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There are lots of different types of questions that can be asked in interviews. In 1996, a Norwegian psychologist called Steinar Kvale identified nine different types of questions.

Kvale's questions

• Introducing questions, eg Can you tell me about yourself?
• Follow-up questions, eg You mentioned your teachers in your last answer. Can you give me more detail about who they are?
• Probing questions. They are used when more in depth information is required, eg Can you give further examples of this?
• Specifying questions. This involves asking for factual information, eg What time did you leave school on Tuesday?
• Direct questions. These are questions that have a yes or no answer.
• Indirect questions. These are opposite to direct questions. You are looking for an opinion, eg What do you think about school uniforms?
• Structuring questions. These help the interviewer move on to the next section of the interview, eg Shall we move on to the final question?
• Silence. When there are silent gaps in an interview, there is a tendency for the interviewer to keep talking. However, the interviewer should try not to fill the silent gap and let the interviewee talk.
• Interpreting questions, eg Do you mean that school uniforms should be worn by every child at school including those in the sixth form?

It is effective to use different question types to make sure appropriate information is being collected as well as maintaining the interest of the interviewee.

Holding interviews

Recording, transcribing and analysing interviews is usually a lengthy process.

Recording interviews

Researchers may take notes or record the interview. However, the researcher should ask the interviewee permission if recording the interview.

Transcribing interviews

Transcribing means to put spoken words into written form. So the researcher may transcribe their interview by typing up what was said. This can take a very long time. However, there are software applications that turn audio into text which massively speeds up the process.

Analysing interviews

The way in which the interview is analysed will depend on the methodology chosen. If a researcher is looking for qualitative information, they may read the transcript over and over again, to try and understand the meaning. This will help them identity the common themes across the interviews.

However, if the researcher is looking for quantitative information they may count the number of times a certain word was said in order to make conclusions about, for example, the popularity of something.