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Interviews in the social sciences

Nature Reviews Methods Primers volume 2, Article number: 73 (2022) Cite this article

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Abstract

In-depth interviews are a versatile form of qualitative data collection used by researchers across the social sciences. They allow individuals to explain, in their own words, how they understand and interpret the world around them. Interviews represent a deceptively familiar social encounter in which people interact by asking and answering questions. They are, however, a very particular type of conversation, guided by the researcher and used for specific ends. This dynamic introduces a range of methodological, analytical and ethical challenges, for novice researchers in particular. In this Primer, we focus on the stages and challenges of designing and conducting an interview project and analysing data from it, as well as strategies to overcome such challenges.

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Fig. 1: How to develop a topic guide arc.
Fig. 2: The iterative nature of analysing interview data.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the MY421 team and students for prompting how best to frame and communicate issues pertinent to in-depth interview studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Methodology, London School of Economics, London, UK

    Eleanor Knott, Aliya Hamid Rao, Kate Summers & Chana Teeger

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  1. Eleanor Knott
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  2. Aliya Hamid Rao
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The authors contributed equally to all aspects of the article.

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Correspondence to Eleanor Knott.

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Nature Reviews Methods Primers thanks Jonathan Potter and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Glossary

Topic guide

A pre-written interview outline for a semi-structured interview that provides both a topic structure and the ability to adapt flexibly to the content and context of the interview and the interaction between the interviewer and participant. Others may refer to the topic guide as an interview protocol.

Sample

Here we refer to the participants that take part in the study as the sample. Other researchers may refer to the participants as a participant group or dataset.

Stratified sampling

This involves dividing a population into smaller groups based on particular characteristics, for example, age or gender, and then sampling randomly within each group.

Purposive sampling

A sampling method where the guiding logic when deciding who to recruit is to achieve the most relevant participants for the research topic, in terms of being rich in information or insights.

Snowball sampling

Researchers ask participants to introduce the researcher to others who meet the study’s inclusion criteria.

Quota sampling

Similar to stratified sampling, but participants are not necessarily randomly selected. Instead, the researcher determines how many people from each category of participants should be recruited. Recruitment can happen via snowball or purposive sampling.

Thematic analysis

A method for developing, analysing and interpreting patterns across data by coding in order to develop themes.

Discourse analysis

An approach that interrogates the explicit, implicit and taken-for-granted dimensions of language as well as the contexts in which it is articulated to unpack its purposes and effects.

Intelligent verbatim

A form of transcription that simplifies what has been said by removing certain verbal and non-verbal details that add no further meaning, such as ‘ums and ahs’ and false starts.

Deductive approach

The analytic framework, theoretical approach and often hypotheses, are developed prior to examining the data and then applied to the dataset.

Inductive approach

The analytic framework and theoretical approach is developed from analysing the data.

Abductive approach

An approach that combines deductive and inductive components to work recursively by going back and forth between data and existing theoretical frameworks (also described as an iterative approach). This approach is increasingly recognized not only as a more realistic but also more desirable third alternative to the more traditional inductive versus deductive binary choice.

Bourdieusian theory

A theoretical apparatus that emphasizes the role of cultural processes and capital in (intergenerational) social reproduction.

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Knott, E., Rao, A.H., Summers, K. et al. Interviews in the social sciences. Nat Rev Methods Primers 2, 73 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-022-00150-6

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