Issues to Consider

As you prepare for your interview research, it’s important to be aware of certain issues that may complicate the interview process. In this section, we will go over some common problems that arise during interviews and describe the best ways to mitigate them. In order to avoid issues that may compromise your research process or data collection, you should enter the interview process with all the necessary preparation. This includes a background reading of the literature on your topic, the creation of an interview guide, familiarity with your recording equipment and interview venue, and the proper ethical approvals needed prior to beginning your interview process.

Common Issues in Interviews

Since research participants are not a controllable variable, there can be many differences in personality and interactions with individual participants. While personal differences are one reason why interview research is so important, it can also lead to a few problems when gathering data. One problem you might encounter is that the participant is anxious about the interview. If this is the case, spend extra time on easy introductory questions to help put them at ease before getting into the more open-ended questions. Similarly, the participant may be reluctant to speak. While you should allow for silence to a certain extent, you can also ask more probing questions to get them thinking and speaking.

On the flip side, the participant may ramble when they give responses and change the trajectory of the interview. In this case, you can gently interrupt them and use direct questions to get them back on track. This is one of many “probing” techniques. Some participants may even attempt to direct questions back at the researcher. While it is good to have an engaging conversation where the researcher plays a role, you are there to learn about the experiences of the participant and not to talk about your own experiences. Try to guide the conversation back to the participant and don’t disclose too much information about yourself.

Dealing with Sensitive Topics and Emotional Responses

Depending on your area of research, interviews have the potential to get into sensitive topics. Even if you don’t see a certain topic as being sensitive, participants may still exhibit emotional responses due to their own experience with the topic.

• If your participant becomes emotional, remember to stay calm and be empathetic. 
• Don’t ignore the emotion that is being displayed, but instead acknowledge the difficulty of the topic and invite a break in the interview. 
• Sometimes the participant may be able to handle their emotions themselves, but other times you may need to provide assistance. As the researcher, you can refer the participant to qualified counseling professional. Open Counseling provides a list of free telephone counseling hotlines in the US that may be helpful resources.
• If you feel as if your topic may cause participants to experience emotional distress during the interview, you can take a look at these distress protocols for a step-by-step description of how to handle emotional distress during interviews. 
• You should prepare a list of counseling resources, just in case. These should be local resources that the participant can easily contact.

However, as an interviewer, you shouldn’t try to proceed with sensitive topics unless the interviewee is willing to keep engaging. Giving the interviewee the opportunity not to respond to a question may be a good way to build rapport and avoid an early end to an interview. 

Getting Consistency from your Participants

Although your research participants are different individuals with unique stories to tell, keep in mind that you do need some semblance of consistency in responses to properly analyze the data. It’s important to achieve a balance between flexibility and consistency so that you elicit individual stories and are able to compare data points (May, 2013). In order to achieve the most consistency, you can move from general to more specific questions, ask follow-up questions, and even ask participants to compare themselves to a hypothetical other person (May, 2013). While you may have to change your approach slightly to fit the individuality of each participant, your general goal should be to create a consistent set of questions that will yield comparable responses.

Keeping your Biases out of the Interview

Social science researchers usually choose to pursue a topic that they are passionate about. Often, researchers may hold an opinion about the topic they are studying. If participants are aware that the researcher has a stake in a certain topic, they may be unlikely to provide their true feelings during interviews if those feelings are negative (Potter & Hepburn, 2012). While you don’t necessarily want to feign disinterest in the topic you are studying, you can make it apparent to participants that you are a non-judgmental figure in the interview process by providing non-verbal cues of engagement such as head nods and eye contact. Always approach your topic from a neutral position and with the expectation that your research will be a learning and adaptive experience.

Now that you are aware of some of the major issues that occur during the qualitative interviewing process, hopefully you will be able to successfully handle them if they come up during your own research. The number one step you can take to ensure that nothing goes awry during your interviews is to thoroughly prepare, both in reviewing background knowledge on your topic and planning for the interview itself.