Interview Techniques Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

An interview is the act of posing questions to a respondent to obtain information. In political science, interview responses are typically recorded and then analyzed for research purposes. Interviews are used to fulfill a variety of methodological needs and may be the most applicable design to gauge a respondent’s attitudes about a topic(s), obtain factual information about the individual, or ask respondents to self-report their behaviors or habits. Interviews not only can obtain qualitative data on political phenomena but also help to acquire firsthand, factual, and in-depth knowledge about entities, organizations, and social movements from those associated with the item in question.

Although an interview can assume one of several forms, an interview by its nature is predicated on interaction between the interviewer(s) and the respondent(s)/interviewee(s). As such, an interview is generally conducted in one of two ways: either face to face (either in person or, in some cases, via electronic teleconferencing) or over the telephone. The method chosen for the interview is contingent on the nature of the research, cost, and time frame.

A researcher may opt to conduct face-to-face interviews with respondents, although this method can be costly in terms of both time and money and is thus frequently reserved primarily for smaller sample populations. For larger samples, a researcher may opt to conduct interviews over the telephone or administer a questionnaire. A telephone interview is conducted by an interviewer or a series of interviewers who may or may not include the researcher him or herself or the principal investigator of the study. A telephone interview is typically less expensive than a face-to-face method and is particularly useful for larger sample populations and when time and cost limitations may preclude the face-to-face method.

Depending on the nature of the interview’s response format, an interview can be considered either qualitative or quantitative research. Less-structured interviews are frequently qualitative, particularly when the research objective is exploratory in nature, as they generally provide respondents an opportunity to answer open-ended questions in as much detail as possible and do not constrain responses. However, highly structured interviews in which the interviewer is administering a standardized questionnaire (particularly those with a higher volume of closed-ended responses) are more quantitative, especially when the researcher plans to code and statistically analyze the data obtained. In this sense, the interview technique may be qualitative in nature but useful in quantitative analyses.

Interview Structure

There are multiple types of interviews ranging from highly structured for mats using predetermined questions and/or questionnaires to relatively spontaneous, unstructured formats that are more conversational in style and fluid in nature. Some research designs may incorporate both structured and unstructured interview for mats, and some may employ a semi structured hybrid of the two. The latter is known as a focused interview.

A highly structured interview typically involves the administration of a predetermined, standardized set of questions, a questionnaire. This particular structure can be beneficial when a researcher is dealing with large sample sizes and will be comparing the data either across the sample or across other populations. The standardized approach also maximizes the reliability and validity of the measure but is frequently an impediment to more exploratory research as questionnaires typically constrain responses and do not allow an interviewer to stray from the script to probe for more information or clarify responses. Highly structured interviews may also prove to be impossible for some types of research, particularly if the researcher lacks the knowledge or understanding necessary to construct a viable and comprehensive questionnaire or when the nature of the research necessitates individual interpretation or in-depth exploration of a topic.

Unstructured interviews provide the interviewer with the capacity to control and guide the direction of an interview. They also allow an interviewer to probe responses and accommodate for the intangible elements that may affect responses. These intangibles include the intensity with which a respondent may respond to an opinion question, the respondent’s mood during the interview, and response latency, the amount of time it takes a respondent to answer a question, which can be important when analyzing the level of truthfulness in a respondent’s answer.

In a semi structured/focused interview, the interviewer may prepare a list of questions or topics that ought to be covered in the interview, and he or she may delineate in what order these items should be addressed. Although a researcher may use this as a guide, a semistructured focused interview affords the researcher significant flexibility in terms of how the interview will be conducted and allows for additional questions to be asked if certain responses require clarification or exploration. This method is particularly useful when interviewing elites.

The chosen structure of the interview is typically contingent on the nature of the research as well as practical limitations (i.e., cost and time frame). Generally speaking, the more exploratory the research, the less structured the interview will be. In other words, when the research goal is exploratory in nature, the researcher will wield less control over the topic and direction of the interview as the research objective is more to gauge the respondent’s interpretation and underlying attitudes, which may be lost in a more structured setting.

Potential Methodological Pitfalls Of Interviews

Interviews, particularly those that are less structured in design, are fraught with potential methodological pitfalls. The wording of the questions and/or the order in which they are asked, for instance, may affect respondents’ answers to those questions. The very presence of an interviewer may inspire a certain type of response, generally one that is more prosocial in nature, particularly in interviews examining more controversial topics. The gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, and age of the interviewer may affect responses, particularly in face-to-face interviews. The actions of the interviewer may also influence respondents. Indeed, the very analysis and interpretation of the data may be affected by the interviewer’s own preexisting biases or knowledge of the topic being researched. In this sense, interview data are frequently not especially useful when reliability and validity of measurement instruments is essential to the research, except when employing highly structured, standardized techniques.

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