Qualitative Research in Practice : Stories From the Field - Blogs Unpad

In-depth interviewing
data sought, and pragmatic concerns about time and other
resources.
In most cases an interview guide is recommended. This could be
as simple as a list of topics to be covered during the interview. It
does not necessarily commit the interviewer to covering those topics
in any particular order.
Effective in-depth interviewing requires considerable skill, and
people with formal training and experience in communication and
counselling skills start with something of an advantage. While there
are similarities in the communication skills used in research interviewing
and clinical interviewing, the purposes of the two forms
are, however, different and should not be confused. It is important
that interviewers understand their role as researcher and do not slip
into counselling mode. Research interviewing can certainly have
therapeutic effects, but it may be precisely because it is not therapy
that this is possible. Research interviews carry no expectation that
the interviewee will change their lives—we are, after all, interested
in them as they are. In-depth interviews may also be longer and less
focused than interviews in therapy contexts. Paradoxically, this
may afford interviewees a greater capacity to explore their experiences
than is possible in some therapy contexts. One participant in
Yvonne Darlington’s sexual abuse study said:
In the interview I could almost at times just see myself again and
actually talking about things, I was feeling that little girl again ...and
that has not happened to me. I’ve had some memories but no feelings.
To get the two together was a new experience ...I think maybe I just
let go of something ...I’ve been in counselling and I’ve been in
support groups where a lot of this does get talked about and I’ve
never had that same feeling. So I’d say it would be the fact that it
was an interview ...I definitely didn’t feel under pressure here but
sometimes in counselling or support group I feel under pressure so
I tend to get defensive and back off (Darlington, 1993, p. 111).
In any interview, different types of questions will elicit different
types of responses. Descriptive questions about what and how
things happened are particularly useful in encouraging people to
describe their experiences. ‘Why’ questions, on the other hand, may
seem interrogatory and can lead to dead ends. Interestingly, ‘what’
and ‘how’ sometimes implicitly contain elements of ‘why’. They are
not only less likely to be experienced as intrusive but may yield
explanations anyway. On this point, Becker says:
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