Steinar Kvale

Interviews
An Introduction
to Qualitative
Research
Interviewing

SAGE Publications
International Educational and Professional Publisher
Thousand Oaks London New Delhi
 Contents

List of Boxes, Figures, and Tables xi

Acknowledgments xiii
Preface xv

PART I: Introduction 1
1. Interviewing as Research 3,
The Interviewer as a Miner or as a Traveler 3
Conversation as Research 5
Interview Research in the Social Sciences 8
Theoretical Issues 10
Methodological Issues 12
Overview of the Book 13

PART II: Conceptualizing the Research Interview 17

2. The Interview as a Conversation 19
Knowledge as Conversation 19
 Socrates’ Philosophical Dialogue on Love 21
A Therapeutic Interview on Hate 24
A Research Interview on Learning 27
The Mode of Understanding in the Qualitative
Research Interview 29
Interviews in Three Conversations 36
3. Postmodern Thought, Hermeneutics,
Phenomenology, and Dialectics 38
Postmodern Construction 41
Hermeneutical Interpretation 46
Phenomenological Description 52
Dialectical Situating 55
Philosophy and Interviews 57
4. Qualitative Research in Science and in Practice 59
The Scientific Status of the Interview 59
Positivism 61
Objectivity in Qualitative Research 64
Qualitative and Quantitative Research 66
Qualitative Market Research 70
Feminism and Qualitative Research 72
Psychoanalytical Knowledge Production 74
Psychoanalysis as a Research Method 74
Therapeutic Research Between Scylla and Charybdis 79

PARI 111: The Seven Stages of an Interview

Investigation 81
5. Thematizing and Designing an Interview Study 83
Openness and Emotions in Interview Studies 83
The Seven Stages of Interview Research 87
Interviews About Grades 89
Thematizing 94
Content 95
Purpose 97
 Designing 98
The Temporal Dimension 99
Interview Forms 101
How Many Interview Subjects Do I Need? 101
Resources Available 103
When Not to Interview 104
From Method to Craftsmanship 105
6. Ethical Issues in Interview Inquiries 109
Ethical Issues at Seven Research Stages 110
Ethical Guidelines 110
Ethical Codes 110
Informed Consent 112
Confidentiality 114
Consequences 7 ,116
The Role of the Researcher 117
Ethical Issues at the Start of a Study 118
Ethical Theories 120
7. The Interview Situation 124
The Interview Conversation 124
Framing the Interview 127
The Interview Guide 129
Interview Questions 131
An Interview About Grades 136
8. The Quality of the Interview 144
Interview Quality 144
The Interview Subject 146
Interviewer Qualifications 147
Hamlet’s Interview 151
The Ethics of Interviewing 153
Leading Questions - 157
9. From Speech to Text 160
Recording Interviews 160
 Transcription Reliability and Validity 163
Oral and Written Language 166
Transcribing Interviews 168
Computer Tools for Interview Analysis 173
10. The 1,000-Page Question 176
Dismiss or Interpret the 1,000-Page Question? 176
What Does the 1,000-Page Question Mean? 177
“Have”—Too Late! 177
“1,000 Pages”—Too Much! 178
“How”—Ask “What” and “Why” First 179
“Method” Versus Knowledge 180
“Transcripts”—Beware! 182
“Collected” Versus Coauthored 183
“Analyze” Versus Narrate 184
Method of Analysis 185
11. Methods of Analysis 187
Steps of Analysis 187
Approaches to Interview Analysis 188
Meaning Condensation 193
Meaning Categorization ~ 196
Meaning Structuring Through Narratives 199
Meaning Interpretation 201
Ad Hoc Meaning Generation 203
Issues of Analysis 204
Control of Analysis 207
12. The Plurality of Interpretations 210
The Primacy of the Question 210
Questions Posed to an Interview Text 213
Three Contexts of Interpretation 213
Three Communities of Validation 217
Interpretation of Content or of Person 218
 Production of an Invalid Understanding 221
The Consequences of an Invalid Understanding 222
Questions Put to Texts 223
The Quest for “The Real Meaning” 225
13. The Social Construction of Validity 229
The Trinity of Generalizability, Reliability, and Validity 229
Generalizability 231
Reliability and Validity of Interviews 235
Validity in Modern and Postmodern Contexts 236
Validity as Quality of Craftsmanship 241
Communicative Validity 244
Pragmatic Validity 248
Validity of the Validity Question 251
14. Improving Interview Reports 253
Boring Interview Reports 253
Investigating With the Final Report in Mind 256
Writing for the Readers 258
Ethics of Reporting 259
Improving Standard Modes of Reporting 262
Standard Structure of a Report 262
Method 262
Results 262
Writing as Social Construction 268
Enriching Interview Reports 271
Journalistic Interviews 271
Dialogues 272
Therapeutic Case Histories _ 273
Narratives 274
Metaphors 274
Visualizing . 275
Modes of Presentation in the Present Book 276
PART IV: Conclusion 277
15. Conversations About Interviews 279
Reception of Interview Studies 279
Ten Standard Objections to Interview Research 281
Internal Critiques of Interview Research 291
Conversations About Conversations 295

References 299

Author Index 307

Subject Index 311

About the Author 326