Key Characteristics and Values of interviews

Question 1

Relational

Answer 1

a brief relationship between interviewer and interviewee, requiring trust and reciprocity, built via the full interview process

Question 2

Contextual

Answer 2

people are complex, and life happens amidst many overlapping complexities; aim for specificity avoid the dull general

Question 3

Non-evaluative

Answer 3

aim is to understand what people think, feel, perceive, and experience, not to judge; judging can cause loss of rich description

Question 4

Person centered

Answer 4

the person’s experience with the interview is more important than the data -> stay engaged and stay alert to signs of distress

Question 5

Temporal (time based)

Answer 5

researchers should be aware of teh temporal nature of a person’s development trajectory, that key moments in time can be greatly impactful to what is shared and how it’s shared

Question 6

Partial

Answer 6

researchers must understand that an interview is a brief interaction, and the data collected from the interview doesn’t encapsulate the entirety of that individual; it is a partial glimpse into their life

Question 7

Subjective

Answer 7

people live their lives through their own interpretation. Researchers should aim to understand people’s positions, views, adn experiences - to understand the individual’s subjectivity

Question 8

Non-neutral

Answer 8

interviews have layers of bias, assumption, politics (micro and macro), and other influences. The data received is mediated by numerous factors, found within both the interviewee and the interviewer