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Section 3 Issues and concerns in research and consultation

3.21 Skills for interviewing

Interviews may be undertaken in both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research and consultation. The skills of the interviewer are a crucial influence on the quality of the data collected.

The role of the interviewer is to explain the purpose of the interview, conduct the interview using the questionnaire schedule or topic guide, record the data appropriately and complete the interview process ensuring that interviewees are content with the way it has been conducted.

Ensuring quality means that the interviewer must be highly skilled and experienced at managing the entire interview process. This includes being able to make appropriate judgements about adapting and amending the interview as it proceeds and handling any interruptions to the smooth flow of the interview that may arise.

Training is an important issue. Interviewing is a skilled task and for research to be good quality, interviewers need to be well trained and experienced. There are a number of social and market research industry quality standards that include selection, training and conduct of survey research interviewers in the field. See the section on planning for high quality surveys. It is not possible to produce full guidance for training here but there are a number of key issues that training for interviewers should cover.

Building rapport and managing the interview

The interviewer must establish a suitable rapport with the interviewee, explain the purpose of research and why interviewee was chosen, explain anonymity and confidentiality and seek permission to make notes or tape record the interview. Many survey interviews are conducted using lap top computers so their use will need to be explained to the interviewee.

In in-depth interviews, the interviewer needs to pay close attention to what the interviewee is saying and have the ability to adapt the interview as new information emerges.

It will be important to end the interview appropriately by offering opportunities for further comments, the chance to ask any questions about the research and to reiterate assurances of anonymity and confidentiality. It may also be appropriate to signpost interviewees to any relevant further information or sources of advice about issues they may have raised in the interview.

Being aware of the effects of the interviewer

How interviewees perceive the interviewer can have both a positive and negative effect on the type and quantity of information that the interviewee offers. This is called ‘the interviewer effect’. The main issues include:

• personal attributes of interviewer: these include age, sex, ethnic origin, perceived social status and professional status. Shared attributes may ease the interview process or hinder it. It is important to consider this in deciding who should conduct interviews.

• presentation of the interviewer: it is important to put interviewees at ease and part of doing this is to ensure that the interviewer’s outward appearance and personal demeanour is pleasant. Interviewers should dress to fit the context or wear something conventional or neutral and should remain courteous and non-judgemental at all times.

• personal involvement of the interviewer: sharing some personal information with interviewees helps to put them at their ease, but it is important that the interviewer is happy about what they share and that they do not appear to contradict, judge or patronise the interviewee.

Obtaining full responses

One of the tasks of the interviewer in an in-depth interview, and when using open ended questions in a semi-structured questionnaire is to judge when it is appropriate to probe the responses given to get a fuller answer.

Figure 3.6 illustrates how important it is for an interviewer to go beyond the initial, perhaps superficial, responses without influencing the responses given in their use of probes or prompts.

Figure 3.6 Example of the use of probes by an interviewer

The importance of the interview location

Where an interview takes place can affect the quality and quantity of information that the interviewee is prepared to give and can affect the performance and safety of the interviewer. Ideally, an interview setting should offer the following:

• a safe location

• appropriate access

• privacy

• freedom from noise and interruptions

• comfortable seating appropriately arranged

• reasonable acoustics

• appropriate lighting and room temperature.

Recording data in interview settings

Face to face surveys are usually administered by the use of CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing). The interviewer is routed through the questionnaire by reading the questions from the computer screen and keying in respondents’ answers accordingly.

In in-depth interviews keeping track of what is said is most usually done through a combination of taking notes and audio tape recording and sometimes, when arranged in advance, video recordings can be done.

Deciding on how to keep a record of information may need to be negotiated on an interview-by-interview basis with the interviewee either prior to the interview or at the outset of the interview. The point is to ensure that the interviewee is comfortable and permits the use of the recording method and that the researcher’s proficiency in the use of the method enables detailed information to be recorded.

If an interview is tape-recorded it should be transcribed as soon as possible, preferably by the interviewer. Transcription can take a long time and it is important to use high quality tapes and recording equipment so that the interview can be clearly heard when played back.

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