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8 - INTENSIVE INTERVIEWING

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Paul S. Gray ,
John B. Williamson ,
David A. Karp  and
John R. Dalphin
Paul S. Gray
Affiliation:
Boston College, Massachusetts
John B. Williamson
Affiliation:
Boston College, Massachusetts
David A. Karp
Affiliation:
Boston College, Massachusetts
John R. Dalphin
Affiliation:
Merrimack College, Massachusetts
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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 Imagination
An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
 , pp. 151 - 178
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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