Interviews in the social sciences

Abstract

In-depth interviews are a versatile form of qualitative data collection used by researchers across the social sciences. They allow individuals to explain, in their own words, how they understand and interpret the world around them. Interviews represent a deceptively familiar social encounter in which people interact by asking and answering questions. They are, however, a very particular type of conversation, guided by the researcher and used for specific ends. This dynamic introduces a range of methodological, analytical and ethical challenges, for novice researchers in particular. In this Primer, we focus on the stages and challenges of designing and conducting an interview project and analysing data from it, as well as strategies to overcome such challenges.

Improving Student Learning Outcomes of Cooperative Social Studies Learning Model Type of Think Pair Share (TPS) Class IV SD

“…The interview technique is a systematic way to obtain information in the form of oral statements about an object or event in the past, present, and will come. Interview Type Broadly speaking (Knott et al, 2022), the types of interviews are divided (Alonso & Moscoso, 2017) into (1) interviews planned and (2) incidental interviews. Planned interviews were carried out to obtain information materials by pre-planned theme.…”

Inclusion of ecosystem services in the management of municipal natural open space systems

“…A high number of references to ecosystem services, whether implicit or explicit, was not critical in the analyses of the decision- For the analysis of the interviews, a manual discourse analysis was carried out, which allows further meaning to be reconstructed within interview responses and to infer the value attached to natural open space in terms of the ecosystem services it provides (Babbie & Mouton, 2001;Wood & Kroger, 2000). The coding analysis, which facilitates the conversion of the data to analytic insights, was undertaken through a series of iterative steps to address the study objectives (Knott et al, 2022). Based on the transcriptions of the interview recordings and notes taken during the interviews, broad (descriptive) coding categories were initially defined according to the research questions posed to the officials (Appendix S3; Fischer & Young, 2007;Knott et al, 2022).…”

“…Based on the transcriptions of the interview recordings and notes taken during the interviews, broad (descriptive) coding categories were initially defined according to the research questions posed to the officials (Appendix S3; Fischer & Young, 2007;Knott et al, 2022). The descriptive (question-related) codes were further modified and refined (Knott et al, 2022) were then further classified into the above final categories. Together, the results (from both the municipal decision-support documents and the interviews) were considered in relation to understanding the extent to which ecosystem services provided by the MOSS are considered in municipal planning and decision making, and challenges and opportunities which can impede or advance the mainstreaming of ecosystem services into municipal planning, and potential strategies therefore were identified from the data (Table 1).…”

A longitudinal study of conversational remembering in WhatsApp group messages before, during, and after COVID-19 lockdown

“…These studies relied to a much lesser degree on the use of interviews or focus group methodologies. Interviews and focus groups may resemble ordinary conversations but still represent artificial forms of data collection where a researcher takes participants out of their daily lives and asks them to reflect on their experiences (Knott et al 2022). By situating research in the often intricate and dynamic settings of everyday life, the study of conversational remembering in the wild offered a practical and contextually grounded approach that engages with people's practices within their natural environments.…”