The Interview Situation
t The Interview Sttuation 125
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An open phenomenological approach to learning from the inter-
! viewee is well expressed in this introduction from Spradley (1979):
i I want to understand the world from vour ~ o i n tof view. I want to know
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I The research interview is an interpersonal situation, a conversation
i between two partners about a theme of mutual interest. It is a specific
\ form of human interaction in which knowledge evolves through a
I dialogue. The interaction is neither as anonymous and neutral as when
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. . . . . ,. . a subject responds to a survey questionnaire, nor as personal and
Ithe most engaging stage of an interview inquiry. The personal contact whom a trusting relationship is established over time. In a research ,
and the continually new insights into the subjects' lived world make 1
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setting it is up to the interviewer to create in a short time a contact i
iching experience. Different forms of I
that allows the interaction to get beyond merely a polite conversation ,
interview conversations were discussed in Chapter 2 and the mode of or exchange of ideas. The interviewer must establish an atmosphere
understanding in the qualitative research interview described. In this I in which the subject feels safe enough to talk freely about his or her
chapter I outline in more detail some guidelines and techniques for
1 experiences and feelings. This involves a delicate balance between
carrying out interviews and give an illustration with an interview on I cognitive knowledge seeking and the ethical aspects of emotional
grading. I
I human interaction. Thus, at the same time that personal expressions
I and emotions are encouraged, the interviewer must avoid allowing the
The Interview Conversation interview to turn into a therapeutic situation, which he or she may not
be able to handle.
The purpose of a qualitative research interview was described The interviewer has an empathic access to the world of the inter-
earlier as obtaining qualitative descriptions of the life world of the 1 viewee; the interviewee's lived meanings may be immediately accessi-
subject with respect to interpretation of their meaning. The interview
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ble in the situation, communicated not only by words, but by tone of
form treated here is a semistructured interview: It has a sequence of voice, expressions, and gestures in the natural flow of a conversation.
themes to be covered, as well as suggested questions. Yet at the same The research interviewer uses him- or herself as a research instrument,
time there is an openness to changes of sequence and forms of
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1 drawing upon an implicit bodily and emotional mode of knowing that
questions in order to follow up the answers given and the stories told allows a privileged access to the subject's lived world.
hv the siihiects. I will discuss the interview interaction in line with the A research interview follows an unwritten script, with different
deliberate nai'vetk, focus, ambiguity, change, sensitivity, interpersonal I exchange with an unemployed man about traveling, in which the
situation, and a positive experience (see Box 2.1 in Chapter 2). interviewer is caught off guard when the subject reverses the roles:

Interviews The Interuzew Sztuatton 127
Subject: When you are on vacation there is some silly time factor, the sequence of standard question formulations, to open interviews where
only thing you have time for is to go down and throw yourself specific themes are in focus but without a predetermined sequence and
on the beach. Do you sunbathe? formulation of questions. Sometimes only a first, topic-introducing
Interviewer: What? question is asked and the remainder of the interview proceeds as a
S: Do you sunbathe? follow-up and expansion on the interviewee's answer to the first
questions, such as in the interview on learning reported by Giorgi. The
I: Well, no I do not.
interviews also differ in their openness of purpose; the interviewer can
S: You have a nice color.
explain the purpose and pose direct questions from the start or can
I: I don't spend one single summer day on that, but as a whole I look adopt a roundabout approach, with indirect questions, and reveal the
tanned. F urthermore I get very easily tanned, I only need to purpose only when the interview is over.
put one finger out of the window to catch the sun. The interviews can differ further in their emphasis on exploration
S: A lot of people would envy you that. versus hypotheszs testing, as mentioned in the discussion of design.
I: Well, where do we begin. What are you doing with your friends? Interviews also vary concerning description versus interpretation. The
(Berg Sorensen, 1988, p. 124). interviewer might seek mainly to obtain nuanced descriptions of the
phenomena investigated or can, during the interview, also attempt
The conversation in a research interview is not the reciprocal to clarify and interpret the descriptions together with the subject.
interaction of two equal partners. There is a definite asymmetrxof Interviews also vary on an intellectual-emotional dimension, from a
power: The interviewer defines the situation, Fntroduces the topics of rational logical discourse between interviewer and subject analyti-I
the conversation, and through further questions steers the course of cally clarifying conceptions of the phenomena investigated, to the
the interview. This was the case in the rather open interview reported 1 interviewer attempting to get spontaneous and emotional descriptions
by Giorgi (Chapter 2).Socrates' interview, despite the conversational of, and reactions about, a topic. Two extreme interviews on the
partners being formally equal and the polite introduction, took the II intellectual-emotional dimension were presented earlier-the discur-
form of harsh interrogation, relentlessly driving Agathon around in I sive argumentation of Socrates and the emotional therapeutic inter-
his contradictory conceptions of love and beauty, until Agathon 1 change reported by Rogers.
throws in the towel and concedes that he knows nothing of what he I
was talking about (Chapter 2).
Advance preparation is essential to the interaction and outcome of Framing the Interview
an interview. A substantial part of the investigation should take place
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before the tape recorder is turned on in the actual interview situation. i The interview is a stage upon which knowledge is constructed
The key issues of the interview concern what, why, and how: what- through the interaction of interviewer and interviewee roles. Some
acquiring a preknowledge of the subject matter to be investigated; directions are suggested here for setting the interview stage so the
why-formulating a clear purpose for the interview; and how-being
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interviewees will be encouraged to put words to their points of view
familiar with different interview techniques and deciding which to on their lives and worlds. The directions pertain to interviews with
I apply in the investigation. Also, before the first interviews in a study I
mlddle-class persons in Northern Europe and North America. In other
are undertaken, thought should have been given to how the interviews cultures, different norms may hold for interactions with strangers
will be analyzed and how the findings will be verified and reported.
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concerning initiative, directness, openness, and the like.
Research interviews vary on a series of dimensions. They differ in The interviewees should be provided with a context for the inter-
degree of structure, from well-organized interviews that follow a 1 view by a briefing before and a debriefing afterward. The context is
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128 Interviews
introduced with a briefing in which the interviewer defines the situ-
ation for the subject; briefly tells about the purpose of the interview,
the use of a tape recorder, and so on; and asks if the subject has any
questions before starting the interview. Further explanations about
the interview investigation should preferably wait until the interview
is over.
The first minutes of an interview are decisive. The subjectswill want
to have a grasp of the interviewer before they allow themselves to talk
freely, exposing their experiences and feelings to a stranger. A good
contact is established by attentive listening, with the interviewer
showing interest, understanding, and respect for what the subject says;
at the same time, the interviewer is at ease and clear about what he or
she wants to know.
The initial briefing should be followed up by a debriefing after the
interview. At the end of the interview there may be some tension or
anxiety, because the subject has been open about often personal and
emotional experiences and may be wondering about the interview's
purpose and how it will be used. There may perhaps also be feelings
of emptiness; the subject has given much information about his or her
life and may not have received anything in return. This being said, a
common experience after research interviews is that the subjects have
experienced the interview as genuinely enriching, have enjoyed talk-
ing freelywith an attentive listener, and have sometimes obtained new
insights into important themes of their life world.
The interaction can be rounded off by the interviewer mentioning
some of the main points learned from the interview. The subject may
then want to comment on this feedback. The interaction can thereafter
be concluded by the interviewer saying, for example, "I have no
further questions. Do you have anything more you want to bring up,
or ask about, before we finish the interview?" This gives the subject
an additional opportunity to deal with issues he or she has been
thinking or worrying about during the interview.
The debriefing is likely to continue after the tape recorder has been
turned off. After a first gasp of relief, the interviewee may bring up
topics he or she did not feel safe raising with the tape recorder on.
And the interviewer can now, insofar as the subject is interested, tell
more fully about the purpose and design of the interview study.
The Interview Situation 129
The lived interview situation, with the interviewee's voice and
facial and bodily expressions accompanying the statements, provides
a richer access to the subjects' meanings than the transcribed texts will
later. It may be worthwhile for the interviewer to set aside 10minutes
of quiet time after each interview to recall and reflect on what has
been learned from the particular interview, including the interper-
sonal interaction. These immediate impressions, based on the inter-
viewer's empathic access to the meanings communicated, may-in the
form of notes or simply recorded onto the interview tape-provide a
valuable context for the later analysis of transcripts.
The Interview Guide
An interview guide indicates the topics and their sequence in the
interview. The guide can contain just some rough topics to be covered
or it can be a detailed sequence of carefully worded questions. For the
semistructured type of interview discussed here, the guide will contain
an outline of topics to be covered, with suggested questions. It will
depend on the particular design chosen whether the questions and
their sequence are strictly predetermined and binding on the inter-
viewers, or whether it is up to an interviewer's judgment and tact how
closely to follow the guide and how strongly to pursue an individual
subject's answers.
Each interview question can be evaluated with respect to both a
thematic and a dynamic dimension: thematically with regard to its
relevance for the research theme, and dynamically with regard to the
interpersonal relationship in the interview. A good interview question
should contribute thematically to knowledge production and dynami-
cally to promoting a good interview interaction.
Thematically the questions relate to the topic of the interview, to
the theoretical conceptions at the root of an investigation, and to the
subsequent analysis. The questionswill be different when interviewing
for spontaneous descriptions of the lived world, or interviewing for a
conceptual analysis of the person's concepts of a topic. Simpiy ex-
pressed, the more spontaneous the interview procedure, the more
likely one is to obtain spontaneous, lively, and unexpected answers
from the interviewees. And vice versa: The more structured the

Interviews The Interview Situation 131
interview situation is, the easier the later structuring of the interview TABLE 7.1 Research Questions and Interview Questions
Research Questions Interview Questions
ect, the later stages should be taken into account when preparing the
DOyou find the subjects you learn
interview questions. If the method of analysis will involve categorizing
the answers, then clarify continually during the interview the mean-
ings of the answers with respect to the categories to be used later. If Which form of learning motivation Do you find learning
a narrative analysis is to be employed, then give the subjects ample free- dominates in high school? interesting in itself?
dom and time to unfold their own stories, and follow up with ques-
What is your main purpose
in going to high school?
Do the grades promote an external, Have you experienced a conflict
instrumental motivation at the between what you wanted to read
A good conceptual thematic research question need not be a good expense of an intrinsic interest (study) and what you had to read to
motivation for learning? +dynamic interview question. When preparing an interview it may be obtain a good grade?
useful to develop two guides, one with the project's main thematic Does learning for grades socialize
research questions and the other with the questions to be posed during to working for wages?
the interview, which takes both the thematic and the dynamic dimen-
sions into account. Do you see any connection between
Table 7.1 depicts the translation of thematic research questions in money and grades?
the grading study into interview questions to provide thematic knowl-
edge and contribute dynamically to a natural conversational flow. The
abstract wording of the research questions would hardly lead to did you feel then?" "What did you experience?" and the like. The aim ;
off-the-cuff answers from high school pupils. The academic research is to elicit spontaneous descriptions from the subjects rather than to :
questions need to be translated into an easy-going, colloquial form to get their own, more or less speculative explanations of why something
generate spontaneous and rich descriptions. One research question took place. "Why" questions about the subjects' own reasons for their
can be investigated through several interview questions, thus obtain- actions may be important in their own right. Many "why" questions
ing rich and varied information by approaching a topic from several in an interview may, however, lead to an intellectualized interview,
angles. And one interview question might provide answers to several perhaps evoking memories of oral examinations. Figuring out the
research questions. reasons and explanations for why something happened is primarily
The roles of the "why," "what," and "how" questions are different the task of the investigator.
in research versus interview questions. It has been repeatedly empha-
sized that when designing an interview project, the "why" and "what"
questions should be asked and answered before the question of "how" Interview Questions
is posed. In the interview situation, the priority of the question types
change. In the interview itself, the main questions should be in a The research interview proceeds rather like a normal conversation
descriptive form: "What happened and how did it happen?" "HOW but has a specific purpose and structure: It is characterized by a

Interviews The Interview Situation 133
! systematic form of questioning. The interviewer's questions should be
brief and simple. In the life world interviews described here, an
opening question may ask about a concrete situation. The different
dimensions introduced in the answer can then be pursued. The deci- Types of Interview Questions
sive issue is the interviewer's ability to sense the immediate meaning
of an answer and the horizon of possible meanings that it opens up.
This, again, requires a knowledge of, and interest in, both the theme A. Introducing Questions: "Can you tell me about .. . ?";
and the human interaction of the interview. Decisions about which of "Do you remember an occasion when . .. ?"; "What hap-
the many dimensions to pursue that are introduced by a subject's pened in the episode you mentioned?"; and "Could you
answer will depend on the purpose and content of the interview, as describe in as much detail as possible a situation in which
well as on the social interaction in the interview situation. learning occurred for you?" Such opening questions may
Box 7.1 depicts some main types of questions that may be useful in yield spontaneous, rich, descriptions where the subjects
the semistructured interview form treated here. A more extended themselves provide what they experience as the main di-
discussion of interview questions is given by Seidman (1991). In mensions of the phenomena investigated. The remainder
addition to paying attention to the thematic and dynamic aspects of of the interview can then proceed as following up of
the questions, the interviewer should also try to keep in mind the later dimensions introduced in the story told in response to the
( analysis, verification, and reporting of the interviews. Interviewers
who know what they are asking about, and why they are asking, will
attempt to clarify the meanings relevant to the project during the B. Follow-Up Questions: The subjects' answers may be
interview, obtaining a disambiguation of the statements made, and
extended through a curious, persistent, and critical attitude
thereby provide a more trustworthy point of departure for the later
of the interviewer. This can be done through direct ques-
tioning of what has just been said. Also a mere nod, or
analysis. Such a process of meaning clarification during the interview
may also communicate to the subjects that the interviewer actually is "mm," or just a pause can indicate to the subject to go on
listening to and interested in what they are saying. Ideally, the testing
with the description. Repeating significant words of an
of hypotheses and interpretations is finished by the end of the inter- answer can lead to further elaborations. Interviewers can
view, with the interviewer's hypotheses having been verified or falsi-
train themselves to notice "red lights" in the answers-such
fied during the interview.
as unusual terms, strong intonations, and the like-which
If an interview is to be reported, perhaps quoted at length, then may signal a whole complex of topics important to the sub-
attempt when feasible to make the social context explicit during the ject. The key issue here is the interviewer's ability to listen
interview, and when possible the emotional tone of the interaction, to what is important to the subjects, and at the same time
so that what is said is understandable for the readers, who have not
to keep in mind the research questions of an investigation.
witnessed the live interview situation. Much is to be learned from C. Probing Questions: "Could you say something more
journalists and novelists about conveying the setting and mood of a about that?"; "Can you give a more detailed description of
conversation. what happened?"; "Do you have further examples of this?"
The focus here has been on the interviewer's questions. Active The interviewer here pursues the answers, probing their
listening-the interviewer's ability to listen actively to what the inter- ut stating what dimensions are to be
viewee says-can be more important than the specific mastery of
questioning techniques. Therapists' education emphasizes their skills

D. Specifying Questions: The interviewer may also follow
up with more operationalizing questions, for instance:
"What did you think then?"; "What did you actually do
when you felt a mounting anxiety?"; "How did your body
react?" In an interview with many general statements, the
interviewer can attempt to get more precise descriptions by
asking "Have you also experienced this yourself?"
E. Direct Questions: The interviewer here directly intro-
duces topics and dimensions, for example: "Have you ever
received money for good grades?"; "When you mention
competition, do you then think of a sportsmanlike or a
destructive competition?" Such direct questions may pref-
erably be postponed until the later parts of the interview,
after the subjects have given their own spontaneous de-
scriptions and thereby indicated what aspects of the phe-
nomena are central to them.
F. Indirect Questions: Here the interviewer may apply
projective questions such as "How do you believe other
pupils regard the competition for grades?"The answer may
refer directly to the attitudes of others; it may also be an
indirect statement of the pupil's own attitude, which he or
she does not state directly. Careful further questioningwill
be necessary here to interpret the answer.
G. Structuring Questions: The interviewer is responsible
for the course of the interview and should indicate when a
theme has been exhausted. The interviewer may directly
and politely break off long answers that are irrelevant to
the topic of the investigation, for example by saying, "I
would now like to introduce another topic: . . . "
H. Silence: Rather than making the interview a cross ex-
amination by continually firing off questions, the research
interviewer can take a lead from therapists in employing
silence to further the interview. By allowing pauses in the
Interviews The Interview Situation 135
conversation the subjects have ample time to associate and
reflect and then break the silence themselves with signifi-
cant information.
I. Intelpreting Questions: The degree of interpretation may
involve merely rephrasing an answer, for instance: "You
then mean that . . . ?" or attempts at clarification: "Is it
correct that you feel that . . . ?"; "Does the expres-
sion .. .cover what you have just expressed?" There may
also be more direct interpretations of what the pupil has
said: "Is it correct that your main anxiety about the grades
concerns the reaction from your parents?" More speculative
questions can take the form of: "Do you see any connections
between the two situations of competing with the other
pupils for grades and the relation to your siblings at home?"
as listeners, furthering an empathic active listening to the many
nuances and layers of meanings of what their patients tell them. Freud
(1963) recommended that therapists listen to their patients with an
"evenly hovering attention" to attend to the meaning of their accounts
(Chapter 4, Psychoanalytical Knowledge Production).
The importance of listening also appears in phenomenological and
hermeneutical approaches to interviewing (Chapter 3, sections titled
Hermeneutical Interpretation; and Phenomenological Description).
There is the phenomenological ideal of listening without prejudice,
allowing the interviewees' descriptions of their experiences unfold
without interruptions from interviewer questions and the presuppo-
sitions these involve. A hermeneutical approach involves an interpre-
i tative listening to the multiple horizons of meaning involved in the
t interviewees' statements, with an attention to the possibilities of
i continual reinterpretations within the hermeneutical circle of the
interview. Attention will also be paid to the influence of the presup-
! positions of the subjects' answers as well as the presuppositions of the
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interviewer's questions.