CHAPTER 7: GATHERING DATA IN

THE FIELD

By: Vivian D. Bergaño

GATHERING DATA IN THE FIELD

-gathering data is a discovery

process.
 Interviewing

 Observing

 Gathering aspects of material

culture
DECISIONS ABOUT GATHERING DATA
 Decisions may be forecast in the research design
but because flexibility and responsiveness are
integral to qualitative research
 Depth or Breadth
-Qualitative research is a process of
naturalistic inquiry that seeks in-depth understanding
of social phenomena within their natural setting. It
focuses on the "why" rather than the "what" of social
phenomena and relies on the direct experiences of
human beings as meaning-making agents in their
every day lives.
DECISIONS ABOUT GATHERING DATA
 Prefigured or open –
ended
-specify interview
questions or closely structured
observation. In contrast, it is
designed to encourage the
important observation or
interviewing categories to
emerge as the project unfolds
DECISIONS ABOUT GATHERING DATA
 Ebb and Flow
- a final decision is the mix of techniques.
This mix, too, is forecast in the study’s design and
may change over the course of the research.
SYSTEMATIC INQUIRY
 Systemic inquiry is inquiry, research, or
evaluation that is based on systems
concepts or systems principles. Systemic
inquiry covers a wide range of
methodologies, methods, and techniques
with a strong focus on the behaviors of
complex situations and the meanings we
draw from those situations.
1.Data about the research
2.Data about the process and
yourself
DATA ABOUT THE PROCESS AND YOURSELF

 What do you observe and why?

 What questions do you ask and why?
 What changes in the preliminary design do
you make and why?
 What preconception and prejudices are
shaping your project?
 What problems do you encounter?
 How does your membership in particular
social groups trace gender, primary language and
age shape the research?
INTERVIEW

 An interview is generally a qualitative

research technique which involves asking open-
ended questions to converse with respondents and
collect elicit data about a subject. The interviewer in
most cases is the subject matter expert who intends
to understand respondent opinions in a well-
planned and executed series of questions and
answers.
GENERIC IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWING
 Why interview?
- to understand individual perspective
- to probe or clarify
- to deepen understanding
- to generate rich, descriptive data
- to gather insights into participants thinking
- to learn more about the context
PHASE OF INTERVIEW
 Introduction
- overview and purpose
- informed consent
- tape recordings
- ownership of content
 Body of the interview

- themes or topic
- elaboration
-transition and summaries
PHASE OF INTERVIEW
 Summary and closure
- thanks
- keeping the door open
- review process for sharing transcript
TYPES OF INTERVIEWS
 Structured Interview
-The structured interview is by its very nature a very
rigid instrument, In the view of Gill et al., (2008) the
structured interviews is defined as a “verbally
administered questionnaire” which does not use
prompts and provides very little scope for follow up
questions to investigate responses which warrant
more depth and detail. The advantage of such an
approach is that this extra structure allows for the
interview to be administered quickly, though it is of
little use if ‘depth’ is required.
TYPES OF INTERVIEWS
 Unstructured Interview (In-depth
interview)
- Gill et al., (2008) view the
unstructured interview in a slightly
different light and argue that the
unstructured interview does “not reflect
any preconceived theories or idea and
are performed with little or no
organization”, thereby implying that the
process of the unstructured interview
can be a little bit chaotic with little
structure or planning.
TYPES OF INTERVIEWS
 Semi-structured Interview
-The final interview approach is
the semi-structured interview, Gill et
al., (2008) define this approach as an
interview that has several key
questions which help to define the
areas to be explored, but also allow
the researcher the flexibility to pursue
an idea in a response in more detail,
this is a medium between structured
and unstructured interviews.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
DIFFERENT TYPES OF INTERVIEW STRUCTURE
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
DIFFERENT TYPES OF INTERVIEW STRUCTURE
SOCIAL GROUP IDENTITIES

 Group identity refers to a

person's sense of belonging to a
particular group. At its core,
the concept describes social
influence within a group. This
influence may be based on
some social category or on
interpersonal interaction
among group members.
 SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY

In a very similar way we categorize people (including

ourselves) in order to understand the social environment.
In a very similar There will be an Once we have
way we emotional categorized ourselves as
categorize people significance to part of a group and have
identified with that
(including your group we then tend to
ourselves) in identification compare that group with
order to with a group, and other groups. If our self-
understand the your self-esteem esteem is to be
social will become maintained our group
environment. bound up with needs to compare
group favorably with other
groups.
membership.
 FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS
Follow-Up Questions, Table 1
Difference between structured, semi-structured, and unstructured interviews

Interview structure Purpose of research

Structured: questions are all agreed in To collect standard information about
advance; interviewers must stick informants
rigidly to a script
Semi-structured: main questions are To explore, probe, and substantiate
fixed, but interviewers are able to issues identified by the researcher on a
improvise follow-up questions and to particular topic or topics
explore meanings and areas of interest
that emerge

Unstructured: the interviewer may To generate an interview schedule for

have a list of broad topics or themes to subsequent semi-structured interviews;
explore or may even have none. The explore what matters to someone and
direction of the research is largely set how they articulate this; collect a life
by the informant history
TACTICS FOR ASKING GOOD FOLLOW-UP
QUESTIONS
1. Ask your original
question again, slightly
differently.
2. Connect their answers
to each other.
3. Ask about the
implications of their
answer.
SPECIALIZED FORMS OF IN DEPTH
INTERVIEWING

1. Ethnographic Interviewing
- is a type of qualitative research
that combines immersive observation
and directed one-on-one interviews. In
anthropology, ethnographic researchers
spend years living immersed in the
cultures they study in order to
understand behaviors and social rituals
of an entire culture. Ethnographic
interviewers apply this technique on a
micro level to understand the behaviors
and rituals of people interacting with
individual products.
SPECIALIZED FORMS OF IN DEPTH
INTERVIEWING

2. Phenomenological Interviewing
- the interview serves the
very specific purpose of exploring
and gathering experiential narrative
material, stories or anecdotes, that
may serve as a resource for
developing a richer and deeper
understanding of a human
phenomenon.
- focused life history
- details of experience
- reflection on the meaning
SPECIALIZED FORMS OF IN DEPTH
INTERVIEWING

3. Socio- communications interview

-
SPECIALIZED FORMS OF IN DEPTH
INTERVIEWING

4. Interviewing “Elites” or Experts

- It is an interview with any interviewee ...
who in terms of the current purposes of the
interviewer is given special, non-standardized
treatment.“ ie:
1. Stressing the interviewee‘s definition of the
situation
2. Encouraging the interviewee to structure the
account of the situation
3. Letting the interviewee introduce to a
considerable extent … his notion of what he
regards as relevant …
WHO IS THE ELITE?
 Relational terms: depends on the
images of the top of a society, a
network of persons capable of making
decisions or influencing processes
which are important for many (of the
society); e.g. decisions in companies
affecting jobs, processes of change with
regard to welfare, or interventions
which set up public agendas (Dexter:
„the influential, the prominent, the
well-informed“, 19) • Power, not
wealth, not birth, not education
WHO IS THE ELITE?
 A dynamic formation with heterogeneous parts,
changing compromises and different forms •
Areas of Research on Elites:
- Political and Community Elites
- Business Elites
- Professional Elites (Medicine, Law, Clergy)
- Mass Media Elites
WHO IS AN EXPERT?
 Different approaches
1. Voluntaristic: „Everybody is an expert for
his/her life.“ Æ What is special from a
methodological point of view? Could also be covered
by other forms of interviews; critical about power;
but how to deal with expert lay people differences?
2. Constructivist: expert role is ascribed by
researchers; experts have special knowledge;
experts are made by society (special knowledge and
specific functions) Æ close to societal ascription;
tendency not to reflect on this.
WHO IS AN EXPERT?
 3. Sociology of knowledge:
experts have special knowledge
which is related to their
professions (Sprondel); focus on
conscious knowledge (Schütz)
(not implicit or tacit
knowledge) Æ relation to
profession is problematic (e.g.
NGOs); disposability of
knowledge has not been
reflected
WHO IS AN EXPERT?
 Relational term, ascribed by the researcher
according to the leading research questions
 •An expert has special „expert knowledge“
which is related to a special professional field.
„E.k.“ includes expertise as well as implicit
/tacit knowledge about maxims of action,
rules of decision-making, collective
orientations and social patterns of
interpretation. „E.k.“ has at least partially
the chance to be realized in practice. If so
„e.k.“ structures the conditions of action for
others in a relevant way. Elites are a special
group of experts: the top (most powerful)
decision-makers.
WHAT MAKES EXPERTS RELEVANT FOR
RESEARCH?

 If the research question focuses on

technical or process related knowledge, this
will be the most important criterion for
recruitment.
 If the research interests focus on the
analysis of a specific configuration of
knowledge experts are interesting because
of the practical consequences of their
expert knowledge for others. Experts are in
this sense responsible for the planning,
implementation or controlling of a solution
(to a problem). They have privileged access
to decision-making processes and people.
WHAT IS AN EXPERT-INTERVIEW?
 An interaction between an interviewed person
and one or two interviewers
 Expert interviews are about a person’s special
knowledge and experiences which result from the
actions, responsibilities, obligations of the
specific functional status within an
organization/institution.
 Researchers are not interested in individual
biographies, not single cases, but in the expert as
a representative of an organization/institution,
insofar as he/she (re-)presents the (re)solutions or
decision-making structures.
FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEW
 Focus group interview is a tool for
qualitative market research where a
group of people are selected and asked
about their opinion or perceptions about
a particular topic. The environment is
interactive where the participants are
free to discuss with each other.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A FOCUS GROUP
INTERVIEW:

 There is a trained moderator and a

small group of respondents
 Participants are normally similar in
terms or either demographics or
psychographics or buying
behavior/attitudes
 Participants are unknown to each
other
ADVANTAGES OF FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEW
IN MARKETING:

 It is a tool for acquiring feedback about

products or topics
 It provides information about various aspects
of a product that is yet to be launched in the
market so that the product can be modified
 It gives insight into why certain opinions or
perceptions are the way they are
 Easy to conduct, low cost and less time to get
results
 Flexible; also since the moderator and the
respondents are in direct communication,
better insights
DISADVANTAGES OF FOCUS GROUP
INTERVIEWS:
 The conclusions from one group cannot be
applied to other groups
 Valid information about the individuals
cannot be obtained
 Things change before and after the discussion,
and this cannot be accounted for
 Data analysis is difficult because of the
possibility of randomness or chaos in the
discussion
 The moderator should be properly trained,
otherwise the results may not be what was
intended
 Inability to generalize the results to a larger
population
 No control over the group and what
information will be produced
FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWS ARE
CONDUCTED IN THREE PHASES:

 Conceptualization: Determination of
the purpose, respondent set, plan,
etc.

 Interview: Developing questions

based on the participant group

 Analysis and Reporting: Analyse the

results from the discussion and
document them, for interpretation
purposes
WHEN AND WHY ARE FOCUS GROUPS
USED?

 When there is a new product to be

launched
 When depth of opinion is more
important
 When a written survey cannot bring
out the necessary insights
 When a larger amount of information
is needed in a short span of time
 When everyday language and culture
of common people is of interest and
this cannot be explored by
professionals
INTERVIEWING CHILDREN