In semi-structured interviewing, What are some ways that an interviewer can design research collection to avoid biasing results ?
In chapter 6 the book stated that Interviews are the most popular measure of collecting data with regards to qualitative research. The most common interview approach is semi-structured in which the interviewer formulates an interview guide prior to interviewing a participant. Thinking through the questions wording carefully in advance allows the researchers to consider if the questions are complete or if it is bias or leading .
The interviewer may also follow the the flow of the interview and formulate questions based on the flow of the conversation. Interviewers can formulate more questions from some of the answers a participate gives from other questions. An Interviewer can also reword questions if a participant doesn’t fully understand the initial question or ask additional follow up questions.
Researchers should also do an additional follow up with participates after an initial interview to make sure they accurately interpreted all of the data that was collected and assumptions and conclusions are valid. The researcher also needs make sure measures were validated and random sampling was used to avoid bias.
Daryl,
I completely agree. I think follow up is necessary after an interview. Especially if you get the same answers. Sometimes in an interview, an participant might not fully understand but not want to look confused and will answer the same as the others. I think making sure each participant understands the questions and what their answering fully. Great topic!
Hey Daryl!
Great post and I completely agree. I think another way that the researcher could minimize bias as well would be to have a self reflection period before conducting interviews to try and recognize what biases they may have. This would help to mitigate any biases they might impose on the conversation subconsciously.
Hi Daryl,
Another possible method might be to use contradicting approaches. For each question you are wanting information about, create one question designed for a positively framed response, another for a negative one.
For example, for someone with social anxiety, if you wish to find the point at which the size of a group becomes too large for comfort, you could ask one question directed at increasing a group size until they state an issue with the size, in another, you can start with a large crowd and see how much reduction would it take to be get comfortable.
As an example, would you be comfortable in a group of five people? If so, would another group of five joining you be okay, or would it cross a line? And counter that with, would you be comfortable in a group of 20 people? If not, if five were to leave would you then be able to be comfortable? I know from my personal experience that if I start with a small group, I am more adverse to adding people that when starting with a large group and reducing it. One is a matter of my anxiety increasing, which I am more sensitive to, and the other is reducing my anxiety, which would leave me more comfortable with a larger group. Perspective on either the increase of discomfort or the decrease can lead to very different results. So I would try to find a frame to work within to establish outer boundaries, instead of assuming a minimum or a maximum was an absolute.