Qualitative interviews in psychology: problems and possibilities

By Jonathan Potter, A. Hepburn. 2005

903 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper distinguishes a series of contingent and necessary problems that arise in the design, conduct, analysis and reporting of open-ended or conversational qualitative interviews in psychological research. Contingent problems in the reporting of interviews include: (1) the deletion of the interviewer; (2) the conventions for representing interaction; (3) the specificity of analytic observations; (4) the unavailability of the interview set-up; (5) the failure to consider interviews as interaction. Necessary problems include: (1) the flooding of the interview with social science agendas and categories; (2) the complex and varying footing positions of interviewer and interviewee; (3) the orientations to stake and interest on the part of the interviewer and interviewee; (4) the reproduction of cognitivism. The paper ends with two kinds of recommendation. First, we argue that interviews should be studied as an interactional object, and that study should feed back into the design, conduct and analysis of interviews so that they can be used more effectively in cases where they are the most appropriate data gathering tools. Second, these problems with open-ended interviews highlight a range of specific virtues of basing analysis on naturalistic materials. Reasons for moving away from the use of interviews for many research questions are described.

Subfields: Language and Linguistics, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4304c44bb7c23e2df29b693cc7525649de0ed85a

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Citations in the corpus

Comparing focus groups and individual interviews: findings from a randomized study (2017, methodology): “…research around qualitative methods focuses on the formation and conduct of focus groups and interviews (Agar & MacDonald, 1995; Carey, 1995; Duggleby, 2005; Kaplowitz & Hoehn, 2001; Nunkoosing, 2005; Potter & Hepburn, 2005), addressing questions about how to generate high-quality data.”
Life “on holiday”?: In defense of big stories (2006, background): “Now, the more recent critique of big stories, offered by Bamberg and others (see especially Potter & Hepburn, 2005), has less to do with issues of truth and falsity than it does with issues of proximity and distance; small stories are closer to the action and enmeshed within the interactive,…”
Qualitative research in six sport and exercise psychology journals between 2010 and 2017: An updated and expanded review of trends and interpretations (2019, background): “…consideration of paradigmatic position (e.g. ontology and epistemology; to be discussed shortly) and what interviews “do” (e.g. create power differences and unintended consequences for researchers and participants, generate limited forms of representation) (Kvale, 2006; Potter & Hepburn, 2005).”
Psychological states underlying excellent performance in professional golfers: "Letting it happen" vs. "making it happen" (2016, positive): “Further, the interviewer adopted a conversational and open-ended approach in order to develop rapport and allow new themes and discussions to emerge (cf. Potter & Hepburn, 2005).”
‘What it takes’: perceptions of mental toughness and its development in an English Premier League Soccer Academy (2014, background): “Interviews, therefore, whilst following a general guide, were conversational, active, and open-ended (Potter and Hepburn 2005).”
“Beyond words”: a researcher’s guide to using photo elicitation in psychology (2017, background): “Some scholars have suggested that interviews are over-utilised in psychology, which has largely been attributed to their perceived simplicity relative to other qualitative approaches such as analysing naturalistic records (Potter and Hepburn, 2005).”
Psychological States Underlying Excellent Performance in Sport: Toward an Integrated Model of Flow and Clutch States (2017, methodology): “Although following a general guide, a conversational and open-ended approach was adopted by the interviewer (first author) to develop rapport and allow new themes to emerge (Potter & Hepburn, 2005).”
The relationship between motivations of architectural designers and environmentally sustainable construction design (2016, neutral): “A priori definitions by the researcher are avoided (Willig, 2001); the researcher must interpret the data and the lack of researcher subjectivity is acknowledged (Potter and Hepburn, 2005).”
Interviewing as a Data Collection Method: A Critical Review (2014, background): “Hence, this lets us question the appropriateness of using interviews as the only transparent means of eliciting data that would inform understandings of the meanings interviewees make of their lived experiences (Potter and Hepburn, 2005).”