Interview Training

Introduction: My background is Psychology. I have been doing human subject interviewing professionally since 1997. I have done interviews with many different populations. Adults and children, “normal” people and those who are struggling with various diagnoses.

On the surface, interviewing looks easy: just walk in, ask some questions, get some answers and leave. In reality, interviewing is often frustrating, exhausting and emotionally draining. Every day is different, and you never know what it will be like until you are in the middle of it. Even if you have interviewed the same participant before, you don’t know what they are going to be like today. Some participants are happy to see you, and will want to talk to you, often outside of the scope of the interview you are trying to do. Some participants will be very unhappy to see you, will not want to answer your questions and may take their frustrations out on you. You may get yelled at, you may have to deal with people crying. You may get lucky, and just have a regular, ordinary day, but you need to be prepared and know what to do if things don’t turn out that way.

What the participant needs:

  1. to feel comfortable
  2. to feel listened to
  3. to feel like you are having a conversation
  4. to feel appreciated

What you need:

  1. to be consistent
  2. to collect accurate data
  3. to not have to spend too much time

The trick in interviewing is to set up a rapport with the participant that makes them feel like their needs are being met while making sure that your needs and the needs of the research study are being met. The relationship is quite different from that between a clinician and a patient because the participant is not speaking with you because they hope to get anything from you, rather the other way around. Participants are volunteers (even if they receive compensation) and therefore need to be thought of in that light.

Establishing Rapport

  1. First impressions matter. Consider your audience and make sure you dress appropriately to the situation. Remember that if the participant is busy thinking about what you are wearing/look like then they are not giving their full attention to the interview questions.
  2. Be prepared. Have everything you need organized beforehand. You don’t want to be worrying about having your materials ready while trying to establish the initial rapport.
  3. Make eye contact. Lots of eye contact.
  4. Be open and friendly. Pay attention to the pitch and tone of your voice.
  5. Introduce yourself. Use the participant’s title or refer to them by Mrs., Ms. or Mr. If they ask you to use first names, then it is OK, but ere on the side of being overly respectful.
  6. Don’t speak too quickly or too slowly. Try and match the speed of your speech to theirs. Be sure to speak loudly (without yelling – unless necessary) and to enunciate clearly.
  7. Respond to what the participant says to you. Especially in the beginning you need to make sure that the participant feels you are engaged and interested in them as a person. Use follow up questions. For instance, if the participant starts off with “It sure is hot today”, agree and then ask if they prefer the heat to the cold, or ask if they have been enjoying the weather lately.
  8. Use your body language to communicate interest. Lean slightly forward in your seat. Don’t cross your arms. Don’t check your watch or cell phone or play with the papers on your clipboard.
  9. Be sensitive and observant. Look for clues to how this person likes to be treated and how they are feeling today. Do they like to joke around? Are they very focused on a particular concern or problem today? Are they easily intimidated? Are they shy? Are they very outgoing? What kind of pace do they like to take things? Do they have somewhere they would rather be and just want to get this over with? Being aware of all these things will help you create the most effective interview situation.
  10. Be ready to tell the participant a little about yourself. You don’t need to open with this, but it is likely that they will ask. Offer a little bit of information to see if they would like to know more. Using our earlier example, let’s say you have had a conversation opener about the heat today, then you might say that where you grew up was much colder/hotter or that you are used to this weather because you are from around here. This leaves it up to the participant if they want to pursue learning some more about you. Most likely they will ask you some follow up questions. You don’t have to tell all your deepest darkest secrets, but remember you will be asking this person to tell you potentially very personal information. Participants usually feel more comfortable sharing if they feel they know at least a little bit about you.

Structured Vs. Unstructured Interview Questionnaires

There are 2 basic types of questionnaires or interview types you are likely to encounter. Structured questionnaires are a very precise list of questions that need to be asked verbatim and that usually (but not always) have limited choices for participant responses. Unstructured questionnaires leave more room for conversation type interaction and usually allow the participant more freedom in terms of response choices. Some interviews are a combination of both structured questionnaires and unstructured questionnaires.

Structured Questionnaires

Structured questionnaires are questionnaires that have usually been developed and tested and are meant to be administered exactly as written. They usually start with some form of standard introduction, such as “This questionnaire will ask about how you have been feeling in the last couple of weeks. Please give the answer that best represents how you have been feeling using the scale listed below. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions.” You are meant to read this passage exactly the same way to each participant. The questions are then read verbatim to the participant, and the participant is asked to pick an answer from the choices made available. The idea is that each participant gets, as much as possible, the same experience and interprets the questions to mean the same thing. There are very good reasons to do this. Statistically, this is very powerful and allows the researcher to be more confident in their conclusions. The problem is that this does not feel natural to the participant because human beings do not tend to interact or think in this way. Participants often want clarification regarding items or wish to provide an answer outside of the provided scale. This puts the interviewer into a difficult position. How do you make sure the participant understands the question without giving them a different experience from any other participant? Some questionnaires will actually spell out for you what to do in this situation. They will give you a second statement that you can read, or tell you you can prompt using a certain phrase. Most questionnaires, unfortunately, do not. If a participant asks you to clarify a question, ask them what they think it means. If they are pretty close to the meaning of the question, then ask them to answer using that meaning. If they are not, provide the shortest response you can think of that will take them to the correct meaning. This means you want to feel very comfortable with the scales you are administering. Make sure you know what the questions mean before you ask them of a participant. If the participant wants to provide answers outside of the scale provided for responses, this is where you need to get a little tough and let the participant know that you need them to respond using the scale. You can sympathize with them a bit that this may be frustrating, but it is necessary for the study. If they really feel that they can’t respond to an item with the responses available, then offer to let them skip that question and make a note for yourself that that question should be recorded as missing data. In most studies, missing data for a few points is better than no data because the person drops out of the study due to frustration.

Unstructured Questionnaires

Unstructured questionnaires often include open ended questions and or a list of guiding questions. This type of questionnaire usually allows the participant to respond in their own words. In terms of interviewing, this is often slightly easier because it feels more natural and provides a conversation type environment.

What to do if someone is yelling at you or crying.

Don’t say “I know how you feel”. Do acknowledge that they are distressed. I like to stick with things like “I can see that this is very upsetting for you” or “I can understand that that would be upsetting”. It’s OK to let them see that you empathize. Don’t try and understand, just let them tell you how they feel. When doing interviews, you are usually not there as a clinician, do not offer advice, do not try and help (unless person is actively suicidal or a danger to themselves or others, in which case your study should have a procedure and you should follow it). You can ask if they have spoken to someone else about how they feel and suggest that they do so.

Things to avoid in general

  1. “I know what you mean”. You do not ever know what the participant means. You have not had their life experiences. You may agree with statements to keep the flow of conversation, but avoid using language that links your experiences to theirs.
  2. Talking about yourself, after the initial “get to know you” the interview should be all about the participant. If they ask you a question about yourself, by all means answer it briefly if you would like to, you don’t want to offend them by ignoring them, but try and keep the focus on the participant and away from you.
  3. Letting the participant get too far off topic or talk too long about non study related things. The first few minutes should allow for some freedom in conversation to build rapport, but after that initial period is over feel free to redirect the conversation to the question at hand. If necessary, you can tell the participant that you would like to hear about whatever it is they are talking about, but that you need to get the interview done first. Let them know that you will have time to listen to them talk about whatever it is at the end of the interview.
  4. Getting offended or upset by something the participant says. Some participants will try and goad you on purpose, others may just be insensitive or they may not realize that what they are saying might be offensive to someone. You getting upset and letting your feelings intrude on the interview will only delay the interview and possibly upset the participant. If you feel you are at risk of being harmed, that’s a different situation and you should get out of there as quickly and safely as possible (your study should have a safety procedure).