LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Identify the primary aim of in-depth interviews.
- Describe what makes qualitative interview techniques unique.
- Define the term interview guide and describe how to construct an interview guide.
- Outline the guidelines for constructing good qualitative interview questions.
- Define the term focus group and identify one benefit of focus groups.
- Identify and describe the various stages of qualitative interview data analysis.
- Identify the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative interviews.
Qualitative interviews are sometimes called intensive or in-depth interviews. These interviews are semi-structured; the researcher has a particular topic about which he or she would like to hear from the respondent, but questions are open ended and may not be asked in exactly the same way or in exactly the same order to each and every respondent. In in-depth interviews, the primary aim is to hear from respondents about what they think is important about the topic at hand and to hear it in their own words. In this section, we’ll take a look at how to conduct interviews that are specifically qualitative in nature, analyze qualitative interview data, and use some of the strengths and weaknesses of this method. In "Issues to Consider for All Interview Types", we return to several considerations that are relevant to both qualitative and quantitative interviewing.
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