyzing. This has to do with whether the questions
Ascertaining validity involves issues of truth and knowledge. I will put to an interview text are valid and whether the logic of
first discuss some meanings of validity, then include classical concep­ the interpretations is sound.
tions of truth, and thereafter discuss postmodern conceptions of 6 . Validating. This entails a reflected judgment as to what
knowledge. The practical implications for interview research arc then forms o f validation are relevant to a specific study, the
treated with respect to validity as craftsmanship in research, as com ­ application of the concrete procedures of validation, and a
munication and action. decision on what the appropriate com m unity is for a dia­
In ordinary language dictionaries, validity refers to the truth and logue on validity.
correctness of a statement. A valid argument is sound, well grounded, 7. Reporting. This involves the question of whether a
justifiable, strong, and convincing. A valid inference is correctly given report is a valid account of the main findings of a
derived from its premises. In social science textbooks one finds both study, as well as the role of the readers of the report in
a narrow and a broad definition of validity. In a positivist approach, validating the results.
scientific validity became restricted to measurements: for instance,
 Interviews The Social Construction of Validity 239

“Validity is often defined by asking the quesnon: Arc you measuring expressed as its degree of correspondence with an objective reality.
what you think you are measuring?” (Kerlinger, 1979, p. 13j8). Q u a li­ The coherence criterion has been strong in mathematics and herme­
tative research is then invalid if it does not result in numbers. In a neutics. The pragmatic criterion has prevailed in pragmatism and to
broader concept, validity pertains to the degree that a method inves­ a certain extent in Marxist philosophy. The three truth criteria can be
tigates what it is intended to investigate, to ‘‘the extent to which our regarded as abstractions from a unity, where a comprehensive verifi­
observations indeed reflect the phenom ena or variables of interest cation of qualitative research findings will involve observation, con­
to us” (Pervin, 1984, p. 48). W ithin this wider conception of valid­ versation, and interaction.
ity, qualitative research can, in principle, lead to valid scientific The belief in an objective world has been the basis of a modernist
knowledge. understanding of truth and validity. In a positivist philosophy, know l­
Textbook presentations have been based on positivist epistemologi- edge became a reflection of reality: There is only one correct view of
cal assumptions with a correspondence theory of truth. Thé standard this independent external world, and there is ideally a one-to-one
definitions of validity have been taken from the criteria developed for correspondence between elements in the real world and our know l­
psychological tests as formalized by Cronbach and Meehl in 1955. In edge of this world. In a postmodern era, the foundations of true and
psychology, validity became linked to psychometrics, where the con­ valid knowledge in a medieval absolute G od or a modern objective
current and predictive validity of the psychological tests were declared reality have dissolved. The conception of knowledge as a mirror of
in correlation coefficients, indicating correspondence between test reality is replaced by knowledge as a social construction of reality.
results and some external criteria. These psychometric tests, such as Truth is constituted through a dialogue; valid knowledge claims
intelligence tests, have frequently been applied to predict school emerge as conflicting interpretations and action possibilities are dis­
success. The external criterion was here simple— grade point average cussed and negotiated among the members of a community.
in later schooling. W ith a further questioning about what the school In science the decisive point is the conversation in the community
grades measure, the issue becomes more complex. Grades have been of researchers about the relation among the methods, the findings,
found to predict later grades in school, but success after graduation to and the nature of the phenomena investigated. The move from knowl-
a lesser extent. The issue of predictive validity is here not merely an cdge-as-observation to knowledge-as-conversation was illustrated in
empirical issue, but raises such normative questions as what should a recent television program on the development of the natural sci­
the criteria of success be— position in the occupational hierarchy, ences. After showing the newest technical advances in microscopes for
income, contributions to the community? cell studies and giant telescopes for the investigation of space, the
The issue of what is valid knowledge involves the philosophical camera suddenly shifted to a room with elegant 18th-century furni­
question of what is truth. W ithin philosophy, three classical criteria ture. The transition was accompanied by a voice saying something to
of truth are discerned— correspondence, coherence, and pragmatic the effect that: It is not by the techniques of these instruments and the
utility. The correspondence criterion of truth concerns whether a resulting observations that the truth of the new scientific knowledge
knowledge statement corresponds to the objective world. The coher­ is determined, but through discussions about the observations among
ence criterion refers to the consistency and internal logic o f a state­ the scientists, such as in this room of the British Royal Society of
ment. And the pragmatic criterion relates the truth o f a knowledge Sciences.
statement to its practical consequences. The social construction of valid knowledge is brought out in the
Although the three criteria of truth do not necessarily exclude each concept of construct validity, which was originally introduced by the
other, they have each obtained strong positions in different philo ­ psychometricians Cronbach and Meehl for psychological tests. It
sophical traditions. The correspondence criterion has been central pertains to the measurement of theoretical constructs— such as intel­
within a positivist social science where the validity of knowledge is ligence and authoritarianism— by different measures; construct valid-
240 Interviews The Son. ( instruction of Validity 241

ity involves correlations with other measures of the construct and Justification of knowledge is replaced by application, knowledge
logical analysis of their relationships. Cronbach (1971) later extended becomes the ability to perform effective actions. Criteria of efficiency
the concept of construct valjdity to qualitative summaries as well as and their desirability become pivotal, raising ethical issues of right
numerical scores; it is an open process in which to validate is to action. Values do not belong to a realm separated from scientific
investigate— “validation is more than corroboration; it is a process for knowledge, but permeate the creation and application of knowledge.
developing sounder interpretations of observations” (p. 443). Implications of the above discussion for interview research will now
Cherryholmes (1988; see also Tschudi, 1989) has argued that be addressed in relation to validation as craftsmanship, as com m uni­
construct validity is a discursive and rhetorical concept. A construct cation, and as action. This does not lead to new, fixed criteria replac­
and its measurement are validated when the discourse about their ing the psychometric Concepts of validity, nor does it secure unam bi­
relationships is persuasive to the com munity of researchers. A con­ guous knowledge. Rather, it extends the frames of reference for asking
structive conception of validity goes beyond the original discourse of about the validity of knowledge in social research— “Post-modern
psychological testing and experimental design, and opens in Cherry- social science presumes methods that m ultiply paradox, inventing ever
holmes’s analysis to multiple discourses, such as phenomenological, more elaborate repertoires of questions, each of which encourages an
interpretative, critical, and dcconstructive analyses. T his radicali/.a- infinity of answers, rather than methods that settle on solutions”
tion of construct validity brings it close to a postmodern emphasis on (Rosenau, 1992, p. I 17).
the social construction of knowledge.
Some implications of the above discussion for validation of quali­
tative research will now be discussed. First, when giving up a corre­ V alidity as Q u ality o f Craftsm anship
spondence theory of truth as the basis for understanding validity, there
is, following Popper, a change in emphasis from verification to falsi­ I will here attempt to demystify the concept of validity, to bring it
fication. The quest for absolute, certain knowledge is replaced by a back from philosophical abstractions to the everyday practice of
conception of defensible knowledge claims. Validation becomes the scientific research. W ith an alternative concept of validity— going
issue of choosing among competing and falsifiable interpretations, of from correspondence with an objective reality to defensible know l­
examining and providing arguments for the relative credibility of edge claims— validity is ascertained by examining the sources of
alternative knowledge claims (Polkinghorne, 198.5). Validation here invalidity. The stronger the falsification attempts a proposition has
comes to rest on the quality of craftsmanship in research. survived, the more valid, the more trustworthy the knowledge. V ali­
Second, a modern belief in knowledge as a mirror of reality recedes dation comes to depend on the quality of craftsmanship during
and a social construction of reality, with coherence and pragmatic investigation, continually checking, questioning, and theoretically
criteria of truth, comes to the foreground. M ethod as a guarantee of interpreting the findings.
truth dissolves; with a social construction of reality the emphasis is on The concept of validity as quality of craftsmanship is not lim ited to
the discourse of the community. Communication of knowledge be­ a postmodern approach, but becomes pivotal w ith a postmodern dis­
comes significant, with esthetics and rhetorics entering into a scientific missal of an objective'reality against which knowledge is to be mea­
discourse. sured. The craftsmanship and credibility o f the researcher becomes
Third, with a modern legitimation mania receding, there is an essential. Based on the quality of his or her past research in the area,
emphasis upon a pragmatic proof through action. The legitimation of the credibility o f the researcher is an im portant aspect of fellow re­
knowledge through external justification by appeals to some grand searchers ascribing validity to the findings reported. Validity is not only
systems, or meta-narratives, and the modern fundamentalism of secur­ a matter of the methods used; the person of the researcher (Salner,
ing knowledge on some undoubtable, stable fundament, lose interest. 1989), including his dr her moral integrity (Smith, 1990), is critical
242 Interviews The Social Construction of Validity 243

for evaluation of the quality of the scientific knowledge produced. the more attempts at falsification an interpretation has survived, the
Three aspects of validation as investigation w ill now be outlined— stronger it stands.
checking, questioning, and theorizing the knowledge produced.
To Validate Is to Question. W hen ascertaining validity, the ques­
To Validate Is to Check. The researcher adopts a critical outlook on tions of “what” and “why” need to be answered before the question
the analysis, states explicitly his or her perspective on the subject of “ho w ” : The content and purpose of an investigation precedes the
matter studied and the controls applied to counter selective percep­ m ethod. Discussing the question “ D o photographs tell the truth?”
tions and biased interpretations, and in general plays the devil’s Becker (1979) makes the general question “ Is it true?” specific in “Is
advocate toward his or her own findings. this photograph telling the truth about what?” And to decide what a
Various modes o f checking the findings have been suggested by picture is telling us the truth about, he suggests that we should ask
writers on qualitative research. An investigative concept of validation ourselves what questions it might be answering.
is inherent in the grounded theory approach of Glaser and Strauss A common critique of research interviews is that their findings are
(1967). Validation is here not some final verification or product not valid because the subjects’ reports may be false. This is a possibility
control; verification is built into the research process w ith continual that needs to be checked in each specific case (see Dean & Whyte,
checks on the credibility, plausibility, and trustworthiness of the 1969). The issue of validity again depends on the “what” o f the
findings. Miles and Huberman (1994) emphasize that there are no researcher’s questions. In hermeneutical interpretations, the questions
canons or infallible decision-making rules for establishing the validity posed to a text become all-important. In the grading study, the
of qualitative research. Their approach is to analyze the many sources primacy of the question posed to an interview statement was dem on­
of potential biases that might invalidate qualitative observations and strated by the interpretations of pupils’ statements about competition,
interpretations; they outline in detail tactics for testing and confirm ing talkativity, and wheedling (Chapter 12, Questions Posed to an Inter­
qualitative findings. These tactics include: checking for repre­ view Text). Different questions posed to interview texts led to differ­
sentativeness and for researcher effects, triangulating, weighing the ent answers. Thus one type of question led to an experiential reading
evidence, checking the meaning of outliers, using extreme cases, o f the pupils’ statements. Another type of question led to a veridical
follow ing up on surprises, looking for negative evidence, making reading, regarding the interviewees as witnesses or informants. The
if-then tests, ruling out spurious relations, replicating a finding, check­ questioning also involved a symptomatic reading, focusing on the
ing out rival explanations, and getting feedback from informants interviewees themselves and their reasons for making a given state­
(p. 26.?). ment. The forms of validation differ for the different questions to the
Runyan (1981) discussed the validation of multiple interpretations interview texts. In the grade study they varied from a critical follow-up
in psychobiography in relation to the episode of van Gogh cutting off in the interview of the pupils’ statements, to statistical analysis to
his left ear and giving it to a prostitute. M ore than a dozen explana­ verify a pu pil’s postulated connection between talkativity and grades,
tions of this act have been proposed in the literature, ranging from to the coherence of interpretations about the production and the
inspiration by newspaper accounts of Jack the Ripper, to visits to consequences o f beliefs about grading.
bullfights in Arles, to aggression turned inward and a reawakening of Richardson (1994) has taken issue with the geometrical concept of
Oedipal themes. Runyan discusses in detail the credibility and strength triangulation, which was applied above in the validation of a veridical
of the different interpretations. This includes checking the empirical reading of a pupil’s postulate of a connection between talkativity and
evidence for and against an interpretation, examining the theoretical grades (Chapter 12, Questions Posed to an Interview Text). Richard­
coherence, and critically evaluating and comparing the relative plausi­ son rejects the use of a rigid, fixed, two-dimensional triangle as a
bility of the different interpretations given for the same act. In general, central image for validity for postmodern texts, because it contains
244 Interviews The Social Construction o f Validity 245

assumptions of a fixed point or object that can be triangulated: is decided through the argumentation of the participants in a dis­
“Rather, the central image is the crystal, which combines symmetry course. In a hermeneutical approach to meaningful action as a text,
and substance with an infinite variety of shapes, substances, transmu­ Ricoeur (1971) rejects the position that all interpretations of a text
tations, multidimensionalities, and angles of approach” (p. 522). She are equal; the logic of validation allows us to move between the two
then outlines how crystallization by means of postmodern mixed- limits of dogmatism and skepticism. Invoking the hermeneutical circle
genre texts provides us with a deepened, complex, and partial under­ and criteria of falsifiability, he describes validation as an argumenta­
standing of the topic. The multiple questions to, and readings of, the tive discipline comparable to the juridical procedures of legal inter­
pupils’ statements about grades may be seen as crystallizations opening pretation. Validation is based on a logic of uncertainty and of quali­
to continual transformations of the meaning of grades. tative probability, where it is always possible to argue for or against
an interpretation, to confront interpretations and to arbitrate between
To Validate Is to Theorize. Validity is not only an issue of method. them.
Pursuing the methodological issues of validation generates theoretical A communicative approach to validity is found in several ap­
questions about the nature of the phenomena investigated. Deciding proaches in the social sciences. In psychoanalysis the validity o f an
whether a method investigates what it intends to investigate involves interpretation is worked out in a dialogue between patient and thera­
a theoretical conception of what is investigated. In the terms of pist. It is also im plied in evaluation studies of social systems; House
grounded theory, verifying interpretations is an intrinsic part of the (1980) has thus emphasized that in system evaluation, research does
generation of theory. not mainly concern predicting events, but rather whether the audience
The inconclusive results in the grade study of the attempts at an of a report can see new relations and answer new but relevant
informant-triangulation of a pu pil’s belief in a connection between questions. Cronbach (1980) has advocated a discursive approach
talkativity and grades need not merely indicate a problem of method; where validity rests 011 public discussion. The interpretation o f a test
it also raises theoretical questions about the social construction of is going to remain open and unsettled, the more so because of the role
school reality. Pupils and teachers may live in different social realities that values play in action based on tests; the aim for a research report
with regard to which pupil behaviors lead to good grades. It is possible is to advance sensible discussion— and, “The more we learn, and the
that pupils, in a kind of “superstitious” behavior, believe in a connec­ franker we are with ourselves and our clientele, the more valid the use
tion where there is none; or it may be that teachers overlook or deny of tests will become” (p. 107). In a discussion of narrative research,
a relation that actually exists. Ambiguity of the teacher’s bases for Mishler (1990) has conceptualized validation as the social construc­
grading, and contradictory beliefs by pupils and teachers about which tion of knowledge. Valid knowledge claims are established in a
behaviors lead to good grades, appear to be essential aspects o f the discourse through which the results of a study come to be viewed as
social reality of school. The complexities of validating qualitative re­ sufficiently trustworthy for other investigators to rely upon in their
search need not be due to an inherent weakness in qualitative methods, own work.
but may on the contrary rest 011 their extraordinary power to picture W hen conversation is the ultimate context within which knowledge
and to question the complexity of the social reality investigated. is to be understood, as argued by Rorty (Chapter 2, Interviews in
Three Conversations), the nature of the discourse becomes essential.
There is today a danger that a conception of truth as dialogue and
C om m unicative V alidity
communicative validation may become empty global and positive
Communicative validity involves testing the validity of knowledge undifferentiated terms, w ithout the necessary conceptual and theoreti­
claims in a dialogue. Valid knowledge is constituted when conflicting cal differentiations workjed out. Some specific questions concerning
knowledge claims are argued in a dialogue: W hat is a valid observation the how, why, and w ho 6 f com munication will now be raised.
 I; 7 \ Social ■.< ".>< I ton of V l'id it y

I low. C ' >'miunicat ii*i> < -i invc 1■

■- persuasion through rational te n c c in th e ]■
■ i f i c a o a . I ’a L i n g a ! ’ 1l i o n ) ‘ he e o f "ri "• - i n g
c'i- tirse i through I '" ! ' list deria; 1 he f»»tms of p< uasion t e a m s ” in ps\ ■ v t h e r a p y , w h a r e t- : .n c -w a y m irr<" reversed a nd

oî' iii the i ! 1>■h o f ktV"v! -dpe claims \

* ill he dill..-n-iit in ih - harsh i h e f a m i l y it: ■
■ l t m e n i views t h e i h i n p e u t i c t e a m ' s d is c i' i< n: o f

lr : i_nl argumentation >>l a philosophy d dialogue, i i the jm idicnl itieit nteipei - la l h i t e t a c t i o n ( A i r . ! s e n , 1^87), we might a l s o r o ­

pi i edin<T' i’wl legal iiw -ipietaticns ! 1 a courtroom , in a n.uw tive vers • h e d i r e c t i o n in r e s e a r c h a n I h a v e th- s u b j i . >; list«'»’ i and

c.i: > tring a.i indiencc, and in a humanistic therapy encounter based con ni o n ' h e r e s e a r c h e r s ’ c o n v c r . a i o n s ; v > u t th.eii i n t e r v i e w s .

on positive feelings and reciprocal sympathy. V :da' in through negotiations of the i a.invmity of scholars is
Philosophical discourses, such as the dialogues of Socrates, are n o t! ig ne v; in the n a tu ra 1 science.;

characterized by a rational argumentation. The participants are com .u n ity h is been tl ic last, u ltiir - tc c r ite r io n fc* ascert. i . f; the

obliged to 'est statement" about the truth and falsity of propositions tru t o f a p i o ' o s itio n \
\h it is reii -!y ne >v ; ’ q t ati\ rch

ii the social i s is tiu ipha* . i tr u t h r n* ! ite (’ »cal

i' • .lie basi: ! argued points of vie.., and the oi argunit : " i is. 1

c o n te x t, tcnsii 'r o f i ■XI iVC om ity o nle

I disco ! - ideal' a form of ■ vi/nentati< » here r s< oial
lie -.ubjccP -tig a ti •1;'’ ». o la lie C o n •m riv, v; io n
( ion <i . er take ■ , the on rm o f p> i lacing1 I irce
■bett uinen . ij o x im dui ion: lid ‘ •ere . sit! t dev' ' ,a

m un . 1oc w: bo' ;he ana ’ )je<.

'iy. ’’ stion oncern ' , pos see --.’ out a> 1 ;h a n ; , ,„gl < gl
>• ^no«' . W ha: ■
. the aim' .' crit«.i; rivi : t .m e . \he avy ce c ii)je . d ati n r he so

led; . rtna ' :''7 ') dis» h"« * theor -s a « •în 1 ; >ly a lac. vvor ii i pr ! c re; tr- an . of

y of ! • I he i ! !■ >urse • at uni vali ' 1 Mss as .fid e n c e >r i it i et ilh a n hnL ike

cal. 1 ''9 9 1 ) ! .'.ocat : ; .dilative i.e h a s ." i. >ed i t,o n s ib ih the ’ iati< un nc i.st

nno' p an-! .i,;.c the- \lit 'd id w l. i n g it IOÜ pre th< is

poc ids. kno . The here as - • adc r. L* V3 W' lica* v t 'e i - a

isens 1 ia tio n ! ;e,a n ie n tai. i .npet ■

> aers 'lin e r : u S1

.he i iion, i:. , . etatioi . ahn tio n ; :d mem:: » oi nn

itio.,. uion ai ,,iit” (p. 1 i ’ )• I'rom a post modern ; rspec- Vow et i, , iith. • •i 1 • ‘iial i i. «ti Tl-
, I.y o t. c. ^ 1984) nas argued tnat consensus is only a *im;c in a stru c t k n o w i.Ctl^C (.Hi •sill v, a.i i cts . e v’ ch

i.iscussion, ami not its goal, which he posits as paralogy— to create 1 . o fe s sio n s have the i .gii to d c c Y c a l.at is v; ' i ! ' i.ow le c.h c ./i J i i n a

new ideas, new differentiations, new rules lor the disc : To fie ld , su :n a* h e a lth , . :.)i e x a m j K u r th e r m o r e , th e re is the .s pecific

i yotarci, m course is a p. mc be. • i, ad vers t< ! rathei .. dia­ ■ ue t .1 . . - iecul ■H) is a - ' ’ ■
ent V irim a i' : 1er o f

logue between parti es. the in te i P'-et u iv e ( o m m n n ity . 1 1 * ■s e c tio n o ! '^ m b e rs o i i! co ii

n n m it y to ina ke d e cisio n s a b o u t i tit , o f trn i i ,i»; ■v a lu e >co il ‘ idere«;

Who. The concept of c:m m unicative validity r i.ses the .pi -stion of crucial for the results in mat. vscs, such rs in the se le c tio n o i
who communicates . hi' whom. W h o is a leg:t:i.-i.ac partiu . in a dia­ members o f a. jury, o r < • com nr"-e to examine a doctor -1 candidate,
logue about true knowledge? Three interpret'!' e comir.tuvties were or of an academic appointment : urmittcc.
brought in by the validation o f the interviews oi >lading. The member Habermas’s consensus theory of truth is ha- -d on the ideal of a
of the interpretative com munity validating an imerpretarion could be dominance-free dialogue, which is a deliberate abstraction from the
the subject interviewed, x'ur general public intc. p in in g within a critical webs of nom-r relationships within real-liifc discourses, and again in
common sense understanding analogous to a jury, or the scientific contrast w iili I.yotaid's postmodern understanding of a scientific con
community of scholars possessing methodical anti theoretical compe-
248 IiucrVicws
The Social Construction of Validity 249

vcrsation as a game of power. M ore generally, scientists are not pur­

conditions investigated. Also, system evaluation goes beyond the
chased to find truth, but to augment power: “ 1'he games of scientific
correspondence criterion to include pragmatic validity: “The ultimate
language become the games of the rich, in which whoever is wealthiest
tests of the credibility o f an evaluation report is the response of deci­
has the best chance of being right. An equation between wealth,
sion makers and inform ation users to that report” (Patton, 1980,
efficiency and truth is thus established” (Lyotard, 1984, p. 45). p. 339).
W e may discern between two types of pragmatic validation—
whether a knowledge statement is accompanied by action, or whether
Pragmatic V alidity
it instigates changes o f action. In the first case, validation of a subject’s
verbal statement is based on supporting action that accompanies the
Pragmatic validation is verification in the literal sense— “to make
statement. This concerns going beyond mere lip service to a belief, to
true.” To pragmatists, truth is whatever assists us to take actions that
follow ing it up with action. Thus in investigations of racial prejudice,
produce the desired results. Knowledge is action rather than observa­
comprehensive inquiries go beyond a subject’s mere verbal statements
tion, the effectiveness of our knowledge beliefs is demonstrated by the
against racial segregation,and investigate whether the statements are
effectiveness of our action. In the pragmatic validation of a knowledge
also accompanied by appropriate supportive actions.
claim, justification is replaced by application. M arx stated in his
The second, stronger, form of pragmatic validation concerns
second thesis on Feuerbach that the question of whether hum an
whether interventions based on the researcher’s knowledge may insti­
thought can lead to objective truth is not a theoretical but a practical
gate actual changes in behavior. Freud did not rely on the patient’s
one. M an must prove the truth, that is, the reality and power o f his self-understanding and verbal com m unication to validate therapeutic
thinking in practice. And his 1 ltli thesis is more pointed; the philoso­ interpretations; he regarded neither the patient’s “yes” nor “n o ” to
phers have only interpreted the world differently, what matters is his interpretations as sufficient confirm ation or disconfirmation; the
changing the world. “yes” or “n o ” could be the result of suggestion as well as of resistance
A pragmatic concept of validity goes farther than com m unication; in the therapeutic process. Freud recommended more indirect forms
it represents a stronger knowledge claim than an agreement through of validation, such as observing the patient’s reactions to an interpre­
a dialogue. Pragmatic validation rests on observations and interpreta­ tation, for example in the form o f changes in the patient’s free
tions, with a com mitm ent to act on the interpretations— “Actions associations, dreams, recall of forgotten memories, anti alteration of
speak louder than words.” W ith the emphasis on instigating change, neurotic symptoms (Freud, 1963, p. 279). Spence (1982) has followed
a pragmatic knowledge interest may counteract a tendency of social up on the emphasis on the pragmatic effects of interpretations: N ar­
constructionism to circle around in endless interpretations and a rative truth is constructed in the therapeutic encounter, it carries the
plunge of postmodern analyses into infinite deconstructions. conviction of a good story, and it is to be judged by its aesthetic value
A pragmatical knowledge interest in helping patients change is and by the curative effect of its rhetorical force.
intrinsic to the therapeutic interview, where com munication of inter­ In collaborative action research, investigators and subjects together
pretations serves to instigate changes in the patient. For naturalistic develop knowledge of a social situation and then apply this knowledge
inquiry, Lincoln and Guba (1985) have gone farther than consensual through new actions in the situation, thus testing the validity of the
validation and pointed to action-oriented quality criteria for qualita­ knowledge in praxis. Reason (1994) describes a study of health
tive research, such as an inquiry enhancing the level of understand­ workers that was based on participatory inquiry with a systematic
ing of the participants and their ability to take action, empowering testing of theory in live-action contexts. The topic was stress that came
them to take increased control of their lives. Action research goes from from hidden agendas in their work situation, such as suspicions of
descriptions o f social conditions to actions that can change the very drug taking and of chilc^ abuse in the families the health workers
250 Intervi ews The Social Construction of Validity 251

visited. The coresearchers first developed knowledge through discus­ Who. The question of “w ho” involves the researcher and the users
sions am ong themselves, by role playing, and thereafter by raising their of the knowledge produced. Patton (1980) emphasizes the credibility
concerns directly with their client families. Reason discusses the of the researcher as an important criterion of whether a research
validity in this cooperative inquiry, and emphasizes the need to get report is accepted or not as a basis for action. The question of “w ho”
beyond a mere consensus collusion where the researchers might band also involves ethical and political issues. W ho is to decide the direction
together as a group in defense of their anxieties, which may be of change? There may be personal resistance to change in a therapy
overcome by a continual interaction between action and reflection as well as conflicting vested interests in the outcome of an action study.
throughout the participatory inquiry. Thus, regarding audience validation in system evaluation, who arc the
stakeholders that will be included in the decisive audience: the funding
How. The forms o f pragmatic validation vary: There can be a agency, the leaders of the system evaluated, the employees, or the
patient’s reactions to the psychoanalyst’s interpretation of his or her clients of the system?
dreams, or a client’s responses to a behavior therapist’s interventions
to change the reinforcement contingencies of his or her problem Power and Truth. Pragmatic validation raises the issue of power and
behavior. There are the reactions o f an audience to a system evaluation truth in social research: Where is the power to decide what the desired
report, and the cooperative interaction of researcher and subjects in results of a study will be, or the direction of change; what values are
action research. to constitute the basis for action? And, more generally, where is the
power to decide what kinds of truth seeking are to be pursued, what
Why. A scientific discourse is, in principle, indefinite; there is no research questions are worth funding? Following Foucault we should
requirement of immediate action; new arguments that could alter or here beware of localizing power to specific persons and their inten­
invalidate earlier knowledge can always appear. In contrast to the tions, and instead analyze the netlike organization and multiple fields
uncoerced consensus of the scientific discourse, practical contexts may of power-knowledge dynamics.
require actions to be undertaken and decisions to be made that involve
a coercion to consensus. T his includes the proceedings of a jury, the
Validity of the Validity Q uestion
negotiations of a dissertation committee, decisions about therapeutic
interventions, and decisions about institutional changes in action I have argued here for integrating validation into the craftsmanship
research. of research, and for extending the concept of validation from obser­
A pragmatic approach implies that truth is whatever assists us to vation to also include communication about, and pragmatic effects of,
take actions that produce the desired results. Deciding what the knowledge claims. The understanding of validity as craftsmanship, as
desired results are involves values and ethics. The moral normative communication and action, does not replace the importance of precise
aspect of validation is recognized in system evaluation, where “the observations and logical argumentation, but includes broader concep­
validity of an evaluation depends upon whether the evaluation is true, tions of the nature of truth in social research. The conversational and
credible, and normatively correct” (House, 1980, p. 255). The im por­ pragmatic aspects of knowledge have within a positivist tradition been
tance of values in validation follows through a change of emphasis in regarded as irrelevant, or secondary, to obtaining objective observa­
social research from primarily m apping the social world with respect tions; in a postmodern conception of knowledge the very conversation
to what is, to changing the focus to what could he. Thus Gergen’s about, and the application of, knowledge becomc essential aspects of
(1992) postmodern conception of generative theory (see General- the construction of a social world. Rather than providing fixed crite­
izability, above) involves research that opens new possibilities of ria, communicative and pragmatic validation refer to extended ways
thought and action as a means of transforming culture. of posing the question of validity in social research.
252 Interviews

1 have further attempted to demystify the concept o f validity,

m aintaining that verification o f information and interpretations is a
normal activity in the interactions of daily life. Even so, a pervasive
attention to validation can be counterproductive and lead to a general
invalidation. Rather than let the product, the knowledge claim, speak
14 I

for itself, validation can involve a legitimation mania that may further
a corrosion of validity— the more one validates, the greater the need
for further validation. Such a counterfactuality of strong and repeated
emphasis on the truth of a statement may be expressed in the folk
saying, “ Beware when they swear they are telling the truth.”
Ideally, the quality of the craftsmanship results in products with
knowledge claims that are so powerful and convincing in their own Im proving Interview Reports
right that they, so to say, carry the validation with them, like a strong
piece of art. In such cases, the research procedures would be transpar­ W hen the understanding o f validation and generalization is extended
ent and the results evident, and the conclusions of a study intrinsically to include com m unication with readers, the writing of reports takes
convincing as true, beautiful, and good. Appeals to external certifica­ on a key position in an interview inquiry. Reporting is not simply
tion, or official validity stamps of approval, then become secondary. re-presenting the views o f the interviewees, accompanied by the
Valid research would in this sense be research that makes questions of researcher’s viewpoints in the form of interpretations. The interview
validity superfluous. report is itself a social construction in which the author’s choice of
w riting style and literary devices provide a specific view on the
subjects’ lived world. The writing process is one aspect o f the social
construction of the knowledge gained from the interviews, and the
report becomes the basis for the research com m unity to ascertain the
validity o f the knowledge reported. The current focus on conversation
and rhetorics in social research, as well as what is termed a crisis of
representation, leads to an emphasis on the presentation of research
findings.
Interview reports are often boring to read. Some ways o f im proving
standard modes of reporting interviews will be outlined and some
ethical issues of reporting interviews pointed out. Finally, after dis­
cussing w riting as a social construction, modes of enriching interview
reports are suggested.

Boring Interview Reports

Some three thousand years ago, Odysseus returned to Greece from

his research inquiry ip distant countries. H om er’s oral tale o f the

253
254 In terv iew s Improving Interview Reports 255

voyage, later written down, was cast in a form that still engages today. texts that any personal perspective on the interviews is lost. The
Freud’s soon hundred-year-old therapeutic case stories still provoke researcher may strongly identify with the interview subjects, “go
heated controversies. Current interview studies may not be that long native” and be unable to retain a conceptual and critical distance from
lived; reports need to be read to have a life after publication. Some the subjects’ accounts. The fear of subjective interpretations may lead
impressions from reading current interview reports will be offered. to reports that consist of a tiresome series of uninterpreted quotes,
refraining from theoretical interpretations as if from some dangerous
Tiresome Interview Findings. Interview studies are often tedious to form of speculation. The page inflation of interview reports may
read: They are often characterized by long, obtuse, verbatim quotes, sim ply be due to researchers not know ing what story they w ant to
presented in a fragmented way, with primitive categorizations, and tell, and they therefore are not able to select the main points they
not seldom at inflated length. Hundreds o f pages with quotes from want to get across to their audience. W itho ut knowing the “w hat” and
the interview transcripts, interspersed with some comments and a few the “w hy” o f the story, the “how ”-
— the form of the story— becomes
tables with numbers from categorizations, seldom make interesting problematic.
reading. The subjects’ often exciting stories have— through the analyz­
ing and reporting stages— been butchered into atomistic quotes and Method as a lilack Box. If readers actually find the interview results
isolated variables. of interest, they may want to know about the design and the methods
This style of reporting interviews may have been influenced by a that have produced this intriguing knowledge. They are then likely to
qualitative hyperempiricism, with the many interview quotes made to encounter a black box. The readers will have to guess about the social
serve as basic facts. Extensive verbatim transcripts are regarded as context of the interview, the instructions given the interviewees, the
rock-bottom documentation of what was really said in the interviews. questions posed, and the procedures used during transcribing and
The different rhetorical forms of oral and written language arc over­ analyzing the interviews. For a reader who wants to evaluate the
looked in the construction of verbatim interview transcripts, with their trustworthiness of the findings, to reinterpret or apply the results,
tiresome repetitions, fillers, and incomplete sentences. inform ation on the methodic steps of an investigation is mandatory.
After having endured the reading of a series of interview reports, In interview reports, however, the link between the original conver­
one may long for some dramatic therapeutic case histories with nar­ sations and the final report is often missing.
ratives that can both be entertaining and carry provocative new in­ Qualitative interviews can contain detailed descriptions of the
sights. O ne may even look forward to reading about laboratory subjects’ life situations, their experiences and actions, but may be
experiments with their neat logical rigor, elegant designs, clear pres­ virtually devoid of descriptions of the interview situation and of the
entations, and stringent discussions of the findings and considerations researcher’s actions used to obtain the information reported about the
of possible sources of error that could invalidate the findings. subjects. Though the strengths of qualitative studies are their detailed
Dreary impressions of qualitative reports are not new: descriptions and the use of the researcher as an instrument, depictions
of the researcher’s own activities while producing the knowledge are
For 30 years, 1 have yawned my way through num erous supposedly' conspicuously absent.
exemplary qualitative studies. Countless numbers o f texts I have aban­ One reason for the neglect of method may be that an interview
doned half read, half scanned. I’ll order a new bo ok w ith great anticipa­ study hardly follows discrete, formal procedures; much is left to
tio n — the topic is one I’m interested in, the author is someone I w ant to improvisation and the intuition of the interviewer and interpreter. A
re a d - o n ly to find the text boring. (Richardson, 1994, pp. 516-517)
further reason may be that there are no established common conven­
tions for reporting qualitative studies. Rather than leading to a silence
There may be several reasons for colorless interview reports. The
on method, the unique nature of an interview study should in fact pose
writer may be so overwhelmed by the extensive and complex interview
256 In terview s Improving Interview Reports 257

a challenge to the researcher to describe as precisely as possible the

specific steps, procedures, and decisions taken in the specific study. Box 14.1
A possible reason for the neglect of method in interview reports
may be as a counterreaction to the positivist idolatry of methods that Investigating W ith
equated science with formalized bureaucratic procedures. W e may the Final Report in M in d
further speculate that the interview researcher has a bad methodic
conscience— that his or her study does not live up to established
1. Thcmatizing. The earlier and clearer that researchers
canons of social science research. This methodic insecurity may then
keep the end product o f their study in sight— the story they
lead to om itting any mention o f method— the procedures applied are
want to tell— the easier the w riting of the report will be.
simply swept under the carpet. Freely applying psychoanalytic defense
mechanisms, one may invoke a repression of method due to anxiety 2. Designing. Keep a systematic record of the design
procedure as a basis for the method section of the final
and guilt from not living up to the ruling method ideals.
report. Have the final form of the published interviews in
m ind when designing the study, including the ethical guide­
line of informed consent with respect to later publication
Investigating W ith
of the subjects’ stories. Under the ethical ideal that research
the Final Report in M in d
should serve to enhance the hum an situation, com municat­
ing the findings to the scientific and general communities
The aim of a report is to inform other researchers and the general
is of prime importance.
public of the importance and the trustworthiness of the findings. The
3. Interviewing. The ideal interview is in a form com ­
report should contribute new knowledge to the development of a field,
municable to readers at the m om ent the tape recorder is
and be cast in a form that allows the conclusions to be checked by the
turned off.
reader. The interview report is the end product of a long process; what
is worth communicating to others from the wealth of interview 4. Transcribing. The readability of interviews that will be
conversations is to be conveyed in the limited number of pages o f an published should be kept in m ind during transcription, as
well as the protection of the subjects’ confidentiality.
article or a book, presenting the main aims, methods, results, and
implications of an interview inquiry. The writing of the report is here .5. Analysis. In a narrative analysis, the analyzing and
presented as the last of the seven method stages of an interview study. reporting of an interview merge and result in a story to be
As one approach to making interview reports more readable, I will told to the readers. In other forms of analysis, too, the
suggest taking the final report into consideration from the very start presentation of the results should be kept in m ind, with the
of an inquiry. In the story of the five hardship phases o f an interview analysis of the interviews becoming embedded in the w rit­
project, reporting w'as depicted as the final phase of exhaustion ing of the findings.
(Chapter 5, Openness and Emotions in Interview Studies). As a 6. Verification. W ith a conception of validation as com ­
countermeasure it was recommended that an interview project be m unication and action, how a study is reported becomes a
directed from the start toward the final report; that the researcher key issue.
keep in m ind throughout the stages of the investigation the original 7. Reporting. W orking toward the final report from the
vision of the story he or she wants to tell the readers. In Hox 14.1, a start of an interview study should contribute to a readable
consistent directedness toward the final report is envisaged through­ report of methodologically well-substantiated, interesting
out the seven stages of an interview study. findings.
258 259
In terview s Improving Interview Reports

W riting for the Readers its expression and style. In literature, the content and form of Shake­
speare’s dramas still capture us today, while little is known about the
Until recently there has been little interest in how to communicate dramas’ origins or of Shakespeare’s methods of writing.
the results of interview studies. The writing of an interview report has In contrast, in a report to a court, say from interviews by a
often been regarded as merely re-presenting what was done and found, psychologist about child abuse, eloquence and style are not essential
with little regard for the readers and their use o f the report. to the report. There will be an intense cross-examination from the
In contrast thereto, researchers in system evaluation and market prosecution and the defense, critically trying to find weak points in
research have been well aware of the effects of the form of their reports the interviews and their interpretations. The procedures w ill be under
on their intended audiences— such as the length o f a report or the scrutiny and attempts made to undermine the reliability o f witnesses;
differential impact of quantitative and qualitative data. Patton (1980) of the forms of interrogation, such as the influence of leading ques­
thus mentions that an extensive, well-documented, and formally tions; and the logic of the interpretations drawn.
elegant evaluation report may end up in the recipient’s waste basket. An interview report should ideally be able to live up to artistic
A face-to-face com m unication, perhaps including a few pages o f report demands of expression as well as to the cross-examination of the court
summaries, may have a far stronger impact on the recipients and their room. Before turning to possible ways to improve interview reports
decision making. with regard to scientific criteria of rigor and artistic criteria of ele­
For market research, it has been posited that lower-level managers gance, some moral issues involved in publishing interviews w ill be
often want extensive quantitative data in order to legitimize their addressed.
decisions and thereby give them an alibi if things should go wrong.
Upper-level managers, who arc responsible for the future o f the
company, may be more open to qualitative methods with creative and Ethics of Reporting
new interpretations: “Those who really want the help o f an investiga­
tion in order to solve concrete issues are more susceptible to consider The publication of a research report raises moral questions about
a qualitative investigation, whereas the ‘alibi-seekcrs’ rather choose what kinds o f effects a report leads to. Thus psychological research
quantitative studies” (Osiatinsky, 1976, p. 58). should ideally both produce scientific knowledge and contribute to
The closeness of interview studies to ordinary life, with their often am eliorating the human condition (see Chapter 6). This involves
lively descriptions and engaging narratives, makes an interview report com m unicating the findings in a form that is both scientifically sound
potentially interesting to the general public. In some cases, this may and readable to the potential users of the knowledge reported. The
entail a conflict between the demands of the scientific and the general publication should further be in line with the ethical guidelines of
communities, between presenting the results in a scientifically docu­ informed consent, confidentiality, and consequences.
mented and controllable form or in an illustrative and engaging po p u ­
lar form. The dilemma o f presenting captivating stories versus formal Informed Consent. As discussed earlier, care should be taken before
documentation of method and findings may be envisaged by two the interview situation to have a clear understanding with the inter­
contrasting scenes for the report— the art gallery and the court room. viewees about the later use and possible publication of their inter­
In art it is the end product— a painting or a sculpture— that is views, preferably with a written agreement (Chapter 6, Ethical G uide­
essential, and not the methods of the production process. The painting lines; Chapter 8 , The Ethics of Intervitwing).
techniques employed may be of interest to fellow artists and to art
historians, but the techniques are not the reason for taking a piece of Confidentiality. In order to protect the subjects’ privacy, fictitious
art seriously. A painting carries its own message, it convinces through names and sometimes changes in subjects’ characteristics are used in
260 I ntervi ews Improving Interview Reports 261

the published results. This requires altering the form of the inform a­ w ould be easily grasped by the readers. At the time of publication,
tion without making major changes of meaning. Yet disguising subjects however, a public discussion had started about the relevance of
is not w ithout hazards. keeping French as a subject in Danish high schools. The teacher now
A misleading camouflage can be illustrated by an interview study feared that his descriptions o f using grades to motivate his pupils to
of refugees’ adaptation to the Danish culture. At the suggestion of her learn the unpopular French could be used in the public debate as an
advisor, myself, a student had changed the names as well as the argument for om itting French as a school subject. The negative con­
nationalities of the refugees she had interviewed and quoted at length sequences did not directly concern the teacher himself, but rather his
in her master’s thesis. The external examiner pointed out a serious profession with regard to the public image of French as a school sub­
lack of understanding in the thesis’s analysis of the social and psycho­ ject. I concurred with his request and changed “ French” to “ English”
logical situation of a refugee from Chile. O n closer examination it in his statements— and thereby lost some of their expressive value.
turned out that the “Chilean” refugee was a disguised Polish refugee. Other decisions about whether to change a report due to antici­
The student, herself an immigrant, had not taken into account that pated consequences may not be so easily solved. Glesne and Peshkin
Polish refugees in Denmark in the 1970s tended to be strongly (1992) raise a general question:
anticom m unist and Chilean refugees to be equally strongly socialist
or communist. Disguising names and nationality had brought about W h a t obligations does the researcher have to research participants w hen
publishing findings? If the researcher’s analysis is different from that of
marked changes in the meaning of the social situations and identity of
participants, should one, both, or neither, be published? Even if respon­
the subjects, whereby several of the interpretations made little sense.
dents tend to agree that some aspect o f their com m unity is unflattering,
The example points out the problems of concealing inform ation should the researcher make this info rm atio n public? (p. 119)
without substantially changing its meaning, a decision that requires an
extensive knowledge of the phenomena investigated. The intended result of the grade study was to docum ent the effects
The particular problems of privacy in the writing stage of a quali­ of grading in contrast to official Danish curricular goals, such as
tative inquiry have been discussed by Cilesne and Peshkin (1992), who prom oting the pupils’ independence and their creativity, cooperation,
mention several well-known social science studies in which, despite and interest in lifelong learning. I had believed that this w ould have
the use o f fictitious names and the like, reporters and others have been an emancipatory effect through leading to public knowledge about,
able to track down the actual persons. Among the more easily resolved and possible changes in, the new grade-based restricted admission to
issues of confidentiality are the interviewees who do not want to be the universities. The study had no such consequence: By the time the
anonymous subjects: They have engaged themselves strongly in a book was ready for publication, public interest in the issue had waned.
project and want to be responsible for their statements with full names. Furthermore, the book was written in an academic style, heavily
documented with quotations, and contained extensive methodical
Consequences. It may be difficult for a researcher to anticipate the discussions. I had attempted to refrain from interesting but more
potential consequences of an interview report. One unintended con­ speculative interpretations in anticipation of the comrnon critiques of
sequence of the grade study will be mentioned. A teacher of French, qualitative interview research. The result was that the lived reality of
who had received a copy of the chapter containing the results from the pupils’ school situation was lost, and the book had no appeal to
his interview, called and asked me not to use his statements in my either the pupils or the general public. I here were a few reviews of
book. In high school, French was an unpopular subject for many pupils the book: Those in conservative newspapers were critical of the
and this teacher was keenly aware of and eloquent about his use of results, m aintaining that they were based on too few subjects, may
grades to motivate his pupils to learn French. His statements were have been provoked by leading questions, and that the speculative
highly illustrative of the use of grades as a motivational device and interpretations were biased by the author’s leftist views,
e
262 I n t e r v ie w s Improving Interview Reports 263

Im prov ing Standard M odes of Reporting

Box 14.2
Readers of an interview report can adopt a m ultitude of perspec­
tives to the text: Are the results interesting, do they give new know l­ Structuring an Interview Report
edge, novel insights, provoke new perspectives on the topic o f the
study? W hat are the theoretical implications of the findings? Docs the
new knowledge support or go against current theories in the area? I. Introduction: Thematizing
From a methodic stance questions also arise: H ow trustworthy are the The general purpose of the study is stated, the conceptual
findings? W hat is the methodical base for the results reported? And and theoretical understanding of the investigated phenom ­
from a practical viewpoint still other questions arise: W hat are the ena is outlined, a review of the relevant literature on the
practical consequences of the study? Are the findings sufficiently research topic is provided, and the specific research ques­
trustworthy to act on? In this section standard formats for reporting tions for the investigation are formulated.
interviews will be outlined, and in a later section modes of enriching
II. M ethod: Designing, Interviewing, Transcribing, and
the interview reports will be suggested.
Analyzing
The methods applied throughout the study are described
S T A N D A R D ST RU C T U R E O F A R E P O R T
in sufficient detail for the reader to ascertain the relevance
In Box 14.2, the seven stages of an interview investigation are of the design for the topic and purpose of the investigation,
placed under the standard headings of a scientific report: introduc­ to evaluate the trustworthiness of the results, and, in prin­
tion, m ethod, results, and discussion (see, e.g., American Psychologi­ ciple, to be able to replicate the investigation.
cal Association, 1989). The reporting of the methods and the results III. Results: Analysis and Verification
of interview studies will now be treated in more detail.
The results are reported in a form that gives a clear and
well-structured overview of the main findings, and with the
M ETHOD
reliability, validity, and generalizability of the findings
The reader of an interview report needs to know the methodical critically evaluated.
procedures in order to evaluate the trustworthiness of the results. IV. Discussion
Knowledge of specific details of method may also be required for a
The overall implications of the results are discussed. This
reinterpretation or for an application of the findings o f a study. And,
involves the relevance of the findings to the original re­
in rare cases, the reader may be interested in the method for replicating
search questions and the theoretical and practical im plica­
or extending the original study. Box 14.3 lists some of the inform ation
tions of the findings.
that a reader not satisfied with a black box in the method section can
look for.

RESULTS texts for the reader. In contrast to engaging and well-structured, rich,
and “em inent” literary texts, some interviews may be boring to read,
In contrast to a critic’s interpretation of a literary text— where the trivial, redundant, with little inner connections or deeper significance.
poem or novel will either be known by or available to the reader— the It is up to the researcher to provide the perspectives and contexts that
interview interpreter will have to select and condense the interpreted render the interviews engaging to the reader.
 Improving Interview Rep 265
In terview s

simple computer program provided eight graphic options for present­

ing the number1 |V i though th. . are n< •■•inn trable s'.i.niard foi i.i
Box 14.3
for presenting qualitative interview studies, there are several options

a Que* i !</.., A b o u t M etiiods a v .ib b ! . The ii . 1a11' xle o f pi •• .ruing inii. ’ .v fir.d i: ■-* i-he ft
«1 ••l" ! >ns ■ , ’vated i . , ■ ,nd i . i tn r n iu ;., .vport:; win
be .ted i . . :i.
... ;ccrs • i at by •*. • ' !--ty,
»” by ? • a! . ;s .. ■ ; Tia- w\ ■us. 11 . • inoi> . <-f p n . c •; the I
* i«>n u on ,*pi ■ ,'ti- i | . i c r v i . p.i'ies e. • .-.i^h • rd quou-:. ' i i n t e r . . . v
• he . t '1Ü ea/. .. !-iw <|- •■: tlu- r. '.n ini, r ■. of ‘ i ....... .!,• inter* i. \
I ui a . 1. U; - e (.n I'pli!'. ate fo. . , ar.
. 0,1; v ‘ or.i ■M S pi-: . in die an; i , . '.ox 1 . . v. .^ests :;o.. . guide In mi impi'twu p read;.Diht
’he inteiview? Vvnat w is tht ., .ial and whi n p'oting interview statements.
on. ' n ih e r i a ., the . .ra r ; o t during
v !ia • MS 'V d? l*i vas the ‘7/ N u m h tr ■/', ages. Q uantity appears !•■ ne a p t-v t pr 1
i
it d ;fo ’ ui i ssential f< qualitative r. . cher:: liey seem t.i let I that th. ■’,i . ntunl i
"I
. 'ter,' if! he l it..-! )f V .t is ; ■
din, •ierview. I . will just I lie ir stu li . not having u.ntitat*. . ua; an :
can have too many pages of interview m.i, I ant ■v pa;
■ ’ tscrijtv: What ir t tions were riiveii i: d:e tran-
repoi ung the iindu.g::. Imervi. w research. i .. imetinic.scomplain mat
. . 'jcrs, p.:.: tii. ilarly wi o K speci to verbatim vei^ us edited
it is impossible to report the rich findings o f their studies in short
. vir-cri; Sn h ihior ; i.on is ('specially relevam for
articles or even in books of normal size. In particular n ■ may v u ir
listi- I1' s an i ■
>r ychoj ogical interpre atious.
to ir .hide ir.ary oages of „•.; .cripts a.*. .cun. f<\-
a y.ri ■If. wei i ps i f th i-lalvsi. ' 'as the to: io n s .'.lit n .a y a is . . r out th :. ,, ;s easi. r . .t n
‘j
•si ;i: il . irr • .at i , ... l< rm:.l ie n e i.e - .i <s of rc en: ental • stio.ii- • tdi >i
.. :th ip i.eci* •Ol i . . fions vtr. i■ i ■ :ken, on. .,..ini a.a •• t • it in sii'.| . .hies ... ■ ■■lire,,. . ne
JVC ionc b m, id!- .. wen 1 •a'ego resp.. • e of ... >r c f a ■. vegian . .1 cal j»-»i.-i . to su> 1
Id: ti m . .or e. .. i ; * es by | ... rive re- . ! k rs vm - it • !e: "le-
>i cc: ! iiat t :'c ere l -i.dtltl lo iil •liability cm sped; I.” ‘ I t.s expert: .vital icmm. s wan. .re sp.t
\ Í er. 'in1' trar :i aiui nab// ngP V i ontrols p.- . i the el I. t ite design ; . . . the sopl i seated n: -;ipmu t it
|i j m,. 1 .or i OUIi 01 ! d ar . j . . ’ a Mi ■•, stafi.;u i i . nee I e t. , space r. elop ibe 'then
| t.'tions? W h a t are tue ai gumem. for the va'iii, of the f i ositi i the sta: . al con.;-., lions p, ..suited, a..u ,.o

i lindings. forth.
Qualitative investigations i.i themselvc
s p a t '... several .>! the qua!*
teed n. ;
ri e studies used in the pre'cnt book are
t ,nirt

in the form of short artid • ^e.g., G ior , 1975; ii an, . ;1

;Jard moii. . >1 presenting the t i 11> ->l inter •. : S ii i.. n. 197.;' l*<• cIkm: e. , ..s may i.i .ii !c to | m prove:!-•

i.s :r arc m . tai i.nnd ani to . rest nr qu; te i data i; fin ." in b r e f ‘ tiiiJ' • . 1clso b .o fs lv • nph *.

, : hen- ire ! 1.3 uri nng i I I'-i:. s ( ii.ipter 96^ j;i be : Ion rit. i .

cxa in i , iiii:
266 In terv iew s Improving Interview Reports 267

Box 14.4 Box 14.4 Continued

Guidelines for Reporting Interview Quotes

the reader to find a connecting thread. If longer passages
arc to be presented, they may be broken up and connected
with the researcher’s comments and interpretations. The
1. The quotes should be related to the general text. exception to this is lively narrative interview passages,
The researcher should provide a frame o f reference for which may be read as stories of their own.
understanding the specific quotes and the interpretations 6. Use only the best quote.
given. Frames can vary from the lived world of the subjects
If two or more interview passages illustrate the same point,
to the researcher’s theoretical models.
then use only the best, the one that is the most extensive,
2. The quotes should be contextualized. illum inating, and well-formulated statement. For docu­
The quotes are fragments of an extensive interview context, mentation it is sufficient to mention how many other
which the researcher knows well but which is unknow n to subjects expressed the same viewpoints. If there are many
the reader. It w ill be helpful to render the interview context different answers to a question, it will be useful to present
of the quote, including the question that prompted an several quotes, indicating the range of viewpoints.
answer. The reader will then know whether a specific topic 7. interview quotes should be rendered in a written style.
was introduced by the interviewer or by the subject, and
Verbal transcriptions of oral speech, with its repetitions,
whether in a way leading to a specific answer.
digressions, pauses, “ hms”, and the like, are difficult to
.1. The quotes should be interpreted. grasp when presented in a written form. Interview excerpts
I he researcher should state clearly what viewpoint a quote in a vernacular form, in particular in local dialects, provide
illuminates, proves, or disproves. It should not be up to the rough reading. To facilitate comprehension, the subject’s
reader to guess why this specific statement was presented spontaneous oral speech should in the final report be
and what the researcher might have found so interesting rendered into a readable, written textual form. The excep­
about it. tion is when the linguistic form itself is important to the
study, for example, for sociolinguistic interpretations.
4. There should be a balance between quotes and text.
8. There should be a simple signature system for the editing
The quotes should not make'up more than half of the text
in a chapter. W hen interview quotes come from several of the quotes.
subjects, each with their particular style of expression, The interview passages presented in the final report are
many quotes with few connecting comments and interpre­ more or less edited. Names and places that violate confi­
tations can appear chaotic and produce ,a linguistic flicker. dentiality will have to be altered. In order that the reader
5. The quotes should be short. will know about the extent of editing of the quotes, the
principles for editing should be given, preferably with a
The m axim um length of an interview quote is ordinarily
simple list of symbols for pauses, omissions, and the like.
half a page. Readers can loose interest if quotes are too
long, often because these long interview passages contain S O U R C E : These guidelines a r c taken from Boruin and F.nderud ( 1980) and have been
edited and extended here.
several different dimensions, which makes it difficult for
268 In terview s Improving Interview Reports 269

listening to patients, becoming experts in attending to and selecting illustrates three kinds of tales from the field— realistic, confessional,
the essential aspects of the many stories they hear. In contrast, inter­ and impressionistic.
view researchers who are novices in relation to their subject matter A realistic tale is narrated in a dispassionate, third-person voice,
and the interview m ethod, may have difficulty in developing a critical with the author absent from the text. The author is “the distant one”
anil selective distance from what ihey hear. in a realistic tale based on an assumed “ Doctrine of Immaculate
Art contains highly condensed and eloquent depictions of the Perception.” The natives’ point of view is produced through the
m anifold hum an condition. The quality and impact of a work of art quotes that characterize realistic tales; the quotes render a story
are not enhanced by increasing its size. I'he short stories o f H em ing­ authentic while the many technical and conceptual issues of construct­
way w ould hardly be more telling if they had been twice as long, nor ing a transcription from an oral conversation are bypassed. W ith the
would Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa be more intriguing if painted ethnographer having the final word on how the culture is interpreted,
on a double-sized canvas. he or she takes on an interpretative omnipotence.
The confessional tale, narrated in the first person, is highly person­
alized and self-absorbed. Mini-melodramas of hardship in the field
W r it in g as Social C o n s tru c tio n endured and overcome, with accounts o f what the fieldwork did to
the ethnographer, are prom inent features of confessional tales.
Current developments in the social sciences have promoted an The realistic tale focuses on the know n, and the confessional talc-
interest in the writing of research reports. A postmodern movement on the knower, a third tale— the impressionistic— attempts to bring
from knowledge as corresponding to an objective reality to knowledge together the knower and the known by focusing on the activity of
as a social construction of reality involves a change in emphasis from knowing. Impressionistic tales present the doing of the fieldwork
an observation of, to a conversation and interaction with, a social rather the doer or the done. The impressionistic tale is self-conscious
world. W hen validation is conceptualized as a social construction of and, as in impressionistic painting, it focuses on an innovative use of
knowledge, with a com munal negotiation of its meaning, co m m un i­ techniques apd styles, highlighting the episodic, complex, and am biva­
cation of the findings becomes a focal part of a research project. There lent realities studied. The impressionistic tale unfolds event by event,
is today a renewed interest in rhetorics (Simons, 1989), and there is suggesting a learning process.
an emphasis on audience reception in media research. Van M aanen’s (1988) goal in outlining the different styles of
W ith an epistemological crisis in the representation of knowledge, writing is not to establish one true way of writing ethnography, but
with a disbelief in an objective world to be copied and re-presented in to make ethnographers aware of the classic uses of rhetoric, such as
a objective form, the question arises: H ow can a researcher tell his or voice, style, and audience, and from this knowledge to select con­
her story? Three approaches to the crisis of representation in reporting sciously and carefully the voice most appropriate for the tales they
social research will be presented. These are van M aanen’s (1988) Talcs want to tell.
of the Field, from ethnography; Richardson’s (1990) explicit, post­ Richardson (1990) addresses the issue of how to write a research
modern Writing Strategies; and Eisner’s (1993) artistic approach to report with the postmodern realization that all knowledge is socially
representing educational research. constructed: “W riting is not simply a true representation o f an objec­
Van M aanen (1988) has addressed the narrative conventions in tive reality, out there, waiting to be seen. Instead, through literary and
ethnography for presenting the social reality of the cultures studied; rhetorical structures, writing creates a particular view of reality”
they are mentioned above in Lather’s discussion of different ways of (p. 9). This raises questions of criteria for evaluating a text, such as
reading a text (Chapter 12, The Quest for “The Real M eaning”). From scientific soundness, aesthetic resonance, and ethical rightness.
his own studies of police departments, van Maanen depicts and
270 In terview s Improving Interview Reports 271

W ith a crisis o f representation there is an uncertainty about what inspected, edited, and shared with others” (p. 6). The act of re­
constitutes reality. Richardson (1990) takes issue with a modernist presentation is also an act of invention; representational forms pro­
belief in the externality of facts and the belief in a neutral, transparent vide the means through which meaning is made:
language, where scicntific writing lets the reader see the external
world as it is. She goes on to discuss how writing up what the Stories a n d narratives by n o m eans ex haust the ways in w h ic h the
processes o f e d u c a tio n in a n d o u t o f schools can be stu d ie d o r described.
researcher has learned is itself a central theoretical and m ethodologi­
F ilm , v id e o , th e m u ltip le displays m a de possible th r o u g h co m p u te rs , a n d
cal problematic, with the writing itself im parting value: “ Language is
even p o e tic a lly crafted narrative are w a itin g in the w ing s. I believe th a t
not simply ‘transparent,’ reflecting a social rjeality that is objectively w e w o n ’t have to w a it lo n g before they are ca lled to center stage, (p . 8)
out there. Rather language is a constitutive foixe, creating a particular
view of reality” (p. 12). The grammatical, narrative, and rhetorical These forms, as well as more propositionally formulated descrip­
structures of the language we use bestow meaning and value on the tions of events, all have the potential to reveal aspects of the world.
topics o f our writing, in poetry and in science. The different forms of representation are appropriate to different
The author is a narrator, a person who speaks on behalf of others: topics, require different skills of the researcher, as well as different
competencies for those who are to evaluate the visual, narrative, or
Because w r itin g is alw ays v alue c o n s titu tin g , there are alw ays th e p r o b ­ poetic forms of representation. Eisner even goes as far as not ruling
lem s o f a u th o r ity a n d a u th o r s h ip . . . . N arra tiv e e x p la n a tio n s , in p ra c ­
out the possibility of accepting a novel as a dissertation at the Stanford
tice, m e a n th a t o n e p e rs o n ’s voice— th e w r ite r ’s— speaks fo r th a t o f the
others. . . . These practices, o f course, raise p o s tm o d e r n is t issues a b o u t
School of Education.
the researcher’s a u th o r ity a n d p riv ileg e. F o r w h o m d o w e speak a n d to
w h o m d o we speak, w ith w h a t v oice, to w h a t e n d , u s in g w h a t criteria?
(p p . 26-27) E n ric h in g Interview R eports

G oing beyond a modernist disregard of the rhetorics of scientific G oing beyond the standard requirements for scientific reports, I
writing, Richardson discusses, on the basis of her own interviews with w ill now outline some ways of enhancing the readability o f reports
“the other w om an,” strategies for shaping qualitative research into of interview studies. Such devices become preeminent in the re­
texts for different kinds of readers— trade, professional, and mass presentation of interviews when writing an interview report is con­
circulation—-and outlines the use o f literary devices such as different ceived as a social construction of knowledge.
narratives and metaphors in writing the voices and lives of her
interviewees.
J O U R N A L IS T IC IN T E R V IE W S
In his presidential address to the American Educational Research
Association, Eisner (1993) approached the representation of qualita­ One way of reporting interviews is simply as interviews. The social
tive research from an artistic point of view. “The battle that once science researcher may here take a lead from journalists, w ho from
ensued to secure a place for qualitative research in education has the start of each of their interviews will have a specific audience in
largely been won. . . . N o w the question turns to just what it is that m ind, a limited am ount of space, and a nonnegotiable deadline.
different forms of representation employed within the context of The journalist, and also the radio reporter, will in a portrait
educational research might help us grasp” (p. 8). Representation, in interview try to build the situation and the interpretations into the
Eisner’s use of the term, does not refer to the “mental representation” interview itself. The local context and social situation may be intro­
of cognitive science, but to “the process of transforming the contents duced through the interviewer’s questions, for instance: “W e are now
of consciousness into a public form so that they can be stabilized, sitting in the living room of the house you built when you retired, with
272 I ntcr Views Improving Interview Reports 273

a view through the birch forest to the fjord. Could you tell me today have problems with whether to categorize them according to
about . . . ?” The main points and interpretations can develop from their content as philosophy or according to their artistic form as
the subjects’ replies to the journalist’s questions, or be suggested by literature.
the journalist for confirmation or disconfirmation by the subject. Thus
the contextualization and interpretation can be built into the conver­
T H E R A P E U T IC C A S E H IS T O R IE S
sation, with both journalist and interviewee more or less having the
intended audience in mind. The journalist may later edit the sequence A free and reflective approach to conversations and narratives can
o f the statements in order to provide continuity in the interview. The be found in reports of therapeutic interviews. Freud’s clinical case
oral form is usually changed into a written form appropriate to the stories are one illustration of an engaging and artistic presentation of
subjects’ own linguistic style. The guiding line throughout the inter­ conversations: He received the Goethe Prize for his writing. The
view, the transcribing, and the editing will be to assist interviewed works of Laing (1962) also show that it is possible through the careful
subjects to tell their stories as eloquently as possible to an anticipated use of brief conversations— theoretically interpreted from double­
audience. Finally, there is the ethical consideration of allow ing the bind theory, psychoanalytic theory, and existential philosophy— to
subjects to hear or see their edited interview before it is published. communicate radically new ways o f understanding therapy in a simple
There are exceptions to the above idealized journalistic portrait understandable form.
interview, such as critical demasking interviews. Social science is not In scientific psychology journals a more impersonal, formal style
the same as journalism, one difference being the responsibility of the has generally been required. For a personal narrative of experimental
researcher to make explicit the procedures used for editing and studies one has to go to an exception such as Skinner’s “A Case Study
analyzing the interview. The journalist also has a right to protect his in Scientific M e th o d ” (1961; see also Chapter 5, Openness and
sources, which goes counter to the principle of scientific control of Em otions in Interview Studies).
evidence. Yet when it comes to the presentation of results, research The case study is an exemplar. In the present understanding, the
interviewers can still learn from good journalism. use of exemplars is not a mere popularization of theoretical points or
putting some “ flesh on the statistical bones” of a study. Rather, the
D IA L O G U E S case has its own value as an exemplar: It can serve as a vehicle for
learning, as in I.wvlie’s discussion o f ethics (Chapter 6, Ethical Theo­
Interviews can also be reported in the form ol dialogues. Again, the ries). Donm oyer (1990) has pointed to the use of stories in teaching
inform ation is conveyed by the interview interaction, but formalized as a halfway house between tacit personal knowledge and formal
and stylistically edited. propositional knowledge. Case stories also serve as a basis for gener­
Socrates’ conversations with his philosophical opponents are clas­ alization in the legal and clinical fields (Chapter 13, Generalizability).
sical examples of a philosophical discourse: All of the inform ation is The relational and tadit aspects of the interview situation are
included in the dialogue, with few subsequent interpretations by the difficult to present in explicit verbal form. The oral knowledge gained
reporter— Plato. Historians of philosophy have different views on the from therapy is not easily transformed into written texts. Im portant
extent to which Socrates’ dialogues were direct accounts of philo ­ facets of therapeutic knowledge are best com municated by anecdotes,
sophic disputes that actually took place, or whether they were mainly case stories, narratives, and metaphors (Polkinghorne, 1992). Thera­
or entirely constructions by Plato. Independent of their status as pists’ form ulation of their experiential knowledge as case stories and
verbatim reproductions or literary constructions, the content of the narratives become a link between the singular and the general. Such
philosophical dialogues continues to interest us today with the critical forms of transmission come closer to craftsmanship and art than to
I
questions they pose as to the nature of truth, goodness, and beauty. the standard norms of forjnal scientific reporting.
Socrates’ dialogues have an eminently artistic form; librarians may
274 I n t e r v ie w s Improving Interview Reports 275

N A R R A T IV E S symbols, and other allusive techniques of expression” (Miles &

H uberm an, 1984, p. 221). A study’s main points may be more easily
W hile case stories may contain reports pf spontaneous stories, the
understood and remembered when worked into vivid metaphors.
interview report can also be systematically structured with regard to
Through a metaphor, one kind of thing is understood in terms of
narratives. In the therapeutic tradition, Spence (1982) has applied
another. Psychoanalysis is replete with metaphors, often taken from
narrative forms in both the process and the presentation of therapy.
myths and literature, such as the Oedipus and the F.lectra complexes.
Scheflen’s ( 1978) article on the interpretations of Susan’s smile (Chap­
M etaphors also, though often unnoticed, permeate mainstream social
ter 11, M eaning Interpretation) was cast in the narrative form of a
scientific writing with terms like theory-“building,” knowledge as
therapeutic team watching a video recording of a family therapy
“enlightening,” and so on (see Richardson, 1990).
session, w ith the therapists in turn contributing new interpretations,
Miles and Huberman (1994) advocate the use of metaphors in
and with the narrator, Scheflen, weaving the threads of interpretation
reporting qualitative studies. A metaphor is richer, more complete
into a fabric.
than a simple description of the data. Metaphors are data-reducing
Narratives can serve as a mode of structuring an interview during
and pattern-making devices. Miles and H uberman thus found in a
analysis (Chapter 11, M eaning Structuring Through Narratives). The
school improvement study that a remedial reading room felt like an
interview report itself may also have the form of a narrative rendering
“oasis” for the students sent there. The metaphor “oasis” pulls to­
subjects’ spontaneous stories, or their stories as structured into specific
gether separate bits of information: The larger school is harsh and
narrative modes, or as recast into new stories. In the latter case, the
resource-thin, like a desert, and some resources are abundant in the
stories are reconstructed with regard to the main points the researcher
pupils’ remedial room, like the water in an oasis.
wants to communicate. In a narrative approach the interviewer may
conceive o f his or her investigation as storytelling from beginning to
V IS U A L IZ IN G
end. The narrative interviewer will encourage subjects to tell stories,
assist them in developing and clarifying their stories, and during the Although interview data are of a verbal nature, the possibilities of
analysis work out the narrative structures of the interview stories and presenting the results in visual form should not be overlooked. Q u a n ­
possibly compose the stories to be told in the final report. titative data are today often presented visually in the form of graphs
“Narrative is both a mode of reasoning and a mode of repre­ and figures. A comparative choice of standard visual modes of pre­
sentation. People can apprehend the w orld narratively and people can sentation does not exist for qualitative inquiries. There are, however,
tell about the world narratively” (Richardson, 1990, p. 21). Narratives several options, such as a tree graph of the main categories and their
provide a powerful access to the temporal dimension of human subcategories, diagrams with boxes and arrows showing the main
existence, and Richardson discusses the use of different forms of sequences of a story, and the like.
narrative reporting from everyday life, autobiography, biography, and If the researcher has artistic abilities, interview results may be
in cultural and collective stories. presented as drawings. G oing to a different field, a Danish professor
of architecture found that he could not convey to his students through
M ETAPHORS lectures or writing what he found essential about modern and post­
modern architecture. He then resorted to collages, where he, through
Novelists surpass qualitative researchers in com m unicating a com ­ his placing of buildings in unexpected contexts, from new angles, such
plex social reality: “Their appeal is that they dramatize, am plify, and as an opera house under the sea, was better able to comment on the
depict, rather than simply describe social phenomena. The language current situation of architecture than through words (Lund, 1990).
itself is often figurative and connotative, rather than solely literal and The collages attained an aesthetic value of their own, and are now
denotative. Part of this has to do with the use of metaphors, analogies, being displayed in art galleries.
276 I nt erV ie ws

M O D E S O F P R E S E N T A T IO N IN T H E P R E S E N T B O O K

Different forms of writing about interview research have been tried

throughout this book. Interview quotes were used as illustrations, such
as in different forms of transcribing the same statements. Quotes were
also used as material in the interpretation of the meaning of grading PART
behaviors as competition and wheedling. Larger sequences of inter­

IV
views on learning and on grading, as well as therapeutical and philo­
sophical conversations, have been reproduced as exemplars o f specific
forms of interviewing. The grading study has been used throughout
the book as a case to depict some of the pitfalls and the potentialities
of interview research.
There have been some attempts at a narrative form, such as the
personal account of five emotional phases of an interview project, and
a more formal course of an interview investigation was pictured as
going through seven stages. The answer to the 1,000-page question
was in the form of a deconstructive tale where the presuppositions of
the question were destructed and alternative constructions for enrich­
ing the interview analysis were put forth. A short imagined conversa­
tion was constructed to illustrate controversies over ownership of
meaning. Metaphors have been used to condense and profile certain
meanings, such as the miner and traveler metaphors of research inter­ C O N C L U S IO N
views and the Scylla and Charybdis dilemma of therapeutic inquiries.
The figure of two profiles forming the outline of a vase was an attempt
to visualize the interrelational nature of interview research.
In keeping with a traveler metaphor of interview research, the
present book can be read as a travel report about interview inquiries.
It has outlined a travel route through seven stages from an original
idea to the finished report. Practical advice for other travelers in the
field has been offered, real and imagined conversations taking place
on the way have been reported, and reflections on the events encoun­ T hroughout this book I have treated interviews and interview research
tered have been provided. as forms of conversation. Interviews have been regarded literally as
W hen interview travelers return home Irom their conversations inter views. The interview researcher was depicted in the first chapter
with the people they met, their tales may enter into new conversations as a traveler in a foreign country, learning through his or her conver­
with the research community and the general public. The next, sations with the inhabitants. W hen the traveler returns home with tales
concluding, chapter is introduced by two conversations constructed about encounters in the distant land, he or she may discover that
to illustrate contrasting receptions of travel reports about interview listeners react rather differently to these stories. In the concluding
inquiries. chapter I tujrn from the interviewers’ original conversations w ith their
subjects to their conversations with others about the interviews.
•
277
 15

Conversations About Interviews

It is sometimes easier for interview researchers to carry out conversa­
tions with their subjects, than to enter into conversations with col­
leagues about the conversations with their subjects. This final chapter
goes beyond conversations with the interviewees to include conversa­
tions about the interviews within the research com munity, and also
w ithin the general community. I first discuss standard external objec­
tions to interview research and then some internal challenges to the
use of qualitative research interviews. Finally, the investigation of the
hum an conversation through interview conversations is addressed.

Reception o f Interview Studies

In the introduction, an ambiguous illustration of a vase and two

faces was used to depict a dual approach to interview conversations,
the viewer alternatively focusing on the interaction of interviewer and
interviewee or on the knowledge constructed through their interac­
tion (Chapter 1, Overview of the Book).
In Figure 15.1, the ambiguous vase figure is extended from the
interview conversation to encompass as well the researcher’s conver­
sations with other researchers about his or her interviews. I will
outline here how different conceptions of knowledge and research
lead to different forms of conversations about the value and the truth
of the knowledge generated by the interviews.

279
280 In terview s Conversations About Interviews 281

Before turning to general forms of conversations about interviews,

a extreme case w ill be presented in Box 15.1. The reception of this
study highlights some conversations that an interview report can elicit
from its readers, some of the specific arguments encountered, and the
issue of what the appropriate social context is for judgments of the
quality of a study.

Ten Standard O bjections

to Interview Research

Interviewee Interviewer/Researcher Fellow Researcher Reports of qualitative interview studies have tended to evoke rather
standardized objections from the mainstream of modern social sci­
Figure 15.1. Knowledge Construction T hrough the Interview and the Research ence. Though the w ording and tone may vary, there are about 10 basic
Conversation responses to the same stimulus—-“a qualitative research interview.”
They may follow nearly automatically, even before the findings and
methods o f a specific interview study have been presented.
Two different conversational communities for an interview story In Box 15.2, 10 of the more frequent objections to interview
will be discussed. The first consists of modern social scientists with research are listed; some point to real problems inherent in the use of
affinities to the miner metaphor of interview research. Ten standard the interview m ethod, whereas others arise from an inadequate u n ­
objections, in line with a conception of the interviewer as a miner derstanding of the use of conversations as research. A genuine conver­
unearthing nuggets of meaningful facts by applying standard meth­ sation about research interviews requires that both parties are open
ods, will be outlined. The other conversational com munity consists of to what the other tries to say and also open to questioning their own
researchers in the qualitative field and the humanities and is in presuppositions. In cases where this is not possible, a rhetorical
congruence with the traveler metaphor of interviewing, closer to a defense may be necessary; some suggestions for responding to the 10
postmodern perspective. Some less standard internal objections to standard objections are discussed below. They are mainly summaries
interview research are discussed from this position, in which an of arguments presented in earlier chapters, which are indicated in
interview inquiry is conceived of as close to a craft and an art. parentheses.
The two conversations about interviews will be given in an idealized The present focus on external critiques of interview research is a
form, abstracted from the complex and real social and power webs double-edged sword. It can support an already strong trend toward
they are embedded in— as when presenting a qualitative dissertation external legitimation of qualitative research, or it can be conducive to
for defense at a university. In another study 1 have treated the social an internal improvement of its quality. The aim o f the follow ing
and power contexts of examination discourses and dissertation de­ discussion is to prepare novice researchers for the most predictable
fenses as situations in which the valid and authoritative knowledge of external responses to their interview inquiries. W ith a preknowledge
a discipline is constituted (Kvale, 1993b). I will conclude this chapter of the standard critiques to be expected, the qualitative researcher can
by discussing potentialities of interview research as conversations decide whether they pertain to his or her study. If the objections are
about the human conversation. considered valid to the specific study, they can be taken into account
282 In terview s Conversations About Interviews 283

Box 15.1 Continued

Box 15.1

Sex, Violence, R eligion, Some of the arguments voiced by the witnesses in court and
Fem inism, and Interviews in the newspaper discussion can be mentioned. The find­
ings were read by many as quantitative conclusions and
generalizable; for instance that the study showed that abuse
Interview researchers sometimes feel that their reports do of women was just as prevalent in religious groups as in
not receivc the attention they deserve. One case of audience non-religious groups. In fact, the women interviewed were
reception will be mentioned as an exception: a dissertation self-recruited and therefore the results were not gener­
accepted at the University o f Bergen in Norway — Whom alizable; although this had been stated by the researcher in
God Loves He Chastises— part of which appeared in book her report, it was lost in the public debate. There were
form (Lundgren, 1985). objections of too few subjects, that the methods and proce­
dures o f selection had not been sufficiently accounted for,
Twenty-two women from a local religious sect were inter­
and that the questioning techniques were suspected of
viewed about sexual abuse in marriage. Their detailed
steering toward specific types of knowledge. Alternative
descriptions of the sexual abuse, often in sadistic forms, in
interpretations of the sexual abuse than the theology of
their marriages are tough reading. M oreover, the men,
subjugation were not sufficiently considered, and the dis­
according to the women, justified the violence by a theol­
tinction between this theology being the cause or the justi­
ogy o f subjugation, invoking St. Paul’s dictum that a woman
fication of the abuse not sufficiently worked out. Other
shall be subordinate to man in all matters. In the charis­
feminists took issue with the “conservative, male, re­
matic religious sect’s interpretation, this meant that man
searchers with tenure” for disqualifying qualitative feminist
represents the authority of G od and objections to discipline
research.
are indications that women are carriers of Satan’s rebellion.
The court verdict was Solomonic. The newspaper was
The book instigated a lively public debate, and the re­
acquitted: It was entitled, according to freedom of speech
searcher was interviewed on national television. The study
and the divergent scientific opinions, to voice its harsh
had touched on a series of controversies— sex and religion,
criticisms. Regarding the plaintiff’s work, the court found
feminist research, and quantitative versus qualitative re­
that it satisfied strong criteria for scientific research. Both
search. A religious newspaper, Dagen, wrote under the
parties accepted the verdict as supporting their position.
headline “N ot Serious Research” : “The way this is pre­
Several professors regretted that the case had come to
sented is not science, but falls within a pregiven dismal
court, because it should not be up to a court of law, but to
ideological pattern.” The researcher was offended and she
the university to make judgments about the scientific qual­
filed a libel suit against the newspaper for damaging her
ity o f research. The interviews later provided the basis for
scientific reputation. The suit went to trial, and university
a play performed at a local theater.
professors were summoned to testify on the scientific qual­
ity of the study. S O U R C E S ; Bergen Byrett (city court], Bergen, Norw ay: verdict September 8, 1985;
articles in the newspapers Dagen and Iiergens iidende, September and O ctober, 1985.
284 Interviews Conversations About Interviews 285

Box 15.2 I. I he qualitative research interview is not scientific, but re­

flects only common sense (Chapter 4, The Scientific Status
T en S tan d ard R eactions of the Interview).
to Q u a lita tiv e Interview s
As pointed out earlier; there is no single authoritative definition of
science, according to which the interview can be unequivocally cate­
The qualitative research interview is not: gorized as scientific or unscientific. A working definition of science as
1. scientific, but only reflects common sense the methodical production of new, systematic knowledge was sug­
gested. I'lie question of scientific or not again depends on the under­
2. objective, but subjective
standing o f the key terms in this definition, such as methodical, new,
3. trustworthy, but biased systematic, and knowledge in relation to the specific investigation.
4. reliable, it rests upon leading questions The research interview is a specific development of the com mon
conversations o f daily life. Rather than dismissing commonsense
5. intersubjective, different readers find different
understanding as unscientific, the conversations of daily life have here
meanings
been regarded as the context from which the more specialized scien­
6. a scientific method, it is too person-dependent tific conversations are developed and to which they return. Systematic
7. scientific hypothesis testing, only explorative reflection on com m on sense understanding and on ordinary language
conversations may contribute to a refined understanding o f a hum an
8. quantitative, only qualitative
world understood as a conversational reality.
9. generalizable, there are too few subjects
10 . valid, it relies on subjective impressions
2. The qualitative research interview is not objective, but sub­
jective (Chapter 4, Objectivity in Qualitative Research).

when designing an interview investigation, and thereby serve to The basic terms o f the question are ambiguous. Some of the many
improve the quality of the research. If the objections are regarded as meanings of objectivity were discussed earlier, with one conclusion
invalid, the arguments for this can be presented in the report. being that if the meaning of objectivity is understood as intersubjective
The following discussion will remain on a general level, outlining agreement, then objectivity appears to be a rather subjective concept.
a conceptual framework for addressing the standard objections. The The objectivity o f interview research needs to be discussed separately
discussion may save novices some of the time and energy often used for different meanings of objectivity in relation to the interview in ­
for external defense. This can leave more resources for internal quiry in question. W ith regard to three key meanings of objectivity—
improvement of the quality of the knowledge produced by interviews, as free o f bias, as intersubjective, and as reflecting the nature o f the
and for facing new challenges intrinsically relevant to the potentials object investigated— the interview can, in principle, be an objective
of interview research, which will be discussed in the next section. m ethod. W ith the object of the interview understood as being within
a linguistically constituted and interpersonally negotiated social
w orld, the qualitative research interview obtains a privileged position
regarding objective knowledge of the social world.
286 Interviews Conversations About Interviews 287

A discursive conception of truth goes beyond the polarization of not to lead, but where the questions do lead, whether they lead in
subjective and objective— valid knowledge is sjought through ja rational im portant directions that yield new and worthwhile knowledge.
argument by participants in a discourse. The basic m ediuin o f this
discourse is language, which is neither objective nor subjective, but
5. The interpretation of interviews is not intersubjective; dif­
inter-subjective.
ferent readers find different meanings (Chapter 4, Objectiv­
ity in Qualitative Research; Chapter 11, Control of Analysis;
3. interview results are not trustworthy, they are biased. Chapter 12).

The answer needs to be specific— to ask who cannot be trusted and Different interpretations of the same verbatim interview texts
in what sense. Hias may be on the side of the interviewee or of the definitely occur, though probably less often than commonly believed.
interviewer. Experimental studies have demonstrated how expectan­ In current interview research there are too few rather than too many
cies o f both subjects and researchers may unintentionally influence the interpretations.
results of the experiments. W ith the interpersonal interaction in the W e may here distinguish between a biased subjectivity, to be
interview having a decisive impact on the results, the potential in flu ­ avoided, and a perspectivai subjectivity. Through the latter, readers
ence of interviewee and interviewer bias deserves careful attention. w ho adapt different perspectives and pose different questions to the
Unacknowledged bias may entirely invalidate the results o f an same text come out with different interpretations of the meaning of
interview inquiry. A recognized bias or subjective perspective, may, the text. W hen different interpretations appear arbitrary, this may be
however, come to highlight specific aspects of the phenomena inves­ because the questions posed to a text, and their presuppositions, are
tigated, bring new dimensions forward, contributing to a multiper- not made explicit. W ith a clarification of the perspectives adopted
spectival construction o f knowledge. toward an interview text several interpretations of the same text will
not be a weakness but a richness and a strength of interview research.

4. Might not the interview results be due to leading questions?

(Chapter H, Leading Questions). 6. I he interview is not a scientific method, it is loo person-
dependent (Chapter 2, The Mode of Understanding in the
The leading effects of leading questions are well documented. They Qualitative Research Interview; Chapter 5, From Method to
can, however, not only elicit biased answers, but be used deliberately Craftsmanship).
in professional interviews, for example by lawyers and by clinical
psychologists; their use depends on the topic and purpose o f the A com m on worry is that different interviewers will come up with
investigation. The qualitative interview is well suited to systematically different interviews. A research interview is flexible, sensitive to
using leading questions to check the reliability of the interviewees’ context, and dependent on the personal interaction of the interviewer
answers. Rather than being used too much, deliberately leading ques­ and interviewee.
tions are today probably too little applied in research interviews. Rather than attempt to eliminate the personal interaction of in­
W hile the technical issue of leading questions in interviews has been terviewer and interviewee, we might take a lead from therapeutic
rather overemphasized, the leading effects of the research questions interviews and regard the person of the interviewer as the primary
of a project have received less attention. The decisive issue— for methodological tool, with the relevant data created by the unique
interview questions and research questions— is not whether to lead or interaction between the interviewer and interviewee. The importance
28 8 In terview s Conversations About Interviews 289

o f interviewers as instruments for obtaining knowledge puts strong

demands on their craftsmanship, their empathy, and their knowledge. 9. Interview findings are not generaltzable; there are too few
subjects (Chapter S', Designing; Chapter 13, Generahzabihty).
7. Qualitative interviews do not test hypotheses; they are only
explorative and thus not scientific (Chapter 4, Qualitative A quest for generali/ability has loomed heavily over the social
and Quantitative Research; Chapter 5, Thematizing and sciences, accompanied by a demand for a large number o f subjects on
Designing). which to base the generalizations. The number o f subjects necessary
w ill depend on the purpose of a study, such as predicting a national
election, testing the differences among groups, or investigating the
Contrary to this objection, interview studies may be used for testing
biography of one person. In addition to com m on statistical generali­
of hypotheses about differences among groups, and a single interview
zations, there are analytical generalizations in qualitative case studies,
may be designed as a process of continual hypothesis testing— the
where the researcher presents evidence and arguments for the claims
interviewers’ questions here serve to test hypotheses, employing an
of generalizable knowledge.
interplay of questions, counter-questions, leading questions, and prob­
There is also the question of why there is such a strong emphasis
ing questions.
on generalization. In postmodern approaches to the social sciences,
Testing of hypotheses is, however, not a necessary criterion or goal
the goal of universal generalizability is being replaced by an emphasis
for social research. Exploratory and descriptive studies are im portant
on contextuality and heterogeneity o f knowledge.
parts o f scientific inquiry in fields as diverse as geography, zoology,
anatomy, and linguistics. The nuanced descriptions of the phenomena
studied have intrinsic value and constitute one of the strengths o f the 10. Interviewing is not a valid method, it depends on subjective
qualitative research. impressions (Chapter 13).

8. Interviews are not quantitative, only qualitative (Chapter 4, W e may here distinguish between a practical and a theoretical
Qualitative and Quantitative Research). approach to the validity of interview findings. A practical approach
based on good craftsmanship in research departs from an under­
standing of validity as referring to the strength and credibility of an
In the modern social sciences, quantification has often been consid­
assertion. Validation becomes investigation: a continual checking,
ered the very criterion of science, and, when not taken as self-evident,
questioning, and theoretical interpretation of the findings.
is legitimated by referring to the natural sciences. This argument over­
W ith a postmodern move away from knowledge as correspondence
looks the role of qualitative descriptions in fields such as botany,
with an objective reality tpward knowledge as a social construction of
zoology, and geology, as well as the qualitative analyses in chemistry.
reality there is a change c!>f emphasis from observation of, to conver­
In the practice of research, qualitative and quantitative approaches
sation and interaction with, the social world. By going beyond a
interact; in published social science reports, however, there has been
correspondence theory o f truth, which is at the root of the older
a tendency to downplay the qualitative aspects of the research process.
psychometric validity concepts, to conceive validation as com m unica­
Despite an interweaving of the qualitative and quantitative aspects
tion with and action on the social world, the research interview based
of social research, a dichotomized conception with a hegemony on the
on conversation and interaction attains a privileged position.
quantitative side may still prevail. This could well have less to do with
the practice of science than with a fundamentalist belief in the natural,
and the social, world as a basically mathematically ordered universe.
290 ' In terview s Conversations About Interviews 291

Some comments on this formalized conversation about interviews Finally, in a reinterpretation, the standard critiques can be reversed
will be put forth. First, the above standard objections to qualitative and read as pointing to the power of qualitative interview research.
interviews are not independent, they can be traced to a positivist The very strength of the interview is its privileged access to the
conception of social research, depicted earlier (Chapter 4, Positivism). com m on understanding of subjects, the understanding that provides
They correspond to a miner metaphor of interview research (Chapter their worldview and the basis for their actions. The deliberate use of
1, The Interviewer as a M iner or as a Traveler), conceiving of know l­ the subjective perspective need not be a negative bias; rather, the
edge as nuggets of objective meaning-data to be uncovered, uncontam ­ personal perspectives of the subjects and the interpreter can provide
inated by the hum an researcher, a conception that I have attempted a distinctive and sensitive understanding of the phenomena of the
to replace with a traveler metaphor for interview conversations. everyday life world. A controlled use of leading questions may lead to
Second, the standard objections contain global and ambiguous well-controlled knowledge. The plurality of interpretations opens to
concepts, such as objectivity and validity. They need to be discussed the richness o f meanings of the human life world, the person of the
and defined as precisely as possible. It should furthermore be clarified researcher is the most sensitive instrument available to investigate
which objections involve general problems of research, such as inves­ hum an meanings. The explorative potentialities of the interview can
tigator bins, and which raise interview-specific issues, such as the open to qualitative descriptions of new phenomena. Generalizing
impact o f leading questions. The levels at which the objections are from and validating interview findings open up alternative modes of
raised also need to be specified; the issue of leading questions may evaluating qualitative research, with an emphasis on communication
involve practical interview techniques as well as the philosophical of and action on the findings.
issue of a neutral access to an objective empirical world. The above 10 critiques of qualitative interviews may be seen as
Third, not only is the content of the objections to qualitative challenges to the advancement of interview research. They may lead
research rather standardized, but so is their polarized form as dichoto­ to im proving the methodic craftsmanship of interview inquiries, and
mies: objective versus subjective, quantitative versus qualitative, and they may further a conceptual clarification of the mode of under­
so on. The very form of the objections, or questions, is itself leading: standing in the interview as one form of conversational research. I will
They are based on a dichotomized presupposition of the nature of now turn to alternative critiques of interview inquiries that imply that
knowledge as either true or false. Each part of the posited dichotomy the very power and potentials of conversation as research have not
may then serve as a tribal banner for competing groups; at the start been realized in its current use.
fueling a heated controversy, gradually replaced by an insight that the
controversy may have been constructed on a pseudo issue. The field
is then left and replaced by a new controversy under a different In te rn a l C ritiq u e s o f In te rv ie w Research
banner, still retaining the dichotomized form, as well as some old
themes and supporters on each side. There appears to be a “dichotomy Critiques in a different vein than the above standard objections may
of the decade” in modern social science: in the 1960s, natural science be heard from audiences sympathetic to the idea of qualitative re­
versus the humanities; in the 1970s, quantitative versus qualitative; in search, such as scholars in the humanities and professionals such as
the 19R0s, objective versus subjective; and in the 1990s, universal therapists. Their various critiques are closer to an understanding of
versus local knowledge. The way out is to go beyond the dichotom ized the interviewer as a traveler returning home with tales from conver­
thinking of either/or categories by emphasizing description and dia­ sations in a new country.
logue about the qualitative nuances and differences of the issues The internal critiques depicted in Box 15.3 are pertinent to much
raised. current interview research. Suggestions for overcoming some of these
 Conversations About Interviews 293

M ost interview research today is carried out as individual inter­

views; the use of group interviews may well bring up lively interper­
Box 15.3
sonal dynamics and show the social interactions leading to the inter
view statements. Interviews can be used to obtain descriptions of the
Ten Internal Critiques
cultural and the historical, the social and the material context of
of Interview Research
subjects’ lives. Anthropological interviews focus on the respondent’s
culture, and interviews are employed in recording oral history (Yow,
1994). Some instances of interview studies that include the material
Current interview research is:
and social situations of the subjects have been mentioned earlier, such
• individualistic, it focuses on the individual and ncglccts as Oscar Lewis’s descriptions of M exican peasants’ life situation
a person’s embeddedness in social interactions (1964), Becker-Schmidt’s (1982) tracing of the contradictions in the
• idealistic, it ignores the situatedness o f hum an experi­ interviews o f women industrial workers to conflicts between their
ence and behavior in a social and material world w ork and home situations, H agan’s (1986) analysis of the situation of
mothers on welfare, and my own attempts to link the effects of
• intellectualistic, it neglects the emotional aspects of
knowledge, overlooks empathy as a mode o f knowing learning for grades to the requirements of wage labor. The use of
therapeutic interviews for research shows the possibilities of applying
• immobile, the subjects sit and talk, they do not move or
empathy and emotional interaction to obtain significant knowledge of
act in the world the hum an situation. In recent feminist qualitative research there is an
• cognitivist, it focuses on thoughts and experiences at the emphasis on the knowledge potentials of feelings and empathy in
expense of action hum an interaction, including research interviews.
• verbalizing, it makes a fetish of verbal interaction and tran­ Though most interview research today is chair-bound, researchers
scripts, neglects the bodily situatedness of the interview m ight learn from radio and TV interviewers w ho walk around with
their subjects in the subjects’ natural surroundings, such as their
• alinguistic, although the medium is language, linguistic
workplace or home. Conversations integrated in the subjects’ natural
approaches to language are ignored
activities o f their daily world provide a more comprehensive picture
• atheoretical, it entails a cult of interview statements, and of their background situation than the office-based views. There are
disregards theories of the field studied trends today toward giving the knowledge obtained through inter­
• arbetorical, published reports are boring collections of views back to the participants in the social situation in which the
interview quotes, rather than convincing stories knowledge was developed. This pertains to the use of interviews in
system evaluation; and in action research and feminist research par­
• insignificant, it produces trivialities, and hardly any new
ticularly, the knowledge acquired through interviews is utilized to
knowledge worth mentioning
change the situations investigated.
The verbal fixation of interview research may to a certain extent
be counteracted by videotaped interviews and thereby retaining access
to the bodily expressions and interpersonal dynamics o f the interac­
critiques have been put forth in previous chapters. Some instances will
tion. The development of computer programs for directly analyzing
be reviewed below to demonstrate that the criticized features do not
the audiotape and videotape recordings allows a move from the
necessarily pertain to interview inquiries, but rather to what have been
alienation of transcripts to listening to conversations. Parallel with the
com m on modes o f applying and understanding interviews in research
294 Interviews Conversations About Interviews 295

trends toward including nonlinguistic aspects of interview conversa­ interview as a method used in isolation. Interviews are often used in
tions, is a trend toward going beyond the r(aive use of language in com bination with other research methods, such as the above, which
social science interviewing by an orientation toward sociolinguistics. w ill provide a more multifaceted view of the phenomena investigated.
This includes an increasing awareness of the differences between the There are current trends that could make much of the above
oral speech of the interviews and the written texts analyzed. Postmod­ internal critique obsolete— an increasing methodological sophistica­
ern analyses of the linguistic construction o f the social w orld have tion in interview research and new ways of conceiving of interview
contributed to this attention to the pivotal role of language in inter­ research. Throughout this book philosophical perspectives congenial
view research. to the mode of understanding in the qualitative research interview
The impact of Glaser and Strauss’s grounded theory (see Strauss & have been included: such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, dialectics,
Corbin, 1990) in current qualitative research shows the possibility of and postmodernism. In particular, postmodern and feminist thought r '
form ulating theories grounded on empirical interviewing. W ithin the today has an impact on how qualitative research is conceived (see, e.g., M
psychoanalytical tradition, the development of innovative theories on
the basis of patient interviews has not been limited to Freud’s original
Denzin & Lincoln, 1994). V
In an earlier chapter, therapeutic research was depicted in a di­
contributions at the turn of the century, but has continued with the­ i«
chotom ized either/or version as a dangerous voyage through a narrow
ories originating with therapeutic interviews about the authoritarian strait between two monsters— a no-method Charybdis and an all- *
personality in the 1930s and 1940s, and the narcissistic personality in m ethod Scylla— producing a long history of shipwrecked dissertations
the 1970s and 1980s. The communication of qualitative studies has *
(Chapter 4, Psychoanalytical Knowledge Production). In the present
come to the fore in the past few years, drawing on narrative ap­ context, qualitative research may be depicted as a voyage through an
proaches, the rhetorical tradition, and also through experiments with archipelago of friendly islands— the humanities, therapy, action re­
artistic forms of reporting interview studies. search and feminist research, and art— each offering the interviewer-
It remains to be seen whether the use of research interviews will traveler different genres and scenarios for the voyage.
yield significant knowledge of the human situation. Perhaps one hin­
drance to the development of comprehensive and penetrating know l­
edge has been the often individualistic and practical topic-centered C o nv ersation s A b o u t C o nv ersation s
approach to many interview studies, rather than using interviews in
larger, com mon research projects guided by theory. In conclusion, I will return from alternative genres to the know l­
Although the above internal critiques in my view characterize many edge potentials of interviews as human conversations. In current
current interview studies, the brief responses should indicate that they philosophy there is an emphasis on validity of knowledge to be
do not necessarily pertain to interview research. The qualitative constructed through a discourse. In this view, conversation in social
research interview is a specific form of conversation, however, and science research is not limited to explorative interviews as preparation
there are other approaches more appropriate to some of the concerns for the “real” scientific studies, but rather conversation permeates the
raised above. Comprehensive understandings of cultural situations are entire process of social science inquiry. Research is conceived as
better acquired through field studies and participant observation than conversation, with the subjects of a study, with the scientific com m u­
interviews. For obtaining practical knowledge about changing behav­ nity, and with a wider public. Social research becomes one mode of
ior, action research is more adequate. Deeper knowledge of a person’s expanding the historical conversation of humankind.
fantasies and feelings may only be methodically and ethically accessi­ The entire interview inquiry is in a broad sense a conversation. In
ble through intensive therapeutic interviews. It should further be the first, thematizing stage of an investigation there is a conversation
pointed out that the present book gives a rather “puristic” view of the with the literature of tradition, with its theories and findings. The
296 Interviews Conversations About Interviews 297

interview situation is a direct conversation, and interpretation is seen Rather than trying to escape the conversational circle— as was
as a dialogue with the text produced by the interview. Verification attempted by positivist approaches to the modern social sciences with
involves a conversation with different communities, with a focus on the scientist as an external observer, ideally a visiting man from Mars
validation as communication and action. Reporting was seen as invok­ — the challenge is to expand our understanding of the hum an world
ing an imagined dialogue with a potential audience, a dialogue that through a dialogue w ithin the hum an conversational reality.
can become real through the publication of the findings. Discussions of qualitative research, including the major part o f the
The inter view is a situation of knowledge production in which present book, have tended to remain within a methodological and
knowledge is created between the views of the two partners in the epistemological context. There has been relatively little questioning
conversation. In preceding chapters the focus has been on knowledge about the relation of the interview to the nature of the subject matter
production through the interaction of the interviewer and the inter­ investigated, which involves a theory of the social world. Perhaps one
viewee. The construction of knowledge is not completed by the m ajor contribution of the current interest in qualitative interview
interaction of the researchers and their subjects, but continues with research w ill be an impetus to address the conversational nature of the
the researchers’ interpretations and reporting of their interviews, to social world studied by the social sciences. This involves not only
conversations with other researchers about their findings. In this addressing the hermeneutics of the conversation, but also bringing in
chapter, two formalized dialogues with different audiences were the broader social contexts of an interview— something that has been
depicted in line with a miner and a traveler metaphor, respectively, of little treated in this book— such as the embeddedness of conversations
the interviewer. The nature of knowledge presupposed by the one in contexts of power, economy, and politics.
audience consisted of isolated objective facts; by the other, of know l­ T hroughout this book the research interview has been discussed in
edge as interrelational, constituted by conversational interaction. relation to three different forms o f conversation— methodical, episte­
An interview inquiry is not above the social world, it is not a neutral mological, and ontological (Chapter 2, Interviews in Three Conversa­
conversation allowing us to decide about the true nature of the social tions). They involve the interview as a specific conversational tech­
world, or— more modestly— to decide objectively among competing nique for obtaining knowledge of the subjects’ lived worlds, the
knowledge claims. The interview conversation is part of the social conversation as the ultimate context within which knowledge is
world studied, and as was shown by the two formalized conversations understood, and finally men and women as dialogical beings through
about interviews, a controversial means for obtaining knowledge of their words and actions in a material situation constituting the hum an
the social world. world as a conversational reality. In this understanding, the use of
In order to clarify the nature of the research interview we need to conversations is not only an additional method of social science
extend our understanding of the nature of the conversational realities research, but conversations among researchers, and the public, pro­
studied by the interview conversations. We know about the cultural vide the context for ascertaining the truth about and value of the
world through our own conversations and by reading the conversa­ knowledge produced by interview conversations about a conversa­
tions of others. The cultural world we are conversing about is again a tional world.
conversational world in which meaning has been constituted through Interview inquiry leads neither to a subjective relativity of interpre­
negotiations of interpretations. W e exist in a conversational circle, tations, nor to an absolute objective knowledge, but to knowledge
where our understanding ol the human world depends on conversa­ produced and tested intersubjectively through conversations. The
tion and our understanding of conversation is based on our under­ question of the objectivity: of the knowledge produced involves the
standing of the hum an world. This is not a vicious circle, but in a issue o f the nature of the social world studied. One meaning of
hermeneutical sense a circuluous fructuoisi. The problem is not to get objectivity is that an objective investigation reflects the nature of the
out of the conversational circle, but to get into it in the right way. object investigated, it “ lets the object speak.” This is literally the case
A
298 In terview s

in an interview inquiry where intersubjective knowledge is constructed

in a conversation between the researcher and the “objects” investi­
gated. W ith the “objects”— the interview subjects— giving voice to
their understanding of an intcrpersonally negotiated social w orld, the
qualitative research interview obtains a privileged position for creating
objective knowledge o f a conversational world.

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R o r ty , R . ( 1 9 7 9 ) . Philosophy and the mirror o f nature. P r in c e to n , N J : P r in c e to n psychoanalysis. N e w Y o r k : N o r to n .
U n iv ersity P ress. S p ie g e lb e rg , H . ( 1 9 6 0 ) . The phenomenological movement, Vol. II. T h e H ague, T h e
R o rty , R . ( 1 9 9 2 ) . T h e p ra g m a tist’s p ro g re ss. In U. E c o ( E d .), Interpretation and N e th e rla n d s : M a rtin u s N ijh o ff.
overinterpretation (p p . 8 9 - 1 0 8 ) . C a m b rid g e , U K : C a m b rid g e U n iv e rsity Press. S p ra d le y , J . ( 1 9 7 9 ) . The ethnographic interview. N e w Y o r k : H o lt, R in e h a r t & W in s to n .
R o se n a u , M . P. ( 1 9 9 2 ) . Postmodernism and the social sciences. P r in c e to n , N J : P r in c e to n S ta k e , R . E. ( 1 9 9 4 ) . C a s e s tu d ie s. In N . K . D c n z in & Y . S. L in c o ln (lid s .), H andbook o f
U n iv ersity Press. qualitative research (p p . 2 3 6 - 2 4 7 ) . T h o u s a n d O a k s , C A : S age.
Qualitative interviewing. T h o u sa n d O a k s , C A : S age.
R u b in , H . J . , & R u b in , I. S. ( 1 9 9 5 ) . S tra u s s , A . ( 1 9 9 5 ) .; N o te s o n th e n a tu re an d d e v e lo p m e n t o f g e n e ra l th e o r ie s . Journal of
Ryan, M . (1 9 9 2 ). Marxism and deconstruction. B a ltim o r e , M D : Jo h n s H o p k in s U n iv er­ Phenomenological Psychology, ^5, 1 9 0 -2 2 0 .
sity Press. S tra u s s , A . M . , & C o r b in , J . ( 1 9 9 0 ) . Basics o f qualitative research. N e w b u ry P a rk , C A :
Sage.
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Sul l i van, H. S. ( 1 9 5 4 ) . The psychiatric interview. N e w Yor k: Nor t on.

T a n n e n , D . ( 1 9 9 0 ) . O r d in a r y c o n v e rs a tio n and lite ra ry d is c o u rs e : C o h e r e n c e an d the
p o e tic s o f re p e titio n . Annals o f the New York Academy o f Sciences, 583, 1 5 - 3 2 .
Introduction to qualitative research—T he search for
T a y lo r , S. J . , & B o g d a n , R . ( 1 9 8 4 ) .
meanings. N e w Y o r k : J o h n W ile y .
T e d lo c k , I). ( 1 9 8 3 ) . The spoken word and the work o f interpretation. P h ila d e lp h ia :
U n iv ersity o f P e n n sy lv a n ia Press.
T esch , R. (1 9 9 0 ). Qualitative research: Analysis types and software tools. London:
F a lm e r.
T s c h u d i, F . ( 1 9 8 9 ) . D o q u a lita tiv e an d q u a n tita tiv e m e th o d s re q u ire d iffe r e n t a p p ro a c h e s
to v a lid ity ? In S. K v a le (Ed.), Issues o f validity in qualitative research (p p . 1 0 9 -1 3 4 ).
L u n d , S w e d e n : S tu d e n tlitte r a tu r.
van K a a m , A . ( 1 9 5 9 ) . P h e n o m e n a l a n a ly sis: E x e m p lifie d by a stu d y o f th e e x p e r ie n c e o f
“ re a lly fe e lin g u n d e r s to o d .” Journal o f Individual Psychology, 15, 6 6 -7 2 .
V an M aan en , J . (1 9 8 8 ). Tales o f the field. C h ic a g o : U n iv ersity o f C h ic a g o P re ss.
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Author Index
6 5 -7 2 .
Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary. (1 9 6 7 ). S p rin g fie ld , M A : M e rr ia m
W e b ste r.
W e itz m a n , E. A ., M ile s , M . B. ( 1 9 9 5 ) . Computer programs for qualitative data
analysis. T h o u sa n d O a k s, C A : S age.
Writing up qualitative research. N e w b u ry P a rk , C A : S age.
W o lc o t t , H . F . ( 1 9 9 0 ) .
Transforming qualitative data. T h o u s a n d O a k s , C A : S age.
W o lc o t t , H . F . ( 1 9 9 4 ) .
Y in , R . K . ( 1 9 9 4 ) . Case study research. N e w b u ry P a rk , C A : S age.
Y o w , V . R . ( 1 9 9 4 ) . Recording oral history. T h o u s a n d O a k s, C A : S age.

A lth c id e , D . L ., 1 0 7 C o o k , T . I ) ., 6 8
A n d ersen , W . I ., 4 I C o r b in , 87 , 2 0 6 -2 0 7 , 294
A n d e rs o n , T . , 2 4 7 C o rta z z i, M ., 2 0 1
A n g el, E ., 7 8 C r o n b a c h , L. J . , 2 3 8 , 2 4 0 , 2 4 5
A ris to tle , 1 2 2

D e a n , J . P ., 2 4 3
B e c k e r, H . S ., 2 4 3 D e n z in , N . K ., 9 , 10, 8 9 , 2 9 5
B e c k e r-S c h m id t, R ., 5 7 , 2 9 3 D ic h te r, E ., 7 1
B e rg e r, P. L ., 4 1 , 5 2 D o n m o y e r, R ., 2 3 5 , 2 7 3
B e rn s te in , R . J . , 2 0 , 3 7 , 6 6 , 6 8 D reyfu s, H . L ., 1 0 6 , 123
B ik le n , S. K ., 5 9 D rey fu s, S. E ., 1 0 6 , 1 2 3
B o g d a n , R ., 5 9
B o r u m , F ., 2 6 7
B o ss, M ., 7 8 E c o , U ., 2 2 8
B o w le s, S ., 2 1 6 E is n e r, E. W ., 1 0 6 , 1 1 2 , 1 1 4 , 1 1 7 , 1 2 1 ,
B ra n d t, L. W ., 6 3 2 4 6 , 2 6 8 ,2 7 0 -2 7 1
E lle n b e rg e r, H . F ., 7 8
E n d e ru d , H ., 2 6 7
C a ld e r, B. J . , 6 6
C a rs o n , T . R ., 5 1
C h e rr y h o lm e s , C . H ., 2 4 0 F is c h c r , C ., 5 5 , 1 9 6
C o n g e r, J . J „ 6 7 F is h e r, S ., 7 5
308 Interviews Author Index 309

F lic k , U ., 9 , 1 0 1 K e rlin g e r, F . N ., 6 1 , 6 7 , 2 3 8 P a lm e r , J . C ., 1 5 8 S h o tte r , J . , 3 7 , 4 2

Fog, J ., 1 5 6 -1 5 7 K e ssen , W ., 6 1 P a lm e r , R . E ., 4 7 S ie g e l, S ., 1 0 2
F reu d , S ., 2 4 , 4 6 , 7 5 , 7 6 , 7 7 , 1 0 2 , 1 6 2 , K e u p p , H ., 9 , 10 1 P a p e r t, S ., 16 1 S ilv e rm a n , D ., 1 8 8
221 22 2 , 249, 254, 27 3 , 294 K im m e i, A. J ., 1 1 2 , 121 P a tto n , M . Q ., 2 4 9 , 2 5 1 , 2 5 8 S im o n s , I I . W ., 2 6 8
K o c h , S ., 61 P e rv in , L . A ., 2 3 8 S k in n e r, B. F ., 4 1 , 8 4 , 1 0 2 , 2 7 3
K risre n sen , O. S., 9 3 P e s h k in , A ., 1 1 2 , 1 1 7 , 1 1 8 , 1 2 1 , 2 6 0 , S k o u , C . V ., 1 7 4
G a d a in c r, H . G ., 2 0 - 2 1 , 2 3 , 3 7 , 4 2 , 4 6 , K v a le , S ., 6 , 4 I, 6 3 , 7 0 , 8 9 , 9 2 , 9 6 , 1 0 7 , 261 S m ith , J . K ., 6 8
47 216, 231, 280 P ia g e t, J . , 1 0 2 , 1 5 8 S m ith , L. M ., 1 1 5 , 2 4 2
G e rg e n , K . J „ 4 5 , 2 3 5 , 2 5 1 P la to , 2 0 , 2 1 - 2 3 , 4 6 , 2 7 2 S o c ra te s , 8 , 1 9 , 2 2 - 2 3 , 3 5 , 4 5 , 1 2 6 ,
G in tis , H ., 2 1 6 P o la n d , B . D ., 1 6 2 , 1 6 6 145, 150, 158, 218, 2 4 6 , 2 7 2
G io rg i, A ., 1 0 , 1 9 , 2 7 , 2 9 , - 3 1 , 3 2 , 5 3 , .L a in g , R ., 7 8 , 2 6 5 , 2 7 3 . P o lk in g h o rn e , .D. E ., 4 3 , 6 4 , 1 0 7 , 2 0 0 , S p e n c e , D . P ., 2 4 9 , 2 7 4
55, 97, 126, 127, 145, 146, 188, L a th e r, P ., 4 6 , 2 2 6 , 2 3 1 , 2 6 8 240, 273 S p ie g e lb e rg , H ., 5 3
1 9 3 -1 9 6 , 2 0 0 , 2 0 9 ,2 1 2 ,2 1 4 , L a v e .J., 9 6 , 1 0 7 P o tte r , J . , 4 2 - 4 3 S p ra d le y , J . , 1 2 4
218, 265 L a z a rsfe ld , P. L ., 6 8 S ta k e , R . E ., 2 3 2
G la s e r , B . G ., 9 8 , 2 0 6 , 2 4 2 , 2 9 4 L ew is, 0 . , 7 0 , 2 9 3 S tra u ss, A ., 1 0 , 8 7 , 9 8 , 2 0 6 - 2 0 7 , 2 4 2 ,
G le s n e , C ., 1 1 8 , 2 6 0 , 2 6 1 L in c o ln , Y. S ., 9 , 1 0 , 8 9 , 1 1 4 , 2 3 1 , 2 4 9 , R a d n itz k y , G ., 4 7 - 5 0 , 6 1 294
G re e n b e r g , R . P ., 7 5 295 R a p a p o r t, D ., 7 4 S u lliv a n , H . S ., 3 5 , 4 5
G re n n e ss , C . E ., 41 L o ftu s , E. L ., 15 8 R e a s o n , P ., 2 5 0
G u b a , E ., 2 3 1 , 2 4 9 L a v lie , L ., 1 2 3 , 2 7 3 R e ic h a r d t, C . S ., 6 8
L u ck m a n n , T ., 4 1 , 5 2 R ic h a r d s o n , L ., 2 4 4 , 2 5 4 , 2 6 8 , 2 6 9 - 2 7 0 , T a n n e n , D ., 1 6 6
L u n d , N . G ., 2 7 5 274, 275 T e d lo c k , D ., 1 6 6
H a b e r m a s, J . , 4 2 , 5 1 - 5 2 , 7 8 , 1 1 7 , 1 2 1 , L u n d g re n , F ., 2 8 2 R ic h e r , P ., 7 2 T e s c h , R ., 8 7 , 1 7 3 , 1 7 4 , 1 8 8 , 1 9 6 , 1 9 9
248 L y o ta rd , J . F ., 4 1 , 4 3 , 4 4 , 5 8 , 2 4 6 , R ic o e u r , P ., 4 6 , 7 8 , 2 4 5 T h u c y d id e s, 8 , 4 5
H agan , T ., 2 2 2 , 2 9 3 248 R o g e r s , C . R ., 1 9 , 2 4 , 3 2 , 3 4 , 3 5 , 5 2 , T s c h u d i, F ., 6 8 , 2 4 0
H a r d , 1., 161 7 1 , 7 5 , 104, 127, 145, 218
I lau g , F ., 5 7 R o r ty , R ., 4 - 5 , 3 7 , 4 1 , 4 2 , 2 4 5
H e id e g g e r, M ., 5 2 , 5 3 , 5 8 , 7 8 , 10 7 M a d is o n , G . B ., 4 4 R o s e n a u , M . P ., 4 1 , 2 3 1, 2 4 1 van K aam , A ., 5 5
H e rtz , R ., 101 M a n d le r, G ., 61 R o s e n s tie l, 1.., 9 , 1 0 1 V an M aan en , J ., 2 2 6 , 2 6 8 -2 6 9
H esh u siu s, L ., 6 8 M a rs h a ll, C ., 5 9 , 8 4 , 1 0 4 R o ss m a n , G . B ., 5 9 , 8 4 , 1 0 4
H illm a n , J . , 4 5 M a r to n , F ., 5 5 R u n y a n , W . M ., 2 4 2 , 2 6 5
H o lb e r g , I.., 2 2 0 M a r x , C ., 5 6 , 2 1 8 , 2 3 4 - 2 3 5 , 2 4 8 W e b e r , S. J., 5 1
H o lb r o o k , M . B ., 7 1 M a y , R ., 7 8 W e itz m a n , E . A ., 1 7 3
H o u s e , E. R ., 2 4 5 , 2 5 0 M a y rin g , P ., 6 9 , 1 9 6 S a ln e r , M ., 1 0 6 , 2 4 2 W e n g e r, E ., 1 0 7
H u b e r m a n , A . M ., 1 7 3 , 1 8 8 , 1 9 9 , 2 0 4 , M e e h l, P. E ., 2 3 8 , 2 4 0 S a rtr e , J .- P . , 4 1 , 5 2 , 5 3 , 5 6 , 5 8 , 7 8 , 2 1 2 W e r tz , F ., 1 9 6
2 4 2 , 275 M e rle a u -P o n ty , M ., 4 1 , 4 4 , 5 2 , 5 3 , 5 4 , S c h e fle n , A . E ., 2 0 1 - 2 0 3 , 2 6 5 , 2 7 4 W e th e r e ll, M ., 4 2 - 4 3
I Iv o lb o l, C ., 9 3 5 8 , 196 S c h e u r ic h , J . J . , 4 6 W h y te , W . F ., 2 4 3
M ile s, M . B ., 1 7 3 , 1 8 8 , 1 9 9 , 2 0 4 , 2 4 2 , S c h o fie ld , J . W ., 2 3 4 - 2 3 5 W o lc o t t , H . F „ 1 8 8
275 S c o tt , S ., 7 3 W o lf f, S ., 9 , 1 0 1
Im b e r, J . B ., 1 0 1 M is h le r , E. G ., 4 3 , 4 4 , 6 3 , 1 0 7 , 1 6 4 , S c riv e n , M ., 6 5
165, 168, 2 0 0 , 245 S e id m a n , I. E ., 1 3 2
M o r g a n , D . L ., 7 1 , 1 0 1 S h a k e sp e a r e , W ., 1 5 1 , 2 5 9 Y in , R . K ., 2 3 3
J a c o b s e n , B ., 1 7 1 M o u s ta k a s , C ., 5 5 , 1 1 2 S h ep h erd , L. J ., 73 Y o w , V . R ., 1 0 1 , 1 1 2 , 1 6 2 , 2 9 3
J e n s e n , K . B ., 4 3 , 2 0 1 M u rra y , E ., 5 5
J o h n s o n , J . M ., 1 0 7 M ü sse n , P. H ., 6 7

K ag an , J . , 6 7 O ’ H a ra , M ., 7 4
K a n t, I., 121 O le s e n , V ., 7 2 , 7 3 , 7 4
K a rd o ff, E ., 9 , 1 0 1 O ng, W .J., 166
K e n n ed y , M . M ., 2 3 3 - 2 3 4 O s ia tin s k y , A ., 2 5 8
 Subject Index

A c tio n (s ): A n th ro p o lo g ic a l stu d ie s, 9 6 , 2 9 3
d e s c r ip tio n s o f , 3 0 , 3 2 A rg u m en ta tio n :
d ia le c tic s a n d , 5 5 , 5 6 p h ilo s o p h ic a l d isco u rse a n d , 2 0 , 2 1 ,
fe m in is t re sea rch a n d , 7 2 - 7 3 23
h e rm e n e u tic a l in te rp r e ta tio n an d , 4 6 ra tio n a l, 6 6 , 2 4 6
k n o w le d g e re la tio n s h ip , 3 9 , 2 4 8 , A rith m e tic in te rs u b je c tiv ity , 6 5
2 4 9 -2 5 0 A u x iliary m e th o d , in te rv ie w s erv in g as,
m o r a l, 12 1 98
p ra g m a tic v a lid a tio n an d , 2 4 1 ,
2 4 8 -2 4 9
p s y c h o a n a ly tic a l re sea rch and, 7 6 B a ck g ro u n d m a te ria l, in te rv ie w used as,
te c h n o lo g ic a l a p p ro a c h to , 6 3 98
u n c o v e r in g re a lity , 5 6 B e h a v io r:
“ w h y ” q u e stio n s a b o u t, 131 ch a n g e s in, 2 4 9 , 2 9 4
A ctio n re s e a r c h , 2 9 3 , 2 9 4 c o n s u m e r, 7 1
A e s th e tic se n s ib ility , 1 0 6 c o n tr o l o f, 1 1 , 6 2 , 7 0 , 7 2
A m b ig u o u s s ta te m e n ts, 3 1 , 3 4 d ia le c tics an d , 5 5
A m e ric a n P s y c h o lo g ic a l A ss o c ia tio n , law s o f, 2 3 2
e th ic a l p rin cip le s an d , 1 0 9 - 1 1 0 , p re d ic tio n o f, 11
117 B e h a v io rist a p p r o a c h , 5 1 , 6 3 , 7 0
A n a lo g ie s, 2 7 4 -2 7 * * g e n c ra liz a b ility an d , 2 3 2
A n a ly sis, see In te rv ie w analysis See also S k in n e ria n a p p ro a ch
A n a ly tica l g e n e ra liz a tio n , 2 3 3 - 2 3 4 B e lie f, s o cia l ju s tific a tio n o f, 3 7
A n o n y m ity , 1 1 5 , 1 1 9 , 1 7 2 , 2 5 9 - 2 6 0 B e tti-G a d a m e r c o n tro v e r sy , 4 7
312 Intervi ews Subject Index
31 3

B ias, 6 4 , 1 1 8 , 2 8 6 C o m m u n ity o f s c h o la rs , v a lid a tio n C o n t r o l( s ), 11 8 D e fe n s e m e c h a n ism s , 3 5

in te rp r e ta tio n a n d , 2 4 2 th ro u g h n e g o tia tio n s o f , 2 4 7 a n a ly sis a n d , 2 0 7 - 2 0 9 D e p th in te rv ie w , 7 1
m e m o ry o f in te rv ie w a n d , 1 6 2 C o m p a r iso n , m e a n in g g e n e ra tio n an d , n a tu ra l s c ie n c e s a n d , 5 1 D e s r rip tio n (s ).
Biased su b je c tiv ity , 2 1 2 , 2 8 7 204 q u e stio n s f o r , 1 0 0 an aly sis a n d , 1 8 7 , 1 8 8
Bilduttgsreise, 4 C o m p u te rs: C o n t r o l o f b e h a v io r: c h a n g in g , 3 4
B o d ily e x p re ss io n s , 1 2 9 , 2 9 3 an alysis a n d , 8 , 1 7 3 - 1 7 5 , 1 9 0 , 2 9 3 b e h a v io ris m a n d , 7 0 in te rp r e ta tio n v ersu s, 1 2 7
in te rp r e tin g , 3 1 - 3 2 tra n s c rip tio n s an d , 1 6 3 , 17 3 1 7 5 c o n s u m e rs a n d , 7 2 nu anced , 3 0 , 3 2
re c o rd in g , 1 6 1 C o n c e p ts , q u a lita tiv e , 6 9 p o s itiv ism a n d , 1 1 , 6 2 open, 53
tra n s c rib in g , 1 6 7 C o n c e p tu a l c la r ific a tio n , o f th e m e , 8 9 C o n v c r s a tio n (s ):
p h e n o m e n o lo g ic a l p e rs p e c tiv e an d ,
B rie fin g , b e fo r e in te rv ie w , 1 2 7 , 1 5 3 C o n c e p tu a l s tru ctu res: as b a sic m o d e o f k n o w in g , 3 7 11, 3 8 , 3 9 , 5 2 -5 5
B u re a u c ra tic in s titu tio n s, q u a n tific a tio n c o m p u te r a ssista n ce in b u ild in g , 1 7 4 co n te x t o f, 3 6 p re c is io n in , 3 2
an d , 6 3 in te rp r e ta tio n a n d , 2 0 1 - 2 0 2 o f d a ily life , 5 - 6 , 2 0 ric h , 1 3 3 , 1 4 5 , 2 7 5
C o n c e p tu a l u n d ersta n d in g , o f re s e a rc h d e c o n te x tu a liz e d , 1 6 7 sp o n ta n e o u s, 1 3 3 , 1 3 4 , 1 4 5
c o n te n t, 9 5 - 9 6 d e fin in g , 19 u n in te rp re te d , 3 2 - 3 3
C ase h is to rie s: C o n fid e n tia lity , 1 1 1 , 1 1 4 - 1 1 5 , 1 1 9 , fo rm s o f, 5 D e sig n , see R e s e a r c h d esign
g e n e ra liz a b ility a n d , 2 3 2 , 2 3 3 - 2 3 4 1 5 4 ,1 7 2 ,2 5 9 h e rm e n e u tic a l in te r p r e ta tio n an d , D ia le c tic a l m a te ria lis m , 5 5 - 5 6 , 5 8
p s y c h o a n a ly tic a l re sea rch an d , 7 5 C o n s c io u s n e s s: 3 8 , 4 6 -5 2 D ia le c tic s , 1 1 , 3 9 , 4 0 , 5 5 - 5 7 , 5 8
re p o r tin g an d , 2 7 3 d ia le c tics a n d , 5 5 , 5 8 in te rv ie w a s, 1 5 - 1 6 , 1 9 - 3 7 D ia lo g ic a l in te rs u b je c tiv ity , 6 5
C a te g o rie s : p h e n o m e n o lo g ic a l d e s c r ip tio n s o f , 11 a b o u t in te rv ie w s, 2 7 9 - 2 9 8 D ia lo g u e , h e rm e n e u tic a l in te rp r e ta tio n
c o d in g a n d , 2 0 5 - 2 0 6 C o n se n su s, 4 2 k n o w le d g e as, 1 9 - 2 1 , 3 7 , 4 2 - 4 3 an d , 4 9
m u ltip le in te rp re te rs a n d , 2 0 8 c o e rc io n o f, 2 5 0 p a u se s in , 1 3 4 - 1 3 5 D ia lo g u e a p p r o a c h , to in te rv ie w stu d y ,
C hange: d ia le c tics a n d , 5 7 p o w e r re la tio n s in , 1 2 6 114
c o n tr a d ic tio n s d riv in g , 5 5 - 5 7 h e rm e n e u tic s a n d , 5 1 re a lity a n d , 3 7 D is c o u rs e :
fe m in is t re sea rch a n d , 7 3 o f in te rp r e ta tio n , 5 8 as r e s e a r c h , 5 - 7 , 8 , 1 2 4 - 1 2 7 c o m m u n ic a tiv e v a lid ity a n d , 2 4 5
in te rv ie w p ro ce ss p ro d u c in g , 3 1 , 3 4 , in te rs u b je c tiv e , 6 3 , 6 4 , 6 5 tra v e le r m e ta p h o r a n d , 4 - 5 h e rm e n e u tic a l in te r p r e ta tio n a n d , 4 6
190 re lia b ility a n d , 181 C o n v e rs a tio n a l s k ills, 1 4 7 p h ilo s o p h ic a l, 2 0 - 2 1 , 4 2 - 4 3 , 2 4 6 ,
p ra g m a tic v a lid a tio n a n d , 2 4 8 tru th a n d , 2 4 6 , 2 4 8 C o n v e rs a tio n a l te c h n iq u e , 3 6 272
p s y c h o a n a ly tic a l in te rv ie w a n d , 7 7 , v a lid ity a n d , 2 1 7 C r a ft, in te rv ie w in g as, 1 0 5 - 1 0 8 ra tio n a l a rg u m e n ta tio n in , 6 6 , 1 2 7 ,
78 C o n s tru c tio n is m , 4 5 C re a tiv ity , h e rm e n e u tic a l in te rp r e ta tio n 246
th e ra p e u tic in te rv ie w a n d , 2 6 , 1 5 6 , C o n s tru c t v a lid ity , 2 4 0 a n d ,5 0 See also C o n v e rs a tio n (s )
248 C o n te n t a n a ly sis, 6 8 C r itic a l c o m m o n s c n s e u n d e rsta n d in g , D is c o u rs e a n a ly s is, 4 2 - 4 3
( children: C o n t e x t , 3 6 , 1 2 7 1 28 2 1 4 -2 1 5 , 2 1 7 D iscu rsiv e a rg u m e n ta tio n , 2 0 , 2 1, 2 3 ,
in fo rm e d c o n s e n t in in te rv ie w in g , c o m p u te r a n a ly sis a n d , 1 7 4 C u ltu re : 66, 246
113 e th ic a l p o s itio n a n d , 1 2 2 - 1 2 3 o r a l, 1 6 6 D u ty e th ics o f p r in c ip le s , 1 2 1 - 1 2 2
le a d in g q u e stio n s a n d , 1 5 8 h e rm e n e u tic a l in te rp r e ta tio n a n d , 4 9 re n a r ra tiv iz a tio n o f , 4 3
C la r ific a tio n , 1 4 5 , 1 7 8 h is to ric a l, 11 s e lf-u n d e rs ta n d in g m e d ia te d w ith in ,
am b ig u o u s s ta te m e n ts a n d , 1 3 2 in te rp e rs o n a l, 4 4 51 E d u c a tio n a l c o n v e rs a tio n , 2 3
a n aly sis a n d , 1 9 0 in te rp r e ta tio n a n il, 4 9 , 1 9 3 , 2 1 2 , w ritte n , 1 6 6 - 1 6 7 E lite s, in te rv ie w s w ith , 1 0 1
c o n tra d ic to r y sta te m e n ts a n d , 3 4 2 1 3 -2 1 7
E m a n c ip a tio n th ro u g h k n o w le d g e , 7 0 ,
s ta te m e n t c a te g o riz a tio n an d , 1 3 0 k n o w le d g e as, 4 4 121
C lass s o c ie ty , 5 5 - 5 6 lo c a l, 4 2 D a ily life , c o n v e rs a tio n s o f , 5 - 6 , 2 0 E m o tio n (s ):
C lie n t-c e n te r e d in te rv ie w , 2 4 - 2 6 m a te ria l, 2 1 2 , 2 9 3 D a ta : fe m in is t re s e a rc h a n d , 7.3
C o d e rs : m e a n in g an d , 1 6 7 - 1 6 8 o b s e r v a b le , 6 1 in te rv ie w stu d y a n d , 8 5 - 8 9 , 1 2 8
m u ltip le , 2 0 8 s o c ia l, 1 1 , 2 1 2 , 2 9 3 re p r o d u c ib le , 6 5 th e ra p e u tic in te rv ie w a n d , 2 6 , 7 7 ,
re lia b ility a n d , 6 5 , 1 9 9 , 2 0 8 tra n s c rip tio n s a n d , 1 6 3 , 1 6 7 - 1 6 8 te sta b le , 6 5 1 0 4 -1 0 5
C o d in g , 1 9 2 , 2 0 5 - 2 0 6 C o n tra d ic tio n s , study o l, 3 9 , 5 5 - 5 7 , 5 8 D a ta a n a ly sis, 6 9 . See also In te rv ie w E m o tio n a l in te r a c tio n , 3 5 , 1 5 6 , 2 9 3
c o m p u te r a n a ly sis a n d , 1 7 3 - 1 7 4 C o n tra d ic to r y s ta te m e n ts, 3 4 , 3 9 , 1 6 7 a n a ly sis E m o tio n a l to n e , tr a n s c rip tio n s a n d , 171
m e a n in g c a te g o rie s a n d , 1 9 7 - 1 9 8 C o n tra d ic to r y m e a n in g s, 7 6 , 1 6 7 , 1 6 8 , D e b rie fin g , a f te r in te rv ie w , 1 2 7 , 1531 E m p a th ie a c c e s s , to life w o rld , 1 2 5
C o m m u n ica tiv e v a lid ity , 6 5 , 2 4 5 - 2 4 8 226 D e c o n s tr u c tiv e re a d in g , 2 2 7 E m p a th ie d ia lo g u e , 7 0

*
314 Interviews Subject Index 31 5

E m p a th y , 2 9 3 F a c ts : H a m le t’s in te rv ie w , 1 5 1 - 1 5 3 p o s tm o d e rn d e c e n te rin g o f, 4 5
in te rv ie w re c o rd in g an d , 161 m in e r m ietaph or a n d , 3 in fo r m a n t p e rs p e c tiv e a n d , 2 1 8 In d ivid u al case stu d ie s, see C a se stud ies
listen in g a n d , 1 3 5 , 1 4 9 p o sitiv ism a n d , 6 2 m e a n in g in te rp r e ta tio n an d , 1 9 3 In fo rm a n t, in te rv ie w ee as, 2 1 8 , 2 2 0 , 2 2 3
E m p o w e rm e n t, 7 0 , 2 4 9 F eed b ack , 1 2 8 p e rs o n -c e n te re d te x t q u e stio n s and, In fo rm e d c o n s e n t, 1 1 1 , 1 1 2 - 1 1 4 , 1 1 9 ,
E n lig h te n m e n t, p h ilo s o p h y o f , 4 1 , 12 1 F e e lin g s, see E m o tio n (s ) 215 1 5 3 -1 5 4 , 2 5 9
E n th u sia sm p h a se, in in te rv ie w p r o je c t, F e m in is m , in te rv ie w s a n d , 2 8 2 s u s p ic io n o f m o tiv e s a n d , 1 5 3 , In te ra c tio n , 3 1 , 3 5 - 3 6 , 3 8 , 5 0
85 F e m in is t re s e a r c h , 7 2 - 7 4 , 2 9 3 1 5 5 -1 5 7 , 180, 203 c o n s e q u e n c e s o f, 1 1 1 , 1 1 6 - 1 1 7 ,
E p is te m o lo g ic a l d e m a n d fo r q u a n tific a ­ e th ic a l issu es a n d , 1 2 1 H a te , th e ra p e u tic in te rv ie w o n , 2 4 - 2 6 1 5 4 -1 5 7
tio n , 6 7 uses o f, 1 1 7 H e r m e n e u tic a l a p p ro a c h : c o n v e rs a tio n as, 1 2 5
E p is te m o lo g y , 1 4 , 1 7 F ie ld stu d ie s, 1 0 4 , 1 1 4 in te r p r e ta tio n an d , 1 1, 3 8 , 4 6 - 5 2 e ffe c t o n in te rv ie w e e , 1 0 9
E sse n ce s, in v e stig a tio n o f , 5 3 F o c u s e d in te rv ie w s, 71 lis te n in g a n d , 1 3 5 e th ica l issu es a n d , 1 1 8
E th ic a l c o d e s , 1 1 0 - 1 1 2 F o c u s g ro u p s , 10 1 tra n s la tio n a n d , 1 6 6 fe m in ist re s e a rc h a n d , 7 2 , 7 3
E th ic a l issu es, 1 0 9 - 1 2 3 , 1 5 3 - 1 5 7 F o llo w -u p q u e stio n s , 1 3 3 , 1 4 2 , 1 4 5 , 1 8 3 H e r m e n e u tic a l c ir c le , 4 7 - 5 1, 2 9 6 g ro u p in te rv ie w s an d , 2 9 3
c o n fid e n tia lity a n d , 1 1 1 , 1 1 4 - 1 1 5 , F o r e k n o w le d g e , 3 8 H e r m e n e u tic s , 5 8 im p lic it ru les o f , 1 2 5 - 1 2 6
119, 154, 172, 259 F re u d ia n a p p r o a c h , 9 7 c o h e r e n c e c r ite r io n o f tru th an d , 2 3 9 k n o w le d g e c o n s tr u c te d th ro u g h , 1 2 7
in fo rm e d c o n s e n t a n d , 1 1 1 , 1 1 2 - 1 1 4 , c a se stu d ie s a n d , 1 0 2 c o m m u n ic a tiv e v alid ity a n d , 2 4 5 p sy c h o a n a ly tic a l re sea rc h a n d , 7 6 - 7 7
119, 1 5 3 -1 5 4 , 2 5 9 false s ta te m e n ts a n d , 2 2 1 - 2 2 2 d e fin itio n o f, 4 7 re sea rc h o b je c tiv ity a n d , 6 4
in te rv ie w c o n s e q u e n c e s a n d , 1 1 1 , in s tig a tio n o f c h a n g e a n d , 7 7 , 2 4 9 lite ra tu r e o n , 4 0 v id e o re c o rd in g a n d , 161
1 1 6 -1 1 7 , 1 1 9 -1 2 0 , 1 5 4 -1 5 7 p r o d u c tio n o f n e w k n o w le d g e m e a n in g in te rp r e ta tio n a n d , 2 0 0 In te rp e rs o n a l in te ra c tio n , see In te ra c tio n
lite ra tu re o n , 9 0 th ro u g h , 4 5 - 4 6 p lu ra lity o f in te rp r e ta tio n s an d , In te rp e rs o n a l re la tio n s , 8 8
p ra g m a tic a p p ro a c h a n d , 2 5 0 re s e a rc h an d tre a tm e n t re la tio n s h ip 2 1 0 -2 1 1 In te rp r e ta tio n s , 11
re s e a r c h e r ro le a n d , 1 1 7 - 1 1 8 and , 75 q u e stio n s p o sed to te x ts an d , 2 4 3 a m b ig u ity a n d , 3 4
re s e a rc h re p o rts a n d , 2 5 9 - 2 6 1 o f s u s p ic io n , 2 0 3 , 2 2 6 - 2 2 7 b ias in , 2 1 2 , 2 4 2 , 2 8 7
s ta rt o f stu d y a n d , 1 1 8 - 1 2 0 t e x t in te rp r e ta tio n s a n d , 2 1 1 c o m m u n ity o f s ch o la rs a n d , 2 4 7 - 2 4 8
tra n s c rip tio n s a n d , 1 7 2 - 1 7 3 G e n d e r, s o c ia l c o n s tr u c tio n o f , 7 3 H is to r ic a l c o n t e x t , d ia le c tic a l situ atin g c o n firm a tio n o f , 3 1 - 3 2
E th ic a l p r o to c o l, 1 1 2 G e n e r a liz a b ility , 8 8 , 2 2 9 - 2 3 1 , 2 8 9 o f h u m an activ ity in , 11 c o n fr o n tin g s u b je c t w ith , 1 5 6
E th ic a l th e o r ie s , 1 2 0 - 1 2 3 ca se stu d ie s a n d , 1 0 2 “ H o w ” in te rv ie w q u e stio n s , 1 3 0 - 1 3 1 c o n te n t, 2 1 8 - 2 2 1
E th n o g r a p h ic stu d ie s, 9 8 fo rm s o f, 2 3 1 - 2 3 4 H o w q u e stio n s , re s e a rc h d esign an d , 9 5 , c o n te x t o f, 1 9 3 ,2 1 3 - 2 1 7
E th n o g r a p h y , w ritin g as s o cia l p o s tm o d e rn p e rs p e c tiv e , 2 3 1 9 6 , 1 2 6 , 130 d e s c r ip tio n v ersu s, 1 2 7
c o n s tr u c tio n a n d , 2 6 8 - 2 6 9 G e n e r a liz a tio n : H u m a n in te re sts , k n o w le d g e an d , 5 1 - 5 2 , e th ic a l issues an d , 1 11
E x a m p le s , in te rp r e ta tio n a n d , 1 2 3 a n a ly tic a l, 2 3 3 - 2 3 4 120, 121, 117 fem in ist re sea rc h an d , 7 4
E x is te n tia lis m , 5 6 , 5 8 n a tu r a listic , 2 3 2 H u m a n is tic p sy c h o lo g y , 2 3 2 fo re k n o w le d g e a n d , 5 8
E x p e rie n c e s : sta tis tic a l, 2 3 1 - 2 3 4 H u m a n is tic view , g e n e ra liz a b ility and, h e rm e n e u tic a l, 1 1 , 3 8 , 4 6 - 5 2 , 5 8
d e s c r ib in g , 3 2 ta rg ets o f , 2 3 3 - 2 3 4 232 in te rv ie w e r q u a lific a tio n s a n d , 1 4 9
fe m in is t re s e a rc h a n d , 7 2 - 7 3 G e stu re s, 3 1 , 5 0 H u m a n s c ie n c e s , h e rm e n e u tic , 4 7 in te rv ie w q u a lity a n d , 1 5 1 , 1 5 3
p h e n o m e n o lo g ic a l p e rs p e c tiv e a n d , G ra d e stu d y, 6 - 7 , 8 9 - 9 8 H u m a n s u b je c ts p r o to c o l, 1 1 2 m u ltip le , 2 0 3 , 2 4 2 - 2 4 3 , 2 8 7
3 8 , 5 2 -5 5 c o n fid e n tia lity a n d , 1 1 4 - 1 1 5 H u m a n w e lfa r e , p r o m o tio n o f, 1 0 9 , o n -th e -lin e , 1 8 9
sen sitiv e a c c o u n ts o f , 1 4 6 - 1 4 7 c o n s e q u e n c e s o f, 1 1 6 , 1 5 4 , 2 6 1 111, 1 1 7 , 1 19, 1 2 1 -1 2 2 , 2 5 9 p lu ra lity o f, 2 1 0 - 2 2 8
E x p e rim e n ta l stu d ie s: in fo rm e d c o n s e n t a n d , 1 1 3 H y p o th e s e s: p o s tm o d e rn th o u g h t a n d , 5 8
in fo rm e d c o n s e n t a n d , 1 1 4 in te rv ie w , 1 3 6 - 1 4 3 d iffe r e n c e s a m o n g g ro u p s an d , 1 0 2 p ra g m a tic v a lid a tio n an d , 2 4 8 , 2 4 9
q u a n tita tiv e m e th o d s , 6 2 - 6 3 in v alid u n d e rsta n d in g a n d , 2 2 1 - 2 2 3 e x p lo r a tio n versus te stin g , 1 2 7 ' p sy c h o a n a ly tic a l, 5 1 , 7 6 , 7 8
E x p lo r a tiv e stu d ie s, 9 7 m e a n in g c a te g o riz a tio n a n d , 1 9 6 - 1 9 9 fo llo w -u p s a n d , 1 4 3 p u rp o se o f, 2 1 1
in fo rm e d c o n s e n t a n d , 1 1 4 , 1 1 9 q u estio n s asked o f te x t a n d , 2 1 3 - 2 2 4 , fo rm u la tin g , 91 q u e st fo r real m e a n in g an d , 2 2 5 - 2 2 8
E x p lo r a to r y stu d y, p u rp o se o f , 1 0 0 143 q u a lita tiv e , 6 9 te stin g , 1 3 2 , 2 8 8
tra n s c rip tio n s a n d , 1 6 9 , 1 7 1 - 1 7 2 te stin g , 9 7 - 9 8 , 1 0 0 , 1 2 7 , 1 3 2 , 2 8 8 th e o re tic a l fra m e , 2 1 5 - 2 1 6 , 2 1 7
G ro u n d e d th e o ry a p p r o a c h , 8 7 , 9 8 , tra n s c rip tio n s and, 1 6 3 , 1 6 5 , 1 6 7 - 1 6 8 ,
F a c ia l e x p re ss io n s , 1 2 9 2 0 6 ,2 9 4 1 7 1 ,1 8 9 -1 9 0
in te rp r e tin g , 3 1 - 3 2 G ro u p d iffe r e n c e s, 9 8 , 1 0 2 , 1 8 0 , 2 8 8 Im p r e s s io n is tic ta le , 2 6 9 v alid ity a n d , 1 4 5 , 2 0 3 , 2 1 7 - 2 2 3 ,
re c o rd in g , 1 6 1 G ro u p in te rv ie w s, 1 0 1 , 2 9 3 In d iv id u a l: 240
fo c u s o n , 2 9 2 See also In te rv ie w an alysis
316 Interviews Subject Index 317

In te rp r e te r: m u ltip le in te rp re te rs a n d , 2 0 8 - 2 0 9 n u m b e r o f s u b je c ts , 1 0 1 - 1 0 3 m in e r m e ta p h o r an d , 3 - 4
m u ltip le , 2 0 8 - 2 0 9 n a rra tiv e , 1 8 4 , 1 9 2 - 1 9 3 , 1 9 9 - 2 0 1 o b je c tio n s to , 2 8 1 - 2 9 1 n a rra tiv e , 4 3
p re su p p o sitio n s o f, 2 1 1 q u a lita tiv e , 2 0 5 - 2 0 6 o p e n n e ss a n d , 8 3 - 8 7 p h ilo s o p h ic a l in q u iry a n d , 2 3
In te rp r e tin g q u e stio n s , 1 3 5 , 1 4 2 q u a n tita tiv e , 2 0 5 - 2 0 6 p u rp o se o f , 9 5 , 9 7 - 9 8 , 1 0 0 p o s tm o d e rn c o n s tr u c tio n o f, 4 1 - 4 6
I n t e r r e g i o n a l k n o w le d g e , 4 4 - 4 5 q u e stio n n a ire s a n d , 9 3 r e c e p tio n a n d , 2 7 9 - 2 8 1 p s y c h o a n a ly tic in te rv ie w a n d , 7 4 - 7 9
In te rs u b je c tiv e a g ree m e n t: step s o f, 1 8 7 - 1 9 0 r e s o u r c e s fo r, 1 0 3 - 1 0 4 s c ie n tific , see S c ie n tific k n o w le d g e
an alysis m e th o d a n d , 181 th e o re tic a l p re su p p o sitio n s a n d , in s o c ia l s c ie n c e s, 8 - 1 0 s o c ia l c o n s tr u c tio n o f , 2 2 9 , 2 3 0 ,
a rith m e tic , 6 5 2 0 6 -2 0 7 sta g es o f , 8 1 - 8 2 , 8 7 - 8 9 2 3 9 -2 4 0
d ialo g u e le a d in g to , 6 5 , 2 0 8 1 ,0 0 0 -p a g e q u e stio n a n d , 1 7 6 - 1 8 6 th e m a tiz in g , 8 3 - 1 0 8 s y ste m a tic , 6 0
o b je c tiv ity a n d , 6 3 , 6 4 tra n s c rip tio n s an d , 1 6 8 - 1 7 3 , 1 8 9 - 1 9 0 In te rv ie w te x ts : ta c it, 1 0 7
re lia b ility a n d , 1 6 3 - 1 6 4 , 181 typ es o f q u e stio n s a n d , 1 3 2 h e rm e n e u tic a l in te r p r e ta tio n a n d , 4 6 th e o r e tic a l, 2 3
tra n s c rip tio n s a n d , 1 6 3 - 1 6 4 valid ity a n d , 2 3 3 . lite ra ry te x ts v ersu s, 4 7 - 5 1 th e ra p e u tic in te rv ie w a n d , 7 8 - 7 9
v a lid a tio n an d , 2 4 7 In te rv ie w e e s, see S u b je c t(s) See also T e x t (s ) to p ic , 3 5 , 8 4 , 9 5 - 9 6 , 1 0 3 - 1 0 4 , 1 0 8 ,
In te r v iew , 2 9 6 In te rv ie w ers: In tro d u c in g q u e stio n s , 1 3 3 132, 144, 147, 182
n ew view s o n , 4 5 - 4 6 c o m p e te n c e o f, 8 4 , 1 0 5 - 1 0 6 In tu itio n s , r e s e a r c h e r ’s e th ic a l, 1 2 2 use o f , 1 1 6 - 1 1 7 , 2 5 1
re s e a rc h in te rv ie w see n as, 1 4 - 1 6 cra ftsm a n sh ip o f, 8 3 In tu itiv e k n o w le d g e , 1 0 6 v a lid a te d th ro u g h p r a c tic e , 4 2
In te rv ie w (s)/ in te rv ie w in g : d e lib e ra te n a ïv eté a n d , 3 1 , 3 3 v alid ity a n d , 2 3 6 , 2 4 5 - 2 4 8
c lie n t-c e n te r e d , 2 4 - 2 6 e m o tio n a l d y n a m ics a n d , 8 5 v alu es a n d , 2 4 1
c o n v e rs a tio n s a b o u t, 2 7 9 - 2 9 8 e x p e rtise o f, 8 3 , 1 0 3 - 1 0 4 , 1 0 6 Jo u r n a l is t ic in te rv ie w s, 2 7 1 - 2 7 2 v e rific a tio n o f, 2 2 9
e x p lo ra to ry , 9 7 as m in e r, 3 - 4 J o u r n a l s , q u a lita tiv e re s e a r c h , 9 K n o w led g e c la im s , d e fe n s ib le , 2 4 0 , 2 4 1 ,
fo rm s o f, 1 0 1 p re su p p o sitio n s o f , 3 3 , 4 9 , 1 3 5 e d ito ria l re q u ir e m e n ts a n d , 8 3 2 4 5 -2 4 8
jo u r n a lis tic , 2 7 1 - 2 7 2 q u a lific a tio n s , 1 0 5 - 1 0 8 , 1 4 7 - 1 5 1 J o u r n e y , s ch o la rly an d fo rm a tiv e , 4
k n o w le d g e p ro d u c e d in, 1 4 0 - 1 4 1 re lia b ility , 1 9 9 , 2 0 8 , 2 3 2
n o n s ta n d a rd iz e d , 13 as re sea rch in s tru m e n t, 1 2 5 , 1 4 7 - 1 5 1 L an g u ag e:
as p r o fe s sio n a l c o n v e rs a tio n , 2 0 ro le o f , 3 - 5 , 1 1 7 - 1 1 8 , 1 2 0 , 2 8 7 KIT c o m p u te r p ro g ra m , 1 7 4 - 1 7 5 fo rm a l a n aly sis o f e v e ry d ay , 1 0 6
q u a lity o f, 1 4 4 - 1 5 9 sen sitiv ity o f , 3 1 , 3 3 , 3 5 , 1 1 6 , 1 1 7 , “ K n o w in g h o w ,” 1 0 6 k n o w le d g e as, 4 3
re -, 1 9 0 149 “ K n o w in g t h a t ,” 1 0 6 lo c a l, 9 6
as re s e a rc h , 3 - 1 6 to p ic k n o w le d g e a n d , 3 5 , 9 5 - 9 6 , K n o w in g , b a sic m o d e o f , 3 7 re a lity a n d , 3 7
s e lf-c o m m u n ic a tin g , 1 4 5 1 0 3 -1 0 4 , 108, 132, 144, 147, K n o w le d g e : re s e a rc h re p o rts a n d , 2 7 0
s e lf-c o r r e c tin g , 1 8 9 182 a c tio n a n d , 3 9 , 2 4 8 , 2 4 9 - 2 5 0 tra n s c rip tio n s an d , 1 6 4 - 1 6 8
s p o n ta n e ity in, 1 2 9 , 1 3 3 , 1 4 5 tra in in g , 1 0 5 , 1 0 7 , 161 a p p lic a tio n o f, 2 4 1 L e a d in g q u e stio n s , 1 5 7 - 1 5 9 , 1 7 6 - 1 7 7 ,
w h en n o t to , 1 0 4 - 1 0 5 as tra v e le r, 4 - 5 , 19 c o m m u n ic a tio n o f , 2 4 1 1 8 3 ,2 8 6
See also P sy c h o a n a ly tic in te rv ie w ; See also R e s e a rc h e r c o n s tr u c tin g th ro u g h in te r a c tio n , 3 7 , L e a rn in g , re s e a rc h in te rv ie w o n , 2 7 - 2 9
Q u a lita tiv e re s e a rc h in te rv ie w ; In te rv ie w in g sta g e, 8 8 127 L e g al issu es, c o n fid e n tia lity a n d , 1 1 5 ,
T h e r a p e u tic in te rv ie w e th ic a l issues an d , 111 as c o n t e x t , 4 4 119
In te rv ie w a n aly sis, 8 8 gra d e stu d y a n d , 9 2 , 9 3 - 9 4 as c o n v e r s a tio n , 1 9 - 2 1 , 4 2 - 4 3 L e g itim a c y , c o n s u m e r re s e a rc h a n d ,
ad h o c m e a n in g g e n e ra tio n a n d , 1 9 3 , lite ra tu re o n , 9 0 c o n v e r s a tio n as, 5 - 7 , 3 7 , 1 2 4 - 1 2 7 7 1 -7 2
2 0 3 -2 0 4 re sea rc h re p o rts a n d , 2 5 7 , 2 6 3 , 2 6 4 d ia le c tic a l th o u g h t a n d , 5 5 - 5 7 L ife , d aily , see D a ily life
a p p ro a c h e s to , 1 8 8 - 1 9 3 v a lid ity an d , 2 3 3 e m a n c ip a tio n th ro u g h , 1 2 1 L ife w o rld , 1 1 , 2 9 - 3 1 , 7 0
c o m p u te rs a n d , 1 7 3 - 1 7 5 , 1 9 0 , 2 9 3 In terv iew q u o ta tio n s, in research rep orts, e n h a n c in g h u m a n c o n d itio n an d , 11 e m p a th ic a c c ess to , 1 2 5
c o n tr o l o f, 2 0 7 - 2 0 9 2 6 5 , 2 6 6 -2 6 7 h e rm e n e u tic s a n d , 4 6 - 5 2 f e m in is t re s e a rc h a n d , 7 2 - 7 3
e th ic a l issu es a n d , 111 In te rv ie w -q u o tin g p h a se, 8 5 h u m a n in te ra c tio n o f in te r view h e rm e n e u tic a l in te rp r e ta tio n a n d , 4 9
lin g u istic , 1 6 8 , 2 9 4 In te rv ie w re s e a rc h , sea In te rv ie w stu d ies p r o d u c in g , 1 6 , 1 4 0 - 1 4 1 n e g o tia te d m e a n in g a n d , 4 2
m e a n in g c a te g o riz a tio n a n d , 1 9 0 , In te rv ie w s ta te m e n ts, see S ta te m e n ts h u m a n in te re sts a n d , 5 1 - 5 2 , 1 1 7 p h e n o m e n o lo g ic a l p e rs p e c tiv e an d ,
19 2 , 1 9 6 -1 9 9 In te rv ie w stu d ie s, 8 - 1 0 in te r r e la tio n a l, 4 4 - 4 5 3 8 , 5 2 -5 5
m e a n in g c o n d e n s a tio n a n d , 1 9 0 , c o n te n t a n d , 9 5 - 9 7 in te rs u b je c tiv e , 6 4 - 6 5 th e m e s o f , 2 7 - 2 9
1 9 2 , 1 9 3 -1 9 6 cra ftsm a n sh ip a n d , 1 0 5 - 1 0 8 in tu itiv e , 1 0 6 L ife w o rld in te rv ie w , s e m is tru c tu re d , 5 - 6
m e an in g in te rp r e ta tio n a n d , 1 9 0 , d e sig n in g , 8 3 - 1 0 8 jo in t c r e a tio n o f , 8 , 3 7 , 4 5 , 1 2 4 - 1 2 7 L in g u istic s , 4 3
192, 1 9 3 ,2 0 1 -2 0 3 d ia lo g u e a p p ro a c h to , 1 1 4 as la n g u a g e, 4 3 a n aly sis a n d , 1 6 8 , 2 9 4
m e th o d s o f , 1 8 0 - 1 8 2 , 1 8 5 , 1 8 7 - 2 0 9 in te rn a l c ritiq u e s o f, 2 9 1 - 2 9 5 m e th o d v e rsu s, 1 8 0 - 1 8 2 in te rv ie w a s p e c ts a n d , 3 8
318 I nt e rV ie w s Subject Index 319

transcriptions and, 166-167 social construction of validity and, Narrative analysis, 184, 192, 199-201 Perspectival subjectivity, 212, 287
Listening, 132-135 229-252 Narrative structuring, analysis and, Phenomenological approach, 38-39,
empathic, 135, 149 theoretical frame, 215-216 192-193, 199-201 52-56
interviewer qualification and, transcriptions and, 167-168, 182-183 Narrative truth, 249 descriptions and, 11
148-149 M eaning categorization, 190, 192, Naturalistic generalization, 232 explication of procedures and, 209
interview recording and, 161-162 196-199 Natural sciences: learning from interviewee and, 125
Literary texts, interview texts versus, M eaning condensation, 190, 192, experimental quantitative methods listening and, 135
47-51 193-196, 214 of, 62-63 literature on, 40
Literature, on qualitative research, 90-91 M eaning interpretation, 190, 192, methods of, 60, 67 meaning condensation and, 194-196
Love, Socrates’ dialogue on, 21-23 193,201-203 qualitative description and, 67-68 Philosophical analysis, 106
Measurement, types of, 68 quantification and, 67 Philosophical discourse, 20, 42, 272
M em ory, interview recorded through, New, dialectical thought and, 56 rational argumentation and, 246
Market research, 70-72, 101, 258 161-162 N o m in al scale, 68 Socrates’ dialogue on love, 21-23
Marxism: M entoring practices, 107 Notes, interview recorded through, Philosophical thought, 11, 38-58
hermeneutics o f suspicion and, 203 Meta-narratives, 241 161-162 Pilot interviews, role playing and, 147
interpretations and, 216 Metaphors:
Plato’s dialogues, 20
interview study based on, 57 meaning generation and, 204
hermeneutical interpretation and, 46
pragmatic criterion of truth and, 239 miner, 3-4, 207, 226, 280 Object, nature of, 66 Political issues, feminist research and, 73
Sartre on, 56 research reports and, 274-275 Objective reality, 41, 42, 45 Positivism, 61-64, 290
Material context, 212, 293 therapeutic reports and, 273 Objective w orld, belief in, 239 ethical issues and, 120
Material w orld, contradictions of, 39 traveler, 4-5, 19, 207, 226, 280 Objectivity, 64-66, 285 generalizability and, 232
Mathematics, coherence criterion of Method(s), 12-13, 95 arithmetic versus dialogical, 65 reversed, 179
truth and, 239 black box, 255-256 Observation: scientific validity and, 238, 239
Meaning(s): choice of, 84, 99, 104 intersubjective agreement and, 63, social sciences and, 11, 51
ad hoc generation of, 193, 203-204, documenting in research reports, 64, 65 Postmodern approach, 38, 41-46, 58
220 258, 262, 264 participant, 98, 104 construction of meaning and,
alternative conceptions of, 11 expertise in, 106 positivism and, 61, 62-63 226-227
ambiguous, 34, 76 knowledge versus, 180-182 pragmatic validation and, 248 contextuality of meaning and, 168
analysis of, 187-209 positivism and, 61 quantified, 66-69 feminist research and, 73
author’s, 211 traveler metaphor and, 4 Ontological assumption of quantification, generalizability and, 231, 232
context and, 42, 44, 49, 167-168 M iner, interviewer as, 3-4, 207, 226, 67 individual and, 45
contradictory, 34, 76, 168, 226 280 Openness: plurality o f interpretations and,
empathic access to, 125 M oral enterprise, interview inquiry as, in interview study, 83-87, 116, 149 210-211
expertification of, 227 109 of purpose, 127 validity and, 231, 236-242, 246
hermeneutical interpretation and, M oral issues, 88 to questions, 211 writing as social construction and,
38, 46-52 feminist research and, 73 Oppression of women, 73-74, 117 268, 269-270
intersubjective agreement and, 181 interviewer role and, 117 Oppressive life situation, 85 Postmodern social construction of
lived world and, 6, 29-32 theories o f ethics and, 120-123 Oral history, 101 reality, 11, 226
miner metaphor and, 3-4 See also Ethical issues O ral language, transcribing and, 44, Power relations, 126, 152
multiple horizons of, 132, 135 M oral knowledge, application of, 123 166-168 professional interviews and, 20
narrative structuring, 192-193, M oral sciences, 120 O ral tradition, hermeneutical qualitative interviews and, 20
199-201 M otive interview, 71 interpretation and, 46 truth and, 247-248,251
negotiation about, 42 O rdinal scale, 68 Practice:
ownership of, 225-226 knowledge validated through, 42
positivist social science and, 63 Naive realism, philosophy of, 168
qualitative research in, 70-79
postmodern approach and, 41 42, Narrative(s), 28, 38 Participant observation, 98, 104 Pragmatic validity, 248-251
226-227 knowledge and, 8-9, 43 Person, interpretations of, 218-221 Prediction:
psychoanalytical research and, 76 reporting, 273, 274 Personal expressions, encouraging, 125 behaviorism and, 70, 72
quest for real, 225-228 scientific knowledge and, 9 Personality changes, therapeutic market research and, 72
reader’s, 211 transcribing, 164-165, 166 interview and, 78, 156 natural sciences and, 51
320 I nt e rV ie w s Subject Index
321

positivism and, 11, 62 aspects of, 30-31 1,000 page, 176-186 purpose of, 95, 97-98, 102, 113,
Predictive validity, 238 as conversation, 19-37 types of, 133-135, 142 124,131-132
Principles, duty ethics of, 121-122 conversations of daily life and, 5-6 Questionnaires: quality of craftsmanship in, 240,
Privacy, right to, 115, 260 dialectics and, 55-57 grade study and, 93-94 241-244
Probing questions, 133, 142-143 growing use of, 8-9 survey, 104 scientific responsibility, 118, 120
Professional conversations, 5, 20 hermeneutical interpretation and, training interviewers and, 105 uses of, 117, 154, 294
research interview on learning, 27-29 46-52 See also Interview(s)/interviewing
technique of, 36 interpersonal interaction in, 31, Research comm unity, ethical principles
therapeutic interview on hate, 24-26 35-36,38 Realistic tale, 269 a n d , 112
Psychoanalysis, 26 as inter view, 14-16 Reality: Research design, 83-108
change a n d ,156 mode o f understanding in, 29-36, 62 action uncovering, 56 ethical issues and, 111
depth hermeneutics of, 211 new views on, 45-46 conversation and, 37, 297-298 grade study and, 92-94
hermeneutical interpretation and, objections to, 281-291 dialectics and, 56, 58 information on, 255
51-52 openness and, 83-87 language constructing, 43 informed consent and, 113-114
hermeneutics of suspicion and, 203 phenomenological description and, objective, 41, 42, 45 interview forms and, 101
metaphors and, 275 52-55 phenomenological perspective and, literature on, 90
Sartre on, 56 positive experience of, 36 52-55 number o f subjects and, 101-103
Psychoanalytic interview, 45-46, 74-79 psychoanalytic interview versus, 78 questioning, 153 process of, 98-105
qualifications for conducting, science and, 59-69, 95, 285 social construction of, 11, 37, 38, research reports and, 256, 257, 263,
105-106 structure of, 126-127, 131-135 41-42, 4 5 ,5 2 , 226 264
Psychoanalytical theory, interpretations theoretical issues, 10-12 universal, 41 validity and, 233
and, 2 1 2,2 16 topic of, 29-3 1 References, interview texts and, 50 Research findings:
Psychological interpretation, transcrip­ Quality o f interview, 144-159 Reflection, 34, 150 consistency of, 232
tions and, 171 Quantification, 288 conversations of daily life and, 20 reproducible, 65, 115
Psychology: Quantitative analysis, 205-206 professional interview and, 20 use of, 251
behaviorism and, 63, 70 questionnaires and, 93 Reflective approach, 88 Research funding, 84
generalizability and, 232 Quantitative methods, 62-63 Re-interview, 190 Research instrument, interviewer as,
interviews and, 9 qualitative methods versus, 67-69 Reliability, 88, 229-233, 286 147-151
knowledge production and, 9 social sciences and, 66-69 analysis method and, 180, 181 Research interview, see Interview(s)/
positivism and, 63 Quantitative scientific knowledge, 66-69 o f answers, 152 interviewing; Qualitative research
validity and, 238 Question(s)/questioning, 6, 36 coder, 65, 199, 208 interview
Psychometric tests, 238, 240 ambiguous, 148 critical questions and, 149 Research methods, see Method(s)
Psychotherapy, aim of, 117 behaviorist approach and, 63 follow-ups and, 143 Research report/reporting, 88, 253-276
control, 100 interviewer, 199, 208, 232 audience for, 67, 258-259
critical, 149 leading questions and, 158 boring, 253-257
Qualitative, meaning of, 17-18 direct, 134, 142 transcriptions and, 163-164 confidentiality and, 114-115
Qualitative analysis, 205-206 dynamic, 130 Report/reporting, see Research report consequences of, 120, 260-261
computer programs and, 8 follow-up, 133, 142, 145, 183 Representative, interviewee as, 218 detailing method in, 262, 263
Qualitative knowledge, 30 hermeneutics and, 211 Reproducible data, 65 dialogues and, 272-273
Qualitative research: indirect, 134 confidentiality and, 115 directedness toward final, 256-257
leading to scientific knowledge, 238 interpreting, 135, 142 Research: enriching, 271-276
literature on, 90-91 interview guide and, 129-130 access to, 119, 154 ethical issues and, 111, 259-261
marketing and, 70-72 introducing, 133 consequences of, 111, 116, 119, grade study and, 92
objectivity in, 64-66, 285 leading, 157-159, 176-177, 18 3,2 86 154, 260-261 interview quality and, 144
in practice, 70-79 openness to, 211 conversation as, 5-7, 124-127 interview quotations and, 265,
psychoanalysis and, 74-79 probing, 133, 142-143 independence of, 118, 120 ? 266-267
quantitative research versus, 67-69 sequence of, 127, 129 interviewing as, 3-16 journalistic interviews, 271-272
See also Research specifying, 134, 142 m eaning of, 17-18 length of, 265-268
Qualitative research interview: structure of, 131-135 moral implications of, 88 literature on, 91
322 In terview s Subject Index 323

metaphors and, 274-275 production of, 60 Statements:, 21 multitude o f views, 7

narratives and, 274 qualitative research leading to, 238 action accompanying, 249-250 number of, 101-103
qualitative versus quantitative proc­ quantitative, 66-69 ambiguous, 31, 34 perspective of, 70, 218-219, 220,
ess and, 69 Scientific research behavior, realistic behaviorist conception of, 180 223
results in, 262-265 descriptions of, 84 categorization of, 68, 130, 173, presuppositions of, 135
standard structure of, 262-263 Self-understanding, 4, 51, 77, 214 196-199 selection of, 233
therapeutic case histories and, Semistructured interview, 124 coding, 173-174 self-understanding, 4, 156, 214
273 Silence, in interview, 86, 134-135 collected versus coauthored, 183-184 Subjectivity:
transcription description in, 169 Skinnerian approach: contradicting, 34, 39, 167 biased, 212, 287
types of questions and, 132 chance happenings and, 84 correctness of, 236-238 perspectival, 212, 287
uses of, 251 grading study and, 141 experiential reading of, 243 Subject matter, law of, 21
validity and, 233 influence on content and, 97 false, 218,221-222 Survey questionnaires, 104
visualizing and, 275 statistics and, 102 follow ing up, 133, 142, 145, 183 Suspicion, hermeneutics of, 203, 226-227
writing as social construction and, Social change, contributions o f social hermeneutical interpretation and, Suspicion of motives, Hamlet’s interview
268-271 science to, 61 49 and, 153, 155-157, 180, 203
writing for readers of, 258-259 Social construction incoherent, 167
Research topics, see Topic(s) of gender, 73 incorrect in content, 221
Researcher: of knowledge, 229, 230 knowledge about content of, 215 Tape recording, 8, 24, 27, 43, 160-162
craftsmanship of, 241-242 postmodern conversational version psychoanalytic conception of, 180 Technical interest in quantification, 67
credibility of, 241-242 of, 37 psychoanalytical research and, 76 Technological approach to human action,
moral integrity of, 242 writing as, 268-271 reliability of, 152 63
See also Interviewers Social construction o f reality, 37, 38, spontaneous, 129, 133, 145 Teleological position, ethics and, 121-122
Resources, availability of, 103-104 41-42, 4 5 ,5 2 , 226 suspicions attitude toward, 153, Text(s), 160-175
Respect, 35 knowledge as, 239-240 155-157, 203 audience for, 170
Rogerian approach, 19, 24, 96 postmodern, 11, 226 symptomatic reading of, 219-222, autonomy of, 49
clarification of meaning and, 145 Social context, 11, 212, 293 243 critical reading of, 226-227
emotional content and, 25, 32, 34, Social laws, 51 validity and, 218-223 deconstructive reading of, 227
52, 104, 127 Social practice, knowledge as, 37 veridical reading of, 219-222, 243 dialogue with, 182-183, 184, 189
grading study and, 141 Social reality: Statistical analysis, 192 eminent, 50
insight and, 34, 75, 145 contradictions in, 57 Statistical generalization, 231-235 expansion through analysis, 188-192,
market interviews and, 71 See also Social construction of reality Stories: 224
rephrasing em otional messages and, Social sciences, 8-10 meaning structure and, 199-201 global meaning of, 47, 48
25, 32, 34 ethical theories and, 120-123 narrative structuring and, 192-193 hermeneutical interpretation and,
Role playing, pilot interviews and, 147 generalizability and, 232 spontaneous, 63, 200 38,46-52
positivism and, 11, 61-64 traveler metaphor and, 4 interviewers cocreating, 50
quantitative research and, 66-69 See also Narrative(s) knowledge about theme of, 49
Sample, representative, 92, 102 self-reflection of, 51 Subject(s): language and, 43
Science: use of qualitative interviews in, 45-46 beneficial situation for, 148 letter versus spirit of, 211
definitions of, 60-61 Social world: comm enting on interpretation, 190 literary versus interview, 47-51
qualitative research interview and, contradictions of, 39 emotionally unstable, 155 narrative structuring and, 192-193
59-69, 95, 285 knowledge of, 8-9 empowerment of, 70 phenomenological analysis, 193-196
See also Positivism quantification and, 63 experiences of theme, 27-29 positivist social science and, 63
Scientific concerns, ethical issues and, Society, consumer, 70-72 “ good,” 146-147 qualitative versus quantitative
117-118, 120 Sociolinguistics, 166, 294 identification with, 85, 120 analyses of, 68-69
Scientific data, 64-65 Socrates’ dialogue on love, 21-23, 126 insight and, 128, 156, 189, 190 questions posed to, 212-224, 243
Scientific knowledge, 9 informant perspective and, 218 interview consequences and, 111, realist reading of, 226
human inter action o f inter view leading questions in, 158 116-117, 119-120, 154-157 structuring interview into, 168-173
producing, 16 Specificity, in description, 33 learning from, 125 Textbase ALPHA, 174
hum an interests and, 52, 120, 123 Specifying questions, 134, 142 lived world of, 27, 29-31 Textbase management, 173, 174
324 In terv iew s Subject Index 325

Thematizing process, 83-108 mutual interest in, 42 power and, 247-248, 251 statement content and, 218-221
consequences and, 116 new dimensions of, 100 pragmatic criterion of, 238-239 transcriptions and, 164-166
ethical issues and, 111 preknowledge of, 126 questioning and, 243 Values, 117
grade study and, 89-92, 94-98 psychoanalytical interview and, 77 taking action and, 250-251 knowledge and, 241
literature on, 90 quantitative techniques and, 104 validity and, 236 posiiivism and, 62
research reports and, 257, 263 sensitive, 172 pragmatic approach and, 250
validity and, 233 sequence of, 129 scientific knowledge and, 120
Theoretical issues, qualitative interview theoretical conceptions of, 206 Unconscious, 77 Verification, 88, 231-232
and, 10-12 Transcription, 88, 24, 27, 160-175 manifestations of, 203 built-in, 242
Theoretical knowledge, philosophical analysis and, 168-173, 189-190 m ining, 3 ethical issues and, 111
discourse and, 23 computers and, 173-175 Understanding: grade study and, 92
Theoretical understanding, 215-216, 217 ethical issues and, 111, 172-173 consensus of, 5 1 H amlet’s interview and, 152
Theoretical understanding, of research grade study and, 92 conversation and, 20 interview quality and, 144
content, 95-96 interpretation and, 189-190 critical commonsense, 214-215, 217 literature on, 91
Theories: language and, 43, 164-168 invalid, 221-223 research reports and, 257, 263,
computer assistance in building, 174 literature on, 91 mode of, 29-36 264
ethical, 120-123 narrative text and, 184-185 research interview and, 26 scientific responsibility and, 118
naïveté and, 95 quantity of, 178-179 self-, 4 ,5 1 , 156,2 14 types of questions and, 132
presuppositions and, 206-207 reliability and, 163-164 theoretical, 215-216, 217 Videotape recorder, 161
psychoanalytic, 79 research reports and, 257, 263, 264 Unstandardized interview, 13, 85 Vienna circle, 61
testing implications of, 98 style and, 169-172 Utilitarian position, ethics and, 121-122 View, inter, see Inter view
Therapeutic interview(s): time needed for, 169 Views:
change caused by, 26, 78, 156, 248 use of, 170-171 capturing multitude of, 7
consequences of, 155-157 validity and, 164-166, 233 Validity, 64, 88, 289 interchange of, 44
emotional dynamics and, 104-105 verbatim, 166, 170, 171, 172-172 analysis method and, 180 Virtue conception o f ethics, 123
ethical issues and, 111 Transference, 26, 77 communicative, 65, 245-248 Visual form, research reports in, 275
on hate, 24-26 Traveler, interviewer as, 4-5, 19, 207, consensus and, 217 Vocalization, interpreting, 31-32
insight and, 156 226, 280 construct, 240
outcome of, 105 Triangulation, 244 defining, 236-238
philosophical discourse versus, 24 Truth: interpretations and, 203, 217-223 W hat questions:
as professional conversation, 20 coherence criterion of, 238-239 intersubjective agreement and, 247 in interview, 130-131
purpose of, 78, 125 consensus and, 42, 181^ 246, 248 invalid understanding and, 221-223 research design and, 95, 126, 130
reporting and, 273 correspondence criterion of, 238-239, modern context, 236-241 W h y questions:
Rogerian approach, 24 240 postmodern perspective, 231, 236-241 in interview, 130-131
Therapeutic issues, interviews touching dialectics and, 57 pragmatic, 248-251 research design and, 95, 126, 130
on, 120 dialogic conception of, 66, 239 predictive, 238 W isdom , application of, 123
Therapeutic research voyage, 79-80 epistemological assumptions and, 238 quality o f craftsmanship and, 240, Witness observations, 146-147
Topic(s), 29-31 feminist research and, 74 241-244 W om en, oppression of, 73-74, 117
changing, 151-152 hermeneutics and, 227 research stages and, 233 W ritten language, transcribing and,
control of, 6, 126 intersubjective agreement and, 65 social construction of, 229-252 166-168
conversations of daily life and, 20 o f knowledge claims, 245-248
interviewer’s knowledge about, 35, meaning interpretation and, 203
95-96, 103-104, 108, 132, narrative, 43, 249
144, 147, 182 negotiated, 247
interviewer’s sensitivity to, 31, 35 objective, 228
interview guide and, 129-131 philosophical discourse and, 20, 21,
introducing, 134 23
knowledge of, 84 positivism and, 61
legal issues about, 115 postmodern perspective on, 239
 About the Author

Steinar Kvale is Professor of Educational Psychology and Director of

the Centre of Qualitative Research at the University of Aarhus,
Denmark, and adjunct faculty at Saybrook Institute, San Francisco.
He was born in Norway and graduated from the University o f Oslo.
He continued his studies at the University o f Heidelberg w ith an
Alexander von H um boldt scholarship, and has been a visiting profes­
sor at Duquesne University and at West Georgia College, Carrolton.
He is consulting editor on the Journal of Phenomenological Psychol­
ogy, Qualitative Inquiry, Qualitative Studies in Education, and Theory
of Psychology. i
His long-term concern is with the implications of such continental
philosophies as phenomenology, hermeneutics, and dialectics for i

psychology and education. He has studied examinations and grading,

and is the author of Priifung und Herrschaft (1972). His current
interests are in evaluation as constituting the knowledge o f a disci­
pline, and in addressing the potentialities of apprenticeship as an
educational form. He has written extensively on qualitative research,
including editing the volume Issues of Validity in Qualitative Research. I
In Psychology and Postmodernism, which he also edited, he argues that
psychology is a discipline so entrenched in modernity that it can hardly
grasp human relations in a postmodern age.

32 6