Week 3: Question 1

The last time I had to conduct a research interview was in my senior year of high school. The topic of my research was the effects of stress on teens, and I had to interview one doctor as well as the high school’s psychologist. I believe that both interviews I had went generally well. I asked fairly open ended questions where I would get more then a “yes” or “no” answer, and with those questions the interviewees could really open up and speak their mind about the question giving me more information. The thing that I wish I would have done both times was to tape record the interview. I tried to take notes using a pen and pad and I quickly found that the interviewees had more to say then I could keep up with. I remember having to sit down after the interview and go back though my notes trying to patch holes so that I had most of the main points down. If I had used a tape recorded, I could have probably spent less time trying to recall and remember facts.

When conducting another research interview, my 2 cents of advise would be to generate open ended questions where you don’t box the interviewee into a simple “yes” or “no”, forcing you to move onto the next interview question. I believe that when they can talk for at least a minute trying to answer the question, you get much more information out of it. And last but not lease, ask to see if you can record the conversation…it saves the hand!