LAWS6032 Chap.7 Interviews and Qualitative Analysis
Interviews and Qualitative Analysis
Interviews produce situated accounts shaped by recruitment, question structure, setting and the relationship between researcher and participant. This chapter compares structured, semi-structured and unstructured formats, explains purposive sampling and continuing consent, and follows an analytic trail from excerpt to code, category, theme and interpretation.
Qualitative depth is preserved without turning interview frequency into population prevalence.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Structured, semi-structured and unstructured interviews
- 02
Open questions, probes and neutral wording
- 03
Purposive sampling and information-rich cases
- 04
Gatekeepers and recruitment beyond current service users
- 05
Power, distress and continuing consent
- 06
Transcription, familiarisation and coding
- 07
Categories, themes and negative cases
- 08
Reflexivity and a transparent analytic trail
Developing a theme about service accessibility
- +2Code scheduling, mobility, trust and service communication separately before combining them.
- +2Develop conditional accessibility as a theme explaining how practical access depends on perceived safety and support.
- +2Retain negative cases in which high transport cost did not prevent attendance because a trusted worker assisted.
- +2Conclude that barriers interact in this sample rather than claiming that cost causes disengagement across the population.
Key terms
- Semi-structured interview
- A guided conversation using common topics while allowing tailored probes and participant-led detail.
- Purposive sampling
- Deliberate selection of cases because they can illuminate a relevant experience, contrast or process.
- Interview probe
- A neutral follow-up that invites clarification, example, sequence or meaning without supplying the answer.
- Qualitative code
- A concise analytic label attached to a segment of data to record a relevant idea, action or meaning.
- Theme
- A patterned interpretation that explains something important about the research question across the dataset.
- Negative case
- Evidence that does not fit an emerging interpretation and is used to refine its conditions or boundaries.
- Reflexivity
- Systematic examination of how the researcher, relationship and setting shape data and interpretation.
Interviews and Qualitative Analysis FAQ
How should I choose an interview structure?
Choose based on the balance between comparability and exploratory depth. Structured interviews support consistent responses, semi-structured interviews combine a common guide with probing, and unstructured interviews allow participant direction but require a clear rationale and careful analysis.
Can interview research be generalisable?
Interview research can support conceptual or mechanism-based transfer when cases, setting and analytic logic are clear. It usually does not estimate population frequencies without a probability-based design. The proposal should state the intended form of inference rather than using generalisable as a single yes-or-no label.
What is the difference between a code and a theme?
A code labels a relevant segment, such as transport cost or confidentiality concern. A theme is a broader patterned interpretation explaining how codes relate to the question, such as conditional accessibility. Themes require comparison, context and attention to cases that do not fit.
Why is reflexivity part of method?
The interviewer affects access, disclosure and interpretation through identity, role, assumptions and conduct. Reflexivity documents those effects, examines how they may shape evidence and helps the reader assess the route from conversation to claim.
How do I select quotations responsibly?
Choose quotations that provide evidence for an interpretation rather than merely sounding vivid. Preserve enough context for meaning, examine whether the excerpt is typical or exceptional, remove unnecessary identifying detail and explain how the quotation connects to coding, themes and negative cases.
Assessment move
Draft an interview guide with one opening invitation, several topic prompts and neutral probes for example, sequence and meaning. Remove questions that presume harm, unfairness or success before participants answer. For sampling practice, identify which contrast matters to the research question, such as completers and non-completers or staff and service users, then design recruitment that can actually reach both.
Code a short paragraph at two levels: descriptive content and interpretive process. Group codes into a tentative theme, then search for a negative case and revise the theme's boundary. Write a reflexive memo explaining how the researcher's role could affect disclosure. Finish each qualitative answer with the precise inference: what experience or mechanism the analysis illuminates and which population claim it does not make.
Rehearse consent as a conversation rather than a document, including what happens if a participant pauses, becomes distressed or reveals third-party information. After each mock interview, note which probes opened detail and which supplied assumptions. Compare two coding interpretations and identify whether disagreement concerns the excerpt, code definition or broader theme.
Preserve an analytic memo that records why categories were combined and how negative cases altered the account. When selecting quotations, choose evidence that advances analysis and remove unnecessary detail that could identify participants.
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