Trent Focus for Research

and Development in
Primary Health Care

Using Interviews in a
Research Project

N I G E L M AT H E R S ,
NICK FOX,
AMANDA HUNN
 TRENT FOCUS GROUP

Using Interviews in a Research

Project

AUTHORS:

Nigel Mathers,
Nick Fox,
Amanda Hunn
Institute of General Practice
Northern General Hospital
Sheffield

PRODUCED BY:
TRENT FOCUS GROUP, 1998
(UPDATED 2002)
1998. Copyright of the Trent Focus Group

This resource pack is one of a series produced by the Trent Focus Group. This series has
been funded by the Research and Development Group of NHS Executive Trent.

This resource pack may be freely photocopied and distributed for the benefit of researchers.
However it is the copyright of the Trent Focus Group and the authors and as such, no part of
the content may be altered without the prior permission in writing, of the Copyright owner.

Reference as: Mathers, Nigel; Fox, Nick and Hunn, Amanda. Trent Focus for Research and
Development in Primary Health Care: Using Interviews in a Research Project. Trent Focus,
1998
 USING INTERVIEWS IN A RESEARCH PROJECT

Table of Contents
Page

Introduction 1

Section 1: Types of interview 2

Structured or standardised interviews
Semi-structured interviews
Unstructured or in-depth interviews
Face-to-face interviews
Telephone interviews
Focus group interviews

Section 2: Interviewer Tasks and Skills 5

Locating the respondent
Obtaining agreement for the study
Asking the questions
Recording the answers

Section 3: Sources of Error and Bias in Interviewing 8

Section 4: Preparing and Conducting the Interview 9

The interview schedule
Conducting the interview
The pilot study

Section 5: Handling Interview Data 16

Analysis of quantitative data
Analysis of qualitative data

Summary 20

Answers to exercises 21

References 23

Further reading and resources 24

Glossary 25
 USING INTERVIEWS IN A RESEARCH PROJECT

Introduction
The interview is an important data gathering technique involving verbal communication between
the researcher and the subject. Interviews are commonly used in survey designs and in
exploratory and descriptive studies. There are a range of approaches to interviewing, from
completely unstructured in which the subject is allowed to talk freely about whatever they wish, to
highly structured in which the subject responses are limited to answering direct questions.

The quality of the data collected in an interview will depend on both the interview design and on
the skill of the interviewer. For example, a poorly designed interview may include leading
questions or questions that are not understood by the subject. A poor interviewer may consciously
or unconsciously influence the responses that the subject makes. In either circumstance, the
research findings will be influenced detrimentally.

It is often assumed that if one is clinically trained and used to dealing with patients, that this is
sufficient training to carry out interviews with patients and others for research purposes. Although
there are some areas of overlap in terms of the basic communication skills required, it should be
acknowledged that for research some different skills are required. The context is also important,
since in a clinical setting, there is a particular relationship between a patient and clinician. It is
possible that in this routine setting the patient would not be prepared to answer all the questions in
a completely honest manner. So it may well be worthwhile thinking about the interview from the
respondent’s point of view and considering carefully who would be the most appropriate person to
conduct the interview and in what setting. There may be a conflict of roles, for example,
therapeutic versus research; or even an unconscious adoption of roles that could affect the quality
of the data collected.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Having successfully completed the work in this pack, you will be able to:

• Describe the skills required to undertake a structured, semi-structured or unstructured

interview.
• Summarise the advantages and disadvantages of face-to-face and telephone interviews.
• Outline the ways in which different types of interview data can be analysed.

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Section 1: Types of interview

The interview design and question phrasing will influence the depth and freedom with which a
subject can respond. Some interviews encourage lengthy and detailed replies while others are
designed to elicit short and specific responses. The degree of structure imposed on an interview
will actually vary along a continuum but it is useful to think of three main types: structured,
semi-structured and unstructured.

Structured or standardised interviews

Structured interviews enable the interviewer to ask each respondent the same questions in the
same way. A tightly structured schedule of questions is used, very much like a questionnaire. The
questions contained in the questionnaire will have been planned in advance, sometimes with the
help of a pilot study to refine the questions.

The questions in a structured interview may be phrased in such a way that a limited range of
responses is elicited. For example:

"Do you think that health services in this area are excellent, good, average or poor?

This is an example of a closed question where the possible answers are defined in advance so that
the respondent is limited to one of the pre-coded responses.

It is not unusual for otherwise structured interviews to contain a few open-ended questions.
‘Catch-all’ final questions are common, for example, ‘Do you have anything more to add?’ These
questions are useful in helping to capture as much information as possible but they increase the
amount of time required for analysing the interview findings.

Semi-structured interviews
Semi-structured interviews involve a series of open-ended questions based on the topic areas the
researcher wants to cover. The open-ended nature of the question defines the topic under
investigation but provides opportunities for both interviewer and interviewee to discuss some
topics in more detail. If the interviewee has difficulty answering a question or provides only a
brief response, the interviewer can use cues or prompts to encourage the interviewee to consider
the question further. In a semi-structured interview, the interviewer also has the freedom to probe
the interviewee to elaborate on the original response or to follow a line of inquiry introduced by
the interviewee. An example would be:

Interviewer: "I'd like to hear your thoughts on whether changes in government policy have
changed the work of the doctor in general practice. Has your work changed
at all?"
Interviewee: "Absolutely! The workload has increased for a start."
Interviewer: "In what way has it increased?"

Semi-structured interviews are useful when collecting attitudinal information on a large scale, or
when the research is exploratory and it is not possible to draw up a list of possible pre-codes

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because little is known about the subject area. However, analysing the interview data from open
questions is more problematic than when closed questions are used as work must be done before
often diverse responses from subjects can be compared.

Well planned and conducted semi-structured interviews are the result of rigorous preparation. The
development of the interview schedule, conducting the interview and analysing the interview data
all require careful consideration and preparation.

Unstructured or in-depth interviews

Unstructured interviews (sometimes referred to as "depth" or "in depth" interviews) are so
called because they have very little structure at all. The interviewer approaches the interview
with the aim of discussing a limited number of topics, sometimes as few as one or two, and
frames successive questions according to the interviewee's previous response. Although only
one or two topics are discussed they are covered in great detail. The interview might begin
with the interviewer saying: "I'd like to hear your views on GP commissioning". Subsequent
questions would follow from the interviewee’s responses. Unstructured interviews are
exactly what they sound like - interviews where the interviewer wants to find out about a
specific topic but has no structure or preconceived plan or expectation as to how the
interview will proceed.

Generally, a researcher will try to understand the informants’ worldview in an unstructured

interview. The relationship between the interviewer and the informant is important. Some
characteristics of depth interviewing are that the researcher has a general purpose and may use a
topic guide but the informant provides most of the structure of the interview. Generally the
researcher follows up on ‘cues’ or leads provided by the informant.

Face-to-face interviews
Face-to-face or personal interviews are very labour intensive, but can be the best way of collecting
high quality data. Face-to-face interviews are preferable when the subject matter is very sensitive,
if the questions are very complex or if the interview is likely to be lengthy. Interviewing skills are
dealt with in more detail later in this pack.

Compared to other methods of data collection, face-to-face interviewing offers a greater degree of
flexibility. A skilled interviewer can explain the purpose of the interview and encourage potential
respondents to co-operate; they can also clarify questions, correct misunderstandings, offer
prompts, probe responses and follow up on new ideas in a way that is just not possible with other
methods.

Telephone interviews
Telephone interviews can be a very effective and economical way of collecting data where the
sample to be contacted are all accessible via the telephone. They are not an appropriate method of
data collection for a very deprived population where telephone ownership is likely to be low or
where respondents may be ex-directory. However telephone interviewing can be ideally suited to
busy professional respondents, such as general practitioners, when the telephone numbers can be

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easily identified and timed appointments set up. Telephone interviews are also particularly useful
when the respondents to be interviewed are widely geographically distributed.

One of the main disadvantages of a telephone interview is that it is difficult to incorporate visual
aids and prompts and the respondents cannot read cards or scales. The length of a telephone
interview is also limited, although this will vary with subject area and motivation. Nevertheless it
is possible to make prior appointments for a telephone interview and send stimulus material for
the respondent to look at in advance of the interview. A prior appointment and covering letter
may enhance the response rate and length of interview.

It is important to note that any findings derived from a telephone survey of the general population
should be interpreted to take account of the non-responders who may not have access to a
telephone or may be unlisted.

Focus group interviews

Sometimes it is preferable to collect information from groups of people rather than from a series of
individuals. Focus groups can be useful to obtain certain types of information or when
circumstances would make it difficult to collect information using other methods of data
collection. They have been widely used in the private sector over the past few decades,
particularly in market research. They are being increasing used in the public sector.

Group interviews can be used when:

• Limited resources prevent more than a small number of interviews being undertaken.
• It is possible to identify a number of individuals who share a common factor and it is
desirable to collect the views of several people within that population sub group.
• Group interaction among participants has the potential for greater insights to be
developed.

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Section 2: Interviewer tasks and skills

To conduct a good interview, interviewers need to be trained. This training includes familiarising
a researcher with the skills of, for example, reflective questioning, summarising and `controlling
an interview’.

So what are the requirements for a good interview? Well clearly, all interviewers need to appear
unbiased, be systematic and thorough and offer no personal views. He or she also needs to be
well informed on the purpose of the research interview and to be well prepared and familiar with
the questionnaire or topic guide. In addition, he or she needs to be a good listener and all
interviews should be private.

In carrying out a structured interview, it is important that the interviewer adheres closely to the
interview instructions, namely:

• following the correct order and filtering throughout the questionnaire

• keeping personal opinions to oneself
• reading out pre-codes and prompts where instructed
• probing when necessary
• not reading out pre-codes for questions requiring spontaneous answers
• writing down open-ended responses in full.

Filtering enables the interviewer or the respondent to know which question to go to next.
For example:

If yes to Q1 Go to Q3

If no to Q1 go to Q2.

Definition: A prompt is a prepared response to the respondent by the interviewer.

Definition: A probe is a follow-up question that is used after the respondent has given their
first answer. It is used to elicit a more detailed response. Sometimes probes are general and
non-directed. In contrast some probes are very specific, for example, clarifying time of day.

Using a structured interview is a way of trying to ensure consistency between interviews.

However it is still important that interviewers are trained to administer the questionnaires and well
briefed on the interview topic, ensuring familiarity with some of the terms and jargon that may be
contained in answers.

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Essentially an interviewer has four key tasks:

• to locate the respondent,

• to obtain agreement to the interview,
• to ask the questions, and
• to record the answers.

Locating the respondent

The location of the respondents is determined by the sampling procedure, which should be agreed
at the start of the study. In a quantitative study using a random sampling procedure, the
interviewer does not have the discretion to decide whom to interview and must stick to a pre-
determined list. The location and timing of the interview should be convenient for the
interviewee. The interviewee should be told in advance how long the interview should take.

Obtaining agreement for the study

It is important that the interviewer seeks the informed consent of the respondent to participating in
the study. In most cases, this should be obtained in writing. The interviewer has an important role
in explaining why the study is necessary and converting waivers without coercion. Whilst it is
possible to recruit respondents on the doorstep, it is preferable to invite them to participate in
advance either in writing or by telephone. A written invitation on letter headed paper explaining
the purpose of the study can enhance the credibility of the study and increase response rates.
Nevertheless such an invitation should be careful to explain that participation is entirely voluntary.

The interviewer must reassure the respondent of their confidentiality or anonymity, and inform
them that their identities will not be revealed in the aggregated findings.

It is important that the interviewer introduces themselves, explains why the study is being done,
why the respondent has been selected and what will happen to the interview data. Respondents
should be encouraged to ask questions. All this will help the interviewer to establish a rapport
with the respondent.

Asking the questions

Interviewers carrying out structured or semi-structured interviews for a quantitative study should:

• stick closely to any written instructions about filtering questions, what to read out etc.,
• refrain from giving personal opinions
• be systematic and consistent in the way they interact with each respondent

Recording the answers

In structured or semi-structured interviews, interviewers must record all answers carefully,
distinguishing between questions which only allow one answer and multiple-response questions.
Any verbatim answers need to be written down as accurately as possible.

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In unstructured interviews, an interviewer would normally tape record the discussion rather than
attempting to get it all down on paper. This frees the interviewer to really listen to what is being
said and respond accordingly.

Finally when ending the interview remember to give the respondent a contact telephone number in
writing for the interviewer or study organiser. This gives some credibility to the study, enabling
the respondent to check the status of the study if in doubt, and there may be something that the
respondent wants to add or ask about.

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Section 3: Sources of error and bias in

interviewing
Because of the personal nature of interviewing, the scope for introducing error and bias is quite
large and can affect all the following stages of the interviewing process:

! asking the questions

! interpreting the answers
! recording the answers
! coding the answers

Sources of interviewing error will affect a study randomly, i.e. in all directions, whereas sources of
interviewing bias affect the study results systematically, i.e. in the same direction. Sources of
error include:

• deviation from the written instructions on the questionnaire, e.g. not following the correct
order of questions, not following the correct filters on the question routing, not using show
cards with pre-coded answers, reading out pre-coded answers which were not to be read out,
and changing the wording of the questions.
• interrogation error, which occurs when questions are phrased differently from respondent to
the next, for example, asking ‘What is your age?’ could produce a different response than
asking ‘How old are you?’ Use of the word ‘old’ can result in some respondents giving a
younger age.
• interpretation error, which occurs when the interviewer has to make a subjective judgement as
to how to code an answer. This is most likely to happen when the potential answers are pre-
coded and the interviewer has to attempt to squeeze the respondent’s answer into an existing
box.
• recording error. It is generally recognised that the more an interviewer has to write down, the
more likely he/she is to make a mistake in the recording of that data. There is a tendency to
abbreviate answers, not necessarily correctly.

Every effort should be made to reduce any possible error and bias, and so strengthen both the
validity and reliability of the study.

EXERCISE 1

Write down how you think it might be possible to minimise interviewer error?

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Section 4: Preparing and conducting the

interview
The interview schedule
Devising an interview schedule - the content of the interview - involves decisions about the
following:

• what questions to ask

• how to phrase the questions
• depth and breadth of topics to be included
• question sequence

The interview schedule will obviously depend on the purpose and focus on the research. However,
there are a few guidelines that should be followed.

• The questions must be answerable. There is no point in asking questions that the interviewee
will not be able to answer because of lack of experience or knowledge.
• Leading questions should be avoided. Asking a patient, ‘Don’t you agree that your treatment
on the unit has been excellent?’ is not acceptable as it encourages a particular response. The
question could better be phrased as, ‘Tell me what you think about your treatment on the unit’.
• Semi-structured and unstructured interviews may be concerned with eliciting peoples'
experiences, opinions and beliefs. Some questions will be designed to find out what
interviewees actually know about a topic, other questions will be focus on beliefs or views.
Interviewees' responses may be based on first hand experience or on what they have picked up
from a third party. It is important that the interviewer checks out with the interviewee what
perspective they are using in the response.
• Interviews are time consuming for the interviewee as well as the interviewer and as a courtesy,
the interview should be kept to the minimum time necessary to deal with the topic. The
interviewer should make sure that the key issues have been addressed and resist the temptation
to get sidetracked. Recommended times for an interview varies from 20 minutes to 40
minutes. It can be difficult to establish a rapport in too short a time but conversely taking too
long is unfair to the interviewee and interviewees that take an hour or more are not really
acceptable.
• Avoid using words or phrases that the interviewee will not understand. Avoid using medical
jargon with none health care professionals.
• Some words have different meanings for different people. For example, a question about the
availability of exercise facilities in a geographical area might lead some people to think in
narrow terms of exercise gyms and fitness centres while others might include outdoor playing
fields or even the possibilities for walks in the nearby countryside.
• Similarly, be aware that some words are highly subjective and value laden. For example, a
question about how "good" or how "satisfactory" the local health services are should be
followed up to ascertain what the interviewee means by "good" or "satisfactory".
• Some interviewees will be able to provide data about the full range of issues covered by the
interview schedule while others will have in depth insights into some of the issues and little or

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no information on others. Careful use of prompts and probing should enable the interviewer
to judge when a topic is worth exploring further and when to move on to the next topic.
• Interviewees bring a range of perspectives with them. For example, a district nurse will
answer a question on availability or access to of services based on her experience with patients
but she may also have experience as a patient herself.
• The first question in an interview should be something that interviewees will be able to answer
without difficulty. This will help them to relax and encourage them to open up. Factual
questions can be a useful starting point. If personal information about the interviewee is
required this can be asked at the beginning provided the questions are not too personal in that
they don't deal with very private or potentially sensitive or embarrassing issues.
• The interview then moves into a discussion about the topics of particular interest. Responses
to the main questions are extended through the use of supplementary questions designed to
prompt or probe the interviewee.
• The interviewer signals that the interview is nearing the end by techniques such as
summarising or recapping the main points of the discussion. The interviewee is invited to
correct anything that the interviewer appears to have misunderstood or to add make any
additional points.

Conducting the interview

Preparing for the interview.

The interviewer requires good communication skills. Although it has been suggested that a semi
structured interview has the appearance of a discussion or a conversation, this is due to the skills
of the interviewer in facilitating a relaxed, non threatening atmosphere where interviewees feel
comfortable to express themselves. Interviewers may require training before undertaking the
interviews. Training should include:

• How to ask questions: phrasing and paralinguistics (voice tone and pitch, stress on particular
words or phrases) can influence potential responses.

• Listening skills: indicating interest to build up rapport; listening to the answers of previous
questions and using this in framing the next question; knowing when to wait and when to
prompt.

• Negative reinforcement: the ability to intervene tactfully when the interviewee is going off at
a tangent or going on for too long about a particular point.

Avoiding interviewer bias: the interviewer should avoid bringing their personal perspectives into
the discussion. This can happen in the phrasing of questions, the use of prompts and selecting
which responses to probe further. The interviewer should always concentrate on what the
interviewees are saying and clarifying what they mean. The more time spent on active listening
and the less time the interviewer spends talking, the less directive the interview will be and the less
likelihood there is of bias being introduced.

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Arranging the interview

Prospective interviewees are may be invited to participate either in writing or by telephone. The
invitation should indicate the purpose of the interview and what this will involve. It should be
clear that participation is voluntary. Ethical issues such as whether interviewees' identities will
remain anonymous to all but the researcher(s) and the confidentiality of data should be addressed.
Once prospective interviewees have confirmed their willingness to take part the date, time and
place of the interview is arranged.

The meeting place should be convenient for the interviewee. Effort should be made to avoid
interruption wherever possible and this can be helped by informing the interviewee in advance of
how long the interview should take and making sure the interview takes place at the most
convenient time.

Establishing rapport
Before commencing the interview the interviewer should take the time to explain again the reason
for the interview including the aim of the research project and what will happen to the interview
data. He/she should check whether the interviewee has any questions. Questions should be asked
in a relaxed informal manner so that the interview appears more like a discussion or conversation.
The interviewer must be aware of the effect of body language in indicating interest, encouraging
the interviewee to talk and maintaining a non-threatening atmosphere.

Conducting the interview

The interview should `flow’. Beginning gently with factual questions, moving towards more
personal questions later on can facilitate this. A gentle probe is necessary when the answer to a
question is neither clear nor complete.

Some helpful techniques in conducting an interview are shown below:

• don’t interrupt; let informants finish train of thought

• follow up leads, i.e. respond to answers given, some answers will lead onto the next question.
If the respondent gives an answer that you hadn’t anticipated or even considered, follow this up
first and ask questions about it before you forget it. Other issues that you are aware of and
interested in, you are less likely to forget.
• ask about both sides of the issue
• use reflective comments which give the respondent permission to continue to discuss and
consider a particular topic

Avoid double questions or being too helpful. It is generally felt that that personal opinions should
be avoided and care should be taken not to be led too far from the point. Having said this, there is
a debate about the degree of empathy required to build trust and rapport with the respondent.
Many qualitative interviewers feel that a degree of empathy is required to achieve a certain level
of rapport and trust with the respondent and this may involve expressing some opinions of their
own. For instance, Ann Oakley found whilst interviewing mothers before and after childbirth, that
it was impossible to abide by normal interviewing guidelines and in order to gain the trust of her
respondents she had to engage in normal conversations with them, often offering advice and

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information when asked (Oakley, 1981). To do otherwise she felt would have inhibited the degree
of rapport between them. Some qualitative researchers take this to the extreme by immersing
themselves in the culture first prior to the interviewing stage. This is known as ‘living the
culture’.

Whilst the degree of empathy which can be shown in an unstructured interview is a debatable
point, it is never appropriate to show disagreement or disapproval.

Body language
It is also important to try and pick-up on non-verbal cues. Look at the respondent’s posture; are
they relaxed and comfortable or sitting perched on the edge of their seat? Look at the
respondent’s hands, what is she doing with them; is she biting her nails, holding her hand over her
mouth whilst she speaks or sitting on them? Is the interview emotionally distressing? The body
language may indicate that there is more information to come.

Your own body language is important in making the respondent feel at ease by responding to their
verbal and non-verbal cues. This is something we all do usually unconsciously.

Silences
Silences may be very telling. Do not feel uncomfortable with a silence in a qualitative interview.
If you do, you may try to rush in and fill it quickly with another question. You need to give the
respondent the opportunity and the time to reflect and to add additional information. The length of
the silence may be important and should be indicated in the final transcript.

Recording data.
Interviewers have a choice of whether to take notes of responses during
the interview or to tape record the interview. The latter is preferable for a number of reasons. The
interviewer can concentrate on listening and responding to the interviewee and is not distracted by
trying to write down what has been said. The discussion flows because the interviewer does not
have to write down the response to one question before moving on to the next. In note taking
there is an increased risk of interviewer bias because the interviewer is likely to make notes of the
comments which make immediate sense or are perceived as being directly relevant or particularly
interesting. Tape recording ensures that the whole interview is captured and provides complete
data for analysis so cues that were missed the first time can be recognised when listening to the
recording. Lastly, interviewees may feel inhibited if the interviewer suddenly starts to scribble:
they may wonder why what they have just said was of particular interest.

The ideal tape recorder is small, unobtrusive and produces good quality recording. An in built
microphone makes the participants less self conscious. An auto reverse facility means that the
tape will automatically "turn itself over" if the interview lasts longer than the recording time
available on one side of the tape: this prevents an interruption in the flow of conversation. A tape
recorder with a counter facility can be useful when analysing the taped data (see below).

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Closing the interview

An in-depth interview can last between 40 minutes and three hours depending on the level of
interest generated in the topic. One of the most difficult things to do is to close an interview and
one needs to develop a repertoire of signals to indicate its the end. These can be as direct as
switching off the tape recorder (although clearly not in mid-sentence!) but there are more subtle
techniques available. (See Mays and Pope in BMJ, 311;251 - 253, 1995 for further information).
Time should be taken to listen to the last remarks and any queries a subject may have should be
dealt with then and there if possible.

Tips for in-depth interviewing:

• Be familiar with aims and objectives of research
• Know your topic guide well; you may not get a chance to refer to it
• Tape record your interview if possible because you won’t be able to write it all down
• Reassure the respondent on the issue of confidentiality
• Be a good listener and don’t interrupt too much
• Try to start with factual background questions and move gently towards more specific personal
questions
• Do not express your own personal opinions or appear biased - think in advance about your
own prejudices, especially in the areas of sex, race, and age.
• Use probes when answers need further clarification and respond to non-verbal cues
• Transcribe the tape as soon as possible after the interview
• Never under-estimate the amount of time required for transcribing the tape and carrying out
the analysis. A general rule of thumb is that for every hour of interview you have carried out,
you will need to allow ten hours for the transcribing and analysis process.

The pilot study

In order to ensure that you have covered all the relevant issues, that your pre-codes are correct and
that you have not forgotten or omitted some issue that is really important to the respondent, you
will need to conduct a pilot study using your draft questionnaire.

The ideal situation is to test the questionnaire on a small number of respondents who are the same
type as those in your sampling frame. Ideally you should test out your interview on between 10
and 50 respondents for a quantitative study. However, if the real subjects are difficult to access or
few in number, then you may have to test the questionnaire on slightly different subjects. At the
very minimum, you could try out the questionnaire on your colleagues or friends. This will at
least allow you to see if the filtering and order is correct.

It is essential that the interview be phrased in plain and clear language. If the subjects of your
study are to be members of the public, you should pilot the interview with a lay person in
preference to a professional colleague, even if the lay person turns out to be your sister. You may
be so familiar with medical terminology and jargon that you forget other people may not
understand it.

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EXERCISE 2
Read the attached transcript of a research interview between a practice nurse and a patient.
Identify (by line number) those parts of the interview where the interviewer asked:

leading questions, ambiguous questions and two questions in one sentence

State how this may have influenced the outcome of the study, and suggest ways in which the
questions could have been better phrased.

The following is an extract from a qualitative interview between a practice nurse and a patient.
The study aims to explore how parents decide to use their primary care services when their
children are ill. (I = Interviewer, R = Respondent)

1 I Interviewer: Thank-you for agreeing to spare me some time for this interview. I’m doing
2 a study of parents with small children - I’m interested in how they use their local general
3 Practitioner services.

4 I I’d like to ask you some questions about the times when your child has been ill. How old
5 is she?

6 R Respondent: Six. She was six in June.

7 I Can you tell me about the last time she was ill?

8 R What do you mean by ill? How ill?

9 I Well, anything really, not necessarily ill enough to go to a doctor. I mean, eh, has she had
10 any colds or high temperatures or anything like that or more serious illness?

11 R Yes.

12 I She had em?

13 R She had a bad cough and cold about two months ago.

14 I And how did you handle that? Did you take her to the doctor?.

15 R Well, I didn’t take her to the doctor straight away. I gave lots of Calpol and I waited, and I
16 Tried to keep her cool, but then she seemed to get hotter and hotter and eventually by
17 Night-time I decided that I had to call the doctor out.

18 I What time was this?

19 R About 3 am. She’d been awake all night and she’d been getting hotter and hotter and I got
20 More worried. You know how it is when you’re worried.

21 I You were worried about meningitis?

22 R Yes, she was very poorly, so I called the doctor out.

23 I So you asked for a home visit. How quickly did he come?

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24 R It was a woman. a different doctor. She came very quickly actually. I was surprised she
25 Came so quickly. I thought that we would be waiting all night., you know. But she was
26 there within half an hour.

27 I What did she do?

28 R Well she took Anna’s temperature and, you know, she said she was OK. Not to worry and
29 that if we were still worried we should go to the GP in the morning. I wanted some
30 antibiotics but I didn’t get any.

31 I So the next day did you take her to the GP or did you treat her yourself?

32 R Eh, yes.

33 I Sorry, did you treat her yourself?

34 R Well, I gave her some Calpol, but then I took her down to the health centre and we saw
35 DR X and he examined her and I felt more reassured.

36 I Good. Was that reassurance important?.

37 R Yes. I needed somebody to look at her properly and to listen to me.

38 I What about the time she was ill before that?

39 R (silence - respondent thinking) Well, I think she was ill around Christmas. She had
40 Chickenpox.

41 I She must have felt pretty ill with that?

42 R No, actually. It hardly seemed to bother her. She was covered in spots, but she carried on
43 playing with her presents and she didn’t like it when I told her she couldn’t go to school.

44 I Did you take her to the doctor’s?.

45 R Yes, of course. As soon as I saw the spots. I took her straight down. And we saw Dr X.
46 He knew what it was straight away.

47 I So at what point did you decide to go to the doctor’s?

48 R I’m not sure. I just wanted to know what the spots were. I wasn’t worried cos there was
49 a lot of it about at the time.

50 I How did you decide whether to go to the doctor’s or call out a doctor for a home visit?

51 R Well, it depends on the time of day and how worried you are?

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Section 5: Handing interview data

The way you analyse your interview data will depend on whether the data you have collected is
predominantly quantitative (number-based) or qualitative (text-based). Lets look first at
quantitative data analysis.

Analysis of quantitative data

Assuming that you had asked a number of questions of a large group of people, for instance over
twenty respondents, then you are likely to want to use computer software to carry out your
analysis. Most people use either SPSS or EPI-Info to carry out their statistical analysis. SPSS is
very user friendly but it can be very expensive to purchase. EPI-Info on the other hand is freely
available (for further details of these two software packages you are advised to refer to the Trent
Focus Resource Packs An introduction to Using EPI Info and An Introduction to Using SPSS).

Once you have gained access to either of these statistical packages you will need to define your
variables and value labels and then input the data. When you have entered the data it is necessary
to check for errors. It is very easy to type in the wrong figures. It is useful at this stage to print out
some frequencies. These are simple counts of each of your main variables. So for example, if
one of your variables is the gender of the respondents, coded 1 and 2, then the frequencies
command will calculate for you how many men and how many women were in your sample and
reveal only entries outside the expected range.

The next stage is usually to carry out some simple cross-tabulations or contingency tables to
compare responses to one question with another. So for example, ‘frequencies’ will enable you to
see how many men and women you have in your sample and also how many smoke but until you
carry out a cross-tabulation you won’t know how smoking varies by gender. For further details on
quantitative data analysis you are recommended to read the Trent Focus Resource Pack An
Introduction to Using Statistics in Research.

Analysis of qualitative data

If you have carried out a semi-structured or an in-depth interview then you will want to analyse
the data using qualitative methods. It would be quite wrong to try and quantify the results of an
in-depth interview. For instance if you carried out ten depth interviews you should not say that six
out of the ten people interviewed took a particular viewpoint. Instead you should be looking at
how and why the respondents differ in their views.

The first stage of qualitative analysis is to examine your transcripts of all your interviews. It is
important that you get all the tapes of your interviews transcribed. It is much more difficult, if not
impossible to try and do your analysis from the tapes alone. Using transcripts means that you pick
up on the detail, including all those points that you might have forgotten. But don’t forget to allow
sufficient time to get the tapes transcribed. This can be a very painstaking process and you should
never underestimate the amount of time that it can take.

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Once you have all your transcripts together, you will need to carry out content analysis. This is
really a systematic way of identifying all the main concepts, which arise in the interviews, and
then trying to categorise and develop these into common themes. It can be very confusing when
you are faced with fourteen long transcripts but there are a number of practical ways of actually
carrying out this process of content analysis in a systematic way. To begin with you need to read
through each transcript and make a note in the margin of main concepts or points of interest.

In order to identify the common themes and categories in the text you need some systematic way
of identifying and grouping them. Possible ways of doing this are as follows:

1. Write the name of the theme in the margin of the text, for example, ‘compliance’, and then
actually cut up the transcripts so that you can group all the common themes and categories.
Before you get the scissors out, make you sure that you have photocopy of the whole
transcripts otherwise you may in danger of taking things out of context.

2. Instead of cutting the transcripts up, try highlighting common themes with a highlighter pen.
The problem with this is that the number of different concepts is limited to the number of
different colours of your pens.

3. Try transferring themes and concepts onto index cards, so that all common themes are located
on the same card but referenced to each subject.

4. Use a matrix to relate a number of key themes to different respondents. The results look a bit
like a cross-tabulation, with cases or individuals down one side of the table and the main
concepts running across the top. Individual cells can contain quotations.

5. Map the concepts and themes graphically using a cognitive map. Cognitive maps are similar to
flow-charts that show how one theme or category influences another. Cognitive maps can be
drawn up for each individual and then summary maps can be developed. Cognitive maps are
particularly useful in examining the process of personal decision making.

For further information about using matrices and cognitive maps read Miles and Huberman
‘Qualitative Data Analysis’, 1994. There are various software packages now available to assist
you in this process and these are referenced at the end of this pack.

Whichever method you opt for your overall aim is to identify the key concepts presented in the
data. Once you have exhausted all the possible concepts you should start to find the same
concepts reoccurring with different respondents. When you find differences between respondents
you should be looking for why those differences exist.

Eventually you may find links between some of the concepts, which in turn can be developed into
common themes. At this point you may start moving away from just describing the data and
instead start developing possible theories, which might help explain what you have found.

Remember when carrying out qualitative data analysis that it is an ongoing dynamic process. You
should come to the data with an open mind (although you need to acknowledge any biases that
you think you may have) and thus the categories and themes that emerge from the data are not
pre-set by you as the researcher. They should emerge from the data as issues and ideas, which are
important and relevant to the respondents. One way of trying to validate your data analysis is to

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ask your respondents to look at your analysis of your interview with them and ask them if it is a
true representation of what they said and believe.

For further details of how to analyse qualitative data, you should read Trent Focus Resource Pack
An Introduction to Qualitative Research.

Coding open-ended questions

An open-ended question allows a respondent free reign to give any answer they want to.
Consequently if we ask what we think is a very straight forward open-ended question of 200
people we could get 200 different answers back. This makes comparing the answers very
difficult. In actual fact if we ask an open-ended question of lots of people we are likely to start
building up some sort of pattern to the answers. We start to see some answers appearing more
frequently than others. It is therefore possible to develop a coding frame to reflect the most
frequently occurring and the most important answers to an open-ended question. The best way to
do this is to examine a proportion of the answers you have received to a particular question and to
use a five bar gate system to record the most frequently cited items. Once these have been
established, each category can be assigned a nominal numerical value and all these answers given
to this open-ended question can then be coded.

EXERCISE 3
In this example we have listed all the answers given by a group of respondents to the following
question:

‘Why did you not take your medicine as the doctor requested you to?’

(Each one of these replies has been given by a different individual)

I forgot.

I didn’t like the taste

I forgot.

I was too busy.

I left the bottle at home.

I forgot.

I got better and I didn’t think that I needed it anymore.

I forgot to take it that time.

I was asleep.

I forgot to take the antibiotics.

I’d already eaten and I thought that I couldn’t take it then.

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I was too busy.

I forgot it.

I was thinking of other things.

I didn’t feel ill any more.

I felt better.

I didn’t need it.

I never got it from the chemists.

I just forgot.

Forgot it.

Forgot to take it.

I don’t remember what he told me to do.

I felt better anyway.

I forgot to take it.

I was too busy.

I was driving.

I’d just eaten.

I was at work.

Looking at the replies listed above, go through them all and try to identify those that are the most
frequent. Then draw up a coding frame to represent the main categories. You may also want to
pick up categories which are not very frequent but which are very important.

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Summary
In this pack we have described:

1. Structured interviews,

2. semi-structured interviews

3. unstructured / depth interviews.

You should by now be able to describe the advantages and disadvantages of the following
methods:

• face-to-face interviews
• telephone interviews

You should understand the difference between open-ended and closed questions and know what a
pre-code is.

You should also be able to distinguish between a structured and a semi-structured interview. As
you will recall, a structured interview with a majority of closed questions, with pre-coded answers,
is appropriate when you are trying to directly compare the responses of a large number of people.
Whilst a semi-structured interview will allow you to ask more open-ended questions which are
rich in detail but more difficult to analyse and compare.

You should be aware of skills required of a good interviewer and be able to list the ways in which
interviewer error can be reduced.

You should be able to numerically code pre-coded and open-ended data collected in an interview.

Finally you should be able to describe ways in which to analyse quantitative and qualitative data.

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Answers to exercises
Exercise 1

Ways to minimise interviewer error

There is no single right answer, however some possible suggestions are:

! train all the interviewers in the appropriate skills

! ensure that all the interviewers are thoroughly briefed on the research topic

! pilot the interview

! accompany interviewers and monitor their questioning and recording

! use structured questions where possible and avoid verbatim answers

! avoid having to select a pre-coded response from a verbatim answer - let the respondent select
the code where possible

! avoid giving strong personal opinions, in particular do not show disapproval or disagreement
with the respondent, regardless of what you may really think.

Exercise 2

1. Leading questions (by line number):

21, 23, 38, 41

2. Ambiguous questions:

9, 38

3. Two questions in one:

9, 14, 31, 50

4. There is a danger that the interviewer could have confused or biased the interview. The
interviewer assumes a number of things, for instance, that the doctor was male, or that the
chickenpox had made the child feel ‘pretty ill’. Luckily the respondent actually corrects her on
these points but it may not always be so easy to pick up. If its a minor matter the respondent
may not bother to clarify the question.

Questions should be phrased without assumptions, for example, at line 21, the question ‘You were
worried about meningitis?’ could be rephrased as ‘What in particular were you worried about?’

Likewise line 36 could be replaced with ‘How important was that reassurance?’

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There are a number of questions where the interviewer asks two questions instead of one. The
interviewer then has to probe the respondents answer, otherwise she would not have been able to
interpret the answer. Obviously it would be preferable to break these multiple questions up and
ask them one at a time.

Exercise 3

Coding of open-ended questions is not an exact science and two people coding the same group of
answers are likely to produce slightly different coding frames nevertheless one would expect there
to be some similarities. We have coded the above responses in the following way:

Reasons for not taking medicine as requested by GP

Forgot/ Did not remember 1

Got better/ No longer ill/ not needed 2

Too busy/ thinking about other things 3

At work/ left bottle at home 4

Eaten food so too late 5

Doing other things/ driving/ sleeping 6

Unpleasant taste 7

Did not take prescription to chemist 8

As you can see we have started off by coding the answers which produced the most frequent
responses. We have also decided to combine some answers into a single category. Note that
although only one person said that they had not collected their prescription from the chemist we
have allocated this answer a separate code of its own since we felt that this was a particularly
important answer. Likewise we have allocated a code for ‘unpleasant taste’ even though only one
person said this.

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References
Bell J. Doing your own Research Project. Buckingham: OU, 1995.

Carter Y, Thomas C. Research Methods in Primary Care. Oxon: Radcliffe, 1997.

Crombie I, Davies H. Research in Health Care. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 1996.

King N. The Qualitative Research Interview. In C Cassell, G Simon (eds). Qualitative Methods in
Organisational Research. London: Sage,1994.

May N and Pope C. Qualitative Interviews in Medical Research. BMJ, 311:251 - 253, 1995.

Miles M, Huberman A. Qualitative Data Analysis. Thousand Oaks: Sgae, 1994.

Moser C and Kalton G. Survey Methods in Social Investigation. Hants: Gower, 1990.

Oakley A. ‘Interviewing Women: a contradiction in terms’ in Roberts H (ed) Doing Feminist

Research. London: Routledge, 1981.

Oppenheim A. Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement. London: Pinter

Publishers Ltd, 1992.

Sapsford R, Jupp V. Data Collection and Analysis. London: Sage, 1996.

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Further reading and resources

Software for Qualitative Data Analysis:

1. QSR Nudist is developed by: Qualitative Solutions & Research Pty Ltd,
Box 171 La Trobe University Post Office,
Vic Australia 3083.

Website: http://www.qsr.com.au

2. Atlas-ti is developed by:

Scientific Software Development
c/o Thomas Muhr,
Tratenaustr. 12,
10717 Berlin,
Germany

Website: http://www.atlasti.de

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Glossary
Anonymity is the protection of the identify of research subjects such that even the
researcher cannot identify the respondent to a questionnaire.
Questionnaires in an anonymous survey do not have an identification
number and cannot be linked back to an individual. Anonymity should not
be confused with confidentiality where individuals can be identified by the
researcher.

Bias is a derivation of the results from the truth. This can either be due to
random error or, more likely, due to systematic error. The latter could be
caused by, for example, sampling or poor questionnaire design.

A Case is a unit of analysis. Usually this takes the form of an individual subject but
it could be a different unit of analysis altogether such as a family or a blood
culture.

Categorical data see nominal data

A closed question is one where the possible answers have been defined in advance and so the
respondents’ answers will be restricted to pre-coded responses offered. A
pilot study should be carried out to decide on the correct pre-codes.

Coding is the process by which responses to questionnaires or other data is

assigned a numerical value or code in order that the data can be transferred
to a computer for data analysis. See also ‘pre-codes’, ‘closed questions’,
‘open-ended questions’ and ‘re-coding’.

A concept is an abstract idea or mental construct representing some event or object in

reality.

Confidentiality is the protection of the identity of research subjects so that identities cannot
be revealed in the research findings and the only person who can link a
respondent’s completed questionnaire to a name and address is the
researcher. A questionnaire with just a coded identification number is
confidential. This should not be confused with anonymity, where not even
the researcher can identify the subjects.

Construct validity is the extent to which the measurement corresponds to the theoretical
concepts (constructs) concerning the object of the study. There are two
kinds of construct validity: convergent and divergent

Content analysis is the systematic examination of text or conversational transcripts to

identify and group common themes, and to develop categories for analysis.

Content validity is a set of operations or measures that together operationalize all aspects of
a concept.
Criterion validity is the extent to which measurement correlates with an external indicator of
the phenomenon. There are two types of criterion validity concurrent and
predictive: i) concurrent validity is a comparison against another external
measurement at the same point in time ii) predictive validity is the extent to
which the measurement can act as a predictor of the criterion. Predictive
validity can be useful in relation to health since it can act as a early risk
indicator before a condition develops in full.

Cross-sectional is analogous to a snap-shot. A cross-sectional design is one which focuses

design on a single fixed period in time, and can provide a description of
respondents that differ on a number of variables.

The Delphi is a method for obtaining expert or consensus opinion on a particular topic,
technique by using multiple ‘rounds’ or waves of questions whereby the results from
the previous rounds are continually fed back to the same respondents to
bring about a group consensus.

A dependent is known as the outcome variable. The value of a dependent variable is

variable dependent on other independent variables and its value will change as the
independent variable or intervention changes. Statistical techniques can be
used to predict the value of the dependent variable. An example of a
dependent variable might be peak flow or blood pressure.

A descriptive is one which seeks to describe the distribution of variables for a particular
design topic. Descriptive studies can be quantitative, for instance, a survey, but
they do not involve the use of a deliberate intervention. However, it is
possible to carry out correlational analysis of the existing variables in a
descriptive study.

Error can be due to two sources: random error and systematic error. Random
error is due to chance, whilst systematic error is due to an identifiable
source such as sampling bias or response bias.

Ethnography is a qualitative research approach and is used to study other cultures. The
ethnographic approach was first developed by anthropologists. The term
‘ethnography’ comes from the Greek and means ‘writing culture’.

External validity relates to the extent to which the findings from a study can be generalised
(from the sample) to a wider population (and be claimed to be
representative).

Face validity is the extent that the measure or instrument being used appears to measure
what it is supposed to. For example, a thermometer might be said to
possess face validity.

Focus groups is a method of collecting qualitative data from a group of people. It takes
the form of a group discussion, ideally with 6-8 respondents. A moderator
directs the group discussion.
Grounded theory is a technique for analysing qualitative data and generating concepts and
theories, inductively, using a constant comparative method. This approach
was developed by Glaser and Strauss in 1967.

The Hawthorne is the changes that occur in a subject’s behaviour or attitude as a result of
Effect being included in the study and being placed under observation. The term
derives from industrial psychological studies that were carried out at the
Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Corporation in Illinois in the
1920s and were reported by Mayo. He found that whatever experimental
environmental conditions were tried out on the workers, productivity
always went up. He realised that it was the effect of actually being under
study that resulted in a change of behaviour and so increased productivity.

A hypothesis is a statement about the relationship between the dependent and the
independent variables to be studied. Traditionally the null hypothesis is
assumed to be correct, until research demonstrates that the null hypothesis
is incorrect. See ‘null hypothesis’.

The independent is one which ‘causes’ the dependent variable. The independent variable
variable takes the form of the intervention or treatment in an experiment and is
manipulated to demonstrate change in the dependent variable.

An in-depth takes an unstructured, qualitative approach. The questions asked will be

interview mostly open-ended and overall the degree of control over both the order
and content of the interview is less than in a structured interview

An indictor is the operationalized form of a concept. In research concepts need to be

tightly defined so that they can be measured. To measure a concept we
have to translate it into a specific indicator.

Instrument is the extent to which the instrument or indicator measures what it purports
validity to measure. Note that a study could have instrument validity but still lack
validity overall due to lack of external validity.

Internal validity relates to the validity of the study itself, including both the design and the
instruments used.

Interval data is measured on an interval scale where the distance between each value is
equal and the distance between values is the same anywhere on the scale.
Interval level data does not possess a true zero, unlike ratio data.

An intervention is the independent variable in an experimental design. An intervention

could take the form of treatment, such as drug treatment. Those subjects
selected to receive the intervention in an experiment are placed in the
‘intervention’ group.
Nominal data, also known as categorical data, is a set of unordered categories. Each
category is represented a different numerical code but the codes or numbers
are allocated on an arbitrary basis and have no numerical meaning. See
also ‘ordinal’ and ‘interval data’.

Null hypothesis is the alternative hypothesis. It usually assumes that there is no relationship
between the dependent and independent variables. The null hypothesis is
assumed to be correct, until research demonstrates that it is incorrect. This
process is known as falsification.

An open-ended is one which allows the respondent the freedom to give their own answer
question to a question, rather than forcing them to select one from a limited choice.
Open-ended questions are commonly used in in-depth interviews, but they
can also be used in quantitative structured interviews as well.

Ordinal data is composed of a set of categories which can be placed in an order. Each
category is represented by a numeric code which in turn represents the
same order as the data. However, the numbers do not represent the
distance between each category. For instance, a variable describing patient
satisfaction may be coded as follows: Dissatisfied 1, Neither 2, Satisfied 3.
The code 2 cannot be interpreted as being twice that of code 1.

Population is a term used in research which refers to all the potential subjects or units
of interest who share the same characteristics which would make them
eligible for entry into a study. The population of potential subjects is also
known as the sampling frame.

A prospective is one that is planned from the beginning and takes a forward looking
study approach. Subjects are followed over time and interventions can be
introduced as appropriate.

Qualitative deals with the human experience and is based on analysis of words rather
research than numbers. Qualitative research methods seeks to explore rich
information usually collected from a fairly small samples and includes
methods such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, action research and
ethnographic studies.

Quantitative is essentially concerned with numerical measurement and numerical data.

research All experimental research is based on a quantitative approach. Quantitative
research tends to be based on larger sample sizes in order to produce results
which can be generalised to a wider population.

A Questionnaire is a set of questions used to collect data. Questionnaires can be

administered face-to-face by an interviewer, over a telephone or self-
completion. Questionnaires can include closed an open-ended questions.
A Quota sample is a form of non-random sampling and one that is commonly used in
market research. The sample is designed to meet certain quotas, set usually
to obtain certain numbers by age, sex and social class. The sample selected
within each quota is selected by convenience, rather than random methods.

Randomisation is the random assignment of subjects to intervention and control groups.

Randomisation is a way of ensuring that chance dictates who receives
which treatment. In this way all extraneous variables should be controlled
for. Random allocation does not mean haphazard allocation.

Random error is non-systematic bias which can negate the influence of the independent
variable. Reliability is affected by random error.

Ratio level data is similar to interval data in that there is an equal distance between each
value except that ratio data does possess a true zero. An example of ratio
data would be age.

Re-coding is the process of altering the codes assigned to a particular variable, usually
by aggregating categories. For instance, continuous interval data such as
age may be re-coded into age bands, thus making it ordinal data. Re-
coding allows data to be analysed and compared in different ways than in
its original state.

Reliability is concerned with the extent to which a measure gives consistent results. It
is also a pre-condition for validity.

Representativeness is the extent to which a sample of subjects is representative of the wider

population. If a sample is not representative, then the findings may not be
generalisable.

A Response rate is the proportion of people who have participated in a study or completed a
question. It is calculated by dividing the total number of people who have
participated by those who were approached or asked to participate.

A retrospective is one which looks backwards over time, often using data already collected
design by others. It usually takes the form of correlational research identifying
relationships between independent and dependent variables.

A Sample is a group or subset of the chosen population. A sample can be selected by

random or non-random methods. Findings from a representative sample
can be generalised to the wider population.

A Sampling frame is the pool of potential subjects which share a similar criteria for entry in to
a study. The sampling frame is also known as the ‘population’.
Snowballing is a non-probability method of sampling commonly employed in qualitative
research. Recruited subjects nominate other potential subjects for inclusion
in the study.

A Survey is a method of collecting large scale quantitative data but does not use an
experimental design. With a survey there is no control over who receives
the intervention or when. Instead a survey design can examine the real
world and describe existing relationships. A survey can be either simply
descriptive or correlation’s.

Theoretical is a sampling method used in qualitative research, whereby the sample is

sampling selected on the basis of the theory and the needs of the emerging theory. It
does not seek to be representative.

Validity is the extent to which a study measures what it purports to measure. There
are many different types of validity.

A Variable is an operationalized concept. A variable is a phenomenon that varies and

must be measurable. An outcome variable is known as the dependent
variable and the effect variable is known as the independent variable. The
independent variable has a causal effect on the dependent variable.