Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 RESEARCH PROCESS
- 2 THEORY AND METHOD
- 3 RESEARCH DESIGN
- 4 MEASUREMENT
- 5 ETHICAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES
- 6 SAMPLING
- 7 SURVEY RESEARCH
- 8 INTENSIVE INTERVIEWING
- 9 OBSERVATIONAL FIELD RESEARCH
- 10 FEMINIST METHODS
- 11 HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
- 12 EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
- 13 CONTENT ANALYSIS
- 14 AGGREGATE DATA ANALYSIS
- 15 COMPARATIVE RESEARCH METHODS
- 16 EVALUATION RESEARCH
- 17 INDEXES AND SCALES
- 18 BASIC STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
- 19 MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS AND STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
- EPILOGUE: THE VALUE AND LIMITS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE
- Appendix A A Precoded Questionnaire
- Appendix B Excerpt from a Codebook
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- References
8 - INTENSIVE INTERVIEWING
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 RESEARCH PROCESS
- 2 THEORY AND METHOD
- 3 RESEARCH DESIGN
- 4 MEASUREMENT
- 5 ETHICAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES
- 6 SAMPLING
- 7 SURVEY RESEARCH
- 8 INTENSIVE INTERVIEWING
- 9 OBSERVATIONAL FIELD RESEARCH
- 10 FEMINIST METHODS
- 11 HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
- 12 EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
- 13 CONTENT ANALYSIS
- 14 AGGREGATE DATA ANALYSIS
- 15 COMPARATIVE RESEARCH METHODS
- 16 EVALUATION RESEARCH
- 17 INDEXES AND SCALES
- 18 BASIC STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
- 19 MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS AND STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
- EPILOGUE: THE VALUE AND LIMITS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE
- Appendix A A Precoded Questionnaire
- Appendix B Excerpt from a Codebook
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
In the last chapter on survey research, the focus was on asking the right questions and getting them put down on the printed page (or the Web-based medium) in a clear and concise way. Much of the research imagination employed in survey research occurs before data are actually collected and is apparent in the overall design of a survey, the operationalization of variables, and the wording of the specific questions to be asked. In this chapter, the focus is on intensive interviewing, a technique in which, by contrast, appropriate questions are often determined as data are being collected. This means that creativity and spontaneous decision making are integrated at every step of the research process. In this up-close, conversational technique, clarity of communication is a mutual effort between the researcher and those being studied.
Interviewing is increasingly well established as a methodological alternative that can help us explore what to ask and how to ask it. Sometimes such information is used only to formulate structured questionnaires for surveys, but interviews are also immensely valuable in their own right. There are many research challenges for which intensive interviewing is the ideal investigative technique. Let us look at one example. Beyond a few memoirs (Delong and Petrini, 2001; A. C. Gray, 2003), not much is known sociologically about female crime-fighters – private investigators, police detectives, and FBI agents. We do know that relatively few women engage in these traditionally male-dominated occupations. How could we study them?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Research ImaginationAn Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Methods, pp. 151 - 178Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007