,

‫ו‬i'

Steinar Kvale

InterVie
An
Introduction to
Qualitativ·e
Research
Interviewing

:,:r)

1
1,: 1 ('

SAGE Publications
\} !!}ternationa_l Educational and Protessiona/ Publisher
2
InterViews

The qualitative research interview is a construction site of knowl

1
edge. An interview is literally an inter view, an inter change of
views between two persons conversing about a theme of mutual
interest. This book attempts to lay out the richness and the scope of
qualitative interviews in social science research. It tries to link
methods of-and ideas about-interviews, continually drawing
attention to the inter play of practical and theoretical issues of
interview research.

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

The Interviewer as a Miner or as a Traveler

Two contrasting metaphors of the interviewer-as a miner or as a

traveler-can illustrate the implications of different theoretical under
standings of interview research.
In the miner metaphor, knowledge is understood as buried metal
and the interviewer is a miner who unearths the valuable metal.
Some miners seek objective facts to be quantified, others seek
nuggets of essential meaning. In both conceptions the knowledge is
waiting in the subjects' interior to be uncovered, uncontaminated by
the miner. The interviewer digs nuggets of data or meanings out of a
subject's pure experiences, unpolluted by any leading questions. The
interview researcher strips the surface of conscious experiences, the
therapeutic interviewer mines the deeper unconscious layers. The
precious facts and meanings are purified by transcribing them from
the oral to the
4. Inter_\Tiews Interviewing as Research 5

written mode. The knowledge nuggets remain constant through the pertains to a transformative conversation that is "the result of an
transformations of appearances on the conveyor belt from the oral encounter with an author, character, plot, stanza, line, or archaic
·i torso which has made a difference to the critic's conception of who
stage to the written storage. By analysis, the objective facts and the :h
essential meanings are drawn out by various techniques and molded '! she is, what she is good for, what she wants to do with herself; an
j{
' encounter which has re-arranged her priorities and purposes" (p.
into their definitive form. Finally the value of the end product, its
degree of purity, is determined by correlating it with an objective, ii: 107).
external, real world or to a realm of subjective, inner, authentic :! The two metaphors-of the interviewer as a miner or as a traveler
represent different concepts of knowledge formation. Each
experiences. , metaphor stands for alternative genres and has different rules of the
;.
The alternative traveler metaphor understands the interviewer as a .:.[·
game. In a broad sense, the miner metaphor pictures a common
traveler on a journey that leads to a tale to be told upon returning ;'!
home. The interviewer-traveler wanders through the landscape and understanding in modern social sciences of knowledge as "given."
enters into conversations with the people encountered. The traveler The traveler metaphor refers to a postmodern constructive
explores the many domains of the country, as unknown territory or understanding that involves a conversational approach to social
with maps, roaming freely around the territory. The traveler may also research. The miner metaphor brings interviews into the vicinity of
deliberately seek specific sites or topics by following a method, with human engineering; the traveler metaphor into the vicinity <‫כ‬f the
the original Greek meaning of "a route that leads to the goal." The humanities and art.
interviewer wanders along with the local inhabitants, asks questions
that lead the subjects to tel1 their own stories of their lived world, and
converses with them in the original Latin meaning of conversation as Conversation as Research
"wandering together with."
What the traveling reporter hears and sees is described qualitatively Conversation is a basic mode of human interaction. Human beings
talk with each other-they interact, pose questions, and answer ques
and is reconstructed as stories to be told to the people of the inter
tions. Through conversations we get to know other people, get to
viewer's own country, and possibly also to those with whom the
learn about their experiences, feelings, and hopes and the world they
interviewer wandered. The potentialities of meanings in the original
live in.
stories are differentiated and unfolded through the traveler's
There are multiple forms of conversations-in everyday life, in
interpre tations; the tales are remolded into new narratives, which
literature, and in the professions. Everyday conversations may range
are convinc ing in their aesthetic form and are validated through
from chat and small talk, through exchanges of news, disputes, or
their impact upon the listenei:s.
formal negotiations, to de p personal interchanges. Within litera
The journey may not only lead to new knowledge; the traveler
ture, the varieties of conversation span drama to novels to short
might change as well. The journey might instigate a process of
stories, which may contain longer or shorter passages of conversa
reflec tion that leads the interviewer to new ways of self-
tions. Professional conversations include journalistic interviews, legal
understanding, as well as uncovering previously taken-for-granted
values and customs in the traveler's home country. The interrogations, academic oral examinations, religious confessions,
transformative effects of traveling are expressed in the German term therapeutic dialogues, and-to be discussed here-qualitative research
Bildungsreise-a scholarly, forma tive journey. Through interviews. Each of these conversational genres uses different rules
conversations, the traveler can also lead dthers to new understanding and techniques.
and insight as they, through their own story telling, may come to The research interview is based on the conversations of daily life
reflect on previously natural-seeming matters of course in their and is a professional conversation. One form of research interview-a
culture. Rorty's (1992) picture of inspired criticism semistructured life world interview-will be treated in this book. lt is
defined as an interview whose purpose is to obtain
descriptions of the
 6
InterViews Interviewing as Research 7

life world of the interviewee with respect to interpreting the meaning Interview inquiries may include multiple actors in a social scene.
of the described phenomena. .

Two further views on the fairness of grades-from a fellow pupil and

-
The use of the interview as a research method is nothing mysteri · from a teacher-follow:
ous: An interview is a conversation that has a structure and a i
·,
purpose. It goes beyond the spontaneous exchange of views as in Pupil: I find that the teachers actually evaluate in a rather fair way.
everyday conversation, and becomes a careful questioning and
listening ap proach with the purpose of obtaining thoroughly tested :· i It is not possible to cheat them either, which many believe
li they can. If you sit there-and as soon as someone has raised
knowledge. The research interview is not a conversation between his hand, and the teacher has asked him and then-(raises his
equal partners, because the researcher defines and controls the hand). Well, I don't think it will work. I don't think they are
situation. The topic of the interview is introduced by the researcher, that stupid.
who also critically fol lows up on the subject's answers to his or her ,1- ,1- * -!‫כ‬ ‫!כ‬-
questions.
Examples of interviews will be given throughout this book (particu Interviewer: Do you think that there are some pupils who want to
larly in Chapters 2 & 7). To illustrate this form of inquiry, I will bluff by raising their hands?
present interview passages taken from a study of the effects of grading Teacher: Well, I don't think so, I don'tthink they are particularly sly
in Danish high schools (Kvale, 1980): in that respect-in some way or another-to give the impression
that they know more than they do. That is not my impression-
Interviewer: You mentioned previously something about grades, at least not in my classes.
would you please try and say more about that?
Pupil: Grades are often unjust, because very often-very often-they These later statements contradict the first pupil; the second pupil
are only a measure of how much you talk, and how much you finds the grading fair and believes that teachers see through other
agree with the teacher's opinion. For instance, I may state an pupils' attempts to raise their grades by bluffing, and this view is
opinion on the basis of a tested ideology, and which is against confirmed by the teacher interviewed. With such contradictory
the teacher's ideology. The teacher will then, because it is his information obtained from these three actors in the classroom scene,
ideology, which he finds to be the best one, of course say that one might be tempted to discard the qualitative interview as a
what he is saying is right and what I am saying is wrong. research method-the knowledge obtained is not objective, but
Interviewer: How should that influence the grade? subjective in the sense that it depends too much on the subjects
Pupil: Well, because he would then think that I was an idiot-who interviewed. Throughout this book I will argue that, on the contrary,
comes up with the wrong answers. it is in fact a strength of the interview conversation to capture the
Interviewer: Is this not only your postulate? multitude of subjects' views of a theme and to picture a manifold
and controversial human world. A main issue will be how to obtain
Pupil: No, there are lots of concrete examples.
reliable and valid knowledge of the social world through the various
views of the interacting subjects. In later chapters (Chapter 12,
In response to an open question from the interviewer, the pupil Questions Posed to an Interview Text, and Chapter 13, Validity as
himself introduces a dimension of his experience of grades-they are Quality of Craftsmanship) I will return to the interpretation and
unfair-and he spontaneously gives his reasons for why the)'I are validation of the statements above and also discuss their
unfair. The interviewer critically follows up the answers, asks for representativity (Chapter 5, Interviews About Grades).
specifics, and tests the strength of the pupil's belief by doubting it.
 meaning, and interrelations. Narratives and conversations are today regarded as
8 InterViews

Interview Research in the Social Sciences

If conversations did not exist, there would hardly be any shared

knowledge about the social scene. As a thought experiment we might
imagine that human conversation did not exist, and therefore that the
knowledge acquired through conversations-as personal knowledge
for the reader and as general knowledge for humankind-was nonex
istent. Yet in the social sciences, conversation as a method of obtaining
knowledge has-until recently-rarely been mentioned in method
textbooks.
Conversation is an ancient form of obtaining knowledge.
Thucydides interviewed participants from the Peloponnesian Wars to
write the history of the wars, and Socrates used dialogue to obtain
philosophical knowledge. Within the modern social sciences, which
originated in the 19th century, systematic interview research is,
however, a new phenomenon of the past decades. Conversations
have belonged to the realm of the humanities and philosophy,
whereas social science meth odology has long been modeled on the
natural sciences. The present emphasis on the interview as
conversation and on the interpretation of its meanings brings
interview research closer to the domain of the humanities.
Interviews have, however, been previously employed in the
social sciences. Anthropologists and sociologists have long used
informal interviews to obtain knowledge from their informants.
Sociologists and psychologists have talked with their human
subjects in order to obtain necessary background knowledge for
conducting questionnaire studies and laboratory experiments. What is
new in recent decades is that qualitative interviews are increasingly
employed as a research method in their own right, with an
expanding methodological litera ture on how to carry out interview
research systematically.
Technical as well as theoretical reasons might be suggested for
today's growing research use of qualitative interviews. The develop
ment in the 1950s of small portable tape recorders made the exact
recording of interviews easy. In the 1980s, computer programs
facili tated the qualitative analyses of transcribed interviews. Broad
cha7nges in current thought, reflected in philosophy, emphasize
themes such as the everyday lived world and its common language,
Interviewing as Research 9 counseling, and in therapy. A scientific psychology leaning heavily on
natural sciences has, however, generally neglected the human aspects
essential for obtaining knowledge of the social world, of knowledge production, including the knowledge potentials of the
including scientific knowledge. human conversation. Throughout this book I will draw on insights
Until recently, the field of qualitative inquiry was fragmented into from the use of interviews in psychological practice, in particular th.e
different disciplines with communication gaps across psychoanalytic interview (Chapter 4, Psychoanalytical Knowledge
interpretative communities. With an absence of
Production).
common literature, procedures, and criteria, That there has been little systematic reflection on the practical and
interviewers have to a large extent had to rely on their conceptual issues of using interviews as a research method may also
individual creativity. One consequence is that isolated
researchers have invented small qualitative wheels over
and over again.
This state of affairs is now changing with the increasing number of
books, journals, and conferences in the field of
qualitative research. Cross-disciplinary works have been
published, such as Handbook of Qualitative Research
edited by Denzin and Lincoln (1994) andHand buch
Qualitative Sozialforschung edited by Flick, Kardoff,
Keupp, Rosenstiel, and Wolff (1991). Several journals
dedicated to qualitative research have appeared in the
past decades: Qualitative Sociology (first published in
1978), Qualitative Studies in Education (first pub lished
in 1988), Qualitative Health Research (first published in
1991), and the cross-disciplinary Qualitative Inquiry
(first published in 1995). With the new literature, a
common knowledge base is available for
methodological and theoretical development of
qualitative re-
search.
Sophistication in qualitative research is today rather
unevenly
distributed in the social sciences. Although much of
what is said here may be old news within
anthropology and sociology, it can be rela tively new,
and perhaps shockingly unscientific, within some
depart ments of psychology. One might have assumed
that the production of knowledge through the human
interaction of the interview might be a central
concern in psychology. In the psychological
profession, the interview is an essential tool-for
example, in personnel selection, in
 InterViews ,H Jnterviewing as Research 11
··i
,\:2
closeness of the research interview to the 1.‫ז‬
; .• existing hard-core quantitative arsenal of the social sciences.
.
conversations This may have implied that it was superfluous ,:;; Rather, the mode of understanding implied by qualitative research
to reflect interview methodologically. To contemplate the involves alternative conceptions of social knowledge, of meaning,
nearness of reality, and truth in social science research. The basic subject matter
the research interview to everyday conversations may also have is no longer objective data to be quantified, but meaningful relations
been threatening to the scientific legitimacy of the "young" social to be inter preted. The transition from the miner metaphor of
sciences. A further reason for the lack of conceptualization and of interviewing as digging up nuggets of meaningful data to the
common frames for understanding qualitative research may be that traveler metaphor of interviewing as the construction of stories was
its proxim- ity to the human sciences has been at odds with discussed in this chapter's introduction.
dominating concep tions of social science as a natural science. The There is a move away from obtaining knowledge primarily through
somewhat controversial external observation and experimental manipulation of human sub
position of interview research in the social sciences will be taken up jects, toward an understanding by means of conversations with the
again in Chapter 4.
human beings to be understood. The subjects not only answer ques
tions prepared by an expert, but thems lves formulate in a dialogue
their own conceptions of their lived world. The sensitivity of the
Theoretical Issues interview and its closeness to the subjects' lived world can lead to
knowledge that can be used to enhance the human condition. The
Developing the interview as a research method involves a challenge interview as such is, however, neither a progressive nor an
to renew, broaden, and enrich the conceptions of knowledge and oppressive method. As will be discussed later, the knowledge
research in the social sciences. The research interview is not merelya produced can be used either to enhance the investigated subjects'
new method, yielding qualitative texts rather than quantitative data, condition or to manipulate their behavior more efficiently (see
but reflects alternative conceptions of the subject matter of the social Chapter 4).
sciences. Many apparently methodological problems do not stem from Within philosophy in the past half century the positivist philoso phy
the relative newness of the interview method or from insufficiently of science has declined. Positivism conceived of the social sciences as
developed techniques, but are the consequences of unclarified theo natural sciences, to be based on objective quantifiable data, with the
retical assumptions.
prediction and control of the behavior of others as a goal. Today there
Some authors have pointed out a neglect of theory in current is a shift toward philosophical lines of thought closer to the humanities.
qualitative research. Strauss (1995) thus criticizes the absence of These include a postmodern social construction of reality,
theoretical discussions in the large majority of the chapters in hermeneutical interpretations of the meanings of texts, phenomeno
Denzin and Lincoln's Handbook of Qualitative Research (1994), logical descriptions of consciousness, and the dialectical situating of
mentioned above. Giorgi (1994) concludes a review of recent human activity in social and historical contexts. That the qualitative
literature on qualitative methods in this way: "Thus, greater interview is being focused on today, may in part be due to the
theoretical clarity and consistency as well as deeper reflection or correspondence of themes central to current philosophy and to the
better utilization of imagi native possibilities still seem to be called qualitative interview, such as experience, meaning, life world, conver
for in order to bring better sation, dialogue, narrative, and language (see Chapters 2 & 3). Thus
theoretical conceptualization and more consistent practices to quali a postmodern approach will, in line with the traveler metaphor of the
tative research" (p. 190). interviewer, emphasize the constructive nature of the knowledge
Addressing the methodological questions of conducting an inter created through the interaction of the partners in the interview
view leads to theoretical issues-conceptions of the specific themes conversation.
investigated, as well as of the nature of the social world. Qualitative
methods are not merely some new, soft technology added to the
 12 InterViews
Interviewing as Research 13
Throughout this book I will attempt to spell out the implications
of these philosophical analyses for the understanding of interview levels of significance for acceptable evidence, and so forth.
research.I am not offering a comprehensive theory of the research Standard forms of tables and figures are also available for
interview. Rather, different philosophical conceptions of ,= j ' presenting the quantitative data.
conversation and its use asa research method will be presented. ;j The situation is quite the contrary for qualitative research in two
senses: First, there are few standard rules or common
,_·::J
They will provide theoretical contexts for conceptualizing the :‫ן‬
methodological and theo retical issues that arise when using ii, methodological conventions in qualitative research communities;
interview conversations asa and second, hardly any general texts have existed in which
research method and they will be addressed in Part II of this book, questions of method, such as those raised above, were discussed.
Conceptualizing the Research Interview. This second problem is being quickly resolved, and the task today is
rather to find one's way in the expanding literature on qualitative
research. An overview of literature pertaining to interviewing is
Methodological Issues given later, in Box 5.3 in Chapter 5.
The first issue-standard rules for qualitative interviewing-is
Research using interviews involves a deceptive simplicity; it is easy more complex. There is no common procedure for interview
to start interviewing without any advance preparation or reflection. research. Interview research is a craft that, if wel! carried out, can
The novice researcher may have a good idea, graba tape recorder, go become an art. The varieties of research interviews approach the
out and find some subjects, and start questioning them. The recorded spectrum of human conversations. The forms of interview analysis
interviews are transcribed and then-during analysis of the many can differ as widely as there are ways of reading a text. The
pages of transcripts-questions about the purpose and c‫ס‬ntent of the qualitative interview is sometimes called an unstructured or a
study start to come up. This kind of theoretical na'ivete and methodo nonstandardized interview. Because there are few prestructured or
logical spontaneity may in part be counterreactions to the abstract standardized procedures for conducting these forms of interview,
theories and formalized methodology taught in some social science many analyses of the methodical decisions have to be made on the
departments.
spot, during the interview. This requires a high level of skill in the
A novice researcher who is more methodologically ‫ס‬riented may interviewer, who needs to be knowledgeable about the interview
havea host of questions about the methodological and practical issues topic and to be familiar with the methodological options available,
in an interview project. For example: How doI begin an interview as well as having a grasp of the conceptual issues of producing
project? How many subjects will I need? Could the interviews harm knowledge through conversation.
the subjects? How can I avoid influencing the subjects with leading In this book I will attempt to steer between the free spontaneity
questions? CanI be sure that I get to know what the subjects really of a no-method approach and the rigid structures of an all-method
mean? 1s transcription of the interviews necessary? How doI analyze approach by focusing on the expertise, skills, and craftsmanship of
the interviews? Will the interpretations be subjective? How doI report the interview researcher. Some of the decisions that will have to be
my extensive interviews? made on the way through the stages of an interview inquiry, and the
If corresponding questions were raised about, for example, ques methodological options available, are outlined in Part III: The Seven
tionnaire surveys, they would be fairly easy to answer. Standard Stages of an Interview lnvestigation.
techniques exist for conducting surveys, and there area multitl}de of
textbooks that provide generally accepted rules and guidelines for
necessary sample sizes, formulation of questions and of response Overview of the Book
alternatives, coding of answers, statistical methods of analysis with
My aim in this book is to provide an overview and some guidelines
for doing interview research, and to present philosophical perspec-
130
InterViews The Interview Situation 131

interview situation is, the easier the later structuring of the interview TABLE 7.1 Research Questions and Interview Questions
by analysis will be.
In line with the principle of "pushing forward" in an interview proj Research Questions Interview Questions
ect, the later stages should be taken into account when preparing the
Do you find the subjects you learn
interview questions. If the method of analysis will involve categorizing
important?
the answers, then clarify continually during the interview the mean ings
of the answers with respect to the categories to be used later. If a
Which form of learning motivation .-----------Do you find learning
narrative analysis is to be employed, then give the subjects ample free interesting in itself?
dominates in high school?
dom and time to unfold their own stories, and follow up with ques tions
to clarify the main episodes and characters in their narratives. What is your main purpose
Dynamically, the questions should promote a positive interaction; in going t‫ ס‬high school?
keep the flow of the conversation going and motivate the subjects to
talk about their experiences and feelings. The questions should be easy Do the grades promote an external, Have you experienced a conflict
to understand, short, and devoid of academic language. instrumental motivation at the between what you wanted t‫ ס‬read
A good conceptual thematic research question need not be a good expense of an intrinsic interest (study) and what you had to read to
dynamic interview question. When preparing an interview it may be motivation for learning? -‫ו‬ obtain a good grade? \.'
useful to develop two guides, one with the project's main thematic Does learning for grades socialize Have you been rewarded with money ,,
,};
research questions and the other with the questions to be posed
t‫ ס‬working for wages? for good grades? ;1,.'

during 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 t‫ ס‬provide thematic
knowl edge and contribute dynamically t‫ ס‬a natural conversational
flow. The
abstract wording of the research questions would hardly lead t‫ס‬ did you feel then?" "What did you experience?" and the like. The
off-the-cuff answers from high school pupils. The academic research aim is to elicit spontaneous descriptions from the subjects rather
questions need to be translated into an easy-going, colloquial form to than t‫ ס‬get their own, more or less speculative explanations of why
generate spontaneous and rich descriptions. One research question something took place. "Why" questions about the subjects' own
can be investigated through several interview questions, thus obtain reasons for their actions may be imp‫ס‬rtant in their own right. Many
ing rich and varied information by approaching a t‫ס‬pic from several "why" questions in an interview may, however, lead to an
angles. And one interview question might provide answers t‫ ס‬several intellectualized interview, perhaps evoking memories of oral
research questions. examinations. Figuring out the reasons and explanations for why
The roles of the "why," "what," and "how" questions are different something happened is primarily 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 of1"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
 --·‫פ‬ 44

The Interview Situation 133

132 lnterViews

systematic form of questioning. The interviewer's questions should

be brief and simple. In the life world interviews described here, an Box 7.1
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 tel1 me about ... ?";
and the human interaction of the interview. Decisions about which "Do you remember an occasion when . . . ?"; "What hap
of 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 experienc 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 initial question.
who know what they are asking about, and why they are asking, will
B. Follow-Up Questions: The subjects' answers may be
attempt to clarify the meanings relevant to the project during the
extended through a curious, persistent, and critical
interview, obtaining a disambiguation of the statements made, and
attitude of the interviewer. This can be done through
thereby provide a more trustworthy point of departure for the later
analysis. Such a process of meaning clarification during the interview direct ques tioning of what has just been said. Also a
may also communicate to the subjects that the interviewer actually is mere nod, or "mm," or just a pause can indicate to the
listening to and interested in what they are saying. Ideally, the testing subject t‫ ס‬go on with the description. Repeating
of hypotheses and interpretations is finished by the end of the inter significant words of an answer can lead to further
view, with the interviewer's hypotheses having been verified or falsi elaborations. Interviewers can train themselves t‫ ס‬notice
"red lights" in the answers-such as unusual terms, strong
fied during the interview.
If an interview is to be reported, perhaps quoted at length, then intonations, and the like-which may signal a whole
attempt when feasible to make the social context explicit during the complex of topics important to the sub ject. The key issue
interview, and when possible the emotional t‫ס‬ne of the interacti‫ס‬n, here is the interviewer's ability to listen to what is
so that what is said is understandable for the readers, who have not important to the subjects, and at the same time to keep in
witnessed the live interview situation. Much is t‫ ס‬be learned from mind the research questions of an investigation.
journalists and novelists about conveying the setting and mood ofa C. Probing Questions: "Could you say something more
conversation. about that?"; "Can you give a more detailed description of
The focus here has been on the interviewer's questions. Actiye what happened?"; "Do you have further examples of this?"
listening-the interviewer's ability to listen actively to what the inter-. The interviewer here pursues the answers, probing their
viewee says-can be more important than the specific mastery of. content but without stating what dimensions are to be
questioning techniques. Therapists' education emphasizes their skills• taken into account.
(continued)
 .L ‫ כ‬J

134 InterViews The Interview Situation

Box 7.1 Continued

Box 7.1
Continued
conversation the subjects have 9.mple time to associate and
reflect and then break the silence themselves with signifi-
D. Specifying Questions: The interviewer may also
cant information.
follow up with more operationalizing questions, for
I. Interpreting Questions: The degree of interpretation may
instance: "What did you think then?"; "What did you
involve merely rephrasing an answer, for instance: "You
actually do when you felt a mounting anxiety?"; "I--
then mean that ... ?" or attempts at clarification: "Is it
Iow did your body react?" In an interview with many
correct that you feel that ... ?"; "Does the expres
general statements, the interviewer can attempt to get
sion ... cover what you have just expressed?" There may
more precise descriptions by asking "Have you also
also be more direct interpretations of what the pupil has
experienced this yourself?"
said: "Is it correct that your main anxiety about the grades
E. Direct Questions: The interviewer here directly concerns the reaction from your parents?" More
intro duces topics and dimensions, for example: "Have speculative questions can take the form of: "Do you see
you ever received money for good grades?"; "When any connections between the tw‫ ס‬situations of competing
you mention competition, do you then think of a with the other pupils for grades and the relation to
sportsmanlike or a destructive competition?" Such your·siblings at home?"
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 as listeners, furthering an empathic active listening to the many
them. nuances and layers of meanings of what their patients tel1 them. Freud
(1963) recommend,ed that therapists listen to their patients with an
F. Indirect Questions: Here the interviewer may apply "evenly hovering attention" to attend to the meaning of their accounts
projective questions such as "How do you believe other (Chapter 4, Psychoanalytical Knowledge Production).
pupils regard the competition for grades?" The answer The importance of listening also appears in phenomenological
may refer directly to the attitudes of others; it may also and hermeneutical approaches to interviewing (Chapter 3, sections
be an indirect statement of the pupil's own attitude, titled Hermeneutical Interpretation; and Phenomenological
which he or she does not state directly. Careful further Description). There is the phenomenological ideal of listening
questioning will be necessary here to interpret the without prejudice,
answer. allowing the interviewees' descriptions of their experiences unfold
G. Structuring Questions: The interviewer is without interruptions from interviewer questions and the presuppo
responsible for the course of the interview and should sitions these involve. A hermeneutical approach involves an interpre
indicate when a theme has been exhausted. The tative listening to the multiple horizons of meaning involved in the
interviewer may directly and politely break off long interviewees' statements, with an attention to the possibilities of
answers that are irrelevant to the topic of the contin11al reinterpretati‫ס‬ns within the hermeneutical circle of the
investigation, for example by saying, "I would now like interview. Attention will also be paid to the influ.ence of the presup
to introduce another topic: ... " positions of the subjects' answers as well as the presuppositions of
the
interviewer's questions.