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"i

I t- I" ~ f :"f.;,' (~;])i ; " Thequalitat ive research interview attempts to unders tand the world from the

[ - b i N \ - i f 'Gt view ~~-~ j~~1~B~ ~;~~~yi ;~1~~~~i?1~ . !b~_!?i~~_r~~l j, ,~ f ._I, their l ived world prior to scientific explanations, Interview research 'rnay toi ' ;~~;~pp~';-~"~i-;pi~;-~-~tr~i~h;i~;; ;d t; ;k :- itseems quite easy to obtain a'I : sound recorder and ask someone to talk about his or her experiences regarding: I ~ some inte resting topic or to encourage a person to te ll his or her life story. Itseems so s imple to interview, but i t is hard to do well . Research interviewing

, involve' a cultivation of ODnvmatlon,Jsiciii;l;;;'-';;;;;" adult hum", beingsI " " . . ~ . ~ . ' . " " , r ' . ' , , " . ' : " . , , already possess by virtue of being able to ask questions.:. There are multiple forms of conversations-s-in everyday life, in literature,

and in the professions. Everyday conversations may range from chat and small

III

I I I I I I I 1 1 1 J l ll ~ thod , and outl ine epistemological posi tions adequate to theI III 1\ II!If I piqtlu ied by interviews, such as phenomenological, hermeneutical,III I ilt I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ' 1 hit sophies, as well as narrative and discursive approac~es. And'I 1 1 1 1 1 1 lv Il r Interview research as a social pract ice, with an emphasis on theIlhll tllll ptwtflor l"cerview practice and the embeddedness of interview researchH I II MW ItJpolllh:l:ll context.

.. ;

.",;~

~ ONE"

INTRODUCTION TOINTERVIEW RESEARCH

Ihis chapter, we address research interviews as conversations and presentdif ferent examples of interview sequences . We briefly outline a his tory ofinterviewing and depict a current interview society. We go on to outl ine themethodological and ethical issues in using conversations for research pur-poses, and conclude the chapter with an overview of the book.

CONVERSATION AS RESEARCH

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I n l l e to exchanges of news, disputes , or formal negotiations to deep personal1111r c h ang e s. W i t h in literature, the varieties of conversation are found in dra-' 1 1 1 1 novels and short stories, which rna)' contain longer or sh9r t~~..P.! ' l .~ .~cegS;_LQL", nll~ersatio~s .-P~;fessional cony~~; ; t i~ ;~i~; l~d~ ' . J_ ; l l I l~a l is! icc! r : t ,~ tyi~ .~~,J~S! l

, _~ w __ ' "~ ___ _ ~ "" _ _~ _" . _ IIIcrrogations, academic oral exal~lina!i_Qns,."philosophicaLdialQg~~~"_r.s1!&gusI l I u f ~ i J ~ i ~ J 1 _ ; ,herapeutic sessions, and=-as discussed here------qu~l,i.t_~,t.i~~E~!earch11\( e rv ie w s . These conversational ge nr es -~ _ ~ ~ _ . ~ l f f ~ [ ~ ~ ! _ ~ ~ < ; ~ _~~.~::_c.hni_9-1!_es.

Dif-ier~~t f~~;~- ~f i n t e r~ i ~- : '; : ;~ ;~~- ; ; different purposes: Journalistic inter-V I'WS are means of recording and reporting important events in society, thera-III'litic interviews seek to improve debilitating situations in people's lives, and -: 'f_,'IIIearch interviews have the purpose of producing knowledge. However, there - 'J.-j'.11 not necessarily hard-and-fast distinctions between these interview forms,111I'ualitative research interviews sometimes come close to journalistic inter-ew s (and vice versa), an d some qualitative researchers depict their interview

l'lllctice as a therapeutic process of instigating changes in people's lives.The research interview is based on the conversat ions of daily l ife and is a

II1IIfcssionalconversation; it is an_inter-view, where knowledge is constructed (1 / \ \ '- -02__III th e inter-action between the interviewer and the interviewee. An interview v' -P.\ ,

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rrr:

Interviewer: YOLI mentioned p reviou sly someth ing about grades, wouldyou please try and say more about that?

Pupil: Grades are often unjust, because very often-very often-theyare only a measur e o f how much you talk, and how much youagree with the teachers opinion. For ins tance, I may s ta te anopinion on the basi s of a t est ed ideology, and which i s aga instthe teacher 'S ideology. The teacher wil l then, because i t i sh i sid eology, which he find s to be the best one, o f c ou rse say thatwhat he is saying is right and what I am saying is wrong .

Interviewer: How sha l l l d tha t inf luence the grade?Pupil: Well, b ecause he would then t h i nk that I was an id iot, who

comes up with the wrong- answers .In terviewer: I s t his not on ly your po stu late?Pupil: No! there a re lot s of concrete examples.

J

The interview sequence in Box L 1 is t aken from a study led by the firstauthor on the effects of grading in Danish high schools; the interview was con-ducted by a student taking part in th e r esear ch p roject (Kvale, 1980); the over-all design of the study is presented later (in Box 6.4). We see how the pupil, ina response to an open question from the interviewer, introduces an importantdimension of his experience of grades~they are unfair-a-and then sponta-neously p rov ides several reason s why they are un fair. The in terviewer followsup on the answers, asks for specifics, and tests the strength of the pupil's beliefthrough counter-questions in which he doubts what the pupil tells him. Thisrath er straigh tforwa rd questioning contr asts with th e r eciprocity of everyday

It's being encouraged more and more. They've beenthrough all the schools. They want you working as a team.

Interviewer: Do you th i nk that's good?

Teacher:

Teacher: So long as they allow for the creativity of the individual tomodify the program. But if they want everything lock-stepped, identical-no, I think it would be disastrous,because you're going to get some people that won't think atall, that just sit back and coast on somebody else's brains,and I don 't fee! that's.good for anybody.

I nterviewer: Do you feel you're given that space at the moment?Teacher: With [my teaching partner] I am . I know with some others

here, Iw ouldn't [bel ... I'd go crazy.Interviewer: How would that be ... ?Teacher: Basically contr olled: They would wan-fir st of all it would

be their ideas. And I would have to fit into their teachingstyle, and itwould have to {it i nto their time slo t. And J don'tthink anybody shou ld have to work like that.

SOURCE: C ha ng ing T eac her s, C han ging T im es : T ea ch ers ' W ork an d C ulture in aPostmodem Age (pp. 11:8-179), by A. Hargreaves, 1994, New York: Teachers CollegePress.

The teacher quoted in Box 1.2 is rather critical of the school administra-

, ? a v - Q . ~conversations. The interviewer is cast in a power position and sets the stage bydeterm ining the topic of th e interchange; it is th e in lei'v iewer w h o 7 s k s " and the f c t ) \ h o - - - \in ter viewee who answers. The researcher doe~ not con tribu t.e w~ th h is position i~on the issue, nor does the pupil ask the interviewer about hIS VIew of grades._ ' 10' \-- r . ' I ~The next sequence is from Hargreaves's interview study of the work situ- C ""'- (lY'II'IZ-~ation of Canadian teachers and their experience of the effects of changes of i ) - - - ' I tA, \ C ,school leadership in a postmodern SOCIety. One key theme that emerged was 0 ~ - + . Hthe tension between individualism and collegiality. , 'r ~ 1 0

OsL:fC,. .e_tion's requirements of teamwork, which he regards as a control mechanism,(_b60 ~ l-0~teracting creative teaching by the indiv idual teacher s. The in terviewer does\ n g t merely register the teacher's opinions, but also asks for elaborations and~re.~es the teacher's arguments for why he does ,not think that anybody should

v h ave to participate in the kind of teamwork he is subjected to. Hargreaves inter-preted this and other interview sequences on teamwork as expressions of a"contrived collegiality" (see Chapter 14, in the section "Interview Analysis asTheoretical Reading").

The next sequence is from a large interview project on the conditions ofdownt rodden youth by the French soc io logi st P ie rre Bourdieu and his col leagues.

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-[Pierrre Bourdieu as the interviewer} You were- telling me that it wasn'tm uch fun around here, w hy? W hat is it, y ou r j ob , y ou r l ei su re t im e?Francois : Yeah,both work and le isure. Even in ti l isneighbourhood the~e

is nothing much.Ali: There's no leisure activities.Francois: We have this leisure center but the neighbors complain,Ali: They're flat very nice, that's true.- Why do they complain, because they ...Francois: Because we hang around the public garden, and in the

evening here is nothing in our project, we have to go i.n thehallways when it's too cold outside. And when there's toomuch noise and stuf f, they cal l the cops.

( .J- You are not telling me the whole s to ry . .Ali: We are always getting assaulted in our project; just yesterday

we got some tear gas thrown at us , reall y, by a guy in all apart -ment. A bodybui lder. A pumper.

- Why, what were you doing! bugging him?Francois: No, when we are in the ent ryway hel ives just above, when we

are in the hall we talk , somet imes we shout.- But that took place during the daytime, at night?Francois: No, just in the evening.- L a te ?Francois: Late, around 10, 1 -1 o'clock.- Wel l you knoll\!, he's go t the right to snooze. The tear gas is a bi t much bu tjf you got on his nerves all night, Y9u can see where he's coming from,right? '

t,~i! : ' r~tt ~ is not a neutral questioner, but expresses his own attitudes and feelings toward

f l~CDAtedirthe situation of the young men, and also confronts their accounts critically.~ These three interviews address important issues of the subjects' life worlds,;i . such as grades in school, changes in school leadership, and deplorable suburbanI ' . living conditions. The interviewers are not merely "tape recording sociologies,".~. .. to use Bourdieu's expression, but actively-following up on the subject s' answers,

f IClo.~lr-. --j seeking to clarify and extend the interview statements. This involves pos ingI(~"cAk~\O ~:~:~:~~~:i::; ;:a~:~;;.i~:~eP~~~a;i~: ~ee~~~::~st~~~~:~so:e:~~::~:=~!ni~' I, ;I' .~; t ~ . ~ji : i ~ .

Ali: Yeah, but hecould just come down and say. . ..- Yes, sure, he could come down and merely say "go somewhere else" .Ali: Instead of tear gas.SOURCE: Excerpts f rom Pi'er re Bourdieu et at, Translated by Priscilla ParkhurstPerguson and Others. "The Weight of the World" 1999 Polity Pressfor translation;1993 Editions du Seuil .

The sequence in Box 1.3is taken from one of the many interviews repor tedat length by Bourdieu and his colleagues in thei r book on th~ situat ion of theimmigrants and the poor in France (Bcurdieu et al. , 1999, pp. 64--65) . The twoyoung men in the interview are living in a suburban housing project in theenorthofFrance under dismal living conditions. A decade later, in late 2005, there werelarge uprisings among the youth in these French suburbs, protesting against theirmiserable situation and the harassment by the police. In this interview, Bourdieu

challenging the young men's presentations of themselves as innocent victims ofharassment in their French suburb. We return to the social interaction and the. .knowledge production in these interview sequences throughout the book.]J\fTERVIEW RESEARCH INHISTORY AND IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCESConversat ions are an old way of obtaining systematic knowledge. In ancientGreece Thucydides interviewed par ticipants from the Peloponnesian Wars towrite the history of the wars, and Socrates s!eve19pec!_pj1j16sollhicalkncwledge,through dialogues with his Sophist opponents. The term interview, however, is-ohath~r,'~ITgr:,()rrgiI]; ' ~ : : c a i l l e j ! l J Q u s ~ i D t r ; J l f u ~ S ~ ~ _ ~ ~ ~ ; ; :- . . - ' . .->.,--.

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II I 1 1 1 1 I 1 1 w , , , , ' / l l lL lI ' o d i n the middle of the 19th century.III~ 1 1 1 1 1 ' 1 1 ddlned by the Oxford English Dictionary

1 1 1 1 ) ' , I'li IIII' l)ul'pose of a formal conference, between1 1 1 1 1 1 I I 1 ~ , 1 1 1 1 1 , meone from whom hewishes to obtain.II I II 1 1 11 1 11 " (MllIl'iiY, Bradley, C raigie, & Onions, 1961). The

1 1 1 1 1 " " " 1 I,d th e j urnal ist inte rv iew has been given to1 ,1 1 11 1' Nov York !-ferald Tribune. His interview with, " 1 1 1 Il f rho Mormon Church, was published i n 18591 1 1 1 1 Hlllh the us e of i nterviews in newspapers quicklyd'lf) Ionuoversial, as the following quotes testify.

,I,I WI II III r l) nt ur e o f' the new [journalism]-it is degrading'I " 1 . t" 1 1 11 '1 ' ,1 ' 0 th interviewee, and tiresome to the public.

-Le F igaro, 18861 1 , 1 1 1 1 hl ll ll viowed? Because i t is immoral! It is a crime, jus t

" 1 ' 1 1 1 I , , 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ' 1 1 c a ga in s t m y person, a s a n a ss au lt , a nd jLlst as"' III 1 " 1 1 1 1 ' , 1 1 1 1 " ' 1 1 1 , II Is owardly and vile. No respectable person

II I I I II 1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 ' " Hive it,-Rudyard Kipling, 1892

II llil" II WI rI rI"I'~ I"IV' the advantage of self-revelation. I must artic-III, 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ' 1 1 1 1 1 I I n A Y I arn something about mysel f. It makes me

u J II l~ 1 1 1 1 , 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ' oIWJI of my own unhappness.-Tennessee Williams, ca. 1982

II " J I IIH' I'I'UHIIIIIIf(jul, r Interviews: An Anthology From J 859 to the Presentdill II Ily I ' , 1 \ 1 1 " ' 1 1 1 ' , 1093, London: Penguin.

I II I II 1 40 I < ' 1 , the interview has not always been taken for granted1 1 1 1 ' 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 IWItI III HOl'HI practice. In these statements from the early years

I I 1 '1 1 11 1 1 til I I I , 1,II('f'viL-W8 are perceived as a somewhat "dangerous" practiceI I I I I 1 1 1 1 " ~ I I I J t . 1 1 inunorality and unhappiness. This attitude to being inter-

I 'I iI. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I.~1'lIlhm sharply with the current age, when many people-atI I I III ilil WrNI!,IIIwlllid-are more than willing to be interviewed for news-I' 'I" I " I II, ,) 1 11 11 11 11 1. tllik shows, and so on .

. " " ~ ' _ ."" _~ _ ;Qualitative interviews were used to varying extents in the social sciences

t,>llghout the 20th century. Although systematic literature on research inter--'iL=

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l l'Ht:.K V11:.W:S . . . . . Introduction to Interview ResearchlV Exper iments on the effects of changes in i llumination on production at

the Hawthorne Chicago plant of Western Electrical Company in the 1920s hadled to unexpected results-work output and worker morale improved when thelighting of the production rooms was increased, as well as when it wasdecreased. These unforeseen findings were fol lowed up in what may havebeen the largest interview inquiry ever conducted. More than 21,000 workerswere each interviewed for over an hour and the interview transcripts analyzedquali tatively and quantitat ively. The Hawthorne s tudies were ini tiated byMayo and carried out by Roetblisberger and Dickson (1939): The researcherswere inspi red by therapeuti c interviews and they mention the influence ofIanet, Freud, Jung, and in par ticular Piaget , whose clinical method of inter-viewing children they found par ticularly useful . As Mayo recounted, i t wasnecessary to train interviewers "how to listen, how to avoid interruption or the"---~ - - - - - -~.- -I ', lvingof advice, how generally to avoid anything that might put an end tofree,.IX I ression in an individual instance" (Mayo, 1933, p. 65).

1999), The Hawthorne investigations have had a strong influence on the orga-nization of industrial production by instigating the change from a harsh"human engineering" to a softer emotional "human relat ions" mode of man-aging workers. The marketing of consumer products today rests heavily uponqualitative interviews, in particular upon focus groups, to secure maximumprediction and control of the consumers' purchasing behaviors.In the social sciences, qualitative interviews are now increasingly employedas a research method in their own right, with an expanding methodological liter-ature on how to carry out interview research. Glaser and Strauss's sociologicalstudy of hospitals, reported in The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies forQualitative Research (1967), pioneered a_qualitative research movement in thesocial sciences. The researchers integrated qualitative interviews into their fieldstudies of the hospital world. Two important early books that systematically intro-duced research interviewing were Spradley's The Ethnographic Intel';iew (1979)and Mishler's Research Interviewing: Context and Narrative (1986). For anoverview ofthe scope ofresearch interviewing, the reader is referred to Fielding'sfour-volume Interviewing (2003) and Gubriurn and Holstein's The Handbook ofInterview Research (2002), and for qualitative research more broadly to Denzinand Lincoln's The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research-(zElQS.).

Qualitative methods-ranging from participant observation to interviews todiscourse analysis-have since the 1980s become key methods of socialresearch, The rapidly growing number ofbooks about qualitative research is oneindicat ion of this trend, thus for one leading company-Sage Publicat ions-s-there was a growth in qualitative texts from 1 0 books in 1980-1987 to 130 booksin 1995-2002 (Seale et al. , 2004).

Technical , philosophical , and cultural reasons may be suggested for thegrowing use of qualitative research interviews. The availability of small portabletape recorders in the 19508 made the exact recording of interviews easy. In the1980s, computer programs facilitated qualitative analyses of transcribed inter-views. An opening of the social sciences to philosophy and the humanities alsobas taken place, drawing on phenomenology and hermeneutics as well as narra-tive , discursive, conversational and l inguistic forms of analysis (see, e.g., .Schwandt, 2001). Broad movements in philosophy influencing current socialscience emphasize key aspects of kno.wledg~. relevant to interview research.These aspects are the phenomejlolog@l descriptions of consciousness' and efthe l ife world , the hermeneutic interpretat ions of the meaning of texts, and the._ _ .- .postmodem emphasis on the social construction of.knowiedge. While such fun-d~mental philosophical positions can be at odds with one another, they have in

The design and advertisements of consumer product s .have since theI ! )50s been extensively investigated by individual qualitative interviews, andIII recent decades by interviews i~OCl1s groups. One pioneer, Dichter, in hisLIL )()k The Strategy of Desire, reported an interview study he conducted in 1939llil consumer mot ivation for purchasing a car, with more than a hundredd(llltiled conversational interviews. One main finding was how the importanceIII ilca r goes beyond its technical qualities to also encompass its "personality."wlilch today is commonplace knowledge in marketing, Dichter described hisnlerview technique as a "depth-interview," inspired by psychoanalysis and theunndi rec t ive therapy of Carl Rogers.

These historical interview studies have made a difference to their fields,Inl luenccd the way we think about men and women and children today, andII III fl major impact. all social practices such as therapy and techniques for con-Illilllug the behaviors of workers and consumers (Kvale, 2003). Freud andI'I It 1 ' 1 , whose main empirical evidence carne from interviews, are still amongti l Ii ychologists n : - ; t ' qu ted in the scientific literature, and their interpreta-1 1 1 1 1 1 1 o r [b eir in t rv icw s w lt I I uru i ' l i l A an d children have had a major impact on1 ' 1 1 W Wll Ililtil,rl-ltlilid !It"~III1Ii1Hy nud 'htlcllt d. Thus, in Time magazine's

( I, ,'litH! o r 1 1 ) ( ' 10(1 1 1 1 1 1 / 1 / ulltu lIillil Jl l DI)I' (I r Ihe _ O { ' h entury, three socialI I l l l l l / l iM WI'II' /llllitllj' 1 1 1 1 ' I I 1 1 1 \ l I I l J ' "IH1I'II(i~I. 1I11t1lllil1k~'rs": 11 1 onomi tIf, VIII 'j 1 1 11 '\ 1 1 11 II \ ' l l u l i " I ' r r l u inl ruul 1 ' 1 1 1 ' 1 ' 1 ("I'klt 1I1inlH 1 1 1 1 " 'I'hjlll'I'I~,j'

11

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J . , L . . . . . . L, L. .. J. L" - J ,. .l . .J I . .. .,

1 11 11 11 11 11 1 I I I IIdllw 0 1' l: I methodological positivism in the social sciences thatI uul 1 1 1 1 I I I I n lH ' I 1 vld C J 'lc e t o quantifiable facts.

I II I lill o I 1 I W ' IIN(m oh methods ingeneral have t hus become endemic today inI I I I I I V dill 1 1 ' 1 1 1 1 ( ' ~ ' M n c h a s education, psychology, anthropology, sociology,I 1 1 1 illll 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I I lI lIWlTl geography, marketing, business, and musing science. AtIIIf 1 1 1 1 1 I i l l l ' l l I I I lit increasing popularity of qualitative methods stands whatIIh'I,I III I !IIII Ii II qllflli.tativestance. From this stance, th e processes and pheno rn -,'1111 I rl i i I I ' wmld fire described before theorized, understood before explained,Illd 'WI'IIIII con c r e t e qualities before abstract quantities. The qualitative stanceIlvul\ll I I i lJ l :U H i l l g on the cultural, everyday, and situated aspects of human tbi~-

1 1 1 1 '. I I 1lllIlllg, knowing, acting, and ways of understanding ourselves as per,sons,uul II l ~oppllsed to "techriif ied" approaches to the study of human lives.

' 1 ' (11~TNTB VIEW SOCIETYliLt srviews have also become part of the common cul tu re . In the cur rent age ,HS visualized by 'the talk shows on TV, we live in an "interview society"(A Lk in s n & Silverman, 1997 ) , where the product ion of the self has come inf c us a nd the interview serves as a social techniqu;:;-for the public constructionof the self. In Box 1.5 below, we present some impressions of the current inter-view society, as seen from the point of view of an interview researcher. WhileAtkinson and Silverman regard the interview society as one that relies "perva-sively on face-to-face interviews to reveal the personal, the private self of thesub ject" (p. 309), we use the term somewhat more broadly to a lso capture thespread of interviews to a wide var ie ty of socia l arenas.

Like most mornings, I am awakened by my clock radio. A polit ician isinter-viewed about why he has left his party. The interviewer is interested not justin h is pol itica l reasons for the decision, but also in his personal motives,experiences, and hopes for the future: "Please, tell usthe story about howyou felt after having made the decision." Then, browsing through the mainheadlines of the newspaper, I not ice that most art icies contain statementsfrom interviews.

I take my children to the daycare center, and their teacher greets me witha probing interview about the kids and their opportun ities for further devel-opment. Having read some literature all current educational practices, I rec-ognize her conversat ional technique asa version of appreciat ive inquiry, astyle of interviewing that focuses'on positive experiences and ~arratives.When I get to work, I have scheduled a meeting with a journalist, whowants to interview me about a book that I have contr ibuted to. I t ry to think.

of something interesting to say-in today's world of media, with thei rcacophony of competing voices, journalists are always looking for a newangle when they do interviews. I then engage in a session of student super-vision, which involves a subtle interviewing technique of its own. The goalis to ask quest ions that wil l help the student progress, rather than posingexamining or confusing questions.After work, 1askmy wife about how her day has been, and she tel ls me

about her experiences. Being a schoolteacher, she reports a narrative ofhow she hasstruggled wi th ways o f get ting the pupi ls to say something inclass. How can she improve her quest ioning techniques? When she thenasks me about my experiences, the phone interrupts us-a market re-searcher wants to interview me about my consumption habits concerningbreakfast products. I decide to be a reiuctant respondent and quickly endthe conversation.Watching the news on TV, I am confronted wi th interviews wi th bus i-

ness leaders, pol it ic ians, and also ordinary men and women, who seemmore than happy to express their opinions. A witness to a traff ic accidentis interviewed, and someone else is interviewed about how hefeels about

I a certain polit ician's trustworthiness. After the news, ! watch one of thmany confessional talk shows that run on T\I , where the host manages to

lj do three l ife story interviews in half an hour. ,

I l. I f ind that ram unable to fall asleep-perhaps due to the convers~t ional Ibombardment I have experienced-and I put on one of my favorite Woody~ ",il en DVDs. I come to the conclusion that All en's movies are a perfectI re-presentation of the interview society. In almost every scene, people areI constantly talking, interviewing each other and even themselves, whilI , '"2Iking, eating, partying, in therapy, and having sex. Allen's characters liveI :_." t ru ly conversat ional reality, where experiences; desires, and doubts are

1. " , ; , '~:ent lessly shared , and theplL is expressed andcconstructed in and:7 :mugh speaking. I f inally manage to fall asleep with the 6-pound SAGEH2..dbook of Qualitative Research in my hands.

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II . I _ N _ T _ E _ R _ V _ I E _ ~ _ \ V _ _ S

Box 1. S describes a day in the interview socie ty of the second author.1 \ variety of different interview forms were encountered, some were informal1 1 1 1 1 1 were simply conversations as goals in themselves (e.g. , conversations atIII dinner table), and others were structured as professional conversationsW i l h specific goals (to inform, supervise, or entertain an audience, for exam-1111.:).hereas journalistic interviews were regarded as somewhat dangerousPi uctices in the 19th century, in the 20th century they became simply taken forJ'"llIted as a standard form ofhuman relations.

Atkinson and Silverman (1997) attributed the contemporary prevalence ofIlilurviews to a spiri t of the age; we would l ike to add that there is amore mate-I l n l basis of the rise of interviewing-the experiential economy of a consume~-~lIdety. With knowledge of consumers' experiences and lifestyles so essentialIi! the Western economy, qualitative interviewing for consumer experiences, in1"11 ticular in the form. of fOCLlS groups, has become a key approach to predict-1 1 I j ' , and controlling consumer behavior.

M IJTH ODO LO GIC AL A ND ETHICALIH , U E S IN R E SE AR C H IN TE R VIE W IN GW I . J now tum from discussing the pervasive role of in terviews in the broaderucial scene to depicting some of the methodological and ethical concerns 'that

w e : address throughout this book. While one form of research interview-at'lI.1i-struct~red 1 i : f u world _interview,in part inspired by phenomenology-will

lit" our focus, other ways of conducting and analyzing interviews will also be f-A. tt)IP .--XfOft reated, Whereas phenomenologists are typically interested in charting how' '-' .human subjects experience lif~ world phenomena, hermeneutical SCholars ~uddress the interpretation Q f meaning,~~~se analysts focus on.ll52::YY ' to.' t f l C ' ("Or"'\1I1l1guagend discursive practices construct the social worlds in which human .--"" V rP~ ,"~; .I\. i.-

. V\ \'l_t,lHn -" ,II ings l ive . This book does not a im to set tle the quest ions concerning these Q rIpistemological and ontological differences between different philosophies ofIJllalitative inquiry, but instead has a pragmatic approach. In this approach, I - - l O u J L f ! ,J - -( ;\W - ( /Icflections on how to conduct and analyze inten:iews are based on what the..j- \- I . \ . O l-JO" {I( 'searcher is interested in knowing about: Is it primarily experiences of con-rrete episodes, the meanings of specific phenomena, comprehension of spe-dtie concepts, processes ofdiscursive construction, or something different? Ourtim is not to force certain philosophical preconceptions onto our readers, but

to assis t you in making informed choices about what to do when conductinginterview research , reflec ted cho ices that we hope wil l a llow you to engagemore deeply with the kind of knowledge you will be producing in yourresearch interviews.

The closeness of the research interview to everyday conversat ion mayimply a certain simplicity, but this simplicity is illusory. Nevertheless, it hascon tributed to the populari ty of research interviewing- it i s too easy to startinterviewing without any preceding preparation or reflection. A noviceresearcher may have a good idea, grab a sound recorder, go out and findsome subjects, and start questioning them. The recorded interviews are tran-scr ibed and then-dur ing the analysis . ,o f the many pages of t ranscr ipts-amul ti tude of problems about the purpose and con ten t of the interviews sur -faces. There is 1i tt le l ike lihood that such spontaneous interview stud ies willlead to worthwhile information; rather than producing new substantialknowledge about a topic, such interviews may be reproducing common opin-ions and prejudices. That being said, interviewing can be an exciting wayof doing strong and valuable research, The unfolding of stories and newins ights can be rewarding for both parties in the interview interaction.Reading the t ranscribed interv iews may inspire the researcher to new inter-pretations of well-known phenomena, and the interview reports can con-tribute substantial new knowledge to a field.

. A novice researcher who is methodologica lly or iented may have a host o fquestions about the technica l and concep tual issues in an interview pro jec t.For example: How do I beg in an interview projec t? How many subjects wil l Ineed? How can I avoid influencing the subjec ts with leading quest ions? Can

(;1 C the interv iews be harmful to the sub jec ts? Is t ranscript ion of the interv iewsnecessary? How do I analyze the interviews? Will my interp re ta tions only besubjective? Can I be sure that I get to know what the subjects really mea~ '?How doI report my extensive interview texts?

If corresponding questions Were raised about, for example, a question-naire survey, several o f them would be fa irly easy to answer by consul tingauthoritative textbooks on standard techniques and rules of survey research.As this book makes clear, the situation is quite the contrary for the craft ofqualitative interview research, for which there are few standard rules or com-mon methodolog ica l conven tions. Interview research is a craft tha t, i f wel lcarried ou t, can become an ar t The variet ies of research interviews approachthe spectrum of human conversat ions. The forms of interv iew aiialysis can

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dlfl l I Ii wltldy AS w ay s o f r eading a text. The qua li t at i v e interview is some-II 1 1 1 1 i III Ii ~I 1 1 1 1 unstructured or a nonstandardized i nt erview. Because the re1111 IIW \II mil 1 1H'lllfo d. o r standardized procedu res for conducting these fo rms111111(1 I Y r 'WH, LJHlflY of the methodical decisions have to be made on the spot,till IIIII' 11111 lilt srview, This requires a high level of skill on behalf of the inter-vlr'Wt'l, w ho L1 sd s to be knowledgeable about the interview topic and to be111111l i lu w il l'l t he methodological options available, as well as to have anIllidl'I,',1 uulln f the conc'eptual issues of producing knowledge throughI'!II!VI I' Iiii on,

ls i Ihis b 01 we will attempt to steer between the free spontaneity of a no-1110111 d approach to interviewing and the rigid structures of an all-methodI lppl C .H lh by focusing on the expertise, skills, and craftsmanship of [he inter-view researcher. Some of the decisions that will have to be made on the way1rn'o~lgh the s tages of an interview inquiry and the methodological optionsava i lab le are outlin ed, and the specific modes o f questioning ar e d iscu ssed, aswcl; as the multiple opt ions for ana lyz ing interviews. If one is looking for acookbook approach to the p ractice of qualitativ e 'research in terviewing , how-v I, rea ling this book maybe frustrating; in lieu of standard p rocedures andfixed rules, the answers to questions such as those posed above will most oftenb p refaced by "It depends," as the answers depend upon the specif ic purposeand top ic of an investigation.

Ethical issues permeate interview research. The knowledge produced bysuch research depends on the social rel at ionship of interviewer and intervie-wee , which rests 011 the interviewer'S ability to create a stage where the sub-ject is free and safe to talk of private events recorded for later public use. Thisagain requ ires a delicate balance between the in ter viewer's concern fo r pu rsu-ing interesting knowledge and eth ical respect fo r th e in tegrity of the in ter viewsubject. The tension between the pursuit of knowledge and ethics in researchinterv iewing is well exp ressed in Sennett's 2004 book Respect:

OVERVIEW OF THE BOOKThroughout this book we will follow three main lines to guide the learning ofinterviewing for research purposes: We will approach interviewing as a craft,as a knowledge-producing activity, and as a social p ractice.

Interviewing as a Craft

In-depth interviewing is a distinctive, often frustrating craft. Unlike a pollsterasking questions, th e in -dep th interv iewer wants to p robe the responsespeople give. To' probe , the in te rv iewer cannot be stonily impersona l; he orshe bas to give something of himself or herself in order to merit an openresponse . Yet the conversat ion l ist s in one direc tion; [he point i s not to t alkthe way friends do ' .The interviewer a ll too f requently f inds that he orshe hasoffended subjects, t ransgressing a line over which only friends or int imatescan cross .' The craft consists in cal ibrating social dis tances without makingthe subjec t fee l l ike an insec t under the microscope, (pp , 37-38)

I nterv iewing rests on the pr actical skills and the personal judgmen ts of th e'. - -nte rviewer; it does not fol low expli cit st eps o f rul e-governed methods. The ski ll s

o f in ter viewing are learned by p racticing interv iewing, and the quality o f ir u r-viewing is judged by the str ength and value of the knowledge produced. The con -cep tion of in terviewing as a craf t, to be" learned th rough p ractice, contr asts with amethodological positivism in the social sciences, with its conception o f researchas f ollowing the rules and predetermined step s o f specific methods, In our prag-matic craft approach, we do not attempt to derive rules of an interview methodfrom some normative theo ry of science, bu t attempt to learn fr om how compe te n tinterview researchers work. This book seek s to p romote lear ning th rough exem-pla ry cases; it presents and discusses examples fr om interv iew studies, some ofwhich have made signif icant d if fe rences to the ir respect ive f ie lds. Rules of thumbfor in te rv iewing, der ived from interview pract ice, a re presented , and for the inter -v iewer craftsman (the term craftsman as it is used in this book applies to inter-viewers of both genders) we provide toolboxes with a variety of techniques, inpar ti cula r for the key stages of conduct ing and ana lyz ing interviews.

The skills of interviewing are learned through the practice of interview-ing, and there is a paradox in presenting a textbook for the learning of a skill,a paradox enhanced by addressing in written form the learning of an oral skill.We return to this paradox in the final chapter, but throughout this book w eengage wi th the paradox by giving suggestions for learning interviewing theway a craft is learned. The book depicts the journey th rough the practical stagesof an interview project, providing the necessary. road directions and equip-ment. The chap ters examine the. complex sk ills of th e in terview craft, b reakingthem down into discrete steps, giving examples, and pointing out the practical, .conceptua l, and e th ical i ssi l~jnvolved.Interviewing as a Social Production of Knowledge

Int erviewing i s an act ive process where in te rv iewer and interviewee throughtheir relationship produce knowledge. Interview knowledge is produced in

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u conversat_ional ~elati.on; it is contextual, lingujstic, narrative, and p,ragmatic.The conception of interview knowledge presented here contrasts with ametho-dological positivism conception of knowledge as given facts to be quantified.This book presents philosophies congenial tothe knowledge produced in inter-vi.ewresearch, such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, pragmatism, and post-modern thoughtWe show how different conceptions of interview knowledgeI'ad to different forms of interviewing and of analyses of interviews. Some seethe practice of qualitative research interviewing as involving an unearthing ofpreexisting meaning nuggets from the depths of the respondent, while othersurgue that i t should be an unbound and creat ive process where the researcherIs free to const ruct appea ling stories. Ra the r than locating the meaningslind narratives to be known solely in the subjects or the researchers, we argueIIIth.isbook that the process of knowing through conversations is intersubjec-l ive and social, involving interviewer and interviewee as co-cons tructors ofknowledge .

lnterviewtng as a Social PracticeInterviewing is a new practice of the last few centuries; today it has

II COme a pervasive socialpraetice in what has been ca lled the interview~tl i ety. Inte rviewing as a mode of inquiry is embedded in a historical andsocial context . The interaction of interviewer and interviewee is laden withlllh.icaIissues, and publishing interview research entails broader sociopolit-I' 1 1 concerns. We address ethical issues of the specif ic interview practicesII. well as the social effects of interview research, and also take issue wi thII belief in interviewing as a par ticularly ethical form of research. O ur con-I uption of interviewing as social practice contrasts with the idealismIII many textbooks, which present interviewing predominantly within theIontext of ideas and as a pure and authentic interaction within a humanrr lutionship. This book addresses th:y~r ..asmmetry_of_t.t1~int~rview sit-1 1 1 1 1 ion and also includes the broader social inf luences upon, and social con-~ [u er i ce s of, interview research. To these social influences and consequencesIt [ ng the current impact of ethical review boards and evidence-basedpruct ice upon research interviewing, the consequences of interviews in co-huping our conceptions of human beings, and in providing knowledge forluunan management and manipulation, as well as contributing to publicInl ightenrnent .

f.,r--

Part I : Conceptualizing the Research InterviewIn this conceptual par t of the book, we address principal issues concern-

in g the use of conversations for research purposes. While i t may appear as atruism that theory and practice s!)ouldbe relat~d in the production of interviewknowledge, the issues become Iflorecomplex When we tum to how concep-tions of knowledge and practice are related.We display the richness and varietiesof conversations and give examples ofa research interview, a philosophical dialogue, and a therapeutic interview. Wedepict philosophical approaches that are open to qualitative interviewing, suchas postrnodem thought, phenomenological, hermeneutical, and pragmatic phi-losophy. We address ethical issues in research interviewing, arguing that ethicalresearch behavior involves more than rule following and adherence to ethicalcodes. Ethics is basicto an interview inquiry; i t goes beyond ethical rules toencompass the broader fields of etbical and sociopolitical uncertainties in socialresearch. In situations of conflict, decisions about which rules to follow will toa large extent depend upon the researcher's experience and personal judgment.As a bridge to Part II,which focuses on the pract ice of interviewing, we con-clude the f irst part with a discussion of viewing research interviewing as amethod or a craft . A conception of research interviewing as a rule-governedmethod will lead to di fferent interview practices than an understanding ofresearch interviewing as a craft, where the quality of the interview knowledgerests upon the skiJls and the personal judgment of the interviewer craftsman.

NB: Readers who want to learn [nterviewing by doing interviews shoulddiscontinue reading the book now and jump to the appendix, Learning Tasks,where we suggest exercises for those interested in learning interviewing inways that approximate the learning of acraft. After spending a few weeks withthese tasks , preferably in the company of co- learners, return to 'reading thebook and you will discover that by pract icing interviewing, you may alreadyhave s tarted upon some of the theoret ical ref lect ions put for th in the concep-tual chapters of Part I and have experienced a good deal of what is sa id aboutconducting interviews in the practical chapters of Part II.

Part II : Seven Stages of Research InterviewingPart IIreats in detail the practical steps of interviewing. The chapters fol-

low seven stages-of an interview iIlvestigation: .,(1) thematizing an interview

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project, (2) designing, (3 2 interviewing, (4) transcribing, (5) analyzing, (6) ver-i fy in g , a n d (7) reporting. The importance of conceptualizing an interview topicin 'advance of interviewing, as well as planning an entire interview projectthrough seven stages before starting to interview, ispointed out. The chaptersprovide theintervie~er craftsman with toolboxes for the different stages of hisor her journey. Although we go into detai l with the common life world inter-view, other forms of interviewing also are addressed, such as narrative and dis-cursive interviews, as well as more confrontational interviews. When it comesto the analyses of the interviews, different forms of categorization, condensa-t ion, and interpretat ion of meanings are depicted, as well as l inguist ic analy-ses in the form of conversational, narrative, and discursive approaches.

Concluding PerspectivesIn tbe concluding chapter , Chapter 17, we summarize the three main lines

that are followed through the book: interviewing as a craft, as a knowledge pro-ducing activity, and as a social practice. We suggest potentials for developing thequality of interview research ~nd conclude by emphasizing a pragmatic valida-t ion of interview research through producing knowledge worth knowing-knowledge that makes a difference to a discipline and those who depend on it.

O l PA RT I ~

.CONCEPTUALIZINGTHE RESEARCH INTERVIEW

I.h is f irst p~r t of the book. we discuss . principal issues of research inter-viewmg, particularly those related to ~~nd ethi.s.We addressthe qualitative research interview as a specific form of conversation; in. . .Chapter 2. we exemplify and outline the mode of understanding of a quali ta-tive resea rch interv iew and relate i t to a philosophica l dialogue and a the ra-peutic inte rview .. We then t rea t epi st emological questions concerning the_prod_uctionof interview knowledge-in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, we address theethica l dimension of the social practi ce of inte rviewing, and in Chapte r 5 weargue that knowledge production in interview research comes closer to a craftthan a rule-following method. We point out some implications "of these con-ceptual issues for practicing interview research, implications we treat in moredetai l in r ela tion to the seven stages of an interv iew invest igat ion in : e311 II,which covers the Rr~tice of qualitative research interviewing.

A reader who is impatient tolearn the pract ical skil ls of the interview craftmay ask why he or she should bother with such complex and subtle issues andnot just go s traight to the pract ice of interviewing. One answer is ~a.blecraftsman needs tobe familiar with the materials he or she is worki~.K3ith...andarsotne-p;od~~;th~tisi~~i~ir. The~~;em'ch'interview~r works with languageI \ . - -- - - - . .. . . .. _ _ - - -w _ . _ . . .. ..- - , . . . ._ ~ _ . _

21

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l ind knowledge, and the product arr ived at is likewise k n ow l e d ge in a l inguis-Ilo form. The able interviewer is famil iar with the nuances and problems of the11)llterial she works with and with the value and strength of the product sher lc livers,

Readers who are unfamili.ar with social science research and philosophyIllHy go directly to Part II, where the practice of research interviewing ispresented in seven stages, and then return to the conceptual issues after becom-IlIg more familiar with interview practice.

I,

;(TWO '"

RESEARCH INTERV IEWS ,PHILOSOPHICAL DIALOGUES,AND THERAPEUTIC INTERVIEWS

Thi S chapter begins with a research inte rview about lea rning, based on aphenomenological approach (in later chapters, we present alternatives tophenomenological life world interviewing). After a brief outline of phenome-nology follows a depiction inspired by phenomenology of the mode of under-standing in a qualitative research interview. In contrast to _~ commonemphasis on empathy and equality in.qualitative interviewing, we point O).1thepower asymmetry of a research interview. We then go on to highlight the spe-cific nature of the research interview by comparing and contrasting it with twoother forms of interviews-the ?~E.h!ftl~dialo~ the,,~i~ We compare and contrast the modes of interaction and understand-}ng in the research interview with the logical/cognitive mode of philosophicaldialogues and the emotional/personal mode of therapeutic interviews. We pre-sent a philosophical dialogue by Socrates, then discuss the logic of thisSocratic form of interview inquiry and show its relationship to,curr~nt researchinterviewing. Finally , we present a therapeutic interview, outline one mode ofunderstanding in therapeutic interviews, and mention implications for the his-tory of research interviewing.

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'I

\ l) tJ I\L 1 TA T IV E R E S EA R C H INTERVIEW ON LEARNING V"III. 1 I 1 I 1 po l' f the qualitative research interview discussed here i s tounderstandIIUIIII IIIIll'lived daily worldfrom the subjects' own perspectiv~..;.The struc-l i l i l 1 1 1 1 1 ) 1 H close to an everyday conversation, but as a professional interview, itiuvulv II specific approach and technique of questioning. The following inter-vii \ JlIH~l\gl; is taken from the article "An Application of Phenomenologicalt\h 1 l 1 . 1 1 ! ! in Psychology" by Giorgi (1975). The research qu~stion guiding theIllh Ivlrw WIIS:What~~tes le~ng in t~veryday world? The first half of1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 " vlcw, conducted by a student, is reproduced here.('k~NII,,'hl2l"): Could you describe in as much deta il as possible a situa-

tion in which learning occurred for you 7" (N ll b .l 'c t ): (E W. , 24-year -o ld female, housewife and educat ional

researcher): The first thing that comes to mind is whatI learned about interior decora ting f rom Myrt is . She wastel ling me about the way you see things. Her view of look- .ing at different rooms has been altered. She told me that'when you come into a room you don't usually not ice howmany ver tica l and hor izontal l ines there are, a t least con-sciously, you don't notice. And yet, if you were to takesomeone who knows what's going on in the field ofinteriordecorating, they would intuitively feel if there Were the rightnumber of vert ical and horizon ta l l ines. So, I went home,and I started looking at the lines in our living room, and Icounted the number of horizontal and vertical lines, manyof which I had never realized were lines before.A beam .. , I had never really thought of that as verticalbefore, just as a protrusion from the wall. ' (Laughs) I foundout what was wrong with our living room design: many,too many, horizontal lines and not enough vertical. SoI started trying tomove things around and change the way itlooked. I did this by moving several pieces of furniture andtaking out several knick-knacks, de-emphasizing certainlines, and ... itreally looked differently to me. It's interestingbecause my husband came home several hours later and

r l(eSearCh interviews. f'hilosophical Dialogues, and Therapeutic)I said, "Look at the living room; it's all different." Not know-ing this, tha t I had picked up, hed idn' t look at i t in the sameway I did. He saw things were different, he saw things weremoved, but he wasn't able to verbalize that there was ade-emphasis on the horizontal lines and more of an ernpha-sis on the vertical. So I felt I had leamed something.

R: What part of that experience would you consider learning?s: The knowledge part tha t a roomis made up of horizontal

and vertical lines. The application of that to another room;applying it to something that had been bothering me forquite a long time and I could never put my finger on it.I think the actual learning was what was horizontal andvertical abouta room. The learning that was left with mewas a way of looking at rooms.

R: Are you saying then that the learning was what you learnedfrom Myrtis, what you learned when you tried to apply . .. ?

s : Since I did apply it, I feel that I learned when I did applyit I would have thought that I learned it only by having thatknowledge, but having gone through the act of application,I rea lly don't fee l I would have learned i t. I could honest lysay , I had learned i t a t tha t t ime. Cpp.84-86)

This interview investigated what constitutes learning for a woman in hereveryday world. I t began with an open request to describe a situa tion wherelearning occurred. The woman herself chose the learning situation she wouldtalk about-interior decora ting ; she descr ibed this f reely and extensively inher own words. The answer spontaneously took the formofa story, a narrativeof one learning episode. The interviewer 's first question introduced learning asthe theme of the interview; her remaining quest ions departed fromthe sub-jec t' s answers in order tokeep learning in focus and to ask for c lar if ica tion ofthe different aspects of the subject 's learning story.

This interview gives a good picture of ' lsemi-struc~l:Ired research inter~view focusing all the subject's ex~rienc~e,_of:theme:. The interviewer's ques-" _"w . . . " . . . ~ . .~ ~ . . . .. . .. . .. . .. . __ ~ , . , ., . ~ '.h_.~ ... . ,, _ _ .. .. ., .. .. ~ l' -. .. - . - . . ._ . .. . ' ~ ., ~ ". .. ' . . . - " " ' I ' ' ' . ; , - _ _ O ' ~ . , . . . ' . ~_ . ' ' ' '' ~ j . , ~ , . ~. . . . _ . . . . . .. _ _lions aimed at a cognitive clarification of the subject 's experience of learning,~ .__~ ,.. . . . .. . . . ,. . . ; .-_ ,_,. .~. . ' ,. " . . ., " " ' "' ' ' '. _ . . . . .. . . . '" ' . '' _ ' " '' . . .H . . . _ . . , . .. _ " . . . . . . . .- - . . \ ., . . . .. " . . . .. . A_ '. . '. - :- . . .~ . _ . _ _ . ' "' . '. " L .~ . ~ ". " '_ , . "' . , ' '' ' . . -. . - ~- . . , ., . '' " ' . . ' I i L . ,. . , '' ' " ' '' _ . . . . .. . . . ;_ _ ' ' ' ~ .

2 5

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which will be fur ther analyzed in Chapter 12. The mode of interviewing was, ___U_ ____ - . , " .__ _. , , _ _~ - " - ." , ,~" ' . _ _ ~_" __ ._" __

inspire.d..by p hen om en olo gjc al ..p l J H Q . Q p h y , t o .whic l; }Y_e"l l. ( ) .'> ': ' .~~0 :

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1IIII W i n I ~I , The topic of qualitative .nterviews is the everyday lived world\1111111111'v iewee and h is or her re lat ion to it. vN/li,lllltl[j, Th interview seeks to interpret the meaning of central themes in1 1 1 1 ' 1 \1 ( ' world of the subject. The interviewer registers and interprets the1111\,Illil1 of what is said as well as how it is said. VQUrI/ lI IlClve. The interview seeks quali tative knowledge expressed in normalLll1glld' , it does not aim at quantification -./fJc)$cr ipt ive. The interview attempts to obtain open nuanced descriptions ofrJlffI'cnt aspects of the subj ect s' lif e worl ds . VSpecific ity. Descriptions of specific situations and action sequences arelliclted, not general opinions. ~Deliberate Naivete. The interviewer exhibits openness to new and unex-pec ted phenomena, ra ther than having readymade categories and schemesof interpretation.Focused. The interview is focused on particular themes; it is neither strictlys tr uctured wi th s tandardi zed ques tions, nor ent ire ly "nondi rective."Ambiguity Interviewee statements can somet imes be ambiguous, ref lect i ngcontradictions in the world the subject lives in.Change. The process of being interviewed may produce new insights andawareness, and the subject may in the course of the interview come tochange his or her descriptions and mean ings about a theme.Sensit ivity. Different interviewers can produce different statements on thesame themes , depend ing on the ir sensi tiv it y to and knowledge of the inter-v iew topicI n te r pe r so nal S i tu a ti o n. The knowledge obtained is produced through theinterpersonal interaction in the interview.P o s it iv e E x p e ri e nce . A well carried out research interview can be a rare andenriching experience for the interviewee, who may obtain new insightsi nt o h is or her li fe s it uat ion.

I:r,

~ ~ ~ e J _ e _ a _ n _ n _ J n _ r _ e r _ v _ l e _ w _ o _ , _ r _ r _ I l ! _ O _ S ~ O p ~ n _ ' _ c a _ l _ v _ _ " a _ I ~ o g ~ I _ l e _ ; s ~ , _ a _ n _ a _ j _ l 1 _ e _ r a ~ p _ e _ U _ ! ! _ C _ l ~ 1 1 _ { e _ r y ~ l ~ e ~ W ~ s 4'

Box 2.2 gives an outline of twelve aspects of a qualitative interview Iroma phenomenological perspective. I t wil l be treated in more detai l bel w aiul illChapter 7, whereas other forms of interviewing are addressed in Chapt 'f tl, IIIwhat fol lows, we elaborate on the twelve aspects of quali tative intervh:wiliHfrom a phenomenological standpoint.

Li fe World. The topic of qualitative research interviews i s L hl :J illl,'IV\wee's liY!. 'i~yeryd~ wO!:.htThe qualitative research interview ha s fL IIl1lqJi potential for obta!ning ~llQ.~9,~.!::i~g the lived everyday w( l id , '1 '1 1 1attempt to obtain unprejudiced descr iptions entai ls a r eh ab ilita tio n o f' 1111Lebenswelt-the l ife world-- in relat ion to the world of science. The Ii I ' W O II t Iis the world as i t is encountered in everyday life and given in direct alii I II1 1 1 1 udiate exper ience, independent .of and prior to .explanations . The g'LllIllllillvl'interview may be seen as one realization of Merleau-Ponty 's (1962) PfOHl 1I1Ifor a phenomenological science starting from the primary experience 0 1 ' 1 11 1'world:

A ll my knowledge of th e world,even my scientific knowledge, i s g a in 'l J Irummy own par ti cula r point of view, or f rom some exper ience of the wor ld wlthout which the symbols of science would be meaningless . The whole univ 'I Iof science i s bui lt upon the wor ld as directly experienced, and if w WIIll!!1lsubject science itself to rigorous scrutiny and arrive at a precise asscssmeul II!i ts meaning and scope, we mus t begin by re-awakening the basic cxperlul11J(of the wor ld of which science i s the second order express ion. (p. viii)

The geographer' s map is thus an abstraction of the count rys ide w II D! 'r ' W tf irst Jearned what a fores t, a mountain , or a r iver was . In this phenorn :l1l1luJIcal approach, the qualitative studies of subjects' experiences of their wmld III(. ,.basic to the more abstract scientific theories of the social world; intervlcwN III cin this sense not merely a few enter taining cur iosi ties added to Sin' b t ls l . /I Ientif ic quantitat ive facts obtained by exper iments and quest ionnaires, ' 1 ' 1 1 1quali tative iri terview is a research method that gives a privi leged a 'tJt'M~ IIIpeople's basic experience of the lived world.

~i!J g. The interview seeks to understand the meaning o f ( ,) cn li I IIthemes of the subjects' l ived world . The interviewer regis ters an d intc: jJll'l.the meanings of what is said as well as how it is said; he or she sh lilt! lu,knowledgeable about the interview topic, be observant of-s-and able to interpre!voca lization, facia l expressions, and other bodi ly gestures. Ai l everydny

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p-----Ionversation often takes place on a factual level.A pupil may state: "I am not asIdllpid a s m y gr ad es a t t he e xa m.in at io n s sh o we d, b ut I h av e bad study habi ts ."I 'urnrnon reactions could then concern matters of fact: "What grades did you, rl?" or "What are your study habitsT--guestions that also may yield importantl uf o rm a ti on , A meaning-oriented reply would, in contrast, be something like,"Ycu feel that the grades are not an adequate measure of your competence?"

A quali tative research interview seeks to cover both a factual and a mean-1 1 1 1 level , although it is usually more difficult to interview on a meaning level .1 1 iBn ecessary to listen to the explicit descriptions and to the meaningsI pressed, as well as to what is said "between the lines ." The interviewer can11\1to formulate the implici t message, "send it back" to the subject, and may

.1 1 Iiuin an immediate confirmation or disconfirmation of the interpretat ion ofI,~tthe interviewee is saying.

j Qualitative. The quali tative interview seeks quali tative knowledge as~p i~ sclmnOi::m::Ulanguage; it does not aim at quantification. The interviewIIll/I at nuanced accounts of different aspects of the interviewee' s l ife world;I Iworks with words and not with numbers. The precision in descript ion andIllngency in meaning interpretat ion in quali tative interviews correspond to

1Ii.! IJ lesS in quantitative measurements. Descriptive. The qua lit at ive inte rviewer encourages the subjec ts to

,I, I dbe as precisely as possible what they exper ience and feel. and how they1 0 ' The focus is on nuanced descriptions that depict the qualitative diversity,,II' 1II11nyifferences and varieties of a phenomenon, rather than on ending upIII r lxed categor izat ions . The quest ion of why the subjects exper ience and

I. I \ they do is primari ly a task for the researcher to evaluate. Specificity Descriptions of specific situations and actions are elicited,

1 1 1 1 1 Irueral opinions. On the basis of comprehensive accounts of specific situ-I J e l l l nd events, the interviewer will be able to arr ive at meanings on a con-IIIlevel, instead ofgeneral opinions obtained by quest ions such as "What isIIIlI upinion of grading?" Still, it should be recognized that this type of gen-, d uplnion quest ion might yield information that is of interes t in i tself.

Deliberate naivete. The interviewer exhibits openness to new andIII Il'ccted phenomena, rather than having readymade categories and schemesI 1 1 ( 1 1 ' 1 preration, The qualitative interview attempts to obtain descriptions that

I

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CUNCbP,lfUALlZ1NU THE RESEARCH mTERVIEW

l 'llf IIIVily i ()Wtll'CJ, and knowledge about , the topic of the inte rview. Thus an1 1 1 1 1 ' 1vil'wI'! w ho h as no ear for music may have difficulties obtaining nuancedIIt IIL'llp! IPII,~Ii musical experiences from 'his or her interviewees, -inparticularI I r lu- 1r ,ll vlvi wer is t rying to probe more intensively into the meaning of thenu W il ' . , 1 1' II common l~.!b._odol~gical_S_~9.l.liI~ment(2btaining intersubjec-1 1 V 1 ' I y reproducible data were to be followed here, the i~~~~~i~~f;;;;;~~ightIIIlV(' Inhe t r u . - J ; ; i l i ~ ~ d - ; : - ; ;waythar-would r~st;i~t-the understanding of musi-!II 'xP 'ri '!loes to more superficial aspects understandable to the average per-~()U, Tit r q ui re m en t of sensitivity to, and a foreknowledge about, the topic oflbt.)in te rvi 'III contrasts with the presuppositionless attitude advocated above.Th e tension between these two aspects may be expressed in the requirementfor ill qualified naivete on the part of the interviewer.

.J!_HJ:J'J.f l !! !_nai Si tuation. The research interview is an inter-view where~ledge-i.&-Con~_ctedin~~~~l1 two P . l < Q . ~ . The inter-viewer and the subject act in relat ion to each other and reciprocally inf luenceeach other . The interaction may also be anxiety provoking and evoke defensemechanisms in the interviewee as well as in the interviewer. The interviewershould be aware of potential ethical transgress ions of the subject 's personal. boundar ies and be able to address the interpersonal dynamics within an inter-view. The knowledge produced in a research interview is consti tuted by theinteract ion i tsel f, in the speci fic situat ion crea ted be tween an inte rviewerand an interviewee. With another interviewer, a different interaction may becreated and a different knowledge produced. ~~!'> wel l-conducted research interview may be a

rare and enr iching exper ience for the subject, who may obtain' new ins ightsinto his or her l ife s ituation. It is probably not a very common experience ineveryday life that another person=-for an hour or more-s -shows an interes t in,is sens it ive toward, and seeks to understand as wel l as possible one's ownexper iences and views on a topic. In pract ice, it may sometimes be difficult toterminate a quali tative interview, as the subject may want to continue the con-versation and. explore further the insights into hi s o r her l ife world broughtabout by the interview,

We have here attempted, inspired by phenomenology, to depict the modeof understanding in a semi-structured and empathetic l ife world interview,which was exemplifi ed by the phenomeno logical interview on learning ineveryday life.

f(esearch interviews , J'hll osophicai ulOlOgues, ana) nerapeuCLCinterVIews ~~

, POWER ASYMMETRY INQUALITATIVE RESEARCH INTERVIEWS VTaking into.account the mutual understanding and the personal interview inter-action described in the twelve aspects above, we should not regard a researchinterview as a completely open and free dialogue between egalitarian partners.The empathetic form of phenomenological life world interviewing appears har-monious, and issues of power have been litt1e addressed in relation to these andother forms of qualitative research interviews. The research interview is, how-ever, a specific professional conversation with a clear'POwer asymmetry between~i_AAd..thg.,s.\,lbjec, Inorder to,cori:ectthe potential~sund-erstanCTingof research interviews as a dominance-free zone of consensus and empathy, weshall point out some power asymmetries in qualitative research interviews .

T he i nte rv ie w e nt ails a n a sym me tri ca l p ow er re la tio n. The research inter-. view is not an open everyday conversation between equal partners .The interv ijWer has scienti fic competence, he_.s: !_~~L

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II CONCEPTUALIZING THE RESEARCH INTERVIEW

------~,,-------------'(I ontinued)Ih interviewer has a monopoly of interpretat Ion. The researcher usuallyhns a monopoly of interpretation over the subject's statements. Asthe "bigIIJtorpreter,"the researcher maintains an exclusive privilege to interpret andIl'POlt what the interviewee really meant.('I.:lUNTER-CONUOl. In react ion to the dominance of the interviewer , some'1Ibjects will withhold information, or talk around the subject matter, and

1 ) 11 1 _ may start to question the researcher and also protest at his or her ques-IIIJIIS and interpretations, or, in rare cases, withdraw from the interview.IXItl'TtONS. Some interviewers attempt to reduce the power asymmetry ofIIH'interview situation by collaborative interviewing where the researcher0 1 1 1 ( 1 subject approach equality in questioning, interpreting, and reporting.

The asymmetry of the power relation in the research interviewer outline~II I I \n) l.2.3 is easi ly overlooked if we only focus on the open mode of under-Iuullug and the close personal interact ion of the interview. There does notII I.l tobe any intentional exertion ofpower by the interviewer; the description

1 1 1 1 1 nrns the structural positions in the interview, whereby for example subjectsli llY. more or less deliberately, express what they believe the interviewer1IIIuHitywants to hear. I f power is inherent in human conversations and rela-

1 11 11 1' , the point is not that power should necessarily be eliminated from research1 1 1 1 1 Ivi ws, but rather that interviewers ought to ref lect on the role of power inIt jll'ocluction of interview knowledge. Acknowledging the power relations injllldlintive research interviews raises both epistemological issues about theIlIIplk itions for the knowledge produced and ethical issues about the implica-1 1 1 1 1 ' 1 for how to deal responsibly with power asymmetr ies, and we return toIII ( ' questions in the two following chapters on epistemology and ethics.

I I IILOSOPHICAL DIALOGUES A ND R E SE A R CH INTERVIEWSII1IIIloro highlight the mode of understanding, and the specific interaction in the

1 1 1 1 -I I interview, we shall now compare it to another form of conversation-theIIlive logical argumentation of a philosophical dialogue by Socrates.

!'!1;; ._" ~

!.

Research Interviews, Philosophical Dialogues, and Therapeuiic Interviews 35

"Andquite properly, myfriend," said Socrates; "then, such being the case,must not Loveby only love of beauty, 'and not of ugliness?" He assented."Well then, we have agreed' that he loves what he lacks and has not?""Yes,"he replied."And what Love lacks and has not isbeauty?""That needs must be," he said."Well now, will you say that what lacks beauty, and in no wise possessesit, is beautiful?""Surely not.":'Socan you still allow Loveto be beautiful, ifthis isthe case?"Whereupon Agathon said, "Igreatly fear, Socrates, I know nothing of whatIwas talking about."SOURCE: v : Lysis, Symposion, Corgis: (p. 167), by Plato (translatedby w . R. M.Lamb),1953,Cambridge,MA : HarvardUniversityPress.

Plato's Symposion 'i s a philosophical dia logue in a dramatic form. Thepar tners in the dialogue are formally on an equal level; there is a reciprocalquest ioning of the true nature of the knowledge under debate, aswell as of thelogic of the participants' questions and answers. In Symposion, Socrates takesAgathori 's speech on love as his point of departure. He repeats i ts main pointsin a condensed form, interprets what Agathon has said , and asks for his oppo-nent's confirmations or disconfirmations of the interpretat ions. Socratesstarted out by appear ing naive and innocent , then praised Agathon' s views onEros, after which he followed up by uncovering one contradiction after anotherin Agathori's position. This philosophical dialogue is a harsh form of interac-t ion that seeks true knowledge through the unrelenting r igor of a discurs iveargumentation. Socrates compared himself to a legal interrogator and hi sopponents l ikened him to an electric eel . In Chapter 4, on ethics, we shall seeanother example of Socrates examining his opponents.

Dinkins (2005, p. 124) has outlined the general principles of Socratic inter-viewing, which she refers to as "Socrat ic-hermeneutic interpre-viewing."Socrates' "method" in the dialogues is not a method in the conventional senseof following a fixed procedure toward a goal, but ra ther an examining of a

CONCEPTUALIZING THE RESEARCH INTERVIEW Research Interviews, Philosophical Dialogues, and Therapeutic interviews 37

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I' I 1 1 1 1 1 1 \ ' 1 I I I I H l d ~ ' r i J 1 g h is o r h er s ta teme n ts normatively. The Socratic conversa-" ' 1 1 I I 1 11 1 H 1i 11 ll (' Jl tf il mode of understanding, rather than a method in any mechan-

. '" 1 11I h l.ldu s's rendition. Socrates' examining proceeds a s follows:. ], 1 1 ' 11 1 1 H encounters someone who takes an action or makes a statement1 1 1 1 1 1 which Socrates wishes to inquire.

J Sl)n ul{~s asks the person for a definition of the relevant central COI1-1 ' 1 ' 1 ' 1 , w hi 'b is then offered.'1'Ilgditcr, Socrates and the respondent (or "co-inquirer" to use Dinkins's1 ( 1 1 1 ) ) ) deduce some consequences of the definition.

d. ,'m:ral, S J oint s out a possib le con flic t be tween the deduced conse-qu ' 1 1 0 s and another belief held by the respondent. The respondent isIlil.:ll g iv en t he choice of rejecting the belief o r the definition.Usually, the respondent rejects the definition, because the belief is too, ntral=-episremically or existential ly-to 'begiven up.

1. A new definition is offered, and the steps are repeated.Research interv iews today tend to be much less agonisti c than thi s; the

l i l t . rv iew subject is commonly regarded as aninformant ora par tner , not as anliP! nent. The interviewer poses questions in order to obtain knowledge aboutt h e I n t er v iew e e 's world, and rarely enters into tenacious arguments about thelogic and truth of what the interviewee says. Moreover, it is normally outsideth e 'cope of research interviews for the interviewer to argue the s trength of hisr her own concep tion of the topic investigated, or to t ry to change the sub-

ject's convict ions . The interviewer is general ly conceived as receptive ratherthan as sertive (Wengraf, 200 1).

From a philosophical perspective, we shall now ask more specifically howwe may understand the kinds of knowledge that conversations can produce. Mostof the knowledge produced in interview research can be said tobe about people'sexperiences, desires, and opinions. To use a word from classical Greek philoso-pby, this kind of knowledge represents doxa. That is, itis about the interview sub-jects ' experiences and opinions, which are often very interesting and important tolearn about, but which-when viewed through the lenses of classical philosophy-rarely const itute knowledge in the sense of episteme (i.e., knowledge that hasbeen found to be valid through conversational and dialectical questioning).

The purpose of the Socratic dialogues was to move the conversat ion par t-ners from doxa to episteme (i.e., from a state of being simply opinionated tobeing capable of questioning and justifying what they believed to be the case)(Brinkmann, 2007a). Thus Socrates demonstrated that Agathon' s opinion ofthe nature of love was unjusti fiable-it was doxa rather than episteme-andAgathon had to admit that he did not know what he was talking about. If wefollow Socrates, qualitative interviews seem to have the potential of being bothdoxast ic and also episternic; that is, they can eli~i t important descr iptions andnarratives of people' s exper iences , narratives, hopes, and dreams (the doxa),but they can also be employed as conversat ional ways of producing episteme,knowledge that has been justified discursively in a conversation.

The interviews conducted by Robert Bellah and his colleagues, asreported in Habits of the Heart (Bellah et al. , 1985) , which we return to a num-ber of times in this book, come close to an episternic interview form in theclassical Socratic sense. In the appendix to their s tudy of North American val-ues and character, the authors spell out their view of social science and itsmethodology, summarized as "socia l science as publ ic philosophy. " Theempir ical material for their book consisted of interviews with more than 200parti cipants, some of whom were interviewed more than once. Inspired bySocratic dialogues, the researchers engaged in what they termed active inter-views with their respondents in order to generate public conversat ion aboutsocie ta l values and goa ls. Such ac tive inte rviews do not necessa rily a im foragreement between interviewer and interviewee, and the interviewer isallowed to quest ion and challenge what the interviewee says. In one examplefrom their book, the interviewer tries to discover at what point the respondentwould take responsibility for another human being:

Q: So what "areyou responsible for?A: I'm responsible for my acts and for what I do.Q: Does that mean you 're respons ible for others, too?A: No.Q: Are you your sister's keeper?A: No.Q: Your brother's keeper?

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No .Are you responsible for your husband?I'm not. He makes his own decis ions . He is his own person. He acts hisown acts. Ian agree with them or Ian disagree with 'them. IfIver findthem nauseous enough, Ihave a responsibility to leave and not deal withit any more.What about children?I...Iwould sayIave a legal responsibility for them, but in a sense Ihink[heyin turn are responsible for their own acts. (Bellah et al. ,1985, p. 304)Ifare, the interviewer repeatedly challenges th~ respondent's' claim of not

I" I t l l ' responsible for other human beings. With the Socratic principles of inter-Ii wlllg in mind, we can see the interviewer pressing for a contradiction between

1 1 1 1 usspondent's definition of responsibility, involving the idea that she is onlyI 11I11\sibleor herself, and her likely feeling of at least some (legal) responsi-I,dIIY for her children. The individualist notion of responsibility is almost driven

1 ,/ absurdum; but her restricted definition of responsibility apparently plays such'I rnlral role in the person's life that she is unwilling to give it up. It can beI I J il l d tha t thi s act ive and Socra tic way of inte rviewing gives us importantuowlcdge primarily about the doxastic individualist beliefs ofAmericans in the1I11t!i hties, and secondarily about the idea of respons ibil ity in a normative- .1'1tumic sense. For most readers would appreciate the above sequence 'as anII'iIJ\I.Cnthat the respondent is wrong-she is responsible for other people,11111'.1learly her children. At the very least, the reader is invited into anepisternicII r ussion, not jus t about private beliefs, but also about cit izenship, vir tue,I prlus ibil ity, and ethics. The authors of Habits of the Heart conclude that1 1 1 1 1 1 I;"poll data" generated by fixed quest ions that "sum up the private opin-1 1 1 1 1 1 1 , " active (and in our terminology, epistemic) interviews "create the possibil-!IV Ii ' public conversation and argument'; (Bellah et al., 1985, p. 305).

II' the introductory chapter to this book, we presented an interviewI 'lounce from Bourdie!l 's (1999) The Weight of the World. Although the1111ll'under discuss ion there was not a universal philosophical issue such asI" .11cor virtue, we clearly see that Bourdieu as the questioner critically chal-I IIl!l~Nthe young men's account . As in some of the Socrat ic dialogues, and the1 1 1 1 ' 1 views done in Bellah' s study, this conversation approaches the form of aIIIinterrogation (Bourdieu confronts the respondents, as in these examples:

~r: I ~'_ '

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~.~

"You are not t ell ing me the whole story ... "; "But that took place during thedaytime, a t night?"). The study reported in The Weight of the World can betaken as an indication that episternic interviews need not be limited to con-ceptual interviews or "elite interviews," like Socrates' conversations with thecit izens of Athens, for "nonelites" are often capable of jus tifying their opin-ions. and beliefs if challenged, and important knowledge sometimes developsfrom challenging respondents to give good reasons (see also the excerpt from.the study .of grading discussed in the first chapter).

We have not introduced the distinction between doxa and episteme inorder to argue that only one of these should be sought in qualitative interviews.On the contra ry, we beli eve that both can favorably be pursued in interviewpractices, according to one's knowledge interests, but i t is probably fair to saythat there has been' in many interview studies a bias toward doxasti c inter-viewing as the bes t way to conduct an interview. That is, texts on quali tative.interv iewing frequently regard the use of confronting quest ions tha t askrespondents to give reasons or ref lect ' on abstract issues as an unfruitful wayof conducting qualitative interviews. We now leave the philosophical discus-sion of episteme and epistemic interviews, but we re turn to the ac tive, con-fronting interview style ' as an alternative to more empathetic and acceptinginterview styles in Chapter 8 on interview variations.

THERAPEUTIC INTERVIEWS AND RESEARCH INTERVIEWSWe shall now compare and contrast the research interview with the emotionalpersonal interaction of therapeutic interviewing.

Car l Rogers was a therapist who pioneered the development.of an open,client-centered interview form, originally termed "non-directive" (Rogers ,1945) and later changed to "client-centered," with the insight that all inter-viewing implies a sense of direction. Rogers was.critical of Freud's theories ofthe unconsc ious and the. specula tive interpre tat ions of psychoanalysi s.Although the theoretical conceptions of client-centered therapy and psycho-analysis differ strongly, the client-centered interview in B ox 2.5 comes fairlyclose to psychoanalytic interview practice. This concerns the intense emo-tional interaction as well as the few and cautious responses of the therapist .The interview was conducted by a counselor applying Rogers' s therapeuticinterview technique, an approach that was .an inspirat ion for the ear ly use of

L~ L Jcu _ HUC Hr::rVJ~ raHUSUj.lrtt(;(.{.t c/uuogues, ana .1 nerapeutic interviews 41

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1 1 1 " " I (il/jllll Ior two minutes. Does not look at counsellor.) You1 1 1 1 1 1 I w nt to come, but I don't! I 'm not coming any more.I I do .sn't do any good. I don't like you. I hate you! I wishYU\ I n vel'were born.Yilil I u s ' ! ' hate me very bitterly.I think I 'l l throw you in the lake. I 'l l cut you up! Youthink11 ' pie likeyou, but they don't . .. Youthink you can attractwomen, but you can't . .. I wish you were dead.u d test me and you'd really l iketo get r id of me.

y , u think myfather did bad things with me, but he didn' t!y , 1. 1 think he wasn't a good man, but he was. Youthink Iwant intercourse, but I don'tYO! . I feel Ia b so lu te ly m i sr ep r es e nt all your thoughts.

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Youthink! haven't been straight,but I have. I hate you. AllI'vehad is pain, pain, pain. Youthink I can't direct myown life,butIcan. Youthink Ican't getwell, but Ican. Youthink I had hal-lucinations, but! didn't. Ihateyou. (Long p a us e . L e an s on deskin strained, e xh a us te d p o se .) Youthink I'm crazy,but I'm not.

r : You're sure Ithink you're crazy.(Pause.) l'rn tied, and Ijust can't get loose! (Despai ring toneof voice/ and tears. Pause.) I had a ha llucination and I'vegot to get i tout !

c:

I knew at the office I had to ge t rid of thi s somewhere.Ifelt Icould corne down andtellyou. Iknewyou'd understand.r couldn't say I hated myself.That'strue but! couldn't 'sayit.SoIjust thought ofall the uglythings Icould say to you instead.The things you felt about yourself you couldn't say,but youcould say them about me.r know we' re getting to rock bottom . ..:

SOURCE: ClientCentered Therapy (P I2: 211- 213), by C. Rogers, 1956, Cambr idge ,MA: HoughtonMifflin.'::

quali tat ive research inte rviews (see Rogers, 1945, on the non-di rec tiveapproach as a method for socia l resea rch, al lowing respondents to expressthemselves freely in the company of an accepting and empathetic researcher).

In this session, the client takes the lead r ight from the s tart , introduces thetheme that is important to her-the de testable counselor-and expresses 'howmuch she hates him. He responds by ref lect ing and rephrasing her s tatements,emphasizing their emo~ional aspects. He does not , as would be likely in a nor-mal conversa tion, take issue with the many accusations against him. In thissequence the counse lor does not ask quest ions for c lari fication, nor does heoffer interpretations. At the end, after "she has got' it all out," the clientacknowledges the counselor's ability to understand her, and she herself offersan interpretation: Iouldn 't say I hated myself , so Iust thought of all the uglythings Icould say to you instead. We may note that the counselor 's interven-t ions were not entirely non-directive; the client introduces several themes-. s uch as not wanting to come to therapy, it does not do her any good andobjecting to the therapist 's bel ief that her father did wrong things with her-whereas the counselor consistently repeats and condenses her negative state-ments about himself, which lead the cli ent to an emotional insight about herself-hatred.

A therapeuti c interview aims at change through an emotional pe rsona linteraction rather than through the logical argumentation used in a philosoph-ical dialogue. The changes sought are not primarily conceptual, but emotionaland personal. Although the main purpose oftherapeutic interviews is to assistpatients in overcoming their suffering, a side effect has been the production ofknowledge about the human situation. Both a therapeutic and a research inter-view may lead to increased understanding and change, but the emphasis is onknowledge produc tion in a resea rch interview and on personal change in atherapeutic interview,-

Although Carl Rogers and Sigmund Freud had different theories ofhuman personality and therapy, with Rogers emphasizing the present and con-scio~s exper ience and Freud the past and the unconscious , their therapeuticpract ices were in several ways rather close. Thus the emotional therapeuticsession above could also have been par t of a psychoanalytic session. The psy-choanalyt ic interview, where knowledge production is not the primary pur-pose, has been the psychological method for providing signifi cant newknowledge about humankind. Freud regarded the therapeutic interview as aresearch method: "It is indeed one of the dis tinctions of psychoanalysis thatresearch and treatment proceed hand in hand" (1963, p. 120 ) .

~ I

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lilli/vidual Case Study. Psychoanalytic therapy is an intensive caseh I ilil idivi dual pat ient s over several years. The extensi ve knowledge of1'111'li t'S l ife wor ld and of his or her past thereby obtained pr ovides thephi with a uni quely ri ch context for interpreting the pati ent's dreams

I ~llllltoms.l it ( '/ ,en Mode of Interview ing. The psychoanalytic interview t akesIII th e st ruct ur ed setti ng of the t herapeuti c hour, t he cont ent I S free

1\1111irect ive; i t is based on psychoanaly tic t heory , yet proceeds in anI ru.nrner. To the pat ient 's free assoc ia tions corresponds the therapist'sIt !, IHM

, 'I~1

sel f-knowledge and change. Diff er ent depths of l ayers of the pat ient 's per -sonal it y a re d is closed, depend ing on the intensi ty of the pa tien t' s emo tionalties to the therapist. The transference of the therapist's own feelings tothe pat ient , t ermed "counter- transf er ence, " i s not eliminated but empl oyedin the therapeut ic p rocess as a ref le cted sub ject iv it y.

Pathology as Topic of Investigation. The subject matter o f psychoanaly tic"therapy is the abnormal and irrational behavior of patients in crisis, theirapparant ly mean ingless and b izar re symptoms and d reams. The pa thologi -cal behavior serves as a magni fyi ng glass f or the less visible confli ct s of aver-age ind ividuals; the neuroses and psychoses a re ex treme versions of no rma )behavior, which are the char acteri st ic expr essions of what has gone wrongin a given culture.

The Instigation of Change. The mut ual i nt er est of pati ent and t herapist is toovercome the pat ient 's suffering from neurotic symptoms. Despi te pat ients hav-ing sought treatment volunt ar ily, t hey exhibit a deeply seat ed resist ance to achange in sel f-unders tand ing and act ion. "The whole theory of psychoanalysisis . , . in fact built up on the perception of the resistance offered to us by thepatient when we attempt to make {the patient's] unconscious conscious"(Freud, 1963, p. 68). Whi le understanding may lead to change , the imp li ci t the -ory of knowledge in psychoanalysis is that a . fundamen ta l understanding of aphenomenon can be obtained by attempting to change the phenomenon.

Box 2.6 shows seven characteristics of th~psychoanalytic interview basedonFreud's writings on the therapeutic technique (see Kvale, 2003). While mainfeatures of the psychoanalytic interview are ethical ly off l imits for researchinterviewing, contemporary interview researchers may still learn from this andother therapeutic fOTITISf interviewing. The psychoanalytic interview is-relatedto, but also contrasts with, the research interview and its mode of understand-ing. The purpose of a therapeutic interview is the facil itat ion of changes in thepatient, and the knowledge acquired from the individual patient is a means forinstigating personality changes. The general knowledge of the human situationgained through the psychoanalytic process is a side effect of helping patientsovercome their neurotic suffering. The intensive personal therapeutic relation-ship Inly open painful, hidden memories an d deeper levels of personality,Wlllvh u ru I un c '(')ss:iblcthl'ollgh a . b rief researc h in terv iew . In a qualitativeIt, lllll'll i111['1h W, IIIl' pill IHIN( 1M 10 ol)llIlll k unwh In oj ' !hu phcnorn lUI invcs-

, I rte,,"urUi Jrl-renJ!,ews, rnuosophlCQt Dialogues, and Therapeutic Interviews 45

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I'''rll' I I I " many problems' with psychoanalysis as a research method, andIIH l ililliln: sratns of psychoanalytic knowledge is contested (see, e.g., Fisher, I : , ~ III; nil . 1'1,,1(77). Yet, i t is a continuing paradox that the therapeutic inter-vl-w, which has not been accepted as a sc ient ifi c method and for which gen-( '1111IOltJwlouge production i s a sid~ effect, has produced some of the mostvlnlr lckucwledge in the discipline of psychology. Psychoanalysis is the onebruncl. of psychology that, more than a century after i ts inception, s ti ll has astroug professional impact on psychotherapy and continues to be of interest toll.!> 't:.llera'i public, to other sciences, and to philosophers, Central areas of cur-l' III psych J gy textbooks are based on knowledge originally obtainedthr ugh the psychoanalytic interview regarding dreams and neuroses, sexual-i ty . childhood development and personali ty , anxiety and motivat ion, and theunconscious forces.

Despite the significant knowledge production of psychoanalytic therapy,in textbooks of psychological methods, the majo r method by which psycho- .ana lyt ic knowledge is obtained-the psychoanalytic in terview-is absent .Though generally critical of the speculative and reductionist trends of psycho-analytic theory, philosophers have ref lected on the unique nature of the per-sonal interaction in the psychoanalytic interview and its potentials for personalchange as well as i ts contr ibutions to knowledge about the human situation,Among the philosophical texts addressing psychoanalysis are Sartre's (1963)exi st ent ial mediation on psychoanalysis and Marxism in The Problem ofMethod; Ricoeur's(l970) phenomenological and hermeneutical Freud andPhilosophy: An Essay on Interpretation; and Haberrnas's (1971) criticalhermeneut ical ana lysis of psychoanalysi s as a mode l for an emanc ipa torysocial science in Knowledge and Human Interests.

Despite the radical differences between research interviews and psycho-analytic interviews-s-ethically and methodologically, it is possible for researchinterviewers to learn from the modes of questioning and interpreting developedin therapeutic interviews. The development of the free association interview byHollway and Jefferson (2000) is a recent case in point These researchers arguethat quali tative interviewers always have an explici t or implici t theory of thesubject , and their theory is based on. the psychoanalytic idea of "the defendedsubject." They believe that "subjects are motivated not to know certain aspectsof themselves and . . they produce biographical accounts which avoid suehknowledge" (p, 169). Thus, in order to interpret the subjects' free associations,researchers should be familiar with .psychoanalytic theory.

In the preceding chapter we men