Deck 11: In-Depth Interviewing

Question 1

Dr.Ellin conducts a cognitive interview regarding retirees and gardening.Dr.Ellin asks the interviewee to

A)garden in the morning,and come to a focus group in the afternoon.
B)garden in a controlled setting where Dr.Ellin can observe.
C)discuss survey questions while taking a survey about gardening.
D)take a computerized response test that measures cognitive capacity.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

When StoryCorps collects oral histories,the goal is to

A)preserve the stories of individual people.
B)interpret the human life course.
C)develop generalizations that hold true across most of the histories.
D)refine sociological hypotheses.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which topic is best suited for in-depth interviewing?

A)how people feel about technology in their workplaces
B)how frequently people check Facebook during the workday
C)the rate at which software changes typically happen in corporations
D)whether people use their phones while in the bathroom

Answer 3

A

Question 4

In a study of the U.S.Census,informants would be ________,whereas respondents would be ________.

A)noncitizens;U.S.citizens
B)U.S.Census statisticians;any U.S.citizens
C)participants in structured interviews;participants in focus groups
D)those who have opinions but not direct experience;those with both opinions and direct experience

Question 5

FrameWorks Institute conducts in-depth interview research about social and scientific issues.What question is best suited for an in-depth interview approach?

A)How is this rally typical of other rallies?
B)What motivates people to participate in rallies?
C)How have rallies changed over time?
D)Are protest rallies happening more frequently?

Question 6

Before interviewing 10 individuals about their approaches to pet care,Devon prepares an interview schedule by

A)organizing the contact information for each individual.
B)setting interview times and places that are equivalent.
C)writing a list of questions he will use in the interviews.
D)filling out all relevant Institutional Review Board forms.

Question 7

Sherry conducts in-depth interviews about how campers adjust to rainy conditions.Her sample was not based on a probability sample;therefore,she CANNOT know

A)what campers actually do;she only knows what they say they do.
B)the true thoughts and feelings of the campers.
C)whether her findings are true of all campers.
D)whether a focus group approach would have yielded different findings.

Question 8

A sampling strategy in which cases are deliberately selected on the basis of certain features is ________ sampling.

A)snowball
B)qualitative
C)purposive
D)range

Question 9

Dushawn conducts an oral history with Leon,an 80-year-old man from Miami.Dushawn's goal is to

A)understand the human life course.
B)preserve the details of Leon's life.
C)develop a hypothesis about social change in Miami.
D)select themes and details that contribute to a sociological theory.

Question 10

How are focus groups typically conducted?

A)A quantitative researcher gathers survey data from groups of people.
B)One or two research participants are trained to facilitate the group,while the researchers observe from a neutral setting apart from the group.
C)The researcher serves as moderator,guiding the group members as they discuss the topic.
D)The researcher observes a group that is doing a highly focused activity,such as an engineering task.

Question 11

Surveys are more ________;in-depth interviews are more________.

A)scientific;persuasive
B)structured;flexible
C)reliable;valid
D)political;social

Question 12

Life history interviews are designed for ________,whereas oral histories are for ________.

A)research;preserving the past
B)journalism;science
C)individuals;groups
D)unstructured formats;structured formats

Question 13

Sue interviews medical billing specialists about how changes to health-care law will affect their work.Because they are specialists,these interviewees are considered

A)oral history participants.
B)respondents.
C)research subjects.
D)informants.

Question 14

In an unstructured interview,the interviewer comes to the interview with

A)a detailed interview schedule.
B)a list of topics to discuss,but not specific questions.
C)a group of individuals to interview.
D)ideas in mind,but nothing written down.

Question 15

How are oral history interviews regarded by Institutional Review Boards? Oral history interviews

A)must be carefully reviewed because people are sharing intimate details of their lives.
B)do not need review because they do not contribute to generalizable knowledge.
C)must be reviewed if the subject matter is sensitive.
D)do not need review because the interviewee is in control of what he or she shares.

Question 16

When Glen Elder conducted life history interviews with individuals who grew up during the Great Depression,his goal was to

A)preserve individual life stories.
B)pretest questions that could be used in a longitudinal quantitative study.
C)understand the effects of economic adversity.
D)establish trust so people would agree to join a focus group.

Question 17

A researcher might choose to use a cognitive interview to

A)understand the rational processes used by interviewees.
B)eliminate physical and emotional dimensions of a topic.
C)pretest possible survey questions.
D)see the dynamics of group conversation.

Question 18

In-depth interviewing is a research method that results in detailed understanding of an interviewee's

A)observable behaviors.
B)fit with a larger social group.
C)experiences,thoughts,and feelings.
D)past,present,and future.

Question 19

Ella uses purposive sampling in her study of male weightlifters.She:

A)contacts all the males at her college,giving each an equal chance to be selected.
B)asks one weightlifter to introduce her to others who may be willing to be interviewed.
C)goes to a gym and asks male weightlifters to be in her study.
D)uses a quantitative survey to determine the prevalence of weightlifting in the male population.

Question 20

With which interview format does this question fit: "Did you drink water after exercising?"

A)structured interview
B)semi-structured interview
C)unstructured interview
D)focus group

Question 21

Which sampling method is MOST common for in-depth interviews?

A)purposive sampling
B)sampling for range
C)snowball sampling
D)random sampling

Question 22

Karina develops a mixed-method study,so she

A)conducts a large-scale survey and follows up with in-depth interviews with some respondents.
B)embeds an oral history interview within a scientific framework to make it generalizable.
C)mixes the principles of probability sampling and purposive sampling.
D)asks interviewees to serve as both respondent and informant.

Question 23

Which experience of "trial and error" helped Mary Waters develop stronger interview questions regarding West Indian immigrant experiences?

A)conducting an interview without an interview schedule,and then developing a schedule for the next interview
B)asking questions that did not elicit strong responses,and then rewording the questions for more effective responses
C)seeking interviewees through purposive sampling,and then switching to snowball sampling
D)starting an interview as an oral history,but then shifting it to a life history approach that is more scientific and generalizable

Question 24

By working to the point of saturation,Patrick Carr and Maria Kefalas learned about what it is like to grow up in rural America.They expected to find differences between young adults that stay and those that leave to seek better lives.Their interviews revealed

A)important distinctions between two types of leavers (seekers and achievers)and a third type of young adults (returners).
B)that those who stay fare much better than those who leave.
C)that young adulthood is not the time to study this issue because middle age revealed richer insights about the types of people who stay and those who leave.
D)that gender and race were the most important variables to consider when considering the different types of leavers and stayers.

Question 25

Mark is interviewing Abdul about cross-country running.Abdul tells a story about a time when he was running alone in a remote location,and broke his ankle.Which question would represent a probe?

A)What is your opinion,then,of runners running alone?
B)Did you ever incur an injury like that again?
C)How should athletic organizations attempt to prevent injuries?
D)Do you generally enjoy remote locations?

Question 26

Sociologist Christine Williams interviewed female Marines and male nurses for her study about gender identity.She intentionally developed a nonrepresentative sample because

A)representative sampling had already been done extensively in previous studies.
B)the nonrepresentative cases could shed light on both typical and atypical cases.
C)a random sample was impossible due to the small proportions of female Marines and male nurses.
D)the male cases and the female cases were equally nonrepresentative,thus balancing out the problem.

Question 27

In general,interviews should begin with ________ questions and move to more ________ questions.

A)broad;specific
B)simple;complex
C)neutral;opinion-oriented
D)personal;impersonal

Question 28

Which of the following questions follows Howard Becker's cardinal rule for designing interview questions?

A)Why do you stay married?
B)What are the main factors that have made your marriage strong?
C)How did you meet the person you married?
D)Who are the main people who support your marriage?

Question 29

Miguel interviewed 20 bartenders about what it is like to close a bar in the early morning hours.He knew he reached saturation when

A)he met his goal of conducting 20 interviews.
B)his intuition,or "gut sense," indicated that he had collected sufficient data.
C)interviews did not yield new insights but rather confirmed what he already knew.
D)bartenders seemed bored and restless,wanting the interviews to end.

Question 30

Which of the following is a leading question?

A)Don't you think society is headed in the wrong direction?
B)Can you put the following list of items in order?
C)How do you feel about the phenomenology of well-being?
D)Will you please start this interview by telling me about your family?

Question 31

What is a good reason for using a leading or argumentative question in an interview,such as,"I've heard some people say that poor people cause their own problems.How do you think poor people come to be poor?" A good reason is because

A)the interviewer deserves to express his or her own view.
B)it can help get interviewees to talk about a controversial or difficult topic.
C)this can help the researcher reach saturation more quickly.
D)neutrality is not desirable when the topic has strong social justice implications.

Question 32

Pascal wants to conduct in-depth interviews of preschool bus drivers.He follows Christine Williams's advice for first-time interviewers,so he

A)pretests interview questions on friends and family.
B)asks questions about bus drivers' direct experience,without asking them to interpret their experience sociologically.
C)ends each interview with an open-ended question,"Is there anything else you'd like me to know?"
D)treats his interviewees as informants instead of as respondents.

Question 33

Why would interviewers present themselves as ignorant or naïve?

A)because they truly are
B)to show that they will be good listeners
C)to encourage interviewees to speak as experts on their own experience
D)because this helps a covert research role remain covert

Question 34

Jaime is a graduate student conducting a study of high-school marching band leaders.His adviser tells Jaime to look at his sample not as a group of 50 leaders but as a set of 50 individual instances to be analyzed.This way of thinking is called

A)qualitative research.
B)case study logic.
C)oral history orientation.
D)sampling for range.

Question 35

Rob plans a study about high-school students and their grades.He samples for range,so he includes

A)students with high,average,and low grades.
B)a statistically randomized group of students.
C)high schools from several regions of the nation.
D)middle school students and college students.

Question 36

Howard Becker found that marijuana users were best able to answer which question?

A)What are the main reasons why you smoke marijuana?
B)What are the main reasons why other people smoke marijuana?
C)How did you start smoking marijuana?
D)Do you think marijuana should be legalized?

Question 37

In Mary Waters's study of West Indian immigrants to the United States,how did Waters sample for range? She included in her sample:

A)people of all races.
B)a range of social class backgrounds of West Indian immigrants.
C)a variety of U.S.citizens with a variety of views about immigration.
D)West Indians who immigrated,and West Indians who did not.

Question 38

Changing interview questions after a research study has started is

A)acceptable for most in-depth interviews,but not acceptable for a survey.
B)preferred,for both in-depth interviews and surveys.
C)acceptable but worrisome for both in-depth interviews and surveys.
D)forbidden for both in-depth interviews and surveys.

Question 39

A good interview feels a lot like a

A)clinical interaction between a doctor and a patient.
B)formal scientific transaction between clinical researcher and research subject.
C)conversation between interviewer and interviewee.
D)family dinner.

Question 40

When the interviewee goes off on a tangent,the interviewer must find a polite and effective way to ________ the interview.

A)redirect
B)probe
C)focus
D)redesign

Question 41

________ refers to whether you get the same results if different researchers conduct the study again,whereas ________ refers to the accuracy or truthfulness of a measure.

A)Generalizability;probability
B)Probability;reliability
C)Validity;generalizability
D)Reliability;validity

Question 42

List and describe two significant differences between semi-structured and unstructured interviews.

Question 43

It is difficult for in-depth interviewing to have high reliability because:

A)interviewees often do not show up for the interview.
B)interviews cannot be exactly replicated in future studies.
C)interview topics can be interpreted differently by each interviewee.
D)probability sampling is rarely used.

Question 44

Why might a vignette be helpful in an in-depth interview about sexual harassment?

A)Asking about this topic directly might be offensive.
B)A specific situation would help make the concept concrete.
C)The interviewee may not have studied enough sociology to discuss the topic well.
D)It makes the interview more cognitive and less emotional.

Question 45

If you were conducting a study of how college students select seats in the dining hall,how would you organize the participants into effective focus groups? First,define the principle of homogeneity.Then,describe your focus group and how it would follow this principle.

Question 46

What is one element that makes a focus group different than an in-depth interview? Focus groups are ________;in-depth interviews are ________.

A)facilitated by several interviewers;facilitated by one interviewer
B)intended to capture interaction as well as content;intended to capture responses to questions
C)conducted in controlled settings;conducted in real-world settings
D)about more controversial subjects;about more personal subjects

Question 47

Dr.Lang is conducting a study of when and why adults eat candy.She studied Annette Laureau's Unequal Childhoods and sees that her study will have similar methodological challenges.Accordingly,Dr.Lang decides to use observation instead of interviews because

A)habits are so ingrained that it is difficult for people to describe or explain them.
B)people knowingly lie about topics like parenting or eating,so their bad habits won't be known.
C)people want to please the researcher,so they say what they think the researcher wants them to hear.
D)social media is so pervasive,people tend to repeat what they see and hear in the media,rather than reporting their actual experiences.

Question 48

What is case study logic,and how does it differ from the logic of probability sampling? Propose one study for which case study logic would be superior,and explain why.

Question 49

If you were to conduct a life history interview,who would you interview,and about what topic? What would the purpose of your life history interview be,and how would this be different than if the same interview were conducted as an oral history?

Question 50

Who should NOT be monetarily compensated for participating in an interview?

A)children,because of labor laws
B)wealthy people,because researcher funding should go to more needy people
C)prisoners,because of institutional rules
D)people discussing extremely personal topics,because such topics should not be monetized

Question 51

Margarite conducts a focus group about attitudes toward the ultra-wealthy.She follows the principle of homogeneity,so she

A)asks very tightly focused questions to keep the conversation on the same topic.
B)invites ultra-rich,rich,middle-class,and poor people to be part of the focus group.
C)invites only middle-class people to be part of the focus group.
D)asks broad and varied questions to prevent homogeneity of thinking.

Question 52

Compare and contrast informant and respondent.Describe one way that they are similar and one way they are different.Offer one example of an informant and one example of a respondent.

Question 53

Transcription should

A)be done by a professional transcriber.
B)result in a typed form of the interview,word for word.
C)be done within 24 hours of conducting the interview.
D)paraphrase the interview,with key analytic insights added.

Question 54

It might be easy to quickly judge middle-class parents for over-scheduling their children,but in-depth interviewing helped Hilary Levey Friedman understand why these parents do what they do.Why does this social practice exist?

A)In dual earner families,scheduled activities keep children occupied while parents are working.
B)Parents are seeking status with respect to their adult peers.
C)Parents are cultivating "competitive kid capital" that will help their children succeed in life.
D)Children demand competitive activities because of "youth mimicry," or peer pressure.

Question 55

Joel follows standard advice for recording interviews,so he

A)brings a research assistant along who can operate the recorder so Joel can focus on the interview.
B)takes notes by hand instead of audio recording,for privacy and ethics reasons.
C)audio and video records,in case methods of analysis require both.
D)audio records after asking permission,and turns the recording off if and when the interviewee requests it.

Question 56

Write one "how" question and one "why" question.With reference to these questions,explain why in-depth interviews are better suited to "how" questions than to "why" questions.

Question 57

Describe two significant threats to the validity of in-depth interviewing and how they can be reduced.

Question 58

You are planning a study about homeowners' use of pesticides on lawns.Explain why,and how,you would begin your study with cognitive interviews.

Question 59

As a general rule,do interviewers need to pretest their interview schedules?

A)Sometimes when first learning to interview,but with experience,good questions can be written and used without pretesting.
B)No,because a simple thought experiment can serve the same purpose.
C)Yes,because what seems clear to the interviewer may not come across that way to an interviewee.
D)Yes,but only when the topic is sensitive.