Interview

Interview.

The interview is a type of survey takes many forms ranging from strict formal interview to the completely open-ended or unstructured interview in which the interviewer actually changes a mode of a question in the hope of getting a deeper understanding of issues under investigation. In a case of strict formal interview or structural interview, the interviewer follows the instructions provided by the researcher strictly and in no way varies the procedures or help the respondents informing and verbalising his respondent. The structural interview provides uniform information which assures the comparability of data.

The fewer interviewing skills required in structural interviewing whereas compared as that of unstructured interviewing.

The main task of the interviewing.

Two main tasks of an interviewer /field worker are.

1. Finding the sample element.
2. Obtaining an interview.

1. Finding the sample element.

The persons to be interviewed are the sample element. Their selection depends on much upon the population list available and the type of sampling used for the study. In many cases, the sample member is prefixed at the central survey office itself. The interviewers will be provided with the list of such persons with their name, address, sex, and a Map of the locality of their residence . The interviewer has to contact this person as specified, therefore, has no freedom in selecting the sample membrane.

However, often it happens that the list prepared at the office may not correspond with the actual situation at a field since many members might be missing due to blanks, deaths, out-migration and addition due to in –migration etc. In such situation, the interviewer has to select the sample members at the field level himself. The interviewer has to select respondent by using the random sampling technique from maps.

Obtaining an interview.

Having located the respondents, the interviewer has to start with interviewing. But before eliciting the information, there are certain preliminary acts to be done to make the whole process of interviewing pleasant and smooth. Some steps to be followed are.

1. Introduction.
2. Talking.
3. Confidentiality.
4. Selection of respondents.

1. Introduction.

The act to introduce one’s self-starting.

1. One’s Name and Name of the organisation conducting the survey.
2. The purpose of the interview.
3. Coverage of the study.
4. Expected time of completing the interview.

2. Talking.

The rapport with the respondent should are to be developed on the basis of honest talk. There should be implying that the survey will lead directly or indirectly to concrete benefits.

3. Confidentiality.

When the survey answer is to be treated as confidential or anonymous, this should be made clear to the respondents.

4. Selection of the respondents.

It is often worth explaining in simple terms, how the sample is selected and the respondents selected for the study.

Informal interview.

In many cases instead of formal interviews informal interviews have to be taken. The need of such interviewers arises because the standardisation of formal interviewing is not sufficient to ensure that the question has the same meaning for all respondents.

An informal interview is an unstructured interview I,e is neither controlled nor guided. The main characteristics of this type of interviewing are that no direct or pre-determined questions are used. However, the interviewer may have some broad topics upon which the information has to be collected. An informal interview is held in the form of the free decision or stray type narration. Some instances example when such interviewer are to conducted are.

1. When pilot studies are undertaken in order to get an idea of the phenomenon under the study.

A contact is made with the respondent and the different aspects of the problem under the study are discusses with him. Respondents opinions and suggestion are noted.

2. When reaction and feeling of the respondents about some emotional incidents are to be studied.

In this case, the reply cannot be one sentence abruptly. This method helps the respondents to reach the situation of being able to narrate the incident.

3. When the changes in mood and gesture are to be studied.

To study the changes in the gestures and physical expression and to see how a person physically reacts to certain circumstance, it can be best studied by this method.

4. When a report is to be prepared by an action planning mission.

When an immediate preliminary reporting is needed for taking the courses for future actions by the government and doctor Agencies, an expert term interviewer some of the personnel who are involved directly or have knowledge of related matter of the subject matter under investigation.

Supervisor.

Supervision of the interviewer taken is essential to detect bad work and to keep the field worker up to the mark. Mobile field staffs called supervisors are employed Usually a supervision is designed for a specific spatial region of the field work.

Some tasks of supervisors.

1. To work as a liaison person between field and the head office.
2. To make briefly locally.
3. To direct the sample selection if this is done from local list.
4. To assign the interviewer of their sample assignment.
5. To check the interviewing on the spot.
6. To check if the respondent has been contacted and interviewed.\
7. To check the filled up schedules and if any incompleteness or inconsistent are found, to direct the interviewers for the re-interviewing the same respondent.
8. To provide the alternative for missing non-respondents in order to keep the sample size at desired level.

Reference.

Kerlinger, F.N. Foundation of Behavioural Research. New Delhi: Surjeet Publication, 2000.

Kothari, C.R. Research Methodology. India: Vishwa Prakashan, 1990.

Singh, M.L. and J.M Singh. Understanding Research Methodology. 1998.

Singh, Mrigendra Lal. Understanding Research Methodology. Nepal: National Book centre, 2013.